Totally U2-ed
You know, I cannot quite put into words how much of an affection and admiration I developed for U2 in the last maybe 6 weeks.
I guess the best proof is that they are among my top 5 most listened musicians now with more than 1,660 plays on lastfm (before my falling in love with them they only had like 100 plays).
It's really some kind of relief and bliss to give yourself into the songs or, put differently, discovering and feeling songs in a way I almost gave up to expect to experience. I mean I still fall for artists and embrace them totally, but very, very rarely they can remain in my embrace and circulate only in my extended listening network of sorts. Far away but so close tho of course ;). Ah well...in U2's case I can just foresee that I won't them ever leave this embrace again.
Alanis, Sigur, Tori, Michael, and now U2, are towering above the rest, so to speak.
So well, what I just did is an attempt to give a kind of overview of U2's main albums in order to have a summary for me - and a recommendation/invite/order for you to get familiar with them ;);
Not included (respectively just added at the end of this entry) are the EPs "Three" (1979), "Wide Awake In America" (1985), "Please: PopHeart Live" (1997) and "7" (2001), the (fan club only) live releases, digital only/"the complete U2"-compilations and the Greatest Hits 1980-1990 + 1990-2000 and "18Singles", the side project "Passengers - Original Soundtracks 1" and (finally) the OST "The Million Dollar Hotel", respectively other OST-only/non-album songs.
I tried to focus on some main and common facts and information regarding the albums and therefore put links for further reading (it's worth it!), too.
The stars behind each song are my personal rating:
*** = absolutely a must-listen!
** = Like it ? Then take this.
* = Not a real fave but nice to listen to
no * = I can't believe it but it's true, you can skip this song. At least I do it (sorry U2).
BOY (1980)
The group’s debut was the follow up to their debut single “11 o’clock tick tock” and praised as one of the better debuts in rock music. It was Bono who came up with the album title and together with The Edge he chose the 8-year old kid from a friend to be on the cover. Despite Bono's unfocused, seemingly improvised lyrics, the hopes and frustrations of adolescence ran through the album as a lyrical theme which touched on fear over sex, identity confusion, death and uncontrollable mood swings, supported by The Edge’s shimmering guitar textures.
01 I Will Follow (2nd Single)***
02 Twilight
03 An Cat Dubh***
04 Into the Heart***
05 Out of Control***
06 Stories for Boys**
07 The Ocean*
08 A Day Without Me (1st Single)**
09 Another Time, Another Place*
10 The Electric Co.***
11 Shadows And Tall Trees**
Shortly after its release it reached #1 in the Irish charts. Upon their first hit single “I Will Follow”, U2's first tour of continental Europe and the United States followed. Despite their unpolished nature, these early live performances helped demonstrate U2's potential, as critics noted that Bono was a very "charismatic" and "passionate" showman. To date, approximately 4 million copies have been sold of “Boy”.
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OCTOBER (1981)
As the title lets suggest, “October” was released in October 1981. After Ireland they also made their breakthrough in the UK with this album; it almost made it into the top ten (#11) - although many fans and critics claim it to be U2’s weakest album; they find its lyrics heavy-handed and the band's performances bland (it also only sold around 3 million copies). Side fact: The album's recording was complicated when the briefcase containing Bono's lyrics was stolen by fans after a show. The band already booked studio time and thus had to continue recording in spite of this, even improvising lyrics on some songs.
01 Gloria (1st Single)***
02 I Fall Down**
03 I Threw A Brick Through A Window**
04 Rejoice*
05 Fire (2nd Single)
06 Tomorrow*
07 October***
08 With a Shout***
09 Stranger In A Strange Land*
10 Scarlet***
11 Is That All?*
However, the album contained overtly religious and spiritual themes while concerning musical aspects, the band refined their formula of riff-rockers but also expanded their palette in a few ways. For example, The Edge incorporated piano on some songs.
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WAR (1983)
Resolving the doubts of the "October" period, U2 released "War" in March 1983. Being overtly political, the band "turned pacifism itself into a crusade” with their sincerity and "rugged" guitar sounds (which was intentionally at odds with the "cooler" synth-pop of the time). A major reason for this is that Edge used far less delay and echo than in previous and subsequent works. This album also has The Edge debuting as lead vocalist in a song (“Seconds”).
01 Sunday Bloody Sunday (3rd Single, not released in the US)***
02 Seconds**
03 New Year’s Day (1st Single)***
04 Like a Song***
05 Drowning Man
06 The Refugee*
07 Two Hearts Beat As One (2nd Single)***
08 Red Light*
09 Surrender*
10 "40" (4th Single, only in Germany)***
“War” directly made it into the Top Ten of the US Billboard Charts with the song “New Year’s Day” being their first international hit. It also became U2's first #1 album in the UK, supplanting Michael Jackson's Thriller off the top of the charts. 7 millions copies of “War” have been sold so far.
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UNDER A BLOOD RED SKY: LIVE AT RED ROCKS
Due to the vast success of “War”, the band began performing to sold-out concerts in mainland Europe and the US on their subsequent War Tour. The album consists of live recordings from three shows from that tour and although billed as "live from Red Rocks", only two of the tracks on the disc were recorded there. Also a live video was released, both of which received radio and MTV play and helped to expand the band's audience.
01 Gloria***
02 11 o’clock tick tock**
03 I Will Follow***
04 Party Girl**
05 Sunday bloody Sunday***
06 The Electric Co.***
07 New Year’s Day***
08 "40"***
The album also contains two songs, “11 O’clock tick tock” (their first single) and “Party Girl”, which you cannot find on any of their main studio albums. Astonishing 7 millions copies have been sold to date.
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THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE (1984)
For For “The Unforgettable Fire”, U2 worked for the first time together with Brian Eno/Daniel Lanois as producers. This resulted in the album being rather ambient and abstract compared to their earlier works - the band feared that following the overt rock of the “War” album and tour, they would be in danger of becoming another "shrill, sloganeering arena-rock band”. The songs are atmospheric and emphasize rather on mood and ambiance than on hooks and melody (yet there was a whole lot of it!).
01 A Sort of Homecoming***
02 Pride (In The Name Of Love) (1st Single)***
03 Wire**
04 The Unforgettable Fire (2nd Single)***
05 Promenade*
06 4th of July**
07 Bad***
08 Indian Summer Sky*
09 Elvis Presley and America**
10 MLK***
Complementing the sonic atmospherics, the album's lyrics are open to many interpretations, providing what the band called a "very visual feel" (eg "Bad", "A Sort OF Homecoming"); Bono's recent immersion in fiction, philosophy and poetry, made him realise that his song writing mission - about which he had always been reluctant - was a poetic one.
Thematically, the album began the band's fascination with the USA and centered around the "two kings", Martin Luther King, Jr. and Elvis Presley. "Pride (In the Name of Love)", about Martin Luther King, was the album's first single and became the band's biggest hit at that point, being their first to enter the US top 40. About 5 millions copies have been sold to this day.
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THE JOSHUA TREE (1987)
Together with 1991’s “Achtung Baby” surely viewed to be U2’s best album ever. Almost naturally it also is the band’s most successful and popular album to date with 18 millions copies sold. Hits like “Where The Streets Have No Name”, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” or “With Or Without You” made U2 finally international rock superstars; It became the fastest selling album in British chart history, was #1 for nine weeks in the United States and won U2 their first 2 Grammys.
01 Where The Streets Have No Name (3rd Single)***
02 I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For (2nd Single)***
03 With or Without You (1st Single)***
04 Bullet The Blue Sky***
05 Running To Stand Still***
06 Red Hill Mining Town***
07 In God’s Country**
08 Trip Through Your Wires***
09 One Tree Hill***
10 Exit*
11 Mothers Of The Disappeared***
The album continued the sonic experimentation of “The Unforgettable Fire” mixed with American folk and blues influences (eg “In God’s Country”, “Trip Through Your Wires”), and picks up where the political themes of “War” left off (eg “Bullet The Blue Sky”, “Mothers Of The Disappeared”).
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RATTLE & HUM (1988)
”Rattle & Hum” is the accompanying album to the documentary of the same title; it features songs from the Joshua Tree Tour and new songs (of which “Desire” marked U2’s first UK #1 hit). Although rather positively received by fans, the album and film were derided as self-indulgent by many critics who claimed U2 was trying to enshrine itself in the great pantheon of rock legends (influences ranging from B.B. King, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, and The Beatles are all referenced in the project) as opposed to honoring its newly-found influences. Many found the project - with its focus on earnest roots music and its many political diatribes - to be too serious... Nevertheless it found 13 million buyers.
01 Helter Skelter (live)***
02 Van Diemen’s Land (live)*
03 Desire (1st Single)***
04 Hawkmoon 269***
05 All Along The Watchtower (live)*
06 I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For (live)***
07 (Freedom for my People)
08 Silver and Gold (live)**
09 Pride (In The Name Of Love) (live)***
10 Angel of Harlem (2nd Single)***
11 Love Rescue Me**
12 When Love Comes To Town (with B.B. King) (3rd Single)**
13 Heartland*
14 God Part II**
15 (The Star Spangled Banner) (live)
16 Bullet The Blue Sky (live)***
17 All I Want Is You (4th Single)***
With a sense of musical stagnation, Bono announced at an end-of-decade concert that the weary U2 had come to the end of an era and had to "...go away and just dream it all up again"...Achtung!
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ACHTUNG BABY (1991)
In November 1991 the world faced what was to be “the album that wants to chop down ‘The Joshua Tree’” (Bono): Hurt by the mixed reaction to “Rattle and Hum” the album was a calculated change in musical and thematic direction/style; Sonically, it incorporated both dance and industrial influences in the rhythms, as well as a denser, more detailed production and more guitar effects. Also lyrically it was of darker and more personal content.
01 Zoo Station***
02 Even Better Than The Real Thing (4th Single)***
03 One (3rd Single)***
04 Until The End Of The World***
05 Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses (5th Single)***
06 So Cruel***
07 The Fly (1st Single)***
08 Mysterious Ways (2nd Single)***
09 Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World***
10 Ultra Violet (Light My Way)***
11 The Acrobat***
12 Love is Blindness**
This reinvention resulted in “Achtung Baby” becoming one of the bands most sucessful albums both commercially (13 million copies sold) and critically, and, like “The Joshua Tree”, being often cited as one of rock's greatest albums.
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ZOOROPA (1993)
1993’s “Zooropa” album was quite a surprise for fans hence it originally was planned to be only an EP or Live album with additional new studio songs to accompany their current ZooTV-tour of that time. However, it evolved into a full length album and continued many of the themes from the “Achtung Baby” album and ZooTV-tour. Musically it was a kind of departure from the style of the predecessor by only occasionally incorporating electronic effects, but then to a blatant extent (“Lemon”, “Daddy’s Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car”, “Some Days Are Better Than Others”).
01 Zooropa***
02 Babyface ***
03 Numb (1st Single)***
04 Lemon (2nd Single)**
05 Stay (Faraway, So Close) (3rd Single)***
06 Daddy’s Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car*
07 Some Days Are Better Than Others**
08 The First Time***
09 Dirty Day**
10 The Wanderer*
“Zooropa” was a successful release, perhaps riding the wave of popularity started by “Achtung Baby” and the ZooTV Tour, winning a Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album the year of its release and spending two weeks at #1 on the Billboard album charts despite lacking a strong single. It has subsequently sold 9 million copies worldwide.
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Pop (1997)
In March 1997, fans eagerly awaited the return of some more rocky sounds as U2 themselves announced it. At first. In the end they continued experimenting by now utilising tape loops, programming, rhythm sequencing and sampling which gave much of the album a techno/disco feel. The album debuted at #1 in 35 countries, and drew mainly positive reviews (Rolling Stone stated that U2 had "defied the odds and made some of the greatest music of their lives.”). However, its lifetime sales are among the lowest in U2's catalogue with selling ‘only’ around 8 million units to date.
01 Discothèque (1. Single)***
02 Do You Feel Loved*
03 Mofo (6th Single)**
04 If God Will Send His Angels (5th Single)***
05 Staring At The Sun (2nd Single)***
06 Last Night On Earth (3rd Single)***
07 Gone***
08 Miami*
09 The Playboy Mansion**
10 If You Wear That Velvet Dress**
11 Please (4th Single)***
12 Wake Up Dead Man**
Although highly regarded by some, many others, particularly American fans, felt that the album was a major disappointment. It's noticeable that the band was hurried into completing the album in time for the impending pre-booked tour, and Bono admitted that the album "didn't to communicate the way it was intended to”. Today tho it has come to be regarded as one of the band's most experimental and innovative albums.
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ALL THAT YOU CAN’T LEAVE BEHIND (2000)
Those who didn’t quite like U2’s 90s releases often claim “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” as a “return to grace”, or a successful “Reapplying for 'Best Band In The World'". However, describing it as a getting back to their traditional sound would be a oversimplification because the album kind of broke new ground by retaining the sonic nuances of their 90s work and reconciled it with the melodic, hook-filled rock of their 80s work (“Beautiful Day”, “Walk On”, “Elevation”, ). A kind of reinvention by taking the best of each era.
01 Beautiful Day (1st Single)***
02 Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of (2nd Single)***
03 Elevation (3rd Single)***
04 Walk On (4th Single)***
05 Kite***
06 In A Little While**
07 Wild Honey**
08 Peace on Earth**
09 When I Look At The World***
10 New York**
11 Grace***
The album debuted at #1 in 22 countries with selling more than 12 million copies to date, and spawned world-wide hit singles of which "Beautiful Day" earned three of six Grammy Awards associated with the album.
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HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB (2004)
To date their latest studio album, 2004s “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb” found the band being on the search of harder-hitting rock than the previous “All That You Can't Leave Behind” songs which you can find in songs like “Vertigo”, “Love And Peace Or Else” or “All Because Of You” here. Thematically, Bono asserts that "A lot of the songs are paeans to naiveté, a rejection of knowingness.” And/but also “It’s our first rock album. It's taken us twenty years or whatever it is, but this is our first rock album. (...) There are no weak songs. But as an album, the whole isn't greater than the sum of its parts, and it fucking annoys me."
Ignoring that, the album was a rather overwhelming success regarding Grammy awards: it won 8, winning in all of the categories in which it was nominated (!).
01 Vertigo (1st Single)***
02 Miracle Drug***
03 Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own (2nd Single)***
04 Love And Peace Or Else***
05 City Of Blinding Lights (4th Single)***
06 All Because Of You (3rd Single)**
07 A Man And A Woman**
08 Crumbs From Your Table**
09 One Step Closer***
10 Original Of The Species (5th Single)***
11 Yahweh*
The album debuted at #1 in 32 countries and, despite the fact that it leaked to the internet few weeks prior to its release, first week sales in the US even doubled that of the previous album and set a record for the band. As of today, approximately 8,5 million people bought the album.
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Last but not least I would like to add some very LOVED B-Sides/Non-album tracks and rarities/unreleased songs. You should check these out:
11 O'Clock Tick Tock (from the "11 O'Clock Tick Tock"-CDS)
A Room At The Heartbreak Hotel (from the bonus "B-Sides"-CD for the "Greatest Hits 1990-2000")
Always (from the "7" EP)
All Because Of You (Alternate Version) (from the "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" era, unreleased)
Bass Trap (from the bonus "B-Sides"-CD for the "Greatest Hits 1980-1990")
Big Girls Are Best (from the "7" EP)
Don't Take Your Guns To Town (cover) (from the "Electrical Storm"-CDS)
Dreaming With Tears In My Eyes (from "Bono - Complete Solo Projects")
Electrical Storm (from the bonus "B-Sides"-CD for the "Greatest Hits 1990-2000")
Everlasting Love (cover) (from the bonus "B-Sides"-CD for the "Greatest Hits 1980-1990")
Fast Cars (bonus track on UK releases of "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" if I'm not wrong)
Flower Child (from the "All That You Can't Leave Behind" era, unreleased)
Hallelujah Here She Comes (from the bonus "B-Sides"-CD for the "Greatest Hits 1980-1990")
Heaven And Hell (from "Soul Preacher" // "Salome: Achtung Baby Outtakes", unreleased)
Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me (from the OST "Batman Returns")
I've Got You Under My Skin (with Frank Sinatra) (from the "Stay (Faraway, so close!)"-CDS)
Lady with the Spinning Head (from the "One"-CDS)
Levitate (from the "All That You Can't Leave Behind" era, unreleased)
Love Comes Tumbling (from the "Wide Awake In America EP")
Mercy (outtake of "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb", unreleased)
Miss Sarajevo (feat. Luciano Pavarotti) (from "Passengers - Original Soundtracks 1")
Montgomery's Visit (instrumental) (from "Soul Preacher" // "Salome: Achtung Baby Outtakes", unreleased)
Native Son (original version of 'Vertigo') (from the "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" era, unreleased)
Neon Lights (cover) (from the "Vertigo"-CDS)
North And South Of The River (from the bonus "B-Sides"-CD for the "Greatest Hits 1990-2000")
Salome (from the "Even Better Than The Real Thing"-CDS)
Slug (from "Bono - Complete Solo Projects")
Smile (from the "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" era, unreleased)
Stateless (from the OST "The Million Dollar Hotel")
Sweetest Thing (both the original demo-version and the reworked single version)
The Ground Beneath Her Feet (from the OST "The Million Dollar Hotel")
The Hands That Built America (from the "Greatest Hits 1990-2000")
The Three Sunrises (from the "Wide Awake In America EP")
Two Shots Of Happy, One Shot Of Sad (from the "If God Will Send His Angels"-CDS)
What's Going On (feat. Chris Martin) (from "Bono - Complete Solo Projects")
Window In The Skies (from "18Singles")
Your Blue Room (from the bonus "B-Sides"-CD for the "Greatest Hits 1990-2000")