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Old U2 vs. New U2

bigbadbillbigbadbill Posts: 1,758
edited April 2007 in Other Music
Which do you prefer?

Old = Boy through Achtung Baby

New = Zooropa through ...Atomic Bomb

I personally enjoy the older U2 more, but the newer material is okay.


Maybe to some,
Old = Boy through Joshua Tree and New = everything else afterwards
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Comments

  • somebodyelsessky2020somebodyelsessky2020 Posts: 1,173
    old / but i'm including zooropa and pop
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  • hippiemomhippiemom Posts: 3,326
    Definitely the old, although I'd include Zooropa. Nothing after that has done anything for me at all. There were maybe 4 songs I liked on Pop, and the stuff after that is just boring.
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  • CaterinaACaterinaA Posts: 572
    Most def. the old U2; the new one doesn't do a thing for me. Furthermore some of the newer songs, like Numb, make me cringe!!
  • LedZepFanLedZepFan Posts: 1,009
    it should really be Boy-Joshua Tree and Achung Baby-Current...really, you could split the 80s in two as well but Achtung Baby was the complete reinvention-it was the most drastic and blatant shift they had yet taken from album to album.

    Looking at it in those terms-I have to say new. I absolutely love most of their work, but nothing matches up to Achtung. Zooropa, Pop, and All That You Can't Leave Behind are also favorites. The 90s was just such a cool, experiemental time for them and has many of my favorite songs. Of course, there are tons of attractive aspects to the 80s as well but we also had the mullets, the 80s-ified production of Unforgettable Fire, and October, one of the only U2 albums I think of as not a complete step forward. It's very, very similar to Boy, which is far superior, and in my opinion their weakest record.
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  • soulsingingsoulsinging Posts: 13,202
    that's a terrible split. achtung clearly belongs in the new u2 category. otherwise, it's weighted becos the first half clearly has all the better albums. put achtung with the new ones though, and you've got a close race.

    *edit* nevermind, someone already said all this. i think id lean towards new... the old u2 has some moments of sheer genius, but the later u2 is more consistent. even the weaker albums are more solid than october, or boy/unforgettable fire (both have amazing songs, but also some forgettable ones).
  • PegasusPegasus Posts: 3,754
    bigbadbill wrote:
    Maybe to some,
    Old = Boy through Joshua Tree and New = everything else afterwards
    that'd be me there (but I'll include Rattle&Hum...just)... absolutely on the old side..
    but I don't even listen to the old albums anymore...they've moved onto pop and I moved onto harder rock
  • Brain of mJBrain of mJ Posts: 786
    Zooropa and Achtung are too linked to have the split be there, slide Zooropa over to old u2.
  • Jeremy1012Jeremy1012 Posts: 7,170
    old U2 definitely. U2 are one of these bands that I don't like as a band but enjoy some of their music. Pride (in the name of love) and where the streets have no name and that kind of stuff are all great but I hate their later stuff.
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  • mrwalkerbmrwalkerb Posts: 1,015
    you can't cut it into old and new, for me it would be

    Old-boy-rattle and hum

    Mid Achtung-Pop

    new-All that you...-present.

    becasue the split between my "old" and "mid" is just as grand as any split they did, but at the same time you can't rightly equate Pop with all its experimentation and all you can't leave with it's "back to basics" approach, I have a thread I created sometime last week after the bar where I rant on how I can't stand "new" U2 because of it's redundancy so I won't go any further into that. I can't say which I prefer on your original question, although if it's Boy-joshua tree and everything else being new I'd go with new in that regard.
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  • ZosoZoso Posts: 6,425
    old and new suck balls
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  • sadprofessorsadprofessor Posts: 1,034
    Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and Pop.

    With maybe a disc full of stuff from the first era.
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  • Pearls&StonesPearls&Stones Posts: 585
    I vote new. My 3 favorite U2 albums are all 1991-or newer (Zooropa, ...Atomic Bomb, and Achtung). I've said this a million times on this board, but I'll say it again, "City of Blinding Lights" and "Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own" are my absolute 2 favorite U2 songs.

    Nothing against the older stuff though. "I Will Follow," "An Cat Dubh," "A Sort of Homecoming," "Bad," "With or Without You," plus dozens more, lots of good stuff there. But I listen to the newer stuff a good deal more.
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  • eedheadeedhead Posts: 68
    It was always very clear cut in my mind
    Everthing they did up to and including Achtung Baby is brilliant
    Cant listen to anything they did after that.
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  • ArtMarsArtMars Posts: 109
    Old U2

    Joshua Tree, War, Achtung Baby.......fantastic albums! Not that there's anything wrong with new U2!
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