U2 in the 90s

mrwalkerb

so my friend and I were talking about sellouts and I went on my usually tirade about how U2 were so fucking good but when nobody bought Pop they just went back to rerecording the Joshua tree (the first time was alright but the second time-the atomic bomb record-was just lame and forgettable). The thing is since hardly anyone likes their 90s stuff other than Actung baby no one minds. Well you know what Pearl Jam message pit? I mind. Anyways I just listened to Zooropa and for the longest time I thought of it as a weak record with a few strong songs but this time I noticed that every song if not great is at the very least good. I still think that Actung and Pop are better records but seeing as they basically did this record in their spare time during ZOOTV it's pretty remarkable. The point is they could have done what they are doing now and just played it safe and sold millions but they had the balls to try something with these albums and they are easily the best work they have done.

soulsinging

zooropa is much better than pop. that's a great album. im not keen on all that you can't leave behind, but i liked atomic bomb. yeah, they're not what they used to be, but they've been around 20 years. eventually you kinda cease to have the creative passion and pass the torch to the next generation of bands. hell, pearl jam's last album was little more than a return to the vs/vitalogy sound. and i loved every second of it.

somebodyelsessky2020

agree totally achtung zooropa and pop are their only really great albums achtung being the best of course

invest-it-all

The 90s was when U2 were really cool. Zoo TV was something else, its timeless...too bad I never got to experience it for myself. All That You Can't Leave Behind in 2000 was a safe album, getting back to their rock roots, but it's not, imo one of their best, the last half of the album is very boring.

Pop is definitely underrated, I thought this album was pretty good lyrically. It had some real great tracks, Gone, Last Night On Earth, Do You Feel Loved.
Zooropa was great too, and it has possibly one of the best U2 songs ever on it, Stay (Faraway, So Close!). And was I the only one who really liked Johnny Cash singing The Wanderer lol.... Numb and Lemon also stand out tracks.

That being said, Zooropa and Pop are good albums, but Achtung Baby hands down is their best album of that decade. From start to finish, its brilliant. To go away and completely change their style from the Joshua Tree/Rattle and Hum era.....awesome. It definitely paid off for them


BTW one of their best songs from the 90s is....Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me.....this song is fucking awesome. It was on the Batman Forever soundtrack lol...

Pegasus

U2 was a rock band in the 80s..they lost me forever from Achtung Baby on when they turned pop (music, not the album).
thank god that's about the time Seattle came on the scene

SoonForgotten2

I love Pop... the problem with it was two-fold though. First of all, the lead single for the album, Discotheque, was a poor choice. I think it put a bad face on a pretty brilliant album. The other issue was the finalised version of the album itself. It was not in the final form that the band would have liked, which is essentially why songs like "If God Will Send His Angels" and more specifically "Please" were touched up to varying degrees for the single releases.

Pearls&Stones

U2 fan since I was in 3rd grade (1988 or so)

I love all of U2's albums (though not too keen on October, I think it sounds dated now). But, honestly, I'd say my 2 favorites are Zooropa and Atomic Bomb. I seriously think "City of Blinding Lights" and "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" rank among U2's best songs ever.

As far as Pop goes, I like it a lot. I actually listened to it this past week. Some of the songs ("Do You Feel Loved," "Gone," "Last Night on Earth," "If God Will Send His Angels" and a few others) are excellent. That tour was the first time I saw them live, so I have fond memories of it, as corny as the whole thing was.

mrwalkerb

SoonForgotten2 wrote:

I love Pop... the problem with it was two-fold though. First of all, the lead single for the album, Discotheque, was a poor choice. I think it put a bad face on a pretty brilliant album. The other issue was the finalised version of the album itself. It was not in the final form that the band would have liked, which is essentially why songs like "If God Will Send His Angels" and more specifically "Please" were touched up to varying degrees for the single releases.

I agree that from a marketing standpoint Discoteque might not have been the best but at the time it was a prefect lead in to the bombast of the Popmart tour, all over the top and tounge in cheek. But for argument's sake what tracl would you have picked as the lead single?

keeponrockin

My favourite U2 album is Rattle and Hum. SOOO much fire.

SoonForgotten2

mrwalkerb wrote:

I agree that from a marketing standpoint Discoteque might not have been the best but at the time it was a prefect lead in to the bombast of the Popmart tour, all over the top and tounge in cheek. But for argument's sake what tracl would you have picked as the lead single?

That's a good point about it representing the tour. However, I know that the tour didn't draw very well, at least nowhere near expectations. I think it was all just too over the top, with that tour (though it was quite the spectacle) and the video for Discotheque- especially since that really wasn't what that album was about at all.

Personally I'd have went with Gone as the lead single. That one deserved to be way bigger than it was and is one of U2's best. And judging by how they used to play that one all the time up until their last album, U2 knows it.

reeferchief

soulsinging wrote:

but they've been around 20 years.

Or 27.:)

Brain of mJ

90s era u2 has always been my favorite. Very excited when they put out ZooTV Sydney on DVD last year. Zooropa is U2's most underrated album and it really wasn't even supposed to happen. It came about rehearsing for Zootv Europe and they decided to hit the studio for a few weeks and out comes Zooropa. I remember they sent blank label copies of Numb out to radio stations and they had no idea who it was until the secret came out.

soulsinging

Brain of (M)J wrote:

90s era u2 has always been my favorite. Very excited when they put out ZooTV Sydney on DVD last year. Zooropa is U2's most underrated album and it really wasn't even supposed to happen. It came about rehearsing for Zootv Europe and they decided to hit the studio for a few weeks and out comes Zooropa. I remember they sent blank label copies of Numb out to radio stations and they had no idea who it was until the secret came out.

that dvd kicks ass.

norm

soulsinging wrote:

that dvd kicks ass.

i have it on laserdisc......yep i'm that guy........:)

NOCODE#1

mrwalkerb wrote:

so my friend and I were talking about sellouts and I went on my usually tirade about how U2 were so fucking good but when nobody bought Pop they just went back to rerecording the Joshua tree (the first time was alright but the second time-the atomic bomb record-was just lame and forgettable). The thing is since hardly anyone likes their 90s stuff other than Actung baby no one minds. Well you know what Pearl Jam message pit? I mind. Anyways I just listened to Zooropa and for the longest time I thought of it as a weak record with a few strong songs but this time I noticed that every song if not great is at the very least good. I still think that Actung and Pop are better records but seeing as they basically did this record in their spare time during ZOOTV it's pretty remarkable. The point is they could have done what they are doing now and just played it safe and sold millions but they had the balls to try something with these albums and they are easily the best work they have done.

anyone that puts thought into dissecting u2 in 2007, really doesnt have an open mind to music

mrwalkerb

NOCODE#1 wrote:

anyone that puts thought into dissecting u2 in 2007, really doesnt have an open mind to music

go on

AndySlash

Pop is hands down my favorite U2 record. I loved the direction they were going in. But then they decided they just still wanted to be the biggest band in the world (something I think the Dave Matthews Band has been trying to be with their last two records (I don't count Busted Stuff since that material was pre-Everyday)) and put out what the general public could feel was a U2 record in ATYCLB and ...Atomic Bomb. It was, and is, really disappointing.

LedZepFan

I'm a huge U2 fan so I'm a bit biased but I actually prefer the 90s and think they were unbelievable then. I still like everything they've done, but agree the last record was a bit of a retread(of all that you can't leave behind though, not joshua tree). Edge said he wanted it to be a bit more experimental so hopefully that's what we'll get next time around...That's what I miss, the crazy experimentation of the 90s trilogy.

mrwalkerb

LedZepFan wrote:

I'm a huge U2 fan so I'm a bit biased but I actually prefer the 90s and think they were unbelievable then. I still like everything they've done, but agree the last record was a bit of a retread(of all that you can't leave behind though, not joshua tree). Edge said he wanted it to be a bit more experimental so hopefully that's what we'll get next time around...That's what I miss, the crazy experimentation of the 90s trilogy.

yeah the experimentation is never coming back though and that is the dissapointing thing not that they drifted away from it but that they're never going back to it.

Steve Dunne

I think what made U2 great in the 80's was that they tried to kick you in the balls with their music. And it connected every time. In the studio and especially live, they were a reflection of the miles they put on the road around the world. That said, Achtung Baby is one of the greatest driving cd's of all time. The experimentation kicked in, and IMO they overdid it with Zooropa and beyond, but again, they incorporated many different sounds and musical tastes than your average American punk or garage band. Achtung is the last cd I can listen to front to back from them, although I've tried the others from the 90's and 00's. I will say that Lemon is one of the great songs they've ever recorded.

invest-it-all

Well U2 are currently in the studio making the next album, I'm hoping for something different, hopefully it's not Atomic Bomb 2 (I'd still probably love it even if it was). Lets hope pleasing the mainstream audience isnt a main priority for them