With their first set of original songs in nine years, U2‘s return may be a renaissance of sorts for the band. Bono and friends are hardly in fighting form, and haven’t released an album of particular merit or interest since 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. However Carnaval de Luz turns out; there’s never going to be a period where U2 can’t sell out stadiums, can’t see themselves as one of the biggest rock bands of all time. Their fans won’t let us forget it, nor will Bono. But, looking back through their discography, there’s a reason for that. U2 have released some staggering albums, all-time greats. They’ve collaborated with the likes of Bob Dylan, topped the charts countless times, and their discography, at least part of it, speaks for itself. There are some absolute gems from the band, who after fifty years, are still capable of writing and recording decent works. Just listen to their Easter Lily EP.
14. SONGS OF SURRENDER
“Have you come to raise the dead,” Bono muses on One, again. Songs of Surrender and the band behind it feel their formidable tracks are dead and forgotten, but nothing could be further from the truth. Attempting to gauge a sombre reflection on tracks that are still as listened to and important as they were when first released is a puzzling move that reflects poorly on U2 and their confidence in new material. Intimacy as the new punk rock fails to be championed by U2. It is happening better, elsewhere. U2 have both failed to articulate why they feel the need to head back to tracks of old and have managed to showcase how futile it is to try and rework some of their best tracks. Soulless visions that do almost as much damage to the cover genre than a Van Morrison skiffle album.
You can read our full review of Songs of Surrender here.
13. SONGS OF EXPERIENCE
Reductive, interchangeable experiences. At least that much is consistent. Songs of Experience banks on being a traipse through what the band has experienced together, separately, or otherwise. But it never feels all that convincing, all that moving. A real dull occasion, though occasionally there’s an instrumental switch-up that’s worth hearing. The Blackout is as interesting as Songs of Experience gets and it still relies on the pop fundamentals which Bono and the band are, still, yet to break from. They’re sounding as though they’re burnt out here, pedalling problems and solutions which are hardly their greatest pieces of material. What the problem here is that Bono expects himself to be at hand, readily available to those who need a lifeline or sure-fire advice. He cannot offer that here, and it sinks Songs of Experience completely.
You can read our full review of Songs of Experience here.
12. NO LINE ON THE HORIZON
At best, an underwhelming and misguided piece of pop work where U2 slowly realise they’re not the mainstream anymore. They’ll always sell out stadiums, or get near enough, but the material people want is hardly going to be that of No Line on the Horizon. Bono offers some slippery, underwhelming lyrics while the rest of the band let influences from the last decade of rock and roll pull them in ways that conflict with the core of U2’s identity. They’ve lost their identity by this point and become a profile of other bands, different noises that The Edge and team wouldn’t initially need to use. But then there’s songs like Get on Your Boots that are drowned out by this desire for a new sound with the same notes, or the truly disappointing, lazy lyricism of Stand Up Comedy. How quickly No Line on the Horizon drops off is no laughing matter. At least FEZ / Being Born has the notions of emotional clarity, but it comes to a premature end. No Line on the Horizon doesn’t, though, it staggers on aimlessly and without much care for where the band were headed, a decade into a new century.
You can read our full review of No Line on the Horizon here.
11. POP
What few standout moments there are for Pop, the penultimate song and single, Please, is more because of the shortcomings around it than anything it does well. Another catchy and moody high point for the album, which is a dull thud of a song compared to their higher points. On its own, Pop fails to capture the mood of the times. It prods at the popular touches of culture, what surrounded U2 is not, at this point, what the world was experiencing with music. Wake Up Dead Man, no relation to the Daniel Craig film, is a solid album closer. If the band had decided on that moodier tone earlier, instead of chasing the ghost of a pop past, then they would have been better set for Pop. It’s an album which both predicts the demise of those cheery guitar rock pop days and yet sounds fed up with what followed.
You can read our full review of Pop here.
10. SONGS OF INNOCENCE
Most of the album is put together well and, on a fundamental level, enjoyable enough. It’s everything around it that struggles. We have heard this tone and style from U2 plenty of times before. Indifference and a lacking detail are what U2 brings out here. Song for Someone is either for Bono’s wife or a chance for him to make up lingering, lovely messages for everyday occurrences. Gone are the staggering commentaries on the world around them and in comes a fleeting, uneventful set of playlist-friendly pieces. U2 has never worked well when light and catchy is the aim, but the likes of Volcano and Raised by Wolves are likeable enough. That’s where the fun stops, though, as the rest of the album, from Cedarwood Road to The Troubles is U2 at their worst. Shlock renditions of their earlier works with little difference from song to song. The Edge stands out, but when does he not? It’s a reduction in quality, and Songs of Innocence is sadly just the start.
You can read our full review of Songs of Innocence here.
9. RATTLE AND HUM
Pop-rock earnestness would sink Rattle and Hum. It’s the sort of overwhelming sincerity which goes so far beyond conventional care that it feels inauthentic. Coldplay suffers the same problem. Unremarkable songs like Freedom for My People and Silver and Gold also feature, though do not offer much more than pop-rock stock. That live reliance, an initially bold structure for Rattle and Hum, proves futile. Just do a hits selection instead of feeding in some studio fodder, none of which can hold a candle to the decent live material featured throughout. Angel of Harlem sounds like it lifted the guitar of Like a Rolling Stone, but it does mark a moment of success for the Rattle and Hum project. A song that sounds live, but is from the studio. It’s what U2 aimed for, and that much is admirable. It just falls to pieces on them. Ambitious attitudes, but stock live fodder to drag it all down. Still, worth sticking with to hear Love Rescue Me, as sincere as it is staggering.
You can read our full review of Rattle and Hum here.
8. OCTOBER
There are shining moments throughout, sincerely great pieces of work from them embedded in an album built more for those who want to hear history unfold. You can grasp those moments of tension, the thrill which comes from creating, but also the anxieties of what will happen if it goes wrong. Ending on Is That All? is a tad on the nose. “Is that all?”, indeed. It is fair to hope for more from the band at this stage, especially after such a strong debut. But guided by a rock tone and a split of faith and their future, U2 does well to come out of the studio with an album of releasable quality. Their faith never quite assures instrumental quality of lyrical brilliance, but there are spots where you can hear Bono and the band develop not just as individual musicians, but as a group with clear direction.
You can read our full review of October here.
7. ALL THAT YOU CAN’T LEAVE BEHIND
All That You Can’t Leave Behind is a strong start to the twenty-first century for U2, and they would never match that quality again. There’s still a middle-of-the-road sound to it, with the likes of Peace on Earth and When I Look at the World relatively plain but solid pop-rock stock. That sluggish, Velvet Underground riff on Grace remains unconvincing. It’s a song which hopes for listeners to look for the best in things irrespective of their situation, and while that’s as honest a message as what features on the songs preceding it, it never feels like a moment for reflection like those earlier tracks. It falls apart at the end but, for a moment there, U2 are back in a familiar form. All That You Can’t Leave Behind has the workings of a strong album but it sounds that way now because of what came before, and what was to follow.
You can read our full review of All That You Can’t Leave Behind here.
6. HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB
Stripped-back materials are of interest here, particularly Love and Peace Or Else. Bono and the band are left demanding serenity but know they will not get it. Look at the last twenty years. We never got it. Soft rock tones, as catchy as they are, were never going to solve the crises of the world but they certainly make us feel better about trying. Those flat tones become tiresome but for a bit of background noise, an album not to be repeated but played through a few times, it is not bad. U2 should never have associated themselves with the top of the pop ladder because it reduces the impact of their sound at times of inherent strife. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb has promises of masterful deconstruction, of this worldwide call to arms for the sake of peace. But the resulting tracks are soft, sometimes pitiful like the steady love-wrapped City of Blinding Lights.
You can read our full review of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb here.
5. THE UNFORGETTABLE FIRE
It works to some degree. The Unforgettable Fire remains a thrilling experience, but is very stop and start. From the thrills of Bad to the forgettable Indian Summer Sky. The band struggles to catch the right pace for their tracklist and, as a result, the slower standard, the lighter instrumental appeal which Eno provides, pales in comparison to War. Even still, The Unforgettable Fire is a new dawn for U2, a fresh direction after they hit a rock and roll peak with their preceding album. Back-to-back, it feels like a harsh comedown but a necessary step. Independent of one another, The Unforgettable Fire is a stumble made to look intentional. Strong work can be heard on the album, though the softer flourishes, the lighter style, does not quite work. The band would improve this on future releases, at least.
You can read our full review of The Unforgettable Fire here.
4. BOY
A blurring of two truths, long-standing momentum U2 has been careful to kindle over the years. This is where the band makes a confident step towards their future but nearly loses a member along the way. They did not, and the rest is history. Take note of the little instrumental flickers, the saxophone on Red Light is masterful, the momentum which it gives way to on Surrender, is divine. War is a call of the times. U2 digs deep into these tensions, understanding not just the physical horror but the mental divide, the emotional consequences of carnage. Here is where the band matures, where they find themselves as important statesmen for their country and the post-punk music of the 1980s. War has purpose and perspective perfectly balanced. An album which rivals their supposed best works from later in the decade, that is for certain.
You can read our full review of Boy here.
3. ACHTUNG BABY
Considering the intensity of the meaning behind some songs, it is a marvellous achievement to hear the band hold firm with an easy-listening style on some songs. It cuts into the replay value of Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, but that laid-back attitude, which affected U2 at the time, helps the project. Likeable enough songs like that are frequent on Achtung Baby, which does not have the same intensity or eagerness of The Joshua Tree. Part of that is because Achtung Baby is a reaction to the preceding album, rather than a continuation of those preceding qualities. Brian Eno can certainly be heard, hard at work in overhauling the band after their first stumble. Pieces like So Cruel and The Fly are all the better under his stewardship, the latter giving The Edge a sound quite unlike anything in their punk-adjacent past.
You can read our full review of Achtung Baby here.
2. THE JOSHUA TREE
Where Bono may have a brief lapse in lyrical clarity, The Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. are there to pick up the slack. The Joshua Tree features an inspiring sound from The Edge, and though it may run rather similarly across the album, his guitar work is nothing short of fantastic. He manages to find the space for standout solo moments on In God’s Country and fits the Irish rock and fundamental American folk stylings of Trip Through Your Wires brilliantly. Though The Joshua Tree opens with its very best efforts and trails off from there, the momentum it kindles, the rock-oriented feeling it provides, is a startling experience even now. Bono and the band prove to be a lightning strike on the genre, a slight punk tinge still found in their words, lost after this release.
You can read our full review of The Joshua Tree here.
1. WAR
An album which nearly broke the band soon became a turning point for U2. Where The Edge nearly departed the group during the making of War, it was this direction from Bono and the group that steadied them after October. Their preceding album is by no means bad work, but it is a stretch away from the post-punk thrills of their debut or the pop-oriented efforts of their heyday. War is a staggering moment for the group, one borne of frustration and internal struggle. Opening song Sunday Bloody Sunday nearly destroyed the group. Discomfort from some members in dealing with political premise feels a smidge ironic now, given Bono is charitable figure first, and frontman second. But at the time, it was a bold statement for the band. It has paid off, one which shared the conviction and politically aware tone of U2.
You can read our full review of War here.
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