U2 - Topic

A collection of top songs featuring U2.

This single is U2's very first release and is one of four that predate the band's 1980 debut album, Boy. U2 Three is special because it is the earliest U2 collectible you can find. In 1979, when U2 were a long way from conquering the world, the Ireland division of CBS Records released 1,000 copies of U2 Three on vinyl as a hand-numbered, limited-edition 12". Subsequent pressings are known through 1982, including a collectible set called 4 U2 Play. This single contains earlier recordings of the songs "Out of Control" and "Stories for Boys," which appear on Boy, and the non-LP track "Boy/Girl." U2 Three was recorded before producer Steve Lillywhite signed on. ~ JT Griffith, Rovi

As U2 were completing the supporting tour for The Unforgettable Fire, they released the four-track EP Wide Awake in America. Comprised of two outtakes ("Three Sunrises," "Love Comes Tumbling") and two live cuts ("Bad" and a phenomenal version of "A Sort of Homecoming"), the record may be aimed at the hardcore collector. Even so, most U2 fans will find it necessary, since the two rejects are actually stronger than about half of The Unforgettable Fire, and the live cuts again demonstrate U2's undeniable talent for captivating concerts. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Using the textured sonics of The Unforgettable Fire as a basis, U2 expanded those innovations by scaling back the songs to a personal setting and adding a grittier attack for its follow-up, The Joshua Tree. It's a move that returns them to the sweeping, anthemic rock of War, but if War was an exploding political bomb, The Joshua Tree is a journey through its aftermath, trying to find sense and hope in the desperation. That means that even the anthems -- the epic opener "Where the Streets Have No Name," the yearning "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" -- have seeds of doubt within their soaring choruses, and those fears take root throughout the album, whether it's in the mournful sliding acoustic guitars of "Running to Stand Still," the surging "One Tree Hill," or the hypnotic elegy "Mothers of the Disappeared." So it might seem a little ironic that U2 became superstars on the back of such a dark record, but their focus has never been clearer, nor has their music been catchier, than on The Joshua Tree. Unexpectedly, U2 have also tempered their textural post-punk with American influences. Not only are Bono's lyrics obsessed with America, but country and blues influences are heard throughout the record, and instead of using these as roots, they're used as ways to add texture to the music. With the uniformly excellent songs -- only the clumsy, heavy rock and portentous lyrics of "Bullet the Blue Sky" fall flat -- the result is a powerful, uncompromising record that became a hit due to its vision and its melody. Never before have U2's big messages sounded so direct and personal. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Nearly ten years after beginning U2 Mach II with their brilliant seventh album Achtung Baby, U2 ease into their third phase with 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind. The title signifies more than it seems, since the group sifts through its past, working with Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, all in an effort to construct a classicist U2 album. Thankfully, it's a rock record from a band that absorbed all the elastic experimentation, studio trickery, dance flirtations, and genre bending of Achtung, Zooropa, and Pop -- all they've shed is the irony. U2 choose not to delve as darkly personal as they did on Achtung or Zooropa, yet they also avoid the alienating archness of Pop, returning to the generous spirit that flowed through their best '80s records. On that level, All may be reminiscent of The Joshua Tree, but this is a clever and craftsmanlike record, filled with nifty twists in the arrangements, small sonic details, and colors. U2 take subtle risks, such as their best pure pop song ever with "Wild Honey"; they're so self-confident they effortlessly write their best anthem in years with "Beautiful Day"; they offer the gospel-influenced "Stuck in a Moment," never once lowering it to the shtick it would have been on Rattle and Hum. Like any work from craftsmen, All That You Can't Leave Behind winds up being a work of modest pleasures, where the way the verse eases into the chorus means more than the overall message, and this is truly the first U2 album where that sentiment applies -- but there is genuine pleasure in their craft, for the band and listener alike. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

This single is U2's second from their 1983 album War. Bono wrote "Two Hearts Beat As One" on his honeymoon. The song ranked as the fifth most popular single in New Zealand's Rip It Up poll that year. It also was number 18 on the U.K. charts. The 7" version of this single contains the 7" mix of "Two Hearts Beat As One" and the B-side "Endless Deep." It was released worldwide in this form. Until the band's techno era, there were probably more versions of "Ttwo Hearts" released than any other song. The Two Hearts Beat As One single has never been released on CD. ~ JT Griffith, Rovi

Ever since the beginning of their career, U2 had a sense of purpose and played on a larger scale than their peers, so when they stumbled with the knowing rocktronica fusion of 1997's Pop -- the lone critical and commercial flop in their catalog -- it was enough to shake the perception held among fans and critics, perhaps even among the group itself, that the band was predestined to always be the world's biggest and best rock & roll band. Following that brief, jarring stumble, U2 got back to where they once belonged with All That You Can't Leave Behind, returning to the big-hearted anthems of their '80s work. It was a confident, cinematic album that played to their strengths, winning back the allegiance of wary fans and critics, who were eager to once again bestow the title of the world's biggest and best band upon the band, but all that praise didn't acknowledge a strange fact about the album: it was a conservative affair. After grandly taking risks for the better part of a decade, U2 curbed their sense of adventure, consciously stripping away the irony that marked every one of their albums since 1991's Achtung Baby, and returning to the big, earnest sound and sensibility of their classic '80s work. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the long-awaited 2004 sequel to ATYCLB, proves that this retreat was no mere fling: the band is committed to turning back the clock and acting like the '90s never happened.
Essentially, U2 are trying to revirginize themselves, to erase their wild flirtation with dance clubs and postmodernism so they can return to the time they were the social conscience of rock music. Gone are the heavy dance beats, gone are the multiple synthesizers, gone are the dense soundscapes that marked their '90s albums, but U2 are so concerned with recreating their past that they don't know where to stop peeling away the layers. They've overcorrected for their perceived sins, scaling back their sound so far that they have shed the murky sense of mystery that gave The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree an otherworldly allure. That atmospheric cloud has been replaced with a clean, sharp production, gilded in guitars and anchored with straight-ahead, unhurried rhythms that never quite push the songs forward. This crisp production lacks the small sonic shadings that gave ATYCLB some depth, and leaves How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb showcasing U2 at their simplest, playing direct, straight-ahead rock with little subtlety and shading in the production, performance, or lyrics. Sometimes, this works to the band's detriment, since it can reveal how familiar the Edge's guitar has grown or how buffoonish Bono's affectations have become (worst offender: the overdubbed "hola!" that answers the "hello" in the chorus of "Vertigo"). But the stark production can also be an advantage, since the band still sounds large and powerful. U2 still are expert craftsmen, capable of creating records with huge melodic and sonic hooks, of which there are many on HTDAAB, including songs as reassuring as the slyly soulful "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" and the soaring "City of Blinding Lights," or the pile-driving "All Because of You." Make no mistake, these are all the ingredients that make How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb a very good U2 record, but what keeps it from reaching the heights of greatness is that it feels too constrained and calculated, too concerned with finding purpose in the past instead of bravely heading into the future. It's a minor but important detail that may not matter to most listeners, since the record does sound good when it's playing, but this conservatism is what keeps HTDAAB earthbound and prevents it from standing alongside War, The Joshua Tree, and Achtung Baby as one of the group's finest efforts. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

"One" represents something of an improvement in the Achtung Baby singles series because of the decision to start using the singles as a medium for the release of non-album tracks, alternate versions, and live cuts. The single was released as a charity item, too, with proceeds being donated to AIDS research. "One" is a nice mid-tempo number, though Bono strains just a little too much, making his voice somewhat harsher than needed. The additional tracks consist of "Lady With the Spinning Head," a cover of Lou Reed's "Satellite of Love," and the steel string mix of "Night and Day," the band's track for the Cole Porter tribute album Red Hot + Blue. Worthwhile tracks all, the sort of compilation that makes singles like this worth buying. It's hard to resist U2 letting their hair down and covering songs they like. ~ Steven McDonald, Rovi

Opening with the ominous, fiery protest of "Sunday Bloody Sunday," War immediately announces itself as U2's most focused and hardest-rocking album to date. Blowing away the fuzzy, sonic indulgences of October with propulsive, martial rhythms and shards of guitar, War bristles with anger, despair, and above all, passion. Previously, Bono's attempts at messages came across as grandstanding, but his vision becomes remarkably clear on this record, as his anthems ("New Year's Day," "40," "Seconds") are balanced by effective, surprisingly emotional love songs ("Two Hearts Beat as One"), which are just as desperate and pleading as his protests. He performs the difficult task of making the universal sound personal, and the band helps him out by bringing the songs crashing home with muscular, forceful performances that reveal their varied, expressive textures upon repeated listens. U2 always aimed at greatness, but War was the first time they achieved it. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Reinventions rarely come as thorough and effective as Achtung Baby, an album that completely changed U2's sound and style. The crashing, unrecognizable distorted guitars that open "Zoo Station" are a clear signal that U2 have traded their Americana pretensions for postmodern, contemporary European music. Drawing equally from Bowie's electronic, avant-garde explorations of the late '70s and the neo-psychedelic sounds of the thriving rave and Madchester club scenes of early-'90s England, Achtung Baby sounds vibrant and endlessly inventive. Unlike their inspirations, U2 rarely experiment with song structures over the course of the album. Instead, they use the thick dance beats, swirling guitars, layers of effects, and found sounds to break traditional songs out of their constraints, revealing the tortured emotional core of their songs with the hyper-loaded arrangements. In such a dense musical setting, it isn't surprising that U2 have abandoned the political for the personal on Achtung Baby, since the music, even with its inviting rhythms, is more introspective than anthemic. Bono has never been as emotionally naked as he is on Achtung Baby, creating a feverish nightmare of broken hearts and desperate loneliness; unlike other U2 albums, it's filled with sexual imagery, much of it quite disturbing, and it ends on a disquieting note. Few bands as far into their career as U2 have recorded an album as adventurous or fulfilled their ambitions quite as successfully as they do on Achtung Baby, and the result is arguably their best album. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

If U2 isn't trying to save the world of music, they're trying to save the world. U2 is unstoppable, and the continuous success of All That You Can't Leave Behind and the Elevation tour, as well as eight Grammy nominations, proved true in 2001. And their loyalty for the fans remained steadfast and passionate. The limited-edition U2 7 EP, issued in January 2002, was a bit of a celebration for fans, and Target was the lucky sponsor. U2 and Target? Together? It may seem a bit odd, but it's all about the music. The seven-song set of rare tracks and remixes is an additional treat for diehards. From the spiritual inquisitions of the rollicking "Summer Rain" and the "Beautiful Day" sister song "Always" to the campy rock twist of sleazy riffs and tantalizing hooks of "Big Girls Are Best," U2's impeccability for kitsch and cool is right on. The world beat tinges of "Elevation (Influx Remix)" make it a stronger, anthemic single, whereas the charismatic acoustic version of one of the band's sharpest singles to date, "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of," showcases the band's everlasting appeal. Bono and The Edge vocally intertwine for something beautiful and enchanting. U2 still knows what it takes. All That You Can't Leave Behind confirmed that first, and U2 7 is merely a sweet reminder. ~ MacKenzie Wilson, Rovi

In God's Country was the fourth single off The Joshua Tree and was released in North America only as a 7", 12", and cassette. As a collectible, this single is somewhat hard to find, as it is not one of the band's radio hits. However, the track listing makes this less essential for the non-completist. This single includes The Joshua Tree versions of "One Tree Hill," "Bullet the Blue Sky," and "Running to Stand Still," making it a hat trick of amazing songs from the album. But how many people would want these songs that and don't already own The Joshua Tree? ~ JT Griffith, Rovi

The single for "Stuck in a Moment" was released in the U.K. while, at the same time, "Walk On" was released in Canada. (The first single released in the U.S. from All That You Can't Leave Behind, surprisingly, was "Elevation"). Five total versions of this single were released worldwide. The fourth was a French release and has four tracks: the LP version of the title track, the B-side "Big Girls Are Best," and live versions of "All I Want Is You" and "Even Better Than the Real Thing," both from Manray. The two songs are unavailable elsewhere, making this one of the better versions of "Stuck in a Moment." ~ JT Griffith, Rovi

This single is one of the most rare U2 singles ever released. Not scheduled for an official product, the band authorized One Tree Hill, in place of the single In God's Country, as a tribute to a friend's death. One Tree Hill was released only in New Zealand and Australia on 7" format but had the same picture of the Edge as on In God's Country. The song was inspired by a volcanic hill in Auckland and the single was dedicated to Bono's personal assistant, Greg Carroll, who died in a motorcycle accident in 1986. The song itself is one of the more underrated songs on The Joshua Tree. Its political message is a profound tribute to another fallen leader. According to the band, the lyrics referred to the Chilean folksinger/songwriter Victor Jara: "Jara sang his song a weapon, in the hands of love/You know his blood still cries from the ground." When dictator Pinochet overthrew the government, Jara's hands were severed and he was forced to play the guitar while he bled to death. This single includes The Joshua Tree versions of "One Tree Hill," "Bullet the Blue Sky," and "Running to Stand Still," making it a hat trick of amazing songs from the album. This single is collectible for its emotional, historical meaning to the band more than for its songs. The One Tree Hill single has never been released on CD, or anywhere else in the world. ~ JT Griffith, Rovi

A rock & roll open secret: U2 care very much about what other people say about them. Ever since they hit the big time in 1987 with The Joshua Tree, every album is a response to the last -- rather, a response to the response, a way to correct the mistakes of the last album: Achtung Baby erased the roots rock experiment Rattle and Hum, All That You Can't Leave Behind straightened out the fumbling Pop, and 2009's No Line on the Horizon is a riposte to the suggestion they played it too safe on 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. After recording two new cuts with Rick Rubin for the '06 compilation U218 and flirting with will.i.am, U2 reunited with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois (here billed as "Danny" for some reason), who not only produced The Joshua Tree but pointed the group toward aural architecture on The Unforgettable Fire. Much like All That You Can't and Atomic Bomb, which were largely recorded with their first producer, Steve Lillywhite, this is a return to the familiar for U2, but where their Lillywhite LPs are characterized by muscle, the Eno/Lanois records are where the band take risks, and so it is here that U2 attempts to recapture that spacy, mysterious atmosphere of The Unforgettable Fire and then take it further. Contrary to the suggestion of the clanking, sputtering first single "Get on Your Boots" -- its riffs and "Pump It Up" chant sounding like a cheap mashup stitched together in GarageBand -- this isn't a garish, gaudy electro-dalliance in the vein of Pop. Apart from a stilted middle section -- "Boots," the hamfisted white-boy funk "Stand Up Comedy," and the not-nearly-as-bad-as-its-title anthem "I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight"; tellingly, the only three songs here to not bear co-writing credits from Eno and Lanois -- No Line on the Horizon is all austere grey tones and midtempo meditation. It's a record that yearns to be intimate but U2 don't do intimate, they only do majestic, or as Bono sings on one of the albums best tracks, they do "Magnificent." Here, as on "No Line on the Horizon" and "Breathe," U2 strike that unmistakable blend of soaring, widescreen sonics and unflinching openhearted emotion that's been their trademark, turning the intimate into something hauntingly universal. These songs resonate deeper and longer than anything on Atomic Bomb, their grandeur almost seeming effortless. It's the rest of the record that illustrates how difficult it is to sound so magnificent. With the exception of that strained middle triptych, the rest of the album is in the vein of "No Line on the Horizon", "Magnificent" and "Breathe," only quieter and unfocused, with its ideas drifting instead of gelling. Too often, the album whispers in a murmur so quiet it's quite easy to ignore -- "White as Snow," an adaptation of a traditional folk tune, and "Cedars of Lebanon," its verses not much more than a recitation, simmer so slowly they seem to evaporate -- but at least these poorly defined subtleties sustain the hazily melancholy mood of No Line on the Horizon. When U2, Eno, and Lanois push too hard -- the ill-begotten techno-speak overload of "Unknown Caller," the sound sculpture of "Fez-Being Born" -- the ideas collapse like a pyramid of cards, the confusion amplifying the aimless stretches of the album, turning it into a murky muddle. Upon first listen, No Line on the Horizon seems as if it would be a classic grower, an album that makes sense with repeated spins, but that repetition only makes the album more elusive, revealing not that U2 went into the studio with a dense, complicated blueprint, but rather, they had no plan at all. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

As a courtesy to their fan club, U2 began releasing a series of exclusive albums in the mid-‘90s. This rarities album was issued in 2009 to subscribing members of U2.com, and it contains two discs of unreleased tracks, B-sides, alternate takes, and cover songs. Although most of these tunes can be found elsewhere -- many were released as bonus tracks on the remastered versions of Boy, October, War, and The Joshua Tree -- it’s helpful to have them all in one place, especially since they occasionally trump the material that did appear on U2's official albums. Of particular note are the discarded songs from the recording sessions for All That You Can’t Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, including “Native Son” (a primitive -- although arguably superior -- version of “Vertigo”), "Fast Cars" (which includes the lyric that gave How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb its name), and the charming, semi-psychedelic “Flower Child.” ~ Andrew Leahey, Rovi

U2's first two greatest-hits albums neatly divided themselves by decade, with the first covering the '80s and the second summing up the '90s. Their third hits comp, 2006's U218 Singles, is at once more ambitious and more concise, offering an overview of their first 26 years on a single disc comprised of 18 tracks -- and since two of those are new songs, that leaves just 16 songs to tell their whole story. That's not much space for a band with a career as lengthy and ambitious as U2, so it's inevitable that some painful cuts have been made. Nothing from October, Zooropa or Pop is here, and unless you're buying various import editions that have "I Will Follow" as a bonus track, there's nothing from Boy, either. There's only one cut each from The Unforgettable Fire and Rattle and Hum -- and bucking conventional wisdom, none of their three widely accepted masterpieces -- War, The Joshua Tree, or Achtung Baby -- provide the most songs here. No, out of all their albums the one that dominates U218 Singles is All That You Can't Leave Behind, their 2000 comeback from the depths of the misguided Pop, and one of two records that they've released since their last hits compilation, The Best of 1990-2000.
The other record they've released since then is How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which provides two songs here -- or, as many as there are from War and Achtung Baby. What this means is that this compilation skews very heavily toward latter-day U2 -- eight out of 18 tracks, a full 44 percent of the collection, are from 2000 on, which means that U218 Singles presents the classicist version of the band, featuring the anthems from U2 at their peak, plus the highlights from when U2 were trying their best to sound like U2 at their peak. They did it quite well, of course, from both a commercial and artistic standpoint, sometimes writing songs that stood proudly alongside "Pride (In the Name of Love)" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (as in "Beautiful Day") and sometimes not ("Elevation"). When it's all mixed together, it paints a portrait of a band that's a little slicker and streamlined than it often was, and it's hard not to miss the big-hearted yet moody band that made "Bad," "Gloria," and "A Sort of Homecoming," not to mention the middle-aged Euro experimentalists responsible for "Numb" and "Stay! (Faraway, So Close)," two essential components of the band that has been forced aside by the arena rock pros on display here.
Then again, U2 always were the best arena rockers of their generation, and for those who love the spectacle and sound of the band in full flight, U218 Singles serves up that side of the band quite well, along with two new entries that find the band continuing the assured, even-handed sound of Atomic Bomb: a cover of the Skids' "The Saints Are Coming," recorded with Green Day and rewritten to vaguely address the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and "Window in the Skies," an anthemic pop number that relies too heavily on synth strings yet is saved by the band's sturdy songwriting and reliable performance. As such, it might not cover all the bases, but it covers enough of the major ones to be a good summary for fellow travelers who just know U2 from the radio, and it's also a good one-stop introduction to the basics for neophytes. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Rock's Hottest Ticket is considered by some die-hard U2 fans to be the band's best unofficial live recording. Until the subsequent release of official live material such as Hasta la Vista Baby, Popmart, and Zoo TV: Live From Sydney, it was also the best way to get a solid full concert. Beware, however: There are two bootleg releases called Rock's Hottest Ticket. This version was recorded in Chicago, IL, on April 29, 1987, at Rosemont Horizon. The other (inferior version) is from Croke Park on June 27, 1987, in Dublin, Ireland. That version is often labeled as "Rock's Hottest Ticket, Vol. 1" or "Rock's Hottest Ticket, Vol. 2" and only contains about half of a show. Check the liner notes for recording location to be safe.
The concert from Chicago is one of the best audience recordings out there, and this performance is one of the band's best from the early Joshua Tree tour (which would stretch for 18 months). At shows later in the tour, Bono's interaction with the crowd seemed rote, like he has only an average connection with the audience. In this show, however, the band seems very excited to have recently landed on top of the world. The set list is standard but excellent and includes a rare cover of Peggy Seeger's "Springhill Mining Disaster." Rock's Hottest Ticket is the best place to start collecting U2 live shows, and only a few others sound this good. ~ JT Griffith, Rovi

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