Pagey said:

I kinda agree with that. My biggest problem with it is I don't like it when studio and live tracks are mixed together.

I absolutely love most of the b-sides from that project. I wish they would've gotten the tour documentary and live album out of their system in '88 and saved that new material for '89. It works much better as an album if you isolate all of the studio stuff.

GangstaFam said:

If you take the studio songs from Rattle & Hum and the B-sides and put them together it turns out to be a pretty good cd.

Hard, I got into U2 via my sis Jantina, who was a big fan from moment one. So I am really familiar with the old stuff, but am the only one in the family that kinda stayed with them through their style changes.

My other sister, Maria, also a fan, only returned to listening to them when they released All That You Can't Leave Behind. She is the one seeing them live, I think this coming week, actually.

Anyways, I always find it essential to kind of track back an artist if they are essential to my musical education, starting with their earliest recordings. Other artists, ones I deem not interesting enough, can do with a greatest hits.

I guess you have to decide for yourself if you like the stuff you know well enough to get deep into U2 and go back and get their stuff in chronological order, as I would if I thought their stuff was good enough.

If not, screw all good advice and just get the best of. I have loads of best of's. You can't be a collector of everything.

To me, their early work is very important to me, as it shaped them so much. So, start with The Unforgetable Fire. Boy,October and War are kewl too, but The Unforgetable Fire kind of distills the shtick they learned on those three albums and present you with many songs that still ring true today.

The Joshua Tree is U2 going global and being genius without embracing rock-stardom, a trick they lost with the follow-up of that, Rattle And Hum , their shameless flirtation with America continued. Not a bad thing, as it delivered many great tracks, but in retrospect it was just a bit too Elvis. No matter how big a fan Larry is. even if their version of Helter Skelter, esp Bono's spoken inro, still gives me goosebumps.

Only two quintesential U2 albums are left. First of them Achtung Baby. It is them sticking up their middle finger to the false idolhoods fo their fame, trying to go back to their roots and finding out that the only way is away from their own crafted image. It is them stripped down, them experimenting with beat, them creating one of their most beautiful songs (One). It is them wanting to be Bowie. The two follwo-ups (Zooropa and Pop)is taking this idea a bit too far, even though these albums, like Rattle And Hum, present some diamonds and pearls.

Last is How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. It is the album that has them refining the way they took with the previous album, All That You Can't Leave Behind. But where that album was an album that tried to revisit old haunts, this album takes it a step further. It is an adult U2, come to terms with the fact they are who and what they are.

Some of the albums I did not pick go along with some of my favest U2 songs, like War's Seconds and All That You Can't Leave Behind's Kite, but these four albums should do if you want to catch their essence.
[Edited 7/9/05 18:13pm]

HamsterHuey said:

Still my favest of their 80's work.

And nice assessment, Goo.

GangstaFam said:

Thanks. I should do more drunk posting then?

HamsterHuey said:

Seemed perfectly coherent to me, so sure.

GangstaFam said:

Gimme a then, I can feel myself sobering up again!

HamsterHuey said:

Just put a case of 12 in the fridge. C'mon over!

GangstaFam said:

Ermmm. The last plane flew, like, four hours ago...

HamsterHuey said:

Morning's soon there, right?

GangstaFam said:

Then when I arrive you just berate me for critisising Tori and wearing the wrong jockstrap, hehehe.

HamsterHuey said:

When have I ever berated you? Don't make me start now!

GangstaFam said:

If yer going to hit me, do it right and use your flat hand where it slaps.