Modern U2 bugs me as much as the guy. They really need to give it up and stop pretending to be 'cool' in that 21-year-old-notion-of-what's-cool-sort-of-way. In other words, I can hardly bear to hear them anymore.

BUT…

I was just listening to Unforgettable Fire on Spotify, and remembered how excellent I thought that album was when it first came out. I think it's my favourite album of theirs.

So, what was their best work (before they completely lost their heads up their own ar$e$)?

Boy, October, War, Under a Blood Red Sky and Achtung Baby all work for me.

Can't stand any of the others for some reason.

Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby were both "game changers" to drag out a cliché. And the tours that followed were amazing.

Joshua Tree and everything before it were truly great. Achtung Baby! was pretty good too but in a very different way. Everything after AB! was a horrid farrago of the Cult of Bono who has become more of a **** than it is generally reckoned to be possible by the scientific reckonings of the day.

In my opinion.

I love U2 but now kinda cringe at there exploits all though they are still excellent live . Its all down to individual opinion but for me Radiohead are the greatest band in the world..

the one where nobo shoots the rest of the band to live music and then turns the gun on himself.

Calm down dear, it's only a band.

everything up to and including Joshua Tree… then it went melodramatic.
hard to pick out a singular favourite but if I had to then probably under a blood red sky purely for '40'

since that golden era… well.. there was one or two songs off that album that came out about 5 years back that were quite moving.

Nothing great about them. The old albums, up to and including Joshua Tree, were fine, the new stuff rivals that of Pussycat Dolls.

Aye – as most of above – Joshua Tree and back from that.

cant stand them so their last ever one will be the best for me

Achtung baby for me. Pretty much the whole album. Not botherd about most of their other stuff.

Isn't a discussion on the "best" U2 album rather like a discussion on the "best" way to self harm.

Joshua Tree.

Everything afterwards is self indulgent shite.

Boy

Early – Unforgettable fire

Late – All that you can't leave behind

Like quite a few others here, find it hard to get past what a twit Nobo is.

Joshua Tree, Unforgtable Fire and then No Lne On The Horizon. Their latest album I really do believe is very very good and after seeing them at Sheffield shows how much better polished their stuff is. I am a big fan and it's as usual – each to their own but I look past what pop stars do or say, in fact anyone be it sportstar whatever. What matters to me is what they do and U2 have stood the test of time.

Under a blood red sky for me !

Agree all their latest stuff is dull, very dull

I only really like the bluesy one, can't think of the name of it. I actually own vinyl copies of Boy and October from when they came out, but have no desire to play them.
Actually I think I might've given Boy away.

Rattle & Hum, I'm thinking of.

I quite like the unforgettable fire. It also coincides with the peak of Bonio's mullet if I recall rightly. 😀

julianwilson – Member
I quite like the unforgettable fire. It also coincides with the peak of Bonio's mullet if I recall rightly.

Yeah, but wasn't that a great hat he wore to offset it? I always wanted one.

Joshua Tree 🙂

Achtung baby for me. Pretty much the whole album. Not botherd about most of their other stuff.

+1

Boy

Pretty much as everyone else here. It was War that got me into U2, in particular New Year's Day. Joshua Tree I think is an exceptional album, and I still have fond memories of driving over the Severn Bridge to Cardiff with ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’ at high volume on the stereo to see them on that tour. Sadly, all downhill after that.

Under a Blood Red Sky was pretty good too.

Bono (at concert, solemnly into the mic): "Every time I clap my hands, a child in Africa dies".

Lone Scots voice in crowd: "Well stop f*****g doing it then!"

War for me,still great live though….

Unforgettable fire but without pride. It just doesn't fit with the rest of the album.

I hated all that Blood red sky/Joshua tree guff.Achtung Baby is almost a great album.

I think zooropa is very underrated, and is great in a "chucked together" kind of way. Certainly not their best, but it seems to be the forgotten U2 album (some would say for a good reason).

Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby are their best.

Joshua Tree, no, Unforgettable Fire, um, no, Joshua Tree – oh I used to be indecisive, but now I'm not sure – errr, both! 😆

it was always the edges guitaring/producing that did it for me, so id say the streets have no name on the Joshua Tree was their pinnacle of greatness, then the fly on Actung Baby, theres been the occasional moment since then though….and their lyrics have usually been fantastic

"she wears my love like a see-through dress"

i did really like that one about his dad off a recent album, but that one about the boots….. what were they thinking!

achtung baby. No hats no **** no preaching. Quite simply a great record.

Joshua tree…album and tour ace ..Edge at Cardiff Arms Park telling us how chuffed his grandad would have been to see him playing there (Rugby for Wales)…Alarm were ace supporting them too…still going strong too. U2 are just a bit corporate for me now…and Bono believes his own hype too much!….last gig at the Milenium was good…pleased the old War tour T shirt still fitted 😀 but I find stadium gigs a bit soul-less usually.

Rattle and Hum , excellent live

Achtung Baby pretty much all the way.

Although I came across POP t'other day and really enjoyed it, I wasn't that keen on it at the time, but it was quite a change of direction for them, and if anything underproduced. Pity they didn't stick with it.

Joshua Tree for me. Early stuff was good and raw but lacked some of the melody that I like in music I listen to. Joshua Tree for me managed to blend the two together into a classic album. On the whole they seem to have disappeared up a rather dark and self indulgant hole since then although parts of "All that you can't.." were hints of a return to form. Not heard the most recent one to have an opinion on it.

October for me.

Alarm still going?!! I didn't know – and there's a band I wanted to see when I was young.

I only like one U2 song but I've forgotten what it is 🙁