>U2 actually once had a solid discography >Releases Pop which was their most experimental and gets mixed reviews>Bono gets upset by the reaction and remakes the band into YEAH YEAH YEAH arena rock/MUH AFRICA for the rest of their careerThe band really used to be on such a different level in the 80s and 90s.
>>122907938Pressure would’ve also come from their record label to actually do stuff and make songs that make money. Doing experimental pop music on the company dime? Unacceptable to suits who demand to see something in return for their investment.And let’s be honest with each other and say it’s not like they were never sellouts to begin with
>>122907938But they would have never released Stuck in A Moment, the best song of their entire discography
>>122907938as a guy who was around to see it, it was mostly because they set out to make "big" and "important" music that was a soundtrack to whatever social issue du jour was and then they put pop out and did their arena turn. people got disgusted with it. that and everyone started hating bono for wearing those goofy ass red shades everywhere. what sealed the deal with their career was when apple put their latest album on every iphone without anyone's permission. the backlash was amazing. their career was over immediately.
>>122907938this album is wildly uneven and occasionally cringe but i love itit sounds like something a bunch of jaded old millionaires should make, whereas post-pop u2 is actually the type of music that jaded old millionaires make
>>122907938they should have gotten the same praise Radiohead had when they released Kid A
>>122908002>their career was over immediately.source? they are one of the highest grossing artists from tours. this board lives in a retarded bubble
for me, it's numb
>>122908749>from tours>not from selling any more and new recorded material. most of their tours are boomers and older millennials who want to hear songs off of the joshua tree.
>>122908820moved the goalpost. you think if you sell downloads and have shows for young people that your career is somehow better? money is money. you fucktards just need your narrative of u2 hate, and when someone shows you they make hundreds of millions from tours you shift to ‘that doesn’t count’go fuck yourself and everything you stand for, your generation is the scum of the earth
>>122907938Zooropa is also very underrated. I like this period of U2 a lot, even more than their early post punky shit
>>122907938Pop is great but by the late 90s that sort of sound was starting to get tired. They should have went dancier, darker, moodier, maybe a bit industrial, sort of like Primal Scream in the early 2000s. Their 90s run is still immaculate and by far my favorite era of the band.
>>122908062it's their last fun album
WHAT YOU THOUGHT WAS FREEDOM IS JUST GREED
>>122907987All That You Can't Leave Behind is definitely a front loaded album. In A Little While is like the last song i really like on there. doesn’t mean i hate Wild Honey or really any of the songs on the second half but my opinions range from ‘yeah that was alright’ to disinterest. the drop in quality in the later half is kind of frustrating but it wouldn’t be so frustrating to me if it weren’t for how freaking good some of the b-sides from the sessions of that album are. i enjoy Levitate more than the majority of their post-Pop album output.
cedars of lebanon off no line on the horizon is a good u2 song, and sleep like a baby tonight off songs of surrender is one of the most confident bono vocals. he sings better and clearer now. and he writes good lyrics sometimes. if you aren’t attached to any particular style or sound, they are one of the most consistently good bands. they have no shitty albums, they just have a lot of the same sound
>>122907938>Pop which was their most experimental and gets mixed reviewsnigga, U2 spent the entirety of the 90s radically experimenting with both their music & their image & live performance aesthetic; their Zoo TV world tour was fucking absurd in both its size & scope & expense. The truth is that POP was the moment their experimental ambitions overwhelmed their artistic common sense & they finally overexerted themselves creatively, after releasing the masterpiece that is Achtung Baby & its solid followup Zooropa. As a album title, POP was tremendously fitting, because this was the record in which their bubble burst & they found themselves no longer capable of delivering music that was simultaneously both commercially viable & technically innovative & experimental
>>122908002I still get a chuckle out them canceling their own album in 2016 because Trump got elected
all that you can't leave behind is the most bland, soulless, adult-oriented slop i've ever listened to since the last sting record. the bass player can't play, the drummer can't play, and the guitar player has one riff.
Always liked that era. This was the last time we got the "real" U2https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9fbQPGa-eQShame they didn't put that song and Big Girls Are Best on the album and got rid of some of the lesser songs like Miami. In a better world they would've given a shit about the lukewarm reception and continued making space lounge music like on the Passengers record.
>>122914140t. henry rollins
>>122914140
>>122914144it’s not necessarily the lukewarm reception, it’s how long do you wanna be on that many drugs
>>122907987Their best 00s song is Magnificent
>>122907938LETS GO LETS GO LETS GO LETS GODISCOTHÈQUE
>>122914158D-don't look at me that way, Bono...
>>122908778great taste; the one-two-three punch combo of Numb + Lemon + Stay is so fucking kino
The problem with Pop is that they agreed to start a tour before finishing the album. The first four songs were what they wanted the new direction to be, but then they had to rush the last few songs to meet the deadline which is why the second half is so bland (except for Please which I think is underrated).
