DrRingDing -

With the investment you put into R&H (also one of my general introductions to music) I'd bet there won't BE an album better than it! So how about maybe 2nd or 3rd place? ;)

it is indeed growing on me much more than i thought it would...

but i still don't forsee it passing R&H, JT or War... probably not UF either.

if you want an order as of my 6th or 7th listening of this album:
R&H
War
JT
UF
Zooropa (my first cd ever, incidentally - and i now have over 1000)
AB
HtDaAB
---------
ATYCLB

i don't put boy, october or pop in there because i'm not terribly familiar with them. i actually need to revisit the first two - i recently went back and listened to murmur and reckoning by REM, and i gave them a GOOD listening to after having owned them for awhile, and i think they are my two favorite REM albums. so, i need to do the same thing with Boy and October.

even if all three were on the list, ATYCLB would still be at the bottom. i think i might actually hate the album. it's banal and boring, in my opinion. and it doesn't really carry any weight, in my opinion. at least pop was something different. again, though, i am not familiar with pop. it's the only u2 album i don't own.
-di doctor-

after a little rethink and about 4 more straight-through listens to Dismantle, i have rerated. but it's growing on me more and more...

although, i should probably stop listening to it soon, before i play it out in under 48 hours. :D
-di doctor-

picked this up at CC for 8.99 and while I haven't had a chance to listen to all of it, from what I've heard so far, it does sound much more like Achtung Baby and earlier albums than any of their other recent releases which is good IMO. If they come around and tour again I think I'll have to try and see them again live.

Anxiously awaited this and have been disappointed to some extent. This is nowhere near the quality of past gems from U2, which is the problem ... this one was built up so much for me that it really could only have left me feeling a bit disappointed.

That being said, it's still a decent album.

Trust me, it grows on you.

well, I've listened to it about five or six times already. It isn't growing on me. Good, but not great.

Agreed. Decent, but nothing special.

It's been growing on me. Overall, I like it better than ATYCLB. I felt the second half of that album was weak.

The album I absolutely cannot stop litening to lately is Boy. I got it a while ago and never listened to it. I'm addicted to it now. I can't believe that all these years I never got around to discovering this gem.

Sherm42 - I too had a late discovery of Boy - it's powerful and raw isn't it?

I can't stop listening to An Cat Dubh. Isn't it the longest U2 song or something? It just rocks.

Longest U2 song = "Bad (Live)" on the WIDE AWAKE IN AMERICA EP, running time 7:59.

(with the longest version of it I've yet seen performed being found on the DVD of LIVE AID)

But An Cat Dubh is 8:14

That seems to beat Bad

Either way, they both rock :)

"An Cat Dubh" is NOT 8:14, it is 4:47. It seques into a different song, "Into the Heart", which runs for 3:27. If you are turning the two into one supertrack, the final runtime would be 8:14, but that would be cheating, now, wouldn't it? ;)

On my CD its all one tack running 8:14. Can you even listen to them separately without just cutting them off? I guess it really doesn't matter though. There are two song titles, but it all seems to be one long composition.

I think it's amazing for a band, 25+ years into their career, to release an album that even approaches their previous widely critical and commerically praised classics. U2 have had multiple albums that can truly be called classics, and even if HTDAAB is just considered a "really good" album, which is what I'd call it, that's a pretty great achievement. Think about the last albums by some of the other long-running groups, like Aerosmith and R.E.M. They didn't even compare to their greatest works, and at times felt pretty uninspired and dull.

The thing I love about the new U2 album is that it feels old and new at the same time. It doesn't feel like a half-assed rehash of their classic sound (which a great band like AC/DC basically sounded like on their last album, IMO). But, it's not trying to reinvent the wheel either, and I can definitely tell it's U2 (not a bad thing). I hate it when bands decide to be really experimental, possibly for fear of being called boring and uncreative, and end up with a pretentious album that sounds like about 4,000 sounds/styles/instruments chewed up and spit out in a pile of stinking unlistenable vomit.

I was getting worried about U2, since I didn't love Pop (although it's definitely not as bad as some people claim...i like electronica and techno, and under it all the U2 style is still very present) or ATYCLB (bland and unmemorable to me, save a few songs), but I really like the new album. Right now I'd definitely say HTDAAB isn't as great as their classic albums, but over time it might get a lot closer to them. If I can still take this one out and play it 5-10 years down the line, like I do with some of their others, then I'd be more inclined to call it a truely memorable classic.

Originally posted by sherm42:
On my CD its all one tack running 8:14. Can you even listen to them separately without just cutting them off?

My CD does have "An Cut Dubh/Into the Heart" listed as a so-called super-track title, but does feature separate start cues for "An Cut Dubh" and "Into the Heart" so they can be broken up/listened to separately. Again, I recognize that one segues musically into the other, but other than the bridging bass line, musically, they're very disparate, so I consider them as two separate tracks, as does the awesome site u2wanderer.org (at least they were awesome until Universal Music made them shut down their lyrics section). YMMV...

Interesting. My CD lists them as two separate tracks, but there is not a split. It is actually one cut on my CD. Lists 11 songs, but only 10 tracks are actually on my CD. Interesting. Either way. Great song/s

he he...that we can agree on...

I think I like the second half of the album more than the first half.

I agree. At this point, I pretty much start the CD at track 5.

I'm absolutely lovin' this album. My favorite track, by a mile, is "Original of the Species" - the chorus sends chills down my spine every time I hear it. Unreal.

I love Vertigo and it's the only one I've really listened to. Tonight I plan to spend some quality time with this album.

Hello, Hello, Hola Hola!
Uno... Dos... Tres... Catorce...


Sorry I couldn't resist :D

I also prefer the second half of the album.