"It's a musical journey" - U2 POLL RESULTS

We've done well enough for a top sixty, which will be twenty each over the next three days. I'll get going shortly.

Normally I'd start with a funny picture, but instead I'm going to plug Bill Flanagan's book U2 At The End Of The World, which I'm loving and is certainly the best music book I've read. Any story I recount will likely come from there.

http://fupaper.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/pope_bono.jpg?w=400&h=565

"I bless this poll".

That is unpleasant.

I don't want to click on this thread anymore.

There are only two ties, so I haven't bothered to tiebreak them. First up is a threeway for 58th, with a rampaging beast of a track to kick things off.

http://img215.imageshack.us/img215/6375/058mofo.jpg

58 Mofo
five votes
Pop (1997)

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/4909/05840.jpg

58 “40”
four votes
War (1983)

Love that image for Mofo

http://img691.imageshack.us/img691/9185/058drowningman.jpg

58 Drowning Man
four votes, one first place
War (1983)

http://img10.imageshack.us/img10/2794/057october.jpg

57 October
93 points, four votes
October (1981)

58 Drowning Man
four votes, one first place
War (1983)

― Ismael Klata, Monday, August 8, 2011 10:15 AM (26 minutes ago) Bookmark

wonder if the first place vote was kool g rap lurking?

Ah, good to see October placing! Didn't expect that

I thought these 10 would do well

1 the unforgettable fire
2 with or without you
3 beautiful day
4 i will follow
5 out of control
6 heartland
7 zoo station
8 until the end of the world
9 the fly
10 lemon

might have expected October, Drowning Man and Mofo to do better really.

I admire Mr Klata's pictures.

Thank you. They're not my pictures though, just my graphics, lest any lurking photographers feel the need to pull me up!

I meant to say - I'm not adding youtubes as I'm at work, and I've added votes all recordings of any track together. However, lots of people specified particular versions or mixes of tracks. Once something gets announced, if you've got a favourite version you'd like people to hear by all means put it up.

I quite liked the live tracks that appeared around the "Fire" single, and the "An Cat Dubh" off the NME cassette of the time.

Still...

(I didn't vote here, have no real appreciation for them.)

wonder if the first place vote was kool g rap lurking?

Haha no, I think it was me. Probably overrating it somewhat, but after not having really listened to U2 with both ears for something like 25 years, that was one of the few songs that I thought was unequivocally lovely this time round. And it was all the better for me having totally forgotten it in the interim. Interesting to see from youtubes though that Bono had revisted it solo (did a slightly dodgy version with a female vocalist) and that U2 had been playing it on one of their recent tours.

It was indeed. I'm planning on putting up the full voting spreadsheet (suitably anonymised in some way) at the end of this btw, if I can work out how to do it.

http://img841.imageshack.us/img841/7134/056yourblueroom.jpg

56 Your Blue Room
94 points, four votes
Original Soundtracks 1 (1995)

Pretty sure I purposely ignored "War" in voting. "Mofo" would have been a top 3 U2 b-side. I should listen to "Pop" again, though, since it always had a lot I liked.
Are you going to reveal which tracks got negative votes?

I will, yes. None of the ones so far have. There was about a 50/50 take up of the 'most hated' option.

http://img23.imageshack.us/img23/1196/055ifalldown.jpg

55 I Fall Down
98 points, three votes, two first places
October (1981)

That's a good picture

and a bit of a surprising hit (if 55 can be called a hit)

I only like it cos it would take me back to October 1989 a bit.

Love the pictures. Mofo my only vote so far. Going back to that song after several years I was surprised how well they nailed the professed purpose of Pop. I think that album (like NLIB) suffered from being billed as more experimental - and in this case explicitly fun - than it turned out to be. A bunch of good songs (and some weak ones) that don't add up.

"it's a musical journey"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hb9g0ksXEgo&feature=related

ah fuck it, i don't know

I read something saying that Pop was billed as a techno album when it came it out. Is that true? If so, no wonder it seemed like a failure. Put it next to anything by any comparable act and it sounds startling.

http://img839.imageshack.us/img839/8919/054theelectricco.jpg

54 The Electric Co
101 points, five votes
Boy (1980)

"Hello, is that the Electric Co? I have a query on my bill."

I have no idea what that song is about.

if you don't know...

http://img593.imageshack.us/img593/6501/053ithrewabrickthrougha.jpg

53 I Threw A Brick Through A Window
102 points, four votes
October (1981)

That's one of my favourites, I like the awkwardness of it.

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/4866/052surrender.jpg

52 Surrender
108 points, five votes
War (1983)

http://img836.imageshack.us/img836/493/051heartland.jpg

51 Heartland
110 points, six votes
Rattle And Hum (1988)

mmm "Heartland"

"October"'s a good tune too! didn't vote for it but it lurked in my pre-ballot consciousness

"Mofo" rose quite a bit in my estimation on listening through the oeuvre last week & I ended up voting for it.

http://img29.imageshack.us/img29/4603/050somedaysarebettertha.jpg

50 Some Days Are Better Than Others
115 points, six votes
Zooropa (1993)

^^^ one of mine

Already also regretting not voting "A Sort of Homecoming," one of the all-tine great "Oh, yeah? What do you think about this!?" openers, which admittedly U2 has pulled off a couple of times.

yes, I noticed upon compiling my ballot that I voted for many of their album openers from 1984 on.

Already had four of my 20 show up! October, Surrender, Heartland (I think) and this last one.

@Josh, fwiw I put 'A Sort of Homecoming' very high. But that's all I'm saying about it right now ;)

Some Days Are Better Than Others was my #11.

I love the graphics and am so happy to see Pop make an appearance. I always figured "Electric Co." was about a kid watching The Electric Company.

http://img804.imageshack.us/img804/6376/049tripthroughyourwires.jpg

49 Trip Through Your Wires
116 points, six votes
The Joshua Tree (1987)

Hard to choose from Zooropa. I went for title track, Numb, Dirty Day and Lemon but Some Days is great too.

Only chose seven from the 80s, and no deep cuts.

Pope Bono is surprised that anybody has listened to October
xp Yikes, "Trip Through Your Wires" is a bad song

^^ my #12

my #2

REALLY? It sounds like "Hand In Glove" being played by a high school band.

October's a funny album, isn't it? If I want energy I can put on Boy or Under A Blood Red Sky, stridency War, beauty I'll stick on The Unforgettable Fire, etc. etc. I can't think what I'd be wanting in order to stick on October, except a change.

Yeah, I put it on to remember where those other random good songs from "Under a Blood Red Sky" come from.

Next up is my #1. The relative lack of interest in it perplexes me. At least it beat my #2, which got ZERO from everyone else.

http://img696.imageshack.us/img696/3189/048exit.jpg

48 Exit
117 points, four votes, one first place
The Joshua Tree (1987)

October is definitely a hugely underappreciated LP, and I'm guilty there as well... I did choose two songs from it, though.

STILL nothing??!! Right, time for some Rattle & Hum magic.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PkWPbarTgs0

Adam looks like a member of Japan in that last photo.

I liked "Exit" a lot in 1987!

Nowadays, I dunno; I hold the band's big dramas at arm's length.

Always get the urge to yell Horses! Horses! Horses! during that song.

Heh. Half of pandemic's ballot was Joshua Tree, and this is the one he missed, the fool.

It probably wouldn't make my #1 now - that'd likely be a deep cut from Achtung Baby - but it's still great and the dynamic shift is quite something.

Goodbye Exit, I tried. A couple of early 'uns now. This was our other tie.

http://img838.imageshack.us/img838/9428/clockticktock.jpg

46 11 O’Clock Tick Tock
122 points, six votes
single (1980)

'Trip Through Your Wires' is a pretty ok tune until Bono goes overboard with his "OHAHHNEED, OHAHHNNEEED" etc. Basically one of the earlier artifacts of Bono Overdrive that would kill off so many song after that.

http://img193.imageshack.us/img193/5129/046adaywithoutme.jpg

46 A Day Without Me
122 points, five votes
Boy (1980)

The 'I hear the children crying' lyric is a bit embarrassing, but 11 O'Clock Tick Tock is a sweet tune. One of Dave's better solos too.

For a split second I wondered how they got a shot of young Bono hanging with Dylan.

And why Dylan was playing an Explorer.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, THE EDGE!

He's 50. 50 years old.

Glad to see some of my picks coming up here too.

Love these photos, kinda wish every one had Adam with the poofy hair. I'm guessing the '80s deep-cut landslide doesn't auger a '00s comeback in the Top 40, but happy to be relistening to these.

I feel like the last three albums suffer the same way as what I was talking about with October, in that I can't pick out a theme - pretty sure this unfair especially to No Line On The Horizon, but it just hasn't happened for me. Maybe they just need time.

http://img196.imageshack.us/img196/7328/045lovecomestumbling.jpg

45 Love Comes Tumbling
123 points, six votes
b-side to The Unforgettable Fire (1984)

Occurred to me that some of my fave U2 tracks at the ones featuring Adam slapping the bass.

yeah i love how U2 and REM would occasionally sneak slap bass into '80s college rock

The point when the blurriest part of Love Come Tumbling (with the vocal "ba-ba-ba"s) fades out and the the echoey guitar arpeggio reappears is one of my favorite U2 moments.

the Exit photo puts me in mind of a fop trying to sneak unnoticed past a building site

most of the above tracks are tracks that I love

thought 'exit' would do better

was terribly impressed by the R&H film version, when I didn't know the song

seems like a good place to put this, i dunno how anyone could stay mad at Bono and Edge after they watch it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kIdTSlqYpj8

Happy to see several of my votes make it to the list.

I've called October my favourite U2 album for a long time - I was surprised when I found out it was so disliked. I spent many evenings wandering about after dark listening to it on my walkman ca. 1987/88. It's the most "post-punk" sounding U2 album - atmospheric and dark - less pop. (This is probably the same reason I've long preferred the Joshua Tree b-sides over much of what made it onto the album.) I didn't expect anything from October to get votes from anyone else, except maybe "Gloria."

I'm surprised to see "Surrender" place so low. Love "Exit." Hate "Trip Through Your Wires" with a passion.

^^^ one of mine
--livin in my own private Biden hole (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn)

In my top 10 iirc. Is Zooropa still underrated around here/in general?

http://img42.imageshack.us/img42/5158/044dirtyday.jpg

44 Dirty Day
126 points, six votes
Zooropa (1993)

I dunno, Zooropa has quite a few amazing moments but I was a bit underwhelmed by it this time around (I knew it before). Achtung Baby, on the other hand, blows me away now.

Wow. Glad we went Top 60. Nice to know I'm not alone in my love for Dirty Day.

My #3!

I'm looking forward to watching this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S72kzwjbJlk&feature=related

Think "Dirty Day" is in my top 10.

Mine as well. The days, days, days run away like horses over the hills.

Zooropa is such a strange album because it's pretty uneven but the highs are so high, the first half in particular is flawless and contains my top two for this poll.

Wow, I'll be grabbing some the stills from that youtube for the later jpgs!

Love Dirty Day <3

The next one really should be much higher...

http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/1407/043twilight.jpg

43 Twilight
141 points, five votes
Boy (1980)

it's kind of fun as a casual fan to see how far up we can get on this poll before i see a song i can hum when i read the title

the next one will probably do it for you

and if not, the one after

some dude, "I Threw A Brick Through A Window" is a great song, you should check it out

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/9817/042numb.jpg

42 Numb
142 points, seven votes
Zooropa (1993)

yeah, listening right now, this is pretty good! one of these days i definitely need to spend a good amount of time w/ the pre-Joshua Tree LPs. (xpost)

"Love Comes Tumbling" was about as obscure as my ballot got, but that song's a keeper; the sound is close to Fables of the Reconstruction, with Bono's vocal sounding like Elvis circa 1966 (think "Beyond the Reef").

last one for today, should meet the humming test...

http://img827.imageshack.us/img827/1426/041discotheque.jpg

41 Discotheque
148 points, nine votes, one most hated
Pop (1997)

voted for it!

Me too!

As most hated... cannot stand it and it was the moment where U2 and I definitely parted ways.

You crazy, it's fantastic.

Loooooved Larry's expression in the video.

I voted for it too. As a song there's not a lot to it. I get the feeling that they had all these scraps of songs and ideas which were pretty good but not quite enough to expand into a whole so they just stuck all these scraps together and it's utterly fantastic.

"Discoteque" is one of two U2 CD singles I own

it's kind of funny how they openly drew from dance music for half a decade to huge acclaim, but then they name a song "Discotheque" and dress like the Village People in a video and the backlash comes along pretty swiftly

Really interesting results so far. I'm not sure why I didn't vote for more early 80's songs like "11 O Clock Tick Tock". And I love "Rattle and Hum" but can't stand "Heartland", I'm surprised that made it!

And like others have been saying, the pictures are great!

well U2 was leaden about it, as usual: the band begged you to applaud their embrace of kitsch. Remember the K-Mart press conference?

Smart fans already heard the interest in junk culture on its two predecessors, so why was the band being so self-congratulatory about it on Pop?

Remember the K-Mart press conference?

http://jerome.galica.free.fr/cinetv/MUSIC/U2Popmart.gif

Is Adam supposed to be a drain clearance guy? Or is that Larry on the left?

That's Adam. I saw them on this tour.

So did he fix the septic tank or what then?

'I Fall Down' was my #1. Also, I guess 'October' will always be my favorite U2 album. It's damp and swirly, and the sound is very much within the conventions of 1981 post-punk, which is still one of my very favorite musical epochs. You could play 'October' for your same mopey English-major friends who were listening to The Sound or Echo & the Bunnymen, for example, and they might not hurt your feelings with savage dismissals!

I still get the "discotheque" guitar riff stuck in my head regularly

Smart fans already heard the interest in junk culture on its two predecessors, so why was the band being so self-congratulatory about it on Pop?

Exactly. Baffled me at the time.

Gotta tell you the truth here: I remember the era well, and I listen to the albums lots, but I've never for the life of me figured out just what about "Achtung Baby" and "Zooropa" was meant to be ironic, or junk cultury or whatever. I took them both as pretty earnest works. Even much of "Pop" is pretty dark. Is this all just because Bono started wearing sunglasses?

But, yeah, "Pop" is just an all-around underrated record. Of special note, it's the only one post-'UF" with neither Eno nor Lanois, let alone Lillywhite, and may be the last time I've seen the name Howie B. credited anywhere.

good work ismael

Damn straight. I'll get this up & running in a few minutes. First up today is the best song I didn't vote for.

http://img17.imageshack.us/img17/7830/040loveisblindness.jpg

40 Love Is Blindness
157 points, eight votes
Achtung Baby (1991)

Didn't vote for this, but easily could have voted for this. More dark stuff, great album closer, perfect closer to the disc's themes.

Next one got few votes, but everyone who did rated it highly.

http://img200.imageshack.us/img200/1277/sgonnarideyourwildhorse.jpg

39 Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?
159 points, six votes
Achtung Baby (1991)

Interesting. I like the music of that one, but don't really dig the lyrics, the same way so many don't dig ""Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World."

I thought it was the best when I first had the album, probably because it's such a strong tune, but I find it uninteresting now the album brings me darker pleasures.

http://img823.imageshack.us/img823/8302/038desire.jpg

38 Desire
165 points, eight votes
Rattle And Hum (1988)

This was my last cut fwiw. Loved this at the time, feel it's a bit unambitious now, though seeing Rattle & Hum woke me up to it again.

my only post '87 trk iirc

pop was one of the first CDs i owned. i bought it when it came out without having heard any songs off it, or any u2 songs at all i think, but i saw it at the store and had some money to spend and i was like, im a big boy, ive heard of this band, im gonna get me a u2 cd

so i put all 12 Pop tracks on my ballot

That's the kind of commitment we need.

The next song I don't even know.

http://img153.imageshack.us/img153/4643/037cityofblindinglights.jpg

37 City Of Blinding Lights
167 points, eight votes
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004)

i can already see that none of my top 4 are going to place :(

I didn't vote but if I did it probably would have looked something like this:

1 - Out of Control
2 - With of Without You
3 - All I Want is You
4 - Pride
5 - Two Hearts Beat As One
6 - I Will Follow
7 - New Year's Day
8 - Who's Gonna Ride Yr Wild Horses
9 - Seconds
10 - Where the Streets Have no Name

Tsk. Stay tuned - I can reveal that at least one of those will still place.

Only one? I would have thought at least a couple. Hmmmm. Well I suppose you did say at least one.

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/8440/036gloria.jpg

36 Gloria
180 points, eight votes
October (1981)

Gotta tell you the truth here: I remember the era well, and I listen to the albums lots, but I've never for the life of me figured out just what about "Achtung Baby" and "Zooropa" was meant to be ironic, or junk cultury or whatever.

When Bono discovers a big word like "irony," he tends to muck up its definition. I love those albums cuz they're trashy and hook-filled like U2 albums rarely are.

I love this on Live At Red Rocks, especially when Adam gets the stage to himself to slap bass. It's not exactly funky, but it's damn cool.

Gloria!

I feel strongly about my vote for this one. I don't care if it's earnest and corny, I love it. Love that picture too.

Yeah. A lot of these pictures, esp the early ones, are pretty great.

another fantastic early song

I played October to DEATH in junior high, probably listened to that album more than any other in eighth grade.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vK34DVYsICY

I mean, I challenge anyone who likes U2 to not like this song. Also, Bono's Gloria contains an alveolar flap!

If I only had the slightest idea what that is.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alveolar_flap

I started a thread about alveolar flaps this morning! I was thinking about them, and this song illustrated my point perfectly!

A thread about your alveolar flap, or tap

http://img703.imageshack.us/img703/8608/035acrobat.jpg

35 Acrobat
187 points, nine votes
Achtung Baby (1991)

This was a top five pick for me. I love how the album slows down in the last three tracks to a deep, complicated mess. The book reckons that's the return to the reality of making a marriage work after the surface thrills of the first nine tracks.

I only voted for one of the final three songs on Achtung Baby but they're all of a piece to me & together U2's finest album closer.

http://img13.imageshack.us/img13/6459/034seconds.jpg

34 Seconds
192 points, nine votes
War (1983)

My #5.

I put the 3 final tracks from Achtung in my top 10 -- all of a piece for me too, they just kept moving up my ballot. Had Love is Blindness at #3, thanks in part to its gorgeous and expansive live version (the Sydney Zooropa tour video is on youtube). AFAIK they never played Acrobat live, even in the days when the Zoo tour included every other song on the album except So Cruel.

Any great versions you know, feel free to put the youtube up. I keep hearing about legendary performances, but I wouldn't know where to start looking.

The "Love Is Blindness" on the Stay! single put it on my ballot for a while, though I eventually demoted it in favor of "Gloria" (my only vote for a song pre-Unforgettable Fire iirc).

live at Yankee Stadium, 1992, apparently (not on youtube)

xp Achtung Baby/Zooropa's "irony" is all in the packaging - artwork, videos, the Zoo TV tour. That's what's so brilliant about it imo - moving, complex, sincere songs in a fun, flashy wrapper.

I'm not sure how I feel about Seconds. It usually seems a bit ham-fisted, but sometimes I catch myself singing it without thinking.

I was just listening to "Seconds" the other day, and for all the talk about War being strident/anthemic, here's a very clear yet poetic song about the moral symmetry between terrorists and nuclear superpowers, which wasn't something you heard very much about outside the left in the '80s.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33ZKmi586PA

^^ one of Edge's best moments. Though I also like the understated album version, the way the guitar gets stuck on one note.

Seconds is a good song but I always flinch at the bom-bom-bom drum sound.

http://img819.imageshack.us/img819/6595/033bulletthebluesky.jpg

33 Bullet The Blue Sky
194 points, eleven votes, one most hated
The Joshua Tree (1987)

Their only truly, violently angry political song - very much playing against type. Very strong on the Atomic Bomb tour.

my most hated; what a dreadful song, enough to degrade The Joshua Tree significantly in my view. The Rattle & Hum version is the worst, though I guess it's provided lotsa lols over the years emulating the ridiculous ending.

Ah, that's interesting! I've always had them down as a political band, but it's only your saying that that's crystallised for me the ambivalent/meek/pacifist thread through it all.

"I Threw A Brick Through A Window" isn't an overly meek or pacifistic song

I thought it was a metaphor

They have a combative streak but they made a decision to accentuate the positive - Pride was originally an attack on Ronald Reagan until Bono wrote MLK lyrics instead. This softer approach works, arena-rock-wise, which is why Bullet always feels like a loose cannon in the live set - a glimpse of the angrier band they might have been. To quote - cough - something I wrote, just for background:

‘Bullet the Blue Sky’ is the only song in U2’s history into which Bono pours all of his violence and none of his diplomacy: it is the anti-‘Pride’. When he came back from Central America he told his bandmates what he had seen and asked The Edge, ‘Could you put that through your amplifier?’ He even brought in photographs and videos of the atrocities to inform the playing of the song, which he wanted to sound like ‘hell on earth’. The man with the face ‘red like a rose on a thorn bush’, slapping down $100 bills, was Reagan, he later admitted, but Eno had advised him, ‘You’ll ruin it for people if you give them images.’

the only track i skip on joshua tree

I almost voted for "Bullet the Blue Sky" as my most-hated, too. Especially after the majesty of the first three songs on The Joshua Tree, it comes as such a rude interruption.

Should be first track on side two. Blame Kirsty MacColl.

I pretty much despise the second half of The Joshua Tree aside from "Trip Through Your Wires"; basically, everything after the raging fury of BTBS just seems sleepy and boring.

(I didn't notice "Trip Through Your Wires" until someone played it for me in isolation several years after The Joshua Tree came out; up until then it was as anonymous and boring as the rest of the second half of that album.)

I actually always loved the drama of the last line in "Bullet the Blue Sky" and thought it was a highlight of Rattle and Hum, even as this album and that film stranded my U2 fandom. Again, a poetic connection not many people in the culture were making: between Central Americans being drive out of their homes by U.S.-backed terror and coming illegally to America for refuge.

At least as I heard it. I also don't see anything meek or ambivalent about U2's pacifism--there's a pathos in the phrase "bullet the blue sky" that hardly seems like an endorsement or call to arms.

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/3135/032holdmethrillmekissme.jpg

32 Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
201 points, nine votes, one first place
single (1995)

heh, for some reason i thought that song was widely hated. I had it on my ballot but nixed it cuz I thought it wouldn't rank

i remember seein the kickin rad video when i was a kid, so i guess i had heard a u2 song when i bought Pop

It's another one I can't decide about, but I'm leaning towards it being actually really good. The book reckons it was on the Zooropa provisional track listing though - that'd've been all kinds of wrong.

Just missed my top 20. Hadn't heard it since 1995 until they brought it back into the set on this last tour - great trashy swagger.

http://img51.imageshack.us/img51/5578/mlookingfor.jpg

31 I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For
209 points, one first place, one most hated
The Joshua Tree (1987)

lower than i expected

Yeah, def.

Hey, how many were people allowed to put on ballots because I only thought up ten before but I am bored this has got me thinking and I want to finish my imaginary list.

You could do 20

HMTMKMKM was my #1.
For me, a U2 song is made or unmade by What Bono Is Doing, and I liked him most in the Zoo TV era.

He's faking an orgasm, IIRC.

I am OK with that

There'll be a pause for an hour or two now because I've got dinner to make and a baby to bath. Also I've run out of jpgs. Finally there's an, um, administrative matter has arisen on which I'll need a view from Father Bono.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6413/030misssarajevo.jpg

30 Miss Sarajevo
223 points, ten votes
Original Soundtracks 1 (1995)

every time you go to the U2 restaurant you get Edge chesthairs in yr soup

the clientele's reaction to the tickle of the hair in the back of their throats determine's whether or not they're admitted to the U2 fanclub

hair me thrill me kiss me

Who prefers photoshoots do you think, Larry or Bono?

Anyway, it's confession time. No ILX poll ever proceeds without mistakes, and we've just reached this one's. The number 29, it turns out, has been given two entries on the spreadsheet and hence is also the number 20. Fortunately I've caught it in time, and combining the two and reordering means the top ten has been shaken up a bit.

However, this means we've lost an entry and hence this poll will run without a number 29. As a bonus, you can have a number 61 instead...

http://img855.imageshack.us/img855/4981/tmakeitonyourown.jpg

61 Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
88 points, four votes, one first place
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004)

http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/568/028onetreehill.jpg

28 One Tree Hill
238 points, eleven votes
The Joshua Tree (1987)

there should be a tumblr devoted to angry larry press photos

Had this one in my top 5.

I pretty much despise the second half of The Joshua Tree aside from "Trip Through Your Wires"; basically, everything after the raging fury of BTBS just seems sleepy and boring.

― CLUB PISCOPO (DJP), Tuesday, August 9, 2011 6:57 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark

OTM, this sums up my feelings exactly.

Ha. Think I voted for three Joshua Tree tracks, all post-btbs.

http://img718.imageshack.us/img718/3054/027ultraviolet.jpg

27 Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
242 points, ten votes, one first place
Achtung Baby (1991)

That's a song. My #3, & a contender for #1.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/4886/026outofcontrol.jpg

26 Out Of Control
256 points, eleven votes
Three EP (1979)

xpost Larry is the Chris Lowe of the band.

I can't believe people despise side 2 of Joshua Tree. That's really the only reason I listen to the album at this point.

I pretty much despise the second half of The Joshua Tree aside from "Trip Through Your Wires"; basically, everything after the raging fury of BTBS just seems sleepy and boring.

OTM, this sums up my feelings exactly.

Madness. "Red Hill Mining Town" is wonderful.

"Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was my most hated.

It's a strange one in that I can totally see the quality in the writing, but I still don't like it much either.

oh yeah, whatever it has going for it, it just rubs my fur the wrong way

If we'd had two hate voted, it'd have been my second.

Anyway, Out Of Control - what a song, what a picture! That's from the U2 Live At Red Rocks - "Under A Blood Red Sky" DVD, of which I got an expanded edition as part of doing this. It is incredible. If you haven't seen it: order a copy, you're in for a treat.

Madness. "Red Hill Mining Town" is wonderful.

Heh, RHMT was the song that initially made me say "I never want to listen to any of these songs ever."

I can see why it would be liked but, especially at the time of the album's release, it was emphatically Not My Thing.

"Out of Control" is great! I bumped it at the last minute but had we had twenty-five votes, I'd have voted for it.

http://img508.imageshack.us/img508/1309/025runningtostandstill.jpg

25 Running To Stand Still
269 points, twelve votes, one first place
The Joshua Tree (1987)

So far, it's the only one of today's batch that I voted for.

xpost -- whoops, scratch that

Bono straining for the high notes on Red Hill is my least favorite thing about the Joshua Tree.

Out of Control is so good, one of the last things I had to cut.

Love the Zoo era live version of Running to Stand Still (somewhat bashfully, thanks to Bono clumsily miming injecting himself with heroin), with the Hallelujahs leading in the opening chords of Streets.

Ohhh, quite lower than I expected that one!

Was in my top 5.

"Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was my most hated

I thought it was mine, too

I really do not understand anyone who even knows of the existence of "Elvis Ate America" not picking that as most hated.

I thought it was mine, too

Gah, you're right - it was in your second email and I didn't notice it. Bump it down three places mentally.

Which also puts Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me into the revised Top Thirty

"One Tree Hill" starts to suck when Bono turns into Jim Kerr.

Very happy to see the last three tracks on Acthung Baby place, it's such an amazing end to the album and I voted for all three.

Really surprised to see Hold Me, Thrill Me so high, it totally deserves to be there. I recently read it was almost put on Zooropa, not sure where it would fit on there.

http://img585.imageshack.us/img585/2941/024evenbetterthantherea.jpg

24 Even Better Than The Real Thing
270 points, thirteen votes
Achtung Baby (1991)

not sure where it would fit on there.

Instead of Babyface, hopefully.

I didn't vote but if I did it probably would have looked something like this:

1 - Out of Control
2 - With of Without You
3 - All I Want is You
4 - Pride
5 - Two Hearts Beat As One
6 - I Will Follow
7 - New Year's Day
8 - Who's Gonna Ride Yr Wild Horses
9 - Seconds
10 - Where the Streets Have no Name

― ladies love draculas like children love stray dogs (ENBB), Tuesday, August 9, 2011 9:55 AM (7 hours ago) Bookmark

awesome imaginary ballot! wish you had voted to help some of my faves.

Can't remember what order the Achtung Baby singles came out, but the Real Thing video was possibly the first consciousness I had of U2 as a proper, current act - it seemed weirdly distant and unengaged I thought, as if Bono was this virtual character like Max Headroom. I now realise that's probably exactly what he was aiming for, but I totally missed the context of this being a reaction against the authenticity thing. It's certainly an odd way to get to know someone.

It's like meeting someone on Halloween dressed up in a Bono suit

Exactly! Except also not knowing who Bono is.

http://img688.imageshack.us/img688/606/023twoheartsbeatasone.jpg

23 Two Hearts Beat As One
276 points, eleven votes
War (1983)

order was the fly, mysterious ways, one, even better, wild horses

kinda same thing for me, except mysterious ways was my first real consciousness of u2 as a current act, and then even better was the first that i remember when it was first released, seeing the video debut on mtv, etc.

i heard "Two Hearts" on the radio earlier this summer and it just totally knocked me out and i realized i'd never really listened to it closely before or appreciated how great the band sounds on it, ended up very high on my ballot

Two Hearts was top-5 for me.

My first conscious introduction to U2-as-U2 was "Sunday Bloody Sunday" on the local rock station, followed by "Pride (In The Name Of Love)". Investigating backwards after adoring "Pride" made me realize I'd heard "Seconds", "New Year's Day", "Two Hearts Beat As One" and "The Refugee" on that same rock station a lot but never connected them as all being by the same band, let alone from the same album as "Sunday Bloody Sunday".

Keep in mind this was all intermingled with endless amounts of Rush and Pink Floyd (miss you, KQRS glory days)

It's good, but the verse sounds kind of weak to me, like there's too much empty space in it maybe.

was re Two Hearts

I can't believe Sunday Bloody Sunday was never a single. That's the most shocking thing I've learned from this poll.

That is surprising. But the Red Rocks live video gave it more exposure than the radio ever could have, I think.

yeah i feel like once i've heard a song on radio THAT many times it not having been released as a physical single is kind of a moot point

"Two Hearts..." was the first early song my college radio station played that I loved: Bono shouting "CAN'T stop the DANCE!" and those perfect bass pokes.

Sunday Bloody Sunday caught on so quickly, apparently, that by something like its seventh outing Bono was already having to announce 'this is not a rebel song'.

http://img52.imageshack.us/img52/7413/022zoostation.jpg

22 Zoo Station
284 points, thirteen votes
Achtung Baby (1991)

what a jam; my #5. When my friend & I arrived in Berlin on the train from Frankfurt at the Zoo Station in the mid 90s, we air riffed the opening for ten minutes...not least because we were waiting to meet someone named Michael who we'd never met & had no clue what he looked it. We ended up in a gay lederhosen bar later that night. We were ready for the laughing gas.

The last two made my ballot.

Is that a real photo? Bono looks like a blow up doll

<3 Zoo Station

It's awesome. In sequence even more so - from the dead end of Rattle And Hum into Zoo Station is one of the most startling moves I can think of.

Two Hearts... was in my top ten too

It's awesome. In sequence even more so - from the dead end of Rattle And Hum into Zoo Station is one of the most startling moves I can think of.

― Ismael Klata, Wednesday, August 10, 2011 12:07 AM (10 seconds ago) Bookmark

This is very true!

I think that photo is from their b-boy years.

26 Out Of Control
256 points, eleven votes
Three EP (1979)

26

!!!!

hmpf

http://www.teslatheband.com/forums/images/smilies/Gestures/userArmsCrossed.gif

I am displeased.

ok sorry people who don't actually vote can't complain

i know, i know

ok sorry people who don't actually vote can't complain

srsly

I voted for Out of Control, don't blame me

btw this movie employs good use of "Out of Control" in its opening scene. Pretty good movie all around imo.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8EGCC9NNvo

It's awesome. In sequence even more so - from the dead end of Rattle And Hum into Zoo Station is one of the most startling moves I can think of.
--Ismael Klata

Right on. They've always done openers well, but after rattle and hum they were really stick-a-fork-in-em done. It's hard to remember that Achtung was basically a comeback record.

right, last one for tonight then bunk for me

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/9889/021redhillminingtown.jpg

21 Red Hill Mining Town
307 points, fourteen votes, one first place
The Joshua Tree (1987)

They've always done openers well, but after rattle and hum they were really stick-a-fork-in-em done. It's hard to remember that Achtung was basically a comeback record.

Were they? The album got middling to poor reviews, and only "Desire" took in America, but it sold spectacularly. It's perceived as a disaster cuz the band has done such an expert job slighting it over the years.

it's also perceived as a disaster because it is fucking terrible

I agree but it's not a flop.

and for me actually The Joshua Tree was the beginning of the decline and R&H is the bottom.

cmon there were some good songs on there
the suffocating romance of "all i want is you" for instance

RHMT was a late cut from my ballot, iirc.

Never liked "All I Want is You," although I'm biased because I was appalled by how terrible it sounded in Reality Bites.

Red Hill Mining Town my #1! Though I could have picked any of 4 or 5 off JT tbh.

x-post - lol I love how it's used in that movie

The longing in that song just kills me but I'm a sucker for that sort of thing and a total romantic fool in a lot of ways.

If you cut the live songs off Rattle and Hum (& "When Love Comes To Town" & "God Part 2"), then it's a pretty decent album.

I think it's hilarious that they're skipping it in their deluxe edition reissue series.

Alfred that was so much later, though! Reality Bites is revolting (sorry enbb, special loathing for ethan hawke), but the song is lovely imo.

There are enough great songs noted already, outside our top 20, that it really underscores how much outright U2 haters are working overtime to justify their disdain for this band.

I totally voted for "All I Want Is You," I think. Really caught be off guard a few years ago when I was listening to the best of (don't own Rattle and Hum).

i actually enjoy angel of harlem when it comes on the radio.
hi, u2 thread! i didn't vote, but i was a big fan for a little while there as a kid. i guess the last album i bought was zooropa. saw the zoo tv tour at dodger stadium. had terrible seats.

If you cut the live songs off Rattle and Hum (& "When Love Comes To Town" & "God Part 2"), then it's a pretty decent album.

No it isn't! It's a steaming pile!

Like literally, the only songs I can abide on there aside from the live JT tracks and live "Pride" are "Desire" and occasionally "All I Want Is You"; everything else evokes a massive phobic reaction in me that makes me want to travel back in time to destroy the master copies before the album was ever released. The only good thing I can say about RAH is that it was the genesis of the creative backlash spark that led to their next three albums.

61 Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
88 points, four votes, one first place
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004)

hiya

Reality Bites is revolting (sorry enbb, special loathing for ethan hawke

lol it's OK it's totally terrible, I know this

OK I'm listening to "All I Want is You" right now and it is still great.

I'll stand up for "Heartland", "All I Want Is You", & "Hawkmoon 269" (! yes, even despite the appalling title). "Desire" is not that far from Achtung Baby (especially the Hollywood mix).

aw, grant me a little rhetoric. maybe "comeback" isn't quite right. they were assured the audience they'd picked up with Joshua Tree but no longer assured of any kind of relevance. Like, they could have gone on for a while making boring hits like, I dunno, REO Speedwagon post-Hi Infidelity or something.

But instead they sort of shockingly understood the situation and the stakes and gave a fuck and answered the bell in a serious way and held off the descent into ever more arena-packing irrelevance for nearly a decade.

btw I expect "all I want is you" to do well itp

all i want is you is great. string arrangement by van dyke parks! kinda liked that edge solo track on R&H, too.

you heard it here first: "Van Diemen's Land" is gonna be the #1 here

"rhmt" would have probably been my no. 2. "unforgettable fire" probably no. 1. i need to remember to just bang out these ballots in an hour or less.

hold me nowwwwww ... i don't remember the rest.

i voted for van diemen's land! can't believe i was alone in wishing dave "the edge of heaven" evans a happy 50th tbrr.

xp:

woah oh hold my heart
stay with meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
let loving start
let loving start

I had good times in college doing drunk renditions of "Van Diemen's Land" & feel guilty about it now because it's probably about the potato famine.

in this dawning AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGE

sweet, glad someone voted for it. sounds good! who needs the rest of those jerks.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ux8qXTZetk4

No matter how bad Rattle & Hum may be, remember that without that project we'd never have got to see Larry really wanting a sit on Elvis's Harley, while the woman tries to palm Bono off with a snowmobile instead.

terrible Spanish translation

xpost

Live!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HXxefgAlrag

Zoo Station is such a classic, agenda-setting opener. I didn't really care about U2 at all in the 80s beyond a few hits I taped off the radio, but Achtung Baby felt like a miraculous turnaround. From When Love Comes to Town to this. I remember seeing The Fly on TOTP and thinking, Fuck me, what's happened here?

lol I was one of those guys who said admiringly "They're jumping on Jesus Jones' train!"

haha i was 13 when achtung baby came out and it was a pretty huge album for me that year, but yeah, it totally fit with all the english dance-rock that was all over mod rock radio for the few years before nevermind and the rest really hit hard.

kinda makes me pine for the days when bands made aaaaalbums, maaaan.

bc seriously looking back these guys were masters of the opening track.

i dunno, when i heard The Fly (age 12?) i thought U2 was going hard rock or something. my musical frame of reference was fairly limited i guess.

"coming up next we've got the farm with 'groovy train,' stereo mc's, and the new one from u2, 'the fly.'"

never forget

i wanted a whole album's worth of van diemen's land tbh

think 'the fly' was the first single and remember liking it but thinking wtf

for all the welcome clamor, achtung baby really isn't *that* much of a departure -- 'one' and 'ultraviolet' could have been on earlier records

I was a big industrial head at the time so I got excited when they said they were listening to KMFDM and MC 900ft Jesus. Imagine my surprise when Achtung Baby was even better than KMFDM.

basically if you had heard "Trust Me" off of Doubt by Jesus Jones, you could totally see where U2 was going (and it was obv awesome)

"Red Hill Mining Town" is wonderful.

My no.8, and I regret not putting it higher

yeah, i voted for it too

basically if you had heard "Trust Me" off of Doubt by Jesus Jones, you could totally see where U2 was going (and it was obv awesome)

a fantastic referent.

"Even Better..." and "Mysterious Ways" are going for the "International Bright Young Thing" groove.

I know a U2 thread is kryptonite to jjj but he should really be in here to drop some Info Freako knowledge

the song i associated "mysterious ways" with in my head as a kid was "kiss them for me."

even if you hate u2 or even this period of u2 you have to give them credit for producing it in such a way that it still sounds great as opposed to how thin and weedy most of the similar shit from that era sounds now

I partially think that comes along with releasing your 7th album as opposed to your 1st or 2nd

(the two big PWEI albums still sound pretty massive tho)

Jesus Jones' Perverse, which I still own and still recommend with reservations, has a density that's obviously a response to U2.

this conversation is making me feel like a totally bershon older sister

PWEI were HORRIBLE

totally cool with never hearing "one" again in my life, though. can say that about a few of their songs, of course.

xpost haha i think it also stems from hiring eno and lanois rather than the guy from s'express.

p.s. much love to s'express. don't get it twisted.

PWEI were HORRIBLE

I know this is a U2 thread and all but RONG

no way man, "can u dig it" is embarrassing but i will not sully U2 thread

did "is that all?" place...at all?

Love this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jg9YXROE14

Even though I thought their singles were by and large awesome (except for "Def Con One"), on This is the Day, This is the Hour, This is This! and Cure For Sanity they really shined on album tracks like "Inject Me", "Preaching To The Perverted", "Satellite Ecstatica", "Not Now James, We're Busy", "Wake Up! Time To Die", "88 Seconds... And Still Counting", "1000x No!", "Psychosexual", "Axe of Men", "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet" and "Lived In Splendour, Died In Chaos".

also, have you heard "Wise Up, Sucker!" or "Dance of the Mad" or "92 Degrees"? shutting up now but basically the Poppies owned

(for two albums, then things got dubious)

i love how every one of those song titles sounds like a story from an old e.c. comic.

I wanna talk about Jesus Jones :(

ey euler it's ok dude, it's practically de rigeur to sing about the famine when drunk iirc

Yeah, I remember those songs, I just thought they were cheesy -- except I do remember liking "Wise Up, Sucker" a little bit. None of it was as good as "Beers Steers and Queers".

Anyway, U2.

those poppies albums are stone cold classic imo esp 'inject me' '92 degrees'. Fuck imma listen to them NOW!

"Out of Control" and "Two Hearts" = both songs where verses outweigh choruses, but "Two Hearts" gets my vote for crazed guitar funk and the "I try to spit it out" part.

Glad to see "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" squeak in, though it would have been higher on my ballot if it didn't seem badly mastered or something--it sounds recorded in the red, on top of being a bit much production-wise even if it gets you. I'd probably include a live version on a mix.

Nothing from All That You Can't Leave Behind? That's their best album, people. Get with the program.

that's a decent album but no way is it their best, not between the first 3 and AB

Since 1985, I was convinced that Unforgettable Fire was their best. But after going back and listening again for this poll, ATYCLB rose up and usurped the top spot. UF has some of their best songs ever, obviously. I'm sure at least 2 of them will be in the top 10 for this poll. But there are some clunkers. LIsten to Indian Summer Sky lately?

On the other hand, All That You Can't Leave Behind is remarkably consistent and glorious. If Beautiful Day is the only song that places, it'll be a crying shame.

ATYCLB has the most canned production of their career to date. I couldn't believe Eno-Lanois were responsible. Those songs were different beasts live.

Also: the second side sucks.

Dang! You people are doing to ATYCLB what The Edge is doing to Malibu. It's a crying shame.

"One Tree Hill" was my #2. "Zoo Station" was my #6.

After seeing U2 three times between October and TJT, I ignored/boycotted Actung Baby because of the whole Negativland fiasco. It was actually hearing UTEOTW at the end of Wenders movie that got me to check out AB (and the "Zoo Station" opener).

I cut "Running To Standstill" from my list, but I'm glad it got some love out there. I love the live version of it from the Zooropa/Macphisto-era when it was anchored by a huge synthesizer/ambient-pulse with a delicate Edge electric guitar line over it. The whole thing lasts for just a couple of minutes until it subtly transforms into the opening of "Where The Streets Have No Name" which sounds even more ridiculously dramatic with that little beginning on it.

Do they have a synth/keyboard player in concert now or does the quartet do a bit of a juggling act to add synth parts?

when i saw them recently The Edge played a keyboard once or twice but there were many points when there was clearly a synth not being played by any of the members of the band. i've always kind of assumed they've had some amount of canned instrumentation or offstage auxilary player(s), few trad rock quartets on their scale play shows with just the main guys in the band but obv with U2 the whole image of just those four lifelong pals onstage and noone else is kind of a big part of the show.

(also there was the 'dance mix' portion where larry walked around playing a hand drum while programmed beats played)

I don't know if Edge still plays the keyboard part in "New Year's Day" -- every concert I saw before 2001 included this as His Keyboard Moment.

Also: Bono played keyboards on "Sweetest Thing" on that same tour.

He played keyboard a lot a few weeks ago, but yeah, there were a couple where somebody behind the curtain had to be joining in!

xp: Matter of taste, I realize, but the production on ATYCLB struck me as fresh even when I wasn't particularly into the songs yet, kind of late-'90s Madonna mixture of organic and synthetic but with the band's natural sonic strengths reemphasized, and processed in a way that was really trippy to me--canned like Warhol. My reaction to AB was, Oh great, U2 caught up with the British cheese still catching up with American hip hop: Funky Drummer beat and wah wah, what'll they think of next? Now I think I can listen with a tad less of an agenda. Which I'm not accusing anyone else of having at all, I'm just saying, well, violently opposed and dramatically changing reactions to U2 seem par for the course among fans.

I personally can't quite understand all the 2000s era U2 dislike/hatred. You want to talk about a band that's had a bad 2000s? How about REM.

It's not an either/or game.

he does have a point though, u2's pleasant coasting is still preferable to what a lot of their contemporaries have been up to in the 21st century

When you look into their respective 2000s-era backstories, R.E.M.'s is "Oh shit, our drummer left one album into our massive post-Monster $80 million contract...um...guess we should...uh...keep going?" Whereas, U2's is "WE ARE STILL THE BIGGEST BAND IN THE WORLD EVEN WHEN WE'RE NOT."

(I can't abide either bands post-1997 output, but if forced, would choose U2's)

U2 have definitely entered the Steel Wheels era of their experimentation though. The amorphously "North African" stuff on NLOTH is like Jagger doing "Continental Drift" in 1989.

it's a gesture more than an accomplishment, you know? Like, "I'm glad you guys still care about the expense and hassle about recording something like this."

Just realized Bono's older now than Jagger was in 1989, and that blows my mind 1) because Bono seems younger now than Jagger seemed then, and 2) because seeing U2 in 1985 doesn't feel remotely like I imagine having seen the Stones in 1969 felt like, historically speaking.

did any of the north african stuff even make it onto the last album? i didn't remember hearing any and saw eno explaining why it was cut from the album

jagger is kind of haggard and skeletal on his best days, and bono has surely done way less drugs

Didn't vote but I don't think I'm much of a U2 fan as my top 10 would mostly feature songs that are nowhere to be found in the countdown so far and doubt they'll even make it.

Lemon
Electrical storm (william orbit mix)
Where the streets have no name
Staring at the sun
Miss Sarajevo
Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
Stateless
The First Time
Sunday Bloody Sunday
With or Without You

Give them this: U2 are still one of the biggest bands in the world on the strength of incredible live shows, where I have to wonder why they'd work so hard at being so great.

xp: I'm guessing all but three of yours will place, and I have to check out a couple of those...

yeah most of those are mortal locks

From an interview I did with Eno:

The reason none of that really appeared on the record, even though we did quite a lot of stuff there, was because it sounded kind of synthetic. It sounded kind of like "world music" add-on. I'm sure it would have got a few people saying, oh, how interesting, they've broken out into North African music, but actually it just didn't sound convincing. We were very impressed by the music while we were there, but there was no realistic or emotionally satisfying way of marrying it using the music that we were doing, so in the end not very much of it at all showed through. But influences aren't always in terms of sound. As I was saying earlier, they're in terms of how you approach music and what you use it for. I think that was picked up, and it was absorbed.

BTW, most unlikely "Achtung Baby"-era rip:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olRiQnHPRYQ

Sung by the drummer (RIP).

top twenty coming up

http://img835.imageshack.us/img835/4804/020mysteriousways.jpg

20 Mysterious Ways
344 points, nineteen votes
Achtung Baby (1991)

mysterious indeed

blech

I would like you all to know that I replayed this album last night and still thought it awesome

(with the exception of "...Wild Horses").

i recognize the horribleness of "wild horse" but the 12 year old in me still kind of loves it. "don't turnnnnn aroundddd"
i remember kinda liking the single mix more than the album version.

http://img155.imageshack.us/img155/6329/019wire.jpg

19 Wire
350 points, sixteen votes
The Unforgettable Fire (1984)

!

Love that one.

Top 10 for me. Amazing track, especially the part after "you're only a kiss away" (? if that's right) where all hell breaks loose.

Sorry, lost signal there for a bit. The next one I thought had a shot at the grand prize, but no...

http://img84.imageshack.us/img84/8884/018sundaybloodysunday.jpg

18 Sunday Bloody Sunday
379 points, seventeen votes
War (1983)

waht

that seems really, really low for such an iconic, IMO band-defining song

I know. You can't fault it in any way. It just never picked up the votes.

I don't know if Edge still plays the keyboard part in "New Year's Day" -- every concert I saw before 2001 included this as His Keyboard Moment.

He's still doing the keyboards in "The Unforgettable Fire"

(also, yay "Wire"!)

I have fun weighing whether I despise "Pride" or "Sunday Bloody Sunday" more.

I burned out on "Sunday Bloody Sunday" a long time ago.

I still like the album version, with the violin.

Such a wintery song. I often dial up War if I'm walking somewhere when it's minus 30.

I really like the lyric

i kinda figured SBS wouldnt rank super high, even though its a fav of mine... a lot of people seem fatigued by it

Next up is our last track alphabetically (I think!)

http://img32.imageshack.us/img32/586/017zooropa.jpg

17 Zooropa
390 points, eighteen votes
Zooropa (1993)

love mysterious ways, everyone here prob well sick of sbs

overground!

Suggest Ban Sunday? (xp)

http://img26.imageshack.us/img26/8140/016asortofhomecoming.jpg

16 A Sort Of Homecoming
391 points, sixteen votes, one first place
The Unforgettable Fire (1984)

yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay (why did this not win?! does everyone love costumed bono that much more?!)

My number one!!! <3

why does anyone like this band

Took you quite some time to pop up and rain on this parade, Shakey, expected you sooner!

was resisting tbh

being mentioned on the Beach Boys poll thread brought me over to take a peek

and I wasn't trying to be dickish I seriously don't understand what the appeal is here. 12 yo me really liked them, but 12 yo me just wanted to appear as a serious/thoughtful music fan and that's what they were being sold as

12-year-olds have the best taste, everyone knows that

Surely you can think of worse offenders than U2 on the pretentiousness front, yes? With fewer good songs?

I don't really care about pretension. good songs, yes, but I don't find these guys to be particularly good songwriters/melodicists/lyricists and the rhythm section is exceptionally leaden. so yeah, I don't get it.

the only genuinely well-written song of theirs that I enjoy listening to is "One".

http://img706.imageshack.us/img706/2264/015alliwantisyou.jpg

15 All I Want Is You
401 points, seventeen votes
Rattle And Hum (1988)

Van Dyke Parks' strings on All I Want Is You are utterly delicious. This song is Rattle & Hum's one moment of splendour.

Aw, yay.

love mysterious ways, everyone here prob well sick of sbs

― 10/11 of a dead jesus (darraghmac), Wednesday, August 10, 2011 12:50 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark

I like SBS a lot. If my imaginary ballot had gone beyond 10 it prob would have been like 11 or 12.

"When Doves Cry" is massively overplayed as well but its status as one of Prince's best songs seems pretty much undeniable to me.

funk redeems over-familiarity, once again

"When Doves Cry" is one of my defaults for greatest song ever written, which I cannot say of most U2 songs, if any. Basically, "When Doves Cry" cannot be overplayed. It is beholden to a different standard.

Glad "A Sort of Homecoming" cracked the top 20... Edge's guitar is incredible there.

whereas U2 have defaults for some of the worst anthems ever written.

I haven't been following this thread partly because, as I said when it started, I think it was wrong and cruel to put an ugly and nasty image at the top of it which would appear any time anyone clicked on it.

I don't know whether the countdown thing is over yet. I will have a look at it some time.

12 yo me really liked them, but 12 yo me just wanted to appear as a serious/thoughtful music fan and that's what they were being sold as

I would argue that lots of folks who make it a point to ostentatiously smack down U2 often also want to appear as "serious/thoughtful music fans... I also think our 12-year-old selves are a lot and more intuitive about quality (not to mention far less aesthetically hung up) than we give them credit for.

("are a lot more intuitive"...)

I see, it is up to #15. I expect many very great tracks have been listed.

Clarke B otm. I had my first reservations about "Pride (In the Name of Love)" when I was twelve :)

clarke b probably v otm

oh alfred

if only we could back to the innocence of childhood and its intuitive love for u2 and nosepicking

c'mon pinefox, the images do get better after that horror

http://img695.imageshack.us/img695/6577/014untiltheendoftheworl.jpg

14 Until The End Of The World
415 points, fifteen votes, two first places
Achtung Baby (1991)

there are very few things I can think of that I liked when I was twelve that I don't still like now

The whole process of "growing out" of bands rarely if ever happens to me; I've had artists go directions/do things that make me stop paying attention to them (hi dere, Morrissey) but it's rare that that is a retroactive indictment on other albums of theirs that I've enjoyed (funnily enough, one of the few examples of this happening to me I can think of is with The Smiths and Strangeways...; I like a good bit of that album when I first heard it, but when I started listening to their back catalog practically all of that material appealed to me so much more that couldn't go back to Strangeways...).

Until the End of the World was my #1. I was hoping madly that it would place in the top 5. Deserves a better picture TBH. Ismael, enough with the bad-hair era - bring out the Zoo TV grabs. We want our Macphisto.

xp Maybe 12-year-olds overrate U2 but only 15-year-olds should think they're the worst thing ever.

We want our Macphisto.

Speak for yourself, guy.

Spoiler: there is plenty more bad hair to come. Doesn't Larry look sweet though?

xp It would jazz up the page a bit. Too much bad hair and youthful solemnity in B&W. (Says the guy who hasn't spent hours compiling and illustrating this poll)

they sure did love their blowdryers

Sorry, I blew out all my pigment on #32

when I was twelve I liked "Living in a Box" and "Shattered Dreams" more than "With or Without You" :(

if only we could back to the innocence of childhood and its intuitive love for u2 and nosepicking

Not so much innocence as a sort of purer receptivity, less "shoulds", less awareness of perceptions and the politics of aesthetics. The whole idea of listening to something because I thought that's what serious music people did wasn't part of my engagement with music until much later than 12, that's for sure... And sometimes it feels like something I'm still trying to shed completely!

much later than 12, that's for sure

Yeah, where does this idea come from? I was at the earliest 15. In the disco book I was reading last, some guy was claiming to have been down Studio 54 every night as an eleven-year-old!

The whole idea of listening to something because I thought that's what serious music people did wasn't part of my engagement with music until much later than 12, that's for sure

yeah well um you didn't have my family

12 year old me was down with Weird Al & my mom's 60s girl group 45s. good times!

True, Shakey (I think)... Although I do remember REJECTING stuff at that age because my mom and dad were really into it...

when I was twelve I liked "Living in a Box" and "Shattered Dreams"

I bought both those singles (aged 13)

I just can't accept U2 on the basis of pure pop thrills or something, it seems like that isn't really what they do...? that isn't what I get from listening to them anyway. it all seems so clumsy/stilted. very mannered and self-serious, even when they're trying to be "fun". Bono's earnestness in particular comes across as almost pathological, I feel like there's nothing to relate to there, it's all sweepingly empty gestures.

xp

True, Shakey (I think)... Although I do remember REJECTING stuff at that age because my mom and dad were really into it...

my parents by and large didn't care about music. my older brother, on the other hand, was an entirely different story.

I can't believe you guys are shitting on U2 when there was talk of how spectacular PWEI and Jesus Jones were itt. Honestly.

Real real real
Do you feel real?

Bono's earnestness in particular comes across as almost pathological, I feel like there's nothing to relate to there, it's all sweepingly empty gestures.

I don't dislike U2, but Shakey OTM.

Examples, please, of acts you wouldn't describe as packing earnest, empty gestures.

dnftt

this one will blow away all talk of earnestness and sweeping gestures...

c'mon now I'm not trolling

xp

I can't believe you guys are shitting on U2 when there was talk of how spectacular PWEI and Jesus Jones were itt. Honestly.

uh that wasn't me

http://img21.imageshack.us/img21/4052/013pride.jpg

13 Pride (In The Name Of Love)
422 points, twenty votes
The Unforgettable Fire (1984)

Examples, please, of acts you wouldn't describe as packing earnest, empty gestures.

oh I dunno how about Parliament

this is really going to be a wonderfully fulfilling conversation

I unashamedly love "Pride", although for me it's really all about Edge...

I can get caught up in the moment with "Pride" but I can't really abide the conjugations of the present tense in the verses; what's the story there?

that pic is totally short face long face short face big face

hahaha

That's the name of their chillwave side-project

"Daylight come and me want to go home"? At least he's been correcting the time of MLK's death for the past few years!

My age curve with U2 is fan at 13, falling out at 18, getting back into and falling out over and over again from 23 on, then seeing 'em live at 35 at which point, screw it, the 13-year-old was right.

I unashamedly love "Pride", although for me it's really all about Edge...
--Clarke B.

I'm with this. Love would be strong, only bc my enjoyment is based on p much tuning Bono out entirely.

http://img189.imageshack.us/img189/1787/scountry.jpg

12 In God’s Country
423 points, twenty votes, one first place
The Joshua Tree (1987)

Damn it! That was my #1. Too low!

roffle - this one is like 19 on my ballot and I have no idea why. I think it was a copy/paste error.

honestly sort of surprised it charted at all, let alone nearly cracking the top 10

I'd always taken this for an aggressively okay U2 song, what are we missing?

That song will always remind me of not winning the free ticket contest because of my goddamn pulse phone dialer. I had it in like 2 notes! I like it -- it's got that old fashioned U2 urgency (as opposed to "funky U2" or "grandstanding U2" or "costumed disco U2")

kind of can't believe this beat "Pride", SBS and UTEOTW

I thought I was the only person in the world who loved "In God's Country"--#1 on my ballot of 5 songs.

I like it fine, but it didn't even get in close proximity to my own top 20.

I'd always taken this for an aggressively okay U2 song, what are we missing?
--Pete Scholtes

Wish I could help you! I'm in the "I like it fine but..." camp. Really have no idea how it ended up on my ballot. Think that slot should have been "new year's day" but c'est la vie.

http://img683.imageshack.us/img683/8374/011stay.jpg

11 Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
434 points, nineteen votes, one first place
Zooropa (1993)

I know we all voted and stuff, but in my mind these results all seem pretty arbitrarily ordered.

I will admit that I did not rank my ballot because I didn't really want to fill one out, but then I became irrationally invested in what happened.

That song's grown a lot in my estimation since the album came out (my #6). I love the dry beat with the guitar riff as it opens, probably my favorite (extended) moment/aspect of Zooropa.

mine are kinda "four groups of five". I'll defend the heck out of my #1 tho. think 4 of my top 5 are still alive here...

I don't really like 20 u2 songs but if I had voted that woulda been my #1

Yeah, I didn't vote for it but this one's pretty charming.

pretty psyched for "Stay"'s placing! agree that the dryness of the production really makes it, feels like such a contrast to the big big sound of other U2 ballads. and the acoustic arrangement on the last tour was lovely.

I'm pleased that my most hated hasn't shown up yet

I'm just uploading the last batch of jpgs - it's taking a while, but will get cracking with the top ten when I'm done.

Didn't vote b/c I enjoy U2 casually but have seldom connected with them on a deeper level (which with U2 counts for more than with most bands - a true fan of this band is a believer), but crossing my fingers for "Kite" in the top 10.

huh. i liked Zooropa alot when it came out - but never really liked Stay.

wait, did this song chart?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xmPCkPg8g0g

what's with U2 and the word "all"? they have so many song titles that include "all"

Pretty surprised In God's Country placed so high - after #20 or so, I figured it was not in at all. I had it near the bottom of my ballot and didn't realize it was a favorite for anyone. It's not an attention-grabbing song, but it has a lot of details that I like: great guitar work (especially the solo), good match between the lyrics and music, and the same driving-song feel as Zoo Station. It's grown on me a lot over the years.

Love the whole vibe of Stay. Nocturnal, European (despite the 7/11 line), melancholy. It's kind of sweet that their second Berlin album, like Bowie's first, should use car-crash imagery - intentional or subconcious, I'm not sure.

this is nice
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxzuqvXO4oc

"Stay" was my #1 U2 ballad. I realized how well it was written when I sang it at karaoke a couple of years ago -- and outdid Bono too.

Okay, ready to go now. Kicking off with another that I thought might win the whole thing, but landed a little lower than I expected...

http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/8230/010one.jpg

10 One
453 points, twenty votes, two first places, one most hated
Achtung Baby (1991)

Now I'm curious about this'ere top ten.

My favorite part in Wenders' otherwise forgettable Wings Of Desire sequel was the scene in the bar when everyone is just hanging out - no angst, no handwringing, or Big Statement about Germany - just some friends chatting while "Stay" is playing in the background.

UTEOTW was my #1 also.

I don't think I love One, but I couldn't say a bad thing about it. It's perfect songwriting.

bono looks like bill compton there

what's with U2 and the word "all"? they have so many song titles that include "all"

― it was pleasant and delightful, just like (La Lechera), Wednesday, August 10, 2011 4:01 PM (8 minutes ago) Bookmark

you can't leave that 'all' behind

all i want is you
is that all?
all that you can't leave behind

wocka wocka wocka

only 3 songs that placed outside the top 10 got a 'most hated' voted...i have a feeling a whole lot of the top 10 will have had some.

matching jumpers for larry and adam, bless

yeah, ive assumed the most hated votes would be clustered w/a handful of... certain songs

yeah it would stand to reason their biggest hits would get the most hate... i'm starting to feel relieved that my most hated song probably won't show up.

im pretty sure mine will, but my #1 most assuredly wont and i'd bet that nobody else even voted for it

I'd always taken this for an aggressively okay U2 song, what are we missing?

― Pete Scholtes, Wednesday, August 10, 2011 2:05 PM (1 hour ago)

1. it's under 3:00 and brevity is the soul of wit (U2 songs can have a problem with going on a little too long imo)
2. love the melody
3. bono's singing is indistinct enough that I don't have any problem with ponderous lyrics -- only a couple of lines emerge here and there, and the ones that do are ones that I like a lot
4. propulsive Larry/Adam
5. sharp Edge (haw)
6. benefits in comparison with the most famous songs on that album, which I think are overwrought sludge

U2 songs can have a problem with going on a little too long imo

I'm a little surprised not to agree with this. Twilight's the only one that I really wish they'd cut back.

i didn't end up using my hate vote, mainly because i didn't think there was a chance of one of those horrible singles from ATYCLB showing up in the results. though i'm glad to see that on the back of a most hated vote, 'one' doesn't occupy one of the very top spots.

http://img844.imageshack.us/img844/4494/009lemon.jpg

9 Lemon
484 points, nineteen votes, two first places
Zooropa (1993)

"Lemon" did more to change my perception of U2 than any other track. When I first heard it I just stared at the stereo gobsmacked.

According to the band, they were going for Prince meets Talking Heads.

I love "Lemon"; the verse sounds very Eno-eque & I'm guessing he had a lot to do with this song?

According to the Flanagan book, he suggested stapling two different songs together; those are his keys playing all over the outro too.

I've put Live At Red Rocks on for this last stretch, and as a result cannot even imagine Lemon right now

Eno and Edge harmonize rather nicely too.

Lemon was my #1, glad it made the top 10.

The strength of support for this next one took me by surprise.

Aw, yay.

love mysterious ways, everyone here prob well sick of sbs

― 10/11 of a dead jesus (darraghmac), Wednesday, August 10, 2011 12:50 PM (42 minutes ago) Bookmark

I like SBS a lot. If my imaginary ballot had gone beyond 10 it prob would have been like 11 or 12.

― ladies love draculas like children love stray dogs (ENBB)

no no i meant 'here', y'know?

http://img225.imageshack.us/img225/7720/008beautifulday.jpg

8 Beautiful Day
487 points, twenty one votes, one first place
All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000)

great tune, perfect really

I overlooked this one on my ballot. I think bc it's so foundational to the album that I forgot to think of it as a "track". Glad to see it here.

oh ouch xxxpost i was talkin' bout Lemon

too late, enjoy your "Beautiful Day"

(which is a great song because it is kind of reminiscent of "The Sun Always Shines On TV" at points)

I found a spot low on my ballot for "Beautiful Day", despite the sound of the verses; the layers of the chorus overwhelm me.

amazed Beautiful Day didn't get any most hated votes

Strongly considered it, some dude... can't stand it.

and Beautiful Day still would've beat One even if the latter hadn't gotten a most hated vote!

I was really underwhelmed by "Beautiful Day" the first several times I heard it. Mostly enjoy it now - perfectly decent song, with some great production flourishes via Eno and Edge, but when I'm feeling less charitable it somehow sounds both undercooked and overdone.

this list was unfolding so nicely until 'beautiful day' appeared. 100% generic, needlessly-anthemic, nauseating dud.

It just reminds me of when ITV last had the football highlights

i think you guys can deal with ONE friggin' post-1995 song in the whole top 30

There's a big gap up now. If I'm reading the table right, this next one was leading with about nine hours to go, but then sadly faded away.

http://img37.imageshack.us/img37/9978/007iwillfollow.jpg

7 I Will Follow
573 points, 21 votes, two first places
Boy (1980)

TOO LOW

Nuts. I'm too busy at work to fake a pic for "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" at #3

I like this one -- best PiL rip ever?

I think how some people feel about "Pride" and SBS I feel about "One"--it's probably their best song that sank on my ballot due to not having much effect on me anymore.

http://img221.imageshack.us/img221/4697/sdayvx.jpg

6 New Year’s Day
580 points, twenty three votes, two first places
War (1983)

didn't even make my first pre-cut ballot

oh come on now

¯\(°_o)/¯

Are we allowed to guess the top 5, or is that bad form?

I can't remember whether or not I included it on my own ballot. If not, it's because I figured plenty of other people would. I actually really like the song...A LOT more twenty years ago than now, but it's still a sentimental favorite.

Def deserves to place over sbs imo. As with pride, edge really makes this one, but it's even cool to hear lil Bono finding his big voice.

If you like xp - but you have to get the order right.

I actually really like the song...A LOT more twenty years ago than now,

otm

Seems like the prototypical U2 song would be titled "All Day."

Remember the keyboard graphics on the video?

I'm going to get order wrong but my guess is:
Where The Streets Have No Name
WIth Or Without You
The Fly
Pride
Bad

I'm surprised that "The Unforgettable Fire" hasn't placed---it can't be a top 5, can it?

I mean I get why "Promenade" isn't gonna place, but I'd have thought that the The Unforgettable Fire would have more representatives here, as opposed to this poll ending up so Joshua Tree heavy.

Yeah, me too. The biggest surprise for me of the entire poll is Wire placing so high. That always felt like a filler track to me.

Pride is already listed, btw.

pretty interesting that "The Fly" is the only Achtung Baby single left...i know it has a bigger fanbase on ILM than it would in most other places, but still

There it is: Pride at 13. There goes my top 5 lol.

I knew Wire would place high. Cuz it owns

#1 will be "The Refugee"

"The Wanderer" in upset.

4th Of July

http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/6297/005withorwithoutyou.jpg

5 With Or Without You
612 points, twenty five votes, four first places, one most hated
The Joshua Tree (1987)

The song that rose the most in my estimation upon relistening to nearly the band's entire recorded works.

The live version from Paris in 1987 (on the live dvd) is stunning.

Can't argue with this song. It's a doozy.

Who "most hated" this song? Imma punch you face.

It ended up my #2 (in the ballot sense, not in the other sense).

this was my #1

my #1. it kind of surprised me to learn years later that "With Or Without You" was the Joshua Tree's lead single, maybe just because so many metal and alt-rock bands abided by the 'uptempo first single, ballad second single' rule.

twas my #1 too. in fact, it's my #1 ever by anyone. THE perfect pop song imo.

so basically "Streets" for #1 in the poll?

i'd be happy about that

It's no secret.

think "bad" could take it, maybe, but probably not

Of all the records in their catalogue, I think Joshua Tree has the widest range between best and worst songs. ("With or Without You" didn't make my ballot, but it nearly did.)

I'm wide awake....

What is the mystery song going to be? We still have The Fly, Streets and Bad to go. Hmmmmmmmm

I will chuckle if it's "Vertigo"

i think this was my #1 but isn't that more than 4 people to have claimed that already?

i most hated with or without u

streets, fly, still haven't found what i'm looking for

Rooting for "A Celebration"!

*stinkeye* xps

Holding out for surprise "stories for boys" showing.

If streets places ahead of bad I just

#1 is "Helter Skelter"

"Still Haven't Found..." was #31

Any chance that it could be the glorious Window In The Skies?

btw if the mystery song ends up being "Angel Of Harlem" I officially hate all of you

Don't you have to go back to being a mod for it to be official?

Freedom For My People still hasn't shown up, amirite?

I think I just need mod sign-off

Darragh, some dude, DJP and Johnny, you were the four #1s - if there're any disputes now, I don't wanna hear about them.

xxp: maybe a notary public

ok then no streets i guess

lol so much for my predictive abilities

Even if it came in #5, I'm in good company.

"Lemon" did more to change my perception of U2 than any other track. When I first heard it I just stared at the stereo gobsmacked.

― a 'catch-all', almost humorous, 'Jeez' quality (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Wednesday, August 10, 2011 11:27 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark

For me, the game changer was "Numb". "Lemon" seemed like a logical continuation of "Achtung Baby" at the time, but "Numb" sounded like a completely different band.

http://img856.imageshack.us/img856/9674/004theunforgettablefire.jpg

4 The Unforgettable Fire
616 points, twenty three votes, three first places
The Unforgettable Fire (1984)

i had to pick SOMETHING for most hated, so i went with the one where the video opens with a B&W shot of a ponytailed bono barechested with a leather vest and a single hoop earring, gazing pensively into the distance - feel very firm about my decision

Slight surprise!

seeing 60 dramatic pictures of u2 is making me hate them more than the music

What's dramatic about that photo? I mean, some of them yeah, but why did you pick right now to make a fuss?

The mystery is solved.

I'm thinking The Fly will be number one now.

Happy to see other people love Lemon and Stay they're still my two favourite songs they've done.

this poll is no longer a dry & waterless place

"The Unforgettable Fire" was my #1

I predict:

3.Streets
2.The Fly
1.Bad

it's not a fuss and that photo isn't dramatic. I just realized that seeing their faces erases most of the goodwill I had ficor the mus. xp

I love the sequencers and schlocky Trevor Horn-style synth stabs.

for the music

I always think The Unforgettable Fire is their most underrated hit from the 80's. It was a top ten hit but I never hear it on the radio like most of the others and they don't seem to play it live at all.

My #11, because I voted for "Promenade" also & thought that rating both super high wouldn't really represent my opinion of the band. But those songs don't come apart for me. Such beauty.

i had to pick SOMETHING for most hated, so i went with the one where the video opens with a B&W shot of a ponytailed bono barechested with a leather vest and a single hoop earring, gazing pensively into the distance - feel very firm about my decision

I can't argue with that logic at all.

yeah sometimes i wonder if i'd have enjoyed u2 a lot more if i'd been born blind

yeah i love WOWY but that's a classic post

cue shakey to say something about how it would have helped to have also been born deaf

Speaking of the WoWY video, there nipple in there right? I've always been pretty sure of it, but wanted to run it by you guys.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XmSdTa9kaiQ

Right around the 4:00 mark.

The Unforgettable Fire ascended to #1 midway through the tallying, which was a huge surprise to me. Then it hung on for a good while and only dipped at the very end when I'd started to believe it might take the whole thing

(NB I Will Follow is the one I screwed up and only noticed late on, so I think in actual fact those were #1 and #2 right up to the last few ballots)

SPOILERS!!!

Just now kinda getting into "The Fly"--thanks, guys!

Anyway

my wife had never heard "The Fly" (or at least never listened to it closely enough to think about or recognize it) until they played it 2nd at the show we saw last month, was her big discovery of the show that she's really into now

http://img24.imageshack.us/img24/9048/003bad.jpg

3 Bad
623 points, twenty five votes, four first places
The Unforgettable Fire (1984)

woah johnny fever found a nip slip in the WOWY video. WOWY ZOWY!

Perhaps my guess at the top 3 was inverted.

my #1 - the live version puts it over the top fuiud

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aPyhYczii8I

i like "Bad" a lot but i'm kinda surprised it's top 3, thought it was odd when people had it pegged for number 1

"Bad" is the U2 song I feel corniest about loving, but I love it. My #4.

woah johnny fever found a nip slip in the WOWY video. WOWY ZOWY!

I am going to be laughing about this all night

i don't even know if i've ever heard the studio version of "Bad" on the radio

ive never even heard Bad before

I'd like to salute the other three of you with exquisite taste in U2 songs. Bad is the closest they ever came to an old fashioned FM radio epic.

Does anyone rate the studio version of "Bad" over the live one?

if "The Fly" is #1 it would be kind of an apt symmetry with "When You Were Mine" topping the Prince poll (in terms of a 'minor' single in the artist's catalog of hits being more central to the ILM canon)

I think it's lost place relative to "One" re. U2 open-heart-impress-girls songs, but I bet it soundtracked a bunch of Say Anything moments over its time (& yeah I know it's supposedly about drugs).

xp re. "Bad"

OH okay now I remember "Bad"

yes that song owns

Throughout the 80s, Bad was their "big" song, the show stopper. I saw them last month and they didn't even play it. Bad indeed.

yeah maybe it'd be #1 if it was titled "wide awake" and had more name recognition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHnXOSxka1Q

a "moment"