The Joshua Tree is a great album. However, colored-glasses era U2 is surely gay.

Achtung was the last good overall album.  After that they became a parody of themselves.  They're just trying to recapture the success of that album and fall short over and over.

Newer album?  When was that?   1990???

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004) is pretty good. Their last album No Line on the Horizon just didn't do anything for me. Pop (1996) was a let down, too. Other than those two albums, I like pretty much everything they've put out.

Screw the haters.

 

I also think a lot of folks hate U2 mainly because of Bono. Do I think the man is a idiot? Yeah I really do but I like the bands music.....well most of it. The mid to late 80's really seems like the time to have seen em.

Playing flashy leads and riffs does not make you a great guitarist, it only means you're great at that type. Reading tabs is lazy, notation is the way to go, but being able to do that doesn't make you great, and not being able to doesn't make you suck.

The better leads and riffs are not written as notation first anyway, it is generated on the spot from within. For that, you need to know your instrument, not how to read dots on a paper. They show no real emotion though they try, it is the musician that puts the emotion into the music that is written.


Everyone gets caught up in the flashy leads, riffs and that sort of thing, and while that is good, there is another, more difficult to master type of playing, and that is creating textures and ryhthms . That is what Edge is good at. He actually came up with a couple of very inventive palm muting and muffling techniques that along with his early pioneering of the combination of several types of effects ( certain timing and duration of reverb and delay is one ) allow him to have a wall of sound. If you hear it live, it sounds more like several guitars than one. He wasn't the only one to do this, but his way was unique, and you can tell it's him no matter what.

Great lead players and great cover / copier players are a dime a dozen. Creative and inventive guitarists are rare. He is one of them.

U2 = SELLOUTS

To the point as to why they suck now.

People as they age tend to become less involved in boundary pushing, less innovative. They tend to like to stick with what has been working, become comfortable in what they're doing. That goes with all things. The old saying, stuck in their ways, too old to change etc, are well known for a reason.

It happens in all sorts of things. Sports, coaches that were once the scourge of the field, responsible for new plays, new looks , new schemes , begin to get less innovative. Same with business men.

Musicians get that way as well, but when you're in one band for the most part, all of the members fall back on their old tricks and old grooves. One other thing, is they are being pushed to create or lose their gig. Early on bands are scrambling to stay employed, and will try all sorts of new things in order to keep their deal.

Another thing with bands, is that early on you have a lot of material that was written many times individually by the members before they were involved in that band, and the first album or two draws from so much material, and so many different views, that the band is still sort of finding their sound. Once that sound has gelled, and they are a hit, they have to continue to keep some of that for their fans, and expand into new territory as well.

Another thing is musical influences. You grow up with certain people you like, and while you don't intend to actually copy anyone, your style of writing and playing is made up of your own personality, combined with a little of each of them. Once you become famous, and influential, your original sound gets to be "normal" to the public ear, while new artists that you've influenced have that same new energy and fusion of styles, including yours, that creates excitement, but puts you on the back burner.

There are a lot of things that go into a great band becoming mediocre sounding. Those are some of them, but sometimes, it's just the fact that when you were young, and they were fresh, it was a new thing, groundbreaking, and exciting, but after so much time and having listened to so many other new sounds, your ears, your emotions, and where you are in life just don't match up with them anymore.

The great bands though, the great songs, take you back to where you were when you first heard it, and give you that feeling all over again.

U2 does that, with their first few offerings. When I listen to their new stuff, it's ok, but when I listen to their old stuff, especially War, and Boy, and some of Joshua Tree, my mind and my heart go right back to that place again. That's all I can ask of it.

War, Joshua Tree & Achtung Baby were their only decent albums as far as I'm concerned.

I will see you a sucky U2 and raise you 'what the fuck happened to music' period.

Not sucked but not one of the best either, a 6.5 on my scale at best.

His guitar work in the song "Wire" isnt bad

Because they decided to stop being punk, then decided to stop being rock, and decided to be "pop"

Though to be honest, U2's suck is better than most bands' good.

Now?

U2 sucks pretty hard. Like on a scale of 1-10, they're an 18. 18 as in the inch size of cock Bono likes in his mouth while sitting on a plunger.

That song "Beautiful Day" is the reason kids these days bury puppies up to their necks and run over them with a mower. I don't know why, but that song makes me rage angry.

Because they sucked so much back then.

Their 80's albums were a huge part of my life from '82 to '89.  Yeah they were liberal but they were young, idealistic and you could tell that they BELIEVED in what they were singing about.  After Unforgettable Fire it seemed like they were writing and playing formulaic  songs in order to sell albums.  "Hey, our album needs at least three songs about social issues and at least one about feeling disconnected and aloof."  It's for the starvin' children, Peter!

Fixed.  Fuck U2

They still hit one once in a while, I thought this was awesome, and a great video too



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo-NskE3M2A

 

I disagree with the "U2 Sucks" mantra.   I lost all interest in U2 after they released Achtung Baby.  I was a U2 October fan and they had lost me.
However, recently I have been cherry picking songs from different albums after Achtung Baby and have developed a playlist of songs that have grown on me.
Zooropa:



Numb



Lemon



Stay (Faraway, So Close!)



The Wanderer (with Johnny Cash)
Pop:



Staring at the Sun



Last Night on Earth
All That You Can't Leave Behind:



Beautiful Day



Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of



Elevation



Kite



In A Little While



Wild Honey
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb:



Vertigo



Miracle Drug



Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own



Love And Peace Or Else



City Of Blinding Lights



All Because Of You



A Man and A Woman



Crumbs From Your Table



One Step Closer



Original Of The Species



Yahweh
No Line on the Horizon:



No Line on the Horizon



Magnificent
Misc Songs:



Electrical Storm
------------



As you can probably tell, their "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" album is the best they've had since Achtung Baby, IMO.  I was like a lot of people and gave up on them, but as they went through the 2000's, I feel they went back to their roots of Christian based music, with meaning to the lyrics.  That makes for some damn good songs and has brought me back as a listener.
Eric  

 

They always did, OP. All their music sounds the same to me.

Damn, I guess i'm almost all alone. I'm not a huge U2 fan, but I do enjoy their music.

U2 blows.  Always have.

Ditto.

 

What I came in to post.

Let's put it this way...

Whenever I accidentally hear U2, I have to go have Hendrix therapy immediately. Minimum of 30 minutes, starting with Red House.

This prevents The Ghey from infecting me.

You don't want to catch The Ghey...next thing you know you'll be arguing over which Jackson was the best after Micheal.

I remember seeing them two times in 2001 and one time in 2005. Both of the two shows in 2001 were a few months after 9/11 and their set lists changed a lot. They started to bring back a lot of songs they hadn't played in a long time (A lot of that was due to fans getting pulled up on stage to play guitar. Those shows had a basic stage and you could really enjoy it. In 2005 I saw them at the American Airlines Center and honestly I was really let down by the show.....Bono's political conscience derp was in full swing. They really are shadows of what they once were......Even songs like Sunday Bloody Sunday sound forced now when they are played live.








 

They were never that good to begin with.

I don't think the band changed.  I think you changed.  As you experience more music, their simplistic, unoriginal songs become less bearable.  It's the same reason children enjoy someone like Justin Bieber's music.  You probably still enjoy their older stuff because it reminds you of how you felt when you were younger.  I worked security on at a few locations for their Zoo TV tour, and their music was crap then.  Bono put more effort into his different on-stage personas than he did into the vocals.  Of course, technically-speaking that tour was spectacular.z

Welp at least you still have Billy Squier...




















...!

I agree with all of this.

This, though I think I saw them in 1987. The talk about the three cords that could "change the world" told me all I needed to know about Bono's ego.