{"id":47757,"date":"2015-09-21T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-09-21T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/let-me-in-the-sound\/"},"modified":"2026-07-04T11:39:04","modified_gmt":"2026-07-04T11:39:04","slug":"let-me-in-the-sound","status":"publish","type":"feature","link":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/features\/let-me-in-the-sound\/","title":{"rendered":"Let Me In The Sound"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/p>\n

I first learned of U2 through their 1980-1990 <\/i>hits collection shortly after it was released in 1998, when I was 15. I had heard their major songs on the radio prior to that, of course, but that disc really got me interested in the band, especially the fantastic \u201cSunday Bloody Sunday.\u201d It led to an exploration of the group\u2019s entire output, which converted me to a committed fan. Unlike casual fans, my favorite U2 songs are not the hits from that album, the ones that get played on the radio and at stadiums all the time, but the deep cuts and album tracks that really show the personality and range of this Irish post-punk stadium-rock band. It\u2019s the grand gestures and the showmanship that makes these guys so much fun, but it\u2019s the big heart, the depth of catalog, the longevity and the vulnerability that make them essential to your life, to my life. Below is a ranking of their 13 studio albums, from the 1980 debut up through the 2014 free download Songs of Innocence<\/i>. <\/p>\n

13. October<\/i> (1981)\"u2_october\"<\/b><\/p>\n

Without the immediacy of the debut and without the gravity of what would come shortly after, October <\/i>never really comes to life the way every other U2 album does. But a sophomore slump is fine, and this one still generates interest…just not enough.<\/p>\n

\"u2_boy\"12. Boy<\/i> (1980)<\/b><\/p>\n

A youthful album in spirit, sound, and lyrical content, but a fascinating debut record that has held up well over the years. \u201cI Will Follow\u201d remains a live staple for the band, and the dark \u201cAn Cat Dubh\u201d is a minor gem, with the balance of the record full of the raw, nervy energy and post-punk nature that characterized many albums of the era. It\u2019s not really a disc that you\u2019ll need to revisit that much the older you get, but it still has charms for when you do.<\/p>\n

11. All That You Can\u2019t Leave Behind<\/i> (2000)\"u2_allthat\"<\/b><\/p>\n

Massively hyped upon its release as a return to form (imagine!), this album suffered from overexposure, many Grammy wins, and lots of media coverage. Once that all faded, the end result was a rather dull adult contemporary album with only a few flashes of spirit (the soaring \u201cBeautiful Day,\u201d the hit \u201cElevation,\u201d the quirky \u201cIn A Little While\u201d). People were happy to not have another Pop <\/i>on their hands, I suppose, and a moody, anthemic band given to grand gestures worked perfectly following 9\/11, when we needed one like that. But without the spectacle and context, this is not a great album.<\/p>\n

\"u2_atomic\"10. How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb<\/i> (2004)<\/b><\/p>\n

Flawed but fascinating, an album that Bono has more or less dismissed,\u00a0Bomb\u00a0<\/i>is better than its predecessor. \u201cVertigo\u201d is as affecting a rock single as the band ever put out, \u201cSometimes You Can\u2019t Make It On Your Own\u201d is an effective, moving slow song, \u201cLove And Peace Or Else\u201d is far better than its title, and \u201cA Man And A Woman\u201d is one of the band\u2019s best album cuts ever, with Adam Clayton\u2019s bass taking the spot of lead instrument. The album trails off at the end, but so does every other U2 album.<\/p>\n

9. Zooropa<\/i> (1993)\"u2_zooropa\"<\/b><\/p>\n

The strangest U2 album ever released was supposed to be an EP, but ideas grew out of the sessions and yielded this effort. It\u2019s ironic, electronic, glammed-up pop different from any other U2 album save for Pop<\/i>, moving from the falsetto vocals of the slinky dance number \u201cLemon\u201d to the minimalist drone \u201cNumb\u201d to the alien weariness of \u201cDaddy\u2019s Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car\u201d to the downbeat ballad \u201cStay (Faraway, So Close).\u201d Then, to offset all of this, the band brought in Johnny Cash to sing over \u201cThe Wanderer,\u201d which is both a tribute to Cash\u2019s legacy and an effective song in its own right, with Bono providing keening wordless backup toward the end and The Edge chiming in with ringing country guitar licks. Really, this album has something for everyone. <\/p>\n

\"u2_rattle\"8. Rattle And Hum<\/i> (1988)<\/b><\/p>\n

A companion to The Joshua Tree<\/i>, this double album is sort of a mess, mixing live cuts from the tour with new studio tracks recorded during the tour and documented in the film. Had the live versions of existing songs been cut out and a few other unnecessary cuts trimmed, this could have been a great follow-up studio album, but the full version is bloated and not always necessary. The live take of \u201cBullet the Blue Sky\u201d is superior, though, while the studio songs \u201cDesire\u201d (a Grammy winner),\u201d the BB King duet \u201cWhen Love Comes to Town,\u201d the moving \u201cHeartland,\u201d the offhand Lennon swipe \u201cGod Pt. 2,\u201d and the closing \u201cAll I Want Is You\u201d are among the band\u2019s best work of the era, even as they signified that said era needed to come to a close.<\/p>\n

7. Achtung Baby<\/i> (1991)\"u2_achtung\"<\/b><\/p>\n

A lot of people will be surprised that this is so far down the list, as it routinely gets the highest grades available. But I never bought into it to the same level. Yes, it\u2019s a radical reinvention, and its best moments are truly sublime (\u201cOne,\u201d \u201cMysterious Ways,\u201d \u201cEven Better Than The Real Thing\u201d). The problem is that there aren\u2019t enough of those moments because there is a considerable amount of filler like \u201cLove Is Blindness,\u201d \u201cSo Cruel,\u201d \u201cWho\u2019s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses,\u201d and \u201cZoo Station.\u201d It\u2019s a crime that the B-side \u201cSalome\u201d didn\u2019t make the final album, as it would have been an improvement, but such is life. Honestly, these are all fine songs, but it\u2019s not up to the consistent levels of musical brilliance as the other albums farther up this list.<\/p>\n

\"u2_noline_150\"6. No Line On The Horizon<\/i> (2009)<\/b><\/p>\n

Holed up in Morocco, the quartet worked for a long time on this album and finally dropped it in 2009, to the expected hype and resulting lukewarm reviews. It has everything you expect from a U2 disc, from Serious Songs like \u201cCedars Of Lebanon\u201d and \u201cWhite As Snow\u201d to churning rockers \u201cBreathe\u201d and \u201cGet On Your Boots,\u201d as well as a soaring anthems (\u201cMagnificent\u201d), slight experimentation (\u201cFez – Being Born\u201d) to midtempo U2-by-numbers (\u201cStand-Up Comedy\u201d and the title song), but it is all done very well, with confidence and a yearning spirit that will never die. The album\u2019s best song, and Rolling Stone\u2019s warranted pick for best song of the year that year, was the stunning \u201cMoment Of Surrender,\u201d an absolutely moving, hymn-like number about those little moments in life when you feel overwhelmed or unsure of yourself and your decisions, and how even the smallest things can make you question everything. It\u2019s honest, moving and wonderful, equal parts anthemic and personal, the way the best U2 always has been.<\/p>\n

5. Songs Of Innocence<\/i> (2014)\"u2_innocence_150\"<\/b><\/p>\n

The infamous album given for free to all iTunes customers, the marketing ploy for Songs Of Innocence <\/i>is at considerable odds with the quality and subject matter of the music within. The songs all detail the band\u2019s life as youths in Ireland, touching on the discovery of music, the war-torn neighborhoods, parental relationships and the finding of a special place that means a lot to you. Bono scales the pretension, posturing, and subject matter way back here, focusing instead on the very personal, and after decades of saving the world the inward look is welcome. The lyrics are specific enough to matter to the band but not specific enough to apply to only them, meaning that anyone can step inside the narrator\u2019s shoes and feel the same. Perhaps \u201cThe Miracle\u201d wasn\u2019t a great choice for first single, but it\u2019s hardly offensive; far better is the middle part of the disc with \u201cRaised By Wolves,\u201d \u201cCedarwood Road,\u201d and \u201cVolcano,\u201d which also recall the sound of Boy <\/i>and that era of post-punk. <\/p>\n

\"u2_pop\"4. Pop<\/i> (1997)<\/b><\/p>\n

People love to hate this record, and I know not why. Sure, it has some garish clunkers like \u201cMiami\u201d and \u201cThe Playboy Mansion,\u201d but it has so many great songs that dismissing it is offensive. U2 was never better in this decade than on the driving, looping, kinetic, and highly personal \u201cMofo,\u201d which rampages through the speakers like a rhino on cocaine. \u201cLast Night On Earth\u201d and \u201cGone\u201d are great songs, written with club-savvy electronica in mind, perhaps, but still retaining the U2 spirit, while \u201cStaring At The Sun\u201d is a fine slower song and \u201cDo You Feel Loved\u201d has a dark atmosphere. Buried toward the end is \u201cPlease,\u201d one of the band\u2019s best songs in its melancholy, muted intensity, and call for world peace. <\/p>\n

3. War<\/i> (1983)\"u2_war\"<\/b><\/p>\n

On their third outing, U2 delivered a masterwork. \u201cSunday Bloody Sunday\u201d is their first and best anthem, its martial drums setting the stage for Bono\u2019s heartbroken, strident observations of war in his beloved home Ireland. \u201cNew Year\u2019s Day\u201d is almost as good, and the more human aspects of wartime are addressed in the marching \u201cSeconds\u201d and the more spacy \u201cSurrender.\u201d A love song, \u201cTwo Hearts Beat As One,\u201d breaks up the more serious matter, and then things close with a hopeful Bible message in \u201c40.\u201d A few missteps here and there, but overall a very good album.<\/p>\n

\"u2_joshua\"2. The Joshua Tree<\/i> (1987)<\/b><\/p>\n

A commercial juggernaut and the album forever linked to the band, for better or worse. \u201cWith Or Without You\u201d remains an effective love song still mysterious in its true intentions, \u201cWhere the Streets Have No Name\u201d is as bracing and anthemic an album opener as the band ever had and \u201cBullet The Blue Sky\u201d is very good, making effective use of a spoken-word outro of Bono\u2019s musings on life in America. The second half would of course never measure up to the hits on the first half, but it\u2019s still good, especially the dramatic throb of \u201cExit\u201d and the chiming \u201cIn God\u2019s Country.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/b><\/p>\n

1. <\/b>The Unforgettable Fire<\/i><\/b> (1984)\"u2_unforgettable\"<\/b> <\/p>\n

This is where the U2 \u201csound\u201d really started, thanks to Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois taking over as producers. It\u2019s also a mix of the band\u2019s best tendencies toward post-punk rock, drama and global or historical concerns, and it also marks the start of the band\u2019s fascination with America, which would come into play on Rattle And Hum<\/i>. The atmospherics of the title song make it a true classic, \u201cPride\u201d is of course a clarion calling card and \u201cBad\u201d is the most effective two-chord song of the decade, mixing personal emotion (it\u2019s an elegy for a friend) with anthemic strut, an appealing trait few bands have been able to copy except for Pearl Jam. \u201cA Sort Of Homecoming\u201d is a good opener, signaling the direction this new band would take, but \u201cWire\u201d is even better, a frenzied post-punker that is among the band\u2019s fastest songs (at least in the verses) and leads into a cool spoken outro, with Bono barking out his words to keep up with the band\u2019s racing pulse. Only \u201cElvis Presley And America\u201d stinks to high heaven, but it\u2019s buried near the end, with the closing \u201cMLK\u201d leaving on a hopeful note, much like \u201c40\u201d did on the previous disc. This album is U2 doing everything right but without the hype, self-importance, and media frenzy that would later follow, and it\u2019s their finest album.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

U2 Albums Ranked Worst to Best<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":45,"featured_media":49738,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"tags":[],"feature_type":[32],"class_list":["post-47757","feature","type-feature","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","feature_type-feature"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47757","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/feature"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/45"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature\/47757\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49738"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47757"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47757"},{"taxonomy":"feature_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/feature_type?post=47757"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}