Happy U2 Day!!!

I know I'm now three albums (plus Passengers) behind on my album reviews, but I'd like to take a moment and wish everyone a happy U2 day. I only worked a 1/2 day, since it should be a national holiday.

Everyone needs to go out right now and buy both versions of the disc, and here is why: Simple studio album, because it fits nicely on the shelf and it includes lyrics. Extended version because the DVD kicks a$$ and this version includes a book that it worth the price alone AS WELL AS the extra track "Fast Cars".

The biggest negative right now: No lyrics available for Fast Cars.

DOH!

U2 - Zooropa - Countdown Day VIII

"Don't Piss in the Drain"
For the first time in their careers, U2 put together back-to-back masterpieces with the release of Zooropa. Many people, even U2 faithful, dislike this album and to you I say, "pthtphtphtphtp!!!" This album had just one or two commercial hits with Numb (thanks to the video) and Stay, it's the bulk of the album that makes this album wonderful.

This album is a stylistic mess, there's no doubt about it, and their follow-up will follow suit. I guess I enjoyed this album inspite of the misdirection and Pop I don't like as much because I began to grow tired of the misdirection and began to yearn for the 80's again.

If the pending Atomic Bomb is said to be "The Edge's Album" then there is no denying that Zooropa belongs to Adam Clayton. The Bass takes over the album and is one unifying element of songs like Babyface, Daddy's gunna pay, Stay, Zooropa, Dirty Day and Lemon.

The boys seem to be channelling their inner Beck on this album more than once, which is probably why I love it so much. In fact, songs such as Babyface, Daddy's Gunna Pay... and especially the brilliant Some Days are Better Than Others could all easily be dropped onto Odelay or Mixed Bizness and noone would be the wiser.

The band doesn't fail to remind us why we love them with slow ballads such as The First Time and Dirty Day. The former sounds like a leftover from the Joshua Tree/Rattle & Hum days and while out of place and tossed in towards the end of this album, it is a beautiful song and one of my favorites.

Then they go and get Johnny Cash to close out the album on the fantastic collaboration "The Wanderer". While it serves now mostly as a novelty item, it's a pretty cool tune in and of itself.

Top songs to hold onto:
1. Some Days are Better Than Others
2. Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
3. The First Time
4. Babyface
5. Daddy's Gunna Pay for Your Crashed Car
6. The Wanderer
7. Numb
8. Dirty Day

Jerm's Take
Mark's Take

U2 - Achtung Baby - Countdown Day VII

"Have you come here to play Jesus/to the lepers in your head?"
The 90's have come and gone and few albums (my blog is named for one of them) from the decade will have as lasting an impact on music or on the band that created it as Achtung Baby. U2 created their third flawless album in 1991. Every song on this album is perfection, when taken as a part of the whole. The album ebbs and flows and is a truly complete package, almost a rock-opera in and of itself ala The Wall or Tommy. While some songs might not stand up if taken by themselves, as a cohesive unit, few albums have done what AB has. Four U2 albums occupy slots in my top-ten albums of all-time, and this is the fourth of them (JT, War, ATYCLB).

Any discussions of the album have to begin and end with, as Jerm said, the song that saved U2. The single greatest U2 song ever is "One". It is one of the five greatest rock and roll songs of all-time, period (another list, another time). It was this album, and more importantly this song that turned me from a U2 interested supporter to a U2 fan. I was 13 when this album came out and spending alot of time with my high-school leader Mark Ford. I had been around Joshua Tree since junior high, with all of our youth leaders being U2 fans. This was when my fandom truly became my own.

Among the songs that probably wouldn't hold up on their own without the album are Zoo station, SO cruel, acrobat and Ultra violet, although I love that song. Every other song is a masterpiece as U2 has gotten to the point where every member of the band plays a key role in every song. Whether or not it was so in studio, this album comes across as the most effortless to date, smooth and easy even amid a complete change in direction for the band.

Top songs to hold onto:
1. One
2. Mysterious Ways
3. Until the End of the World
4. The Fly
5. Love is Blindness
6. Who's gunna ride your wild horses
7. Tryin' to throw your arms around the world
8. Even better than the real thing
9. Ultra Violet

Jerm's Take

U2 - Rattle & Hum - Countdown Day VI

"Okay Edge, Play the Blues!!!!!"
It seems that every time I listen to Rattle & Hum, I feel differently about it. I truly love this album, a perfect mix of live songs and new studio tracks. U2 covering and paying tribute to the best of american music is a great thing. And as a rather gigantic Bob Dylan fan, I love three songs on the album simply for the collaboration. The highlights above any other for me on the alubm are the live version of Bullet the Blue Sky and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. I said in the JT review that I love that song because of the 'worshipfulness' of it, and here with the Gospel Choir, it is just perfect (I love gospel music. My mom and I were two of the only white people at a Kirk Franklin concert in the Universal Amp a number of years back, it was awesome).

I also really like Hawkmoon. Can you imagine being Bono, working with a legend like Dylan and saying, "I don't like that one, let's do it for the 269th time". That's guts. Really, the only songs I don't care for are Heartland and Freedom for my People, which doesn't really count anyway. And although I like All Along the Watchtower for the novelty of U2 covering Hendrix covering Dylan, it seems really messy and thrown together. I've actually always perfered both the Hendrix cover and ::gasp:: the Guns & Roses cover.

I don't have too much to say about the album, I guess. You really have to read Jerm's take. I've read everything (I thought) on all of these albums, and I still learned some new stuff!

Songs to hold on to:
1. All I Want is You
2. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
3. Desire
4. Hawkmoon 269
5. Helter Skelter
6. When Love Comes to Town
7. Angel of Harlem
8. Love Rescue Me
9. Van Diemen's Land
10. All Along the Watchtower

U2 - The Joshua Tree - Countdown Day V

You ever notice how Bono sort of looks like an Easter Island Statue on this cover? Anyway...Today was a great day. I got to wake up, jump in the car, sit in an hour of traffic, and blast The Joshua Tree. Although my wife was happy, I've been getting alot of flack for putting ATYCLB ahead of JT on my all-time list. So, I'm using this as a way to reevaluate where I think everything goes. I'm a list-geek, so this is very important!

The first thing that kicks you in the rear is the beautiful introduction on Where the Streets Have No Name. In a way unlike their four previous studio efforts, all four members of the band gel to perfection. One single song with the best of Adam's bass, Edge's guitar, Larry's epic driving percussion and Bono's voice. FINALLY, Bono can truly sing. He has a voice of power, conviction and subtle beauty.

The perfection continues through I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For. Amazing tune. Then, the "Holy Trinity" is completed by "With or Without You". Who new that a slow ballad would become one of the best and most well known U2 songs.

The amazing part about the album is that it doesn't stop there. For the next six tracks, U2 prove that they are at the top of their game, and that they deserve the impending Grammy Award for this album.

Every song on the album is sheer brilliance for multiple reasons. Bullet the Blue Sky almost sounds weak as a studio track, but it was a moving and advancing song for the band. It is one of the best live songs ever and it almost seems tame here. But still brilliant. Bono+Harmonica= FREAKING AWESOME. I just wish he would bust it out in concert still. Running to Stand Still is one of my favorites (top 15 or so).

This album is all about Americana and you can see glaring evidence of some of America's best on the album. The harmonica alone, and songs like Red Hill Mining Town are a tribute to folk greats such as Dylan and Guthrie.

I love In God's Country. This album has the first of what I call "Alternative Worship Songs" from the band, including this and I Still Haven't Found...Seeing the band on the Elevation Tour was a moving, worshipful experience. Amazing how a rock band can help you get closer to God than anything else. If this is the "John the Baptist" of all guitar solo's, than I must refer to the "Moses" of all guitar solos in Comfortably Numb (David Gilmore, Pink Floyd). The IS one of the Edge's crowning acheivements.

After much searching and considering, I asked myself the simple question: Which ONE U2 album could I not live without. The answer is: "If I can't have both JT and ATYCLB, then just kill me." These records are now tied upon the top of my list as the #1 albums of all-time and of the U2 catalog.

Top songs to hold on to:
1. With or Without You
2. Where the Streets Have No Name
3. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
4. Bullet the Blue Sky
5. In God's Country
6. Running To Stand Still
7. One Tree Hill
8. Red Hill Mining Town

Jerm's Exhaustive Look

U2 - The Unforgettable Fire - Countdown Day IV

I'm a day behind and I plan to catch up tommorow with both Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum. For now, I focus on the task at hand, and the album at hand, which I like to call "The Forgettable Backfire". This album, to me, is pure drudgery, salvaged from the bottom of the U2 heap by the strength of one song, which is one of the five greatest U2 songs of all-time (another list, another time). That song, of course, is Pride (In the Name of Love). It's amazing how terrible 80% of the album is. After the high that was War and the band starting to become an international rock warrior, this album was far from a quality follow up.

I find it amazing that this was the first album to be produced/engineered by the team of Lanois/Eno which have been a seminal part of U2 and therefore Rock & Roll history. When you start the album, you are hit with "A Sort of Homecoming" and you begin to think, "eh, whatever. I hope the whole album isn't like this" and then BAM! You're smacked straight in the face on track to by Pride. Bono strutting his stuff more than ever before, beginning to use the "ohs" and "ahs" to bridge segments of lyrics which has become one of his signatures. Bono's voice still isn't what it has become with age, but on a song like this he shows his power.

Excited about the second track, you're hoping for a turnaround and a strong continuation. Unfortunately, you're hit with whatever it is that follows, and whatever follows after that. Granted, if I were "reading" this album, I would rank it much higher, up amongst the greatest song writing of the last quarter of the 20th century. However, while this is music and I am "listening" to it, by the fifth song I have been lulled in to a melancholy state of indifference. Then "Fourth of July" its and I am hypnotized into a deep sleep. All I can hear is the beautiful bass line.

"Bad" comes on and brings me back to life. "Ok, good, the band still rocks". A catchy classic. A great song from The Edge. Bono sings with passion and beauty. He's turning into a rather fine singer. I wait around and find a heart breaking closer "MLK" which,upon further review, I would want played at my own funeral, along with "Kite" off of ATYCLB.

Looking back, it might be better that a weak album came out before The Joshua Tree, making the impact of THE single greatest album of the rock & roll to that point even stronger. But had I been a U2 fan at the time (I was only six!), I would have probably been disappointed.

Top songs to hold on to:
1. Pride (In the Name of Love)
2. Bad
3. MLK

Jerm's Take

U2 - War - Countdown Day III

After a dissapointing second album, U2 was in need of a big lift in their third studio effort in order to have any hope to remain a relevant band. They did. They did, indeed. It is so evident that the band truly began to embrace the commercial nature of the business by this album, pumping out more than one or two viable radio singles. In addition, the band was beginning to garner a larger following. Bono was able to get away with a more spiritual nature on his last album and wanted to push the envelope with a politically charged album.

The band truly became rock stars with the emergence of Sunday Bloody Sunday and New Years Day, but it was the bulk of the album that allowed the band to shine musically and become more than just pretty boys. This is one of my top-ten or so favorite albums of all-time and currently ranks third in the annals of U2 history for me (listening it in the past 24 hours has helped push it back ahead of Achtung Baby).

Top songs to hold on to:
1. Sunday Bloody Sunday
2. New Year's Day
3. "40"
4. Two Hearts Beat as One
5. Drowning Man
6. Refugee

I'm having a terribly stressful day and can't get the creative juices flowing for a "U2 101" segment. Oh well.

Jerm's Take

U2 - October - Countdown Day II

Today's album was played in the car, on the way to and from Sea World with the family. I never cared much for the album before, and I still don't. It's so interesting to me to hear how much Bono's vocals have improved in the last 25 years. That's the glaring view I have of October. Poor singing. Not poor, per se, just not Bono. The few touches of brilliance have been neglected by time. Gloria coulda/shoulda been on the Best of 80-90. October is a beautiful song. If it were just a little longer, it might be among my absolute favorites. This time around I also enjoyed Rejoice. This album is one of the first times that faith was overlty and unabashedly at the forefront, in these songs and others. It's almost like Bono was beginning to put his feet in the water commercially, to see what he could "get away with" spiritually.

Another aspect of this album is the strenth of the bass. Adam's melodies just whet the appetite for his amazing songs to come, and he carries most of the albums on his shoulders. Most glaringly to me is Scarlet, with a sublime, beautiful, understated baseline that will become one of the signatures of this band.

This is my least favorite U2 album and if it was from any other band, I most likely wouldn't have anything to do with it. It's a time-piece. A relic. A piece of history. It was also a step backwards for the boys from Dublin.

Top songs to hold on to:
1. October
2. Gloria

When I get to one day teach "U2 101":
Extra Credit text, not required.

Homework assignment: In a two-page essay, discuss the relationship between the Shalom religious group and the bands struggles in creating this album. Where do you see these struggles coming out in the music. Outside sources a must.

Jerm's Take

U2 - BOY - Countdown Day I

Tonight my wife is out with the girls celebrating her birthday watching Bridget Jones, the kids are asleep and I'm finally listening to the first album, while playing Party Poker. Later I will be watching one of my favorite shark movies, Deep Blue Sea, and going to bed.

Listening to this album is pretty interesting. The quality is poor, since it's an analog master, transposed (or whatever you call it) onto a CD. As jerm so eloquently puts it today, this album shows a ton of signs of what is to come. A few songs could easily be dropped into other albums and no one would be the wiser. One of the differences between these earliest albums and the last five or so, is the bands relationship with celebrity and the commercial side of the business, and the ability to put together a CD chock full of viable singles. Boy has numerous songs that I would classify as "boring", that seem to blend together and not grab you by the throat and make you pay attention.

In addition to the studio album, today I listened to the B-sides from both "Sweetest Thing" singles, which included live versions of Stories for Boys and Out of Control (Boston, March 6th 1981) as well as Twilight and An Cat Dubh (Red Rocks, June 5th 1983). This live version of Stories, and it could just be the mix, gives incredible life to Larry's work on the drums. An Cat Dubh has this "Biola Band" feel to it. I think what I feel is the influence of the band on Kenny Reuter, the guitarist for Plain Jane and Mars Hill (and Soul Kilter, of course).

Top songs to hold on to:

1. I Will Follow
2. Out of Control (I also think it should have been on the 1980-1990 best of)
3. Stories for Boys
4. An Cat Dubh
5. Twilight

When I get to one day teach U2 101:
Required text, simply because it's the first.

Homework assignment: 3-page essay on one of the following topics

• For each member of the band, discuss how you can see shades of Boy in future U2 albums.
• Discuss the relationship of U2 and the late-70's punk scene and how it influenced them at the time.

Countdown to the Atomic Bomb

Beginning today, A group of us are doing a U2 tribute, listening to every studio album, plus the Passengers soundtrack, in order, leading up to the release of their 11th studio album, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

I'm doing a choose-your-own adventure style tribute. Due to the luxuries that over two hours of commuting allow me each day, I will also be listening to my assorted singles, b-sides and rarities that I have collected through the years, either on E-bay or in small record stores.

If you want full on reviews of each album as we are going, visit Jerm's Place. He's got a much better grip on all of this than I do.

U2 - Album Rankings List

Starting on Saturday, I will begin going through the U2 Catalog, one album at a time, in anticipation of the release of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb on November 23rd. After a fresh listen to the albums I don't hear very often (October, Boy, Pop), I'll update this list with any changes. It's funny how the lowest ranking albums on this list are still better than 85% of my entire CD collection!

Chris isn't waiting for the official release of HTDAB and has already reviewed it here.

10. October
9. Boy
8. The Unforgettable Fire
7. Pop
6. Rattle & Hum
5. Zooropa
4. War
3. Achtung Baby
2. The Joshua Tree
1. All That You Can't Leave Behind

Interestingly enough, 1 and 2 are my top-two albums of all time overall (another list, another time)

DEATH POOL V

Death Pool V will be starting up on November 15th. Entry fee is $5.00. To join the fun, paypal your money to nick.askew@cui.edu. Remember that you have to set up your paypal account to transfer directly from a checking account, or else I get charged to take the money.

DEATH POOL IV

In what might be the shortest death pool ever, Mrs. Leslie Hutchins took Yassir Arafat with the first overall pick and won with his untimely demise in just five days.

Here's the run down of who got what, in order of the draft

LESLIE HUTCHINS

• Yassir Arafat
• Red Buttons
• Mickey Rooney

PAUL HUTCHINS

• Kirk Douglas
• Gloria Stuart (from Titanic)
• Gordon Hinkley

NICK ASKEW

• William Rehnquist
• Lady Bird Johnson
• Rosa Parks

BRAD HUTCHINS

• Al "Grandpa" Lewis (the Munsters)
• Tammy Faye Messner
• Gerald Ford

GINGER ASKEW

• Pope John Paul II
• Joey Bishop (of the Rat Pack)
• Gene Wilder

JOSH BANKER

• John Wooden
• Jerry Lewis
• Billy Graham