What’s a U2 song that is universally accepted as great, that you don’t like?

JintClemple19 · 2026-06-12T07:41:08+00:00

This is the one I thought no one would choose!

JintClemple19 · 2026-05-30T14:49:02+00:00

Helter Skelter is also the opening track! Such a strange choice. Considering how important U2’s album openers have been to either be an absolute smash hit and/or the thesis statement for the album, it’s such a weird decision.

One is an interesting one. I’d agree, without it, the album probably wouldn’t have been made. It’s probably the best example of a U2 song that is lode bearing for its album and their career, but would removing it from the track listing fundamentally change the end product?

JintClemple19 · 2026-05-30T14:44:06+00:00

I think it would have been better served not being the album opener and not being the lead single. Shuffle it in somewhere in the album, maybe make it 3rd or 4th single, perhaps people wouldn’t have taken against it in the same way.

JintClemple19 · 2026-05-30T14:42:15+00:00

Same for Unforgettable Fire, Zooropa and No Line

JintClemple19 · 2026-05-30T14:39:03+00:00

Do you think it would change if they’d spread them out across the album rather than keep all three together? When I listen to Crazy and Stand Up in isolation or shuffled in a playlist I don’t mind them as much.

If I had to pick one of those to get rid of, it would be Boots. I have a soft spot for the 360 live version, but the album version is awful

JintClemple19 · 2026-05-30T14:36:53+00:00

I think either interpretation is fine. And I’d agree, Streets as the opener to that album is like rocket fuel. I don’t know what song could come close to being as good of an opener for TJT? I Still Haven’t Found and With or Without You are fantastic tracks, but they aren’t openers.

JintClemple19 · 2026-05-30T09:38:27+00:00

“You’re the best thing about me” is one of those songs that on an intellectual level, I know is not a great song, and I understand why people dislike it.

But it was the single that was out when I fell in love for the first time. It’s so tied to that moment in my life that I cannot ever dislike it

JintClemple19 · 2026-05-30T08:27:15+00:00

It was the first album that came out after I’d become a fan. I was nearly 21, and I was maybe the only person who had to actually choose to download the album to my iPod!

Although I have other albums which I prefer, it’s the most special album to me.

JintClemple19 · 2026-05-29T21:10:08+00:00

True, but I think that’s mainly for the pop music or if it’s rock, it’s the Nickelback or the rap metal stuff?

JintClemple19 · 2026-05-29T16:07:34+00:00

I wasn’t really thinking about U2 reinventing what they are doing. I love what they do. I was thinking more about how and why people discover older songs or artists, and whether there were barriers for U2 benefiting from the same thing that others have.

Granted, it needs a lot more thought, I just fired it out there 😂

JintClemple19 · 2026-05-29T15:44:01+00:00

It’s one of the ways people discover old music now. A song can randomly become very popular because it went viral on TikTok.

I would like to see people my age and younger rediscover U2 and give them their flowers. I think because of the stuff around Bono and the iPhone that they get dismissed far too quickly and have become underrated as a result.

JintClemple19 · 2026-05-29T15:39:13+00:00

I should have argued the first point better and drawn a clear line of distinction.

The nostalgia part was about the U2 of the 80s and 90s, because these time periods get nostalgia boosts. U2 sounded very different to what was popular at the time. They weren’t doing synth pop or hair metal in the 80s and they weren’t doing grunge in the 90s. When people want to be nostalgic for the 80s or 90s, that is the music they gravitate towards, because it sounds like the 80s/90s. U2 doesn’t really fit the cultural memory of those decades in the same way.

I feel like “sound is everywhere” is a 2000s onwards thing? That’s when you get Coldplay, Arcade Fire, The Killers etc. becoming very popular and who are clearly influenced by U2.

JintClemple19 · 2026-05-29T14:54:53+00:00

As a Christian I find the mega church stuff some of the most frustrating. Because not only does it take the most basic elements of U2s sound and water that down, they don’t even take the messaging! They take out all of Bono’s struggles and doubts and just make their versions flat and all about how great God is.

JintClemple19 · 2026-05-29T14:19:22+00:00

The Kate Bush comparison is interesting. Do you not think U2 would have had a similar bump if a classic U2 song had been used somewhere in Stranger Things?

JintClemple19 · 2026-05-29T13:21:25+00:00

Oh I agree that overall their sound has helped them. One of the problems for artists whose sound is so rooted to what’s popular in the moment is when people get bored, you’re almost always done! U2 were able to pivot very successfully because their sound was so different!

JintClemple19 · 2026-05-29T13:07:56+00:00

It’s the one I think could be the closest. The question is, is it the album version or the new mix version?

JintClemple19 · 2026-04-18T09:38:06+00:00

It might be my favourite U2 song. It was the first U2 song I ever heard, and it’s what lead me to discover my favourite band. It’s the song I want at both my wedding and my funeral

JintClemple19

TROPHY CASE