Customer Reviews

Best of 1980-1990

5 star:		(127)
4 star:		(70)
3 star:		(30)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

I'd like to summarize the objections other people have to this compilation, while adding one of my own that (amazingly) no one else has mentioned yet. First of all, I have no problem with U2 cutting off this compilation at 1990 like others do; post-Achtung Baby U2 is a remarkably different band, and those songs would've sounded jarring here. Furthermore, there simply wouldn't have been enough room to include hits from Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and Pop along with the early stuff - the later period work deserves a compilation of its own.

What I completely object to is the foolishness of the track selection here and the length of the CD. Of the four songs from Rattle And Hum, only two ("Desire," "All I Want Is You") should have been here (although tastes will differ), while their early career is grossly neglected. One song from Boy, possibly their best album? No songs from October except a hidden track? (Have they disowned this album?) Only two from their big breakthrough War? Meanwhile, let me repeat: FOUR from Rattle And Hum? Among the MIA tracks (all of which are important milestones, not merely personal favorites) are "Out Of Control," "11 O'Clock Tick Tock," "Gloria," "Two Hearts Beat As One," (an ENORMOUS hit single, no less) and "A Sort Of Homecoming."

Unlike everyone else here, I don't mind the "edits" on this disc; they were the single edits, and that's why they're on this CD. What truly makes this an obscene ripoff is the fact that it's only 60 MINUTES LONG! Yes! They could've put up to 20 more minutes worth here, but simply decided not to. Why? All those songs I mentioned above? They WOULD HAVE FIT! There is absolutely no excuse whatsoever, in this age of 80 minute CD running times, for not filling this disc out completely. It's simply infuriating, and it almost makes me wonder if the record company is bilking us intentionally to make sure we still buy the individual albums.

What's more, the sequencing is problematic; if they're going to mix up songs and eras for dramatic effect, fine - I actually prefer that approach to most "greatest hits" discs because I like the idea of a compilation that's sequenced for flow - but if that was the idea, then why are all the Rattle And Hum tracks bunched together at the end?

In the end, this just wasn't thought out well, which is supremely disappointing, as it could have been a truly definitive compilation. As it is, the music is (mostly) marvelous, but you'll be left feeling strangely incomplete if you know what was left unsaid.

For the casual fan, this is a fairly good collection of U2 singles from the 1980s. If you would like to explore this era further, I recommend the following records (in order of priority): (1) 'The Joshua Tree' (1987); (2) 'Under a Blood Red Sky' (1983); (3) 'Rattle & Hum' (1988); (4) 'War' (1983); and (5) 'The Unforgettable Fire' (1984).

For the diehard fans, it should be noted that there are a few glaring omissions here (see "*" below), including no singles from 'October' (1981) (only the hidden track at the very end - "October"). Second, with this running order, the songs don't seem to fit together. That said, I would have included the following (in roughly chronological order, which sounds suprisingly coherent):
*1. "11 'O Clock Tick Tock" (4:30)
2. "I Will Follow" (3:31)
*3. "Gloria" (4:13)
4. "New Year's Day" (5:38)
*5. "Two Hearts Beat As One" (4:03)
6. "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (4:38)
7. "Pride (in the Name of Love)" (3:51)
8. "The Unforgettable Fire" (4:56)
9. "Bad" (5:50)
10. "With or Without You" (4:56)
11. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (4:37)
12. "Where the Streets Have No Name" (5:36)
*13. "In God's Country" (2:57)
14. "Desire" (2:58)
15. "Angel of Harlem" (3:31)
16. "When Love Comes to Town" (4:17)
17. "All I Want Is You" [Single Edit] (4:40)
18. "Sweetest Thing" [Single Mix] (3:03)

All of these songs would have fit on a single CD (clocking in at less than 78 minutes) and would have represented a more comprehensive and coherent compilation of the 1980s. Those tracks added would be gems like the pre-LP 1980 single "11 'O Clock Tick Tock" (which was included in the live set throughout the 1980s), "Gloria" (the best single from the 'October'), "Two Hearts Beat As One" (one of their best early pop songs from 'War'), and 'In God's Country' (a successful single from 'The Joshua Tree' and a nice segway into 'Rattle & Hum' material, which was so acutely inspired by American music).

This record has the essentials for the non-hardcore fan of U2 in the 1980s. The only singles that are truly missed are "Gloria" from 'October', "Two Hearts Beat As One" from 'War', and "In God's Country" from 'The Joshua Tree'; but for the sake of fitting everything on one CD, the choices of tunes in this collection are well-calculated. Also, a fan merely looking for a best of collection will probably not be phased by the fact that some of the songs appear here in an edited version ("New Years' Day" and "Where the Streets Have No Name") or that a superior live version of a track has been overlooked (compare the version of "Bad" on here with the version on 'Wide Awake in America').

For those who want to expand their 80s-era U2 collections beyond the "Best of", I recommend (in order of quality): (1) 'The Joshua Tree'; (2) 'War'; (3) 'Rattle & Hum'; and (4) 'The Unforgettable Fire'.

Well, first of all: to all those freaks whom think this sold out U2 2000 is "back to their roots", you must listen to this seriously. Is there any Bad, any With or Without You, any Sunday Bloody Sunday, any All I Want Is You in their 2000 commercials ?... do I have to say the word ?

Ok, let's go to the compilation. It's fairly good, really...but it lacks something: it's just 65 minutes long. So they could have put 2 more songs on it !!!.

Which songs could have been ?. A hard question, but I think they should have put Gloria ( because there's nothing from October here, except the hidden track after All I Want Is You ) and probably a Joshua Tree one as One Tree Hill, Running To Stand Still or In God's Country.

It's a good compilation anyway, far better than the spoiled "best of" 1990 - 2000.

If you're a casual fan, start with this one plus Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, Zooropa and Pop. Don't even listen to U2 2000, don't waste your time. Also don't buy The best of 1990 - 2000.

If you already have any of U2's CDs from the 80's, I wouldn't bother buying this. If you don't though, this is a pretty good place to start. I'd probably recommend just saving up your money and buying all their 80's CD's instead, since all of them are great. This best of CD doesn't completely fill the disc, has edited versions of "New Year's Day" and "Where The Streets Have No Name," and "When Love Comes To Town" isn't a very good song. The compilation isn't perfect or anything, but it still isn't too bad. I just gave it a 5 star rating because it turned me into a fan. After I listened to all of their songs off the albums, I ended up just making my own best of cd. This is what it looks like.

1. I Will Follow
2. A Day Without Me
3. Into The Heart
4. Gloria
5. October
6. Sunday Bloody Sunday
7. New Year's Day "edited version, so one more would fit"
8. Two Hearts Beat As One
9. A Sort of Homecoming
10. Pride
11. The Unforgettable Fire
12. Where The Streets Have No Name
13. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
14. With Or Without You
15. Red Hill Mining Town "This is probably the most underated song from The Joshua Tree, but it's the best one!"
16. Desire
17. Angel Of Harlem
18. All I Want Is You
19. The Sweetest Thing "single remix"

It fills the disc over 79 minutes and it gives a way better representation of the them! ...Oh yeah, I wouldn't bother buying U2's Best of 1990-2000. It's put together even worse. I'd just get Achtung Baby and download the song "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" instead.

There seems to be a lot of controversy over this one--I had no idea anyone could hate it. Personally, I liked it, but it may not be the best compilation--especially for die hard fans from the '80s. I think it was sadly missing "In God's Country" (it should've replaced "When Love Comes to Town"), which was truly one of my favorites, but the Joshua Tree songs seemed to be already dominating this album. By the way, to all you former U2-lovers who have become bitter and cynical: despite what you think, U2's magic lives on, Achtung was great (and even Pop wasn't bad), so stop trashing, and I'm sorry you hated Rattle and Hum so much. True it wasn't their best (especially not "When Love Comes to Town", which should not be on the best of, because it's not in the best in any way), but the live recordings of "Van Diemen's Land", "Angel of Harlem", and especially "Pride" were awesome. Get over yourselves and stop living in the past. One of U2's best assets is their ability to constantly re-invent themselves and change with the times (or set the times). Not all their songs are God's gift to rock (especially not the new stuff), but you need to cut some slack. All in all, this album is pretty damn good.

Rounding up U2's first decade here is the The Best Of 1980 - 1990 and this features all their memorable hits With Or Without You, Pride and other classics of the 80's. Every song here is worthy of its inclusion here but my thoughts are that why have such seminal tracks in their career been omitted such as Two Hearts Beat As One and Gloria which were both hit singles not just album tracks like Bad. I know this has to cater for the whole world and so some songs that were hits in one place and not another have been left out but would it not have been better filling the full 80 minutes of the CD or even adding a second disc to add even more great songs and just to here more of Bono's great voice. Despite some great songs being missing you can't fault what is actually on offer. Pride was that track that pretty much broke them worldwide and sounds as good today as it ever did. With Or Without You is just pure genius and will never go out of fashion as neither will any tracks here. I like Desire as it is just a great tune with good guitars and also Sunday Bloody Sunday which was how the band felt about Ireland's troubles and this is brought across really well in a quite amazing song. If i had to fault the CD i would say When Love Comes To Town doesn't quite live up to the hype and just isn't that good. This would be the only criticism to a great album and also the re-recording of Sweetest Thing is just brilliant. Long live Bono and U2 and all we can hope for is that they continue making quality music until the day they die.

Part of me can understand why some people hate U2 as passionately as they do. They were (and, if the success of the recent U23D is any indicator, remain) huge. I'll admit even I got burned out on hearing all of their hits a million times a day. And Bono does come off as a bit pompous (especially on Rattle and Hum, the first true failure of their career), though unlike (for example) Mick Jagger, who bought his seventh or eighth house a couple years ago, he does good stuff with his money. Unlike Mick, he puts it where his mouth is. Wait a sec... Mick does. Okay, this has the potential to come out really, really wrong. Never mind. Forget I said that. Back to square one.
But anyway, despite all that I still think U2 is a great band, even though I don't listen to their studio albums all that often, fantastic as War and The Unforgettable Fire and Boy and the Joshua Tree and All That You Can't Leave Behind are. I mean, if I feel like listening to U2 I can just turn on the radio and I'll hear ten of their songs in an hour. This is probably the U2 album I listen to most, because my cousin (cool guy, by the way) is a pretty big U2 fan, and whenever I see him (which is quite often, considering he now only lives twenty minutes away, as opposed to two hours as he used to, even though he had a sweet house back then), we ALWAYS play this and usually spin War or The Joshua Tree (my two favorites) as well. Good times.
But here's the point: If you just want a place to start your U2 collection, it doesn't really get much better than this. I would've liked "Gloria" (from their second album, October, which is decidedly hit-or-miss), but other than that it's got all their significant hits from the '80s, which were great. Oh yeah, I could complain about how "Anh Cat Dubh", "Shadows and Tall Trees", "I Fall Down", "With a Shout", "Seconds", "Two Hearts Beat as One", "Wire", "A Sort of Homecoming", "Running to Stand Still", "One Tree Hill", "Exit", "Hawkmoon 269" and so forth were left off, and there are too many edits. But it does contain the basics - "Where the Streets Have No Names", "Pride (In the Name of Love)", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Desire", "I Will Follow", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", "Bad" and all the others that have made them one of the most imitated bands in recent history. I think my favorite U2 track, contained here, is "New Year's Day", though I also really like "With or Without You".
U2 were great in the '80s, a time when nobody else really was (except for Prince, R.E.M. and Stevie Ray Vaughan, no other new artists really had much going for them). They've got a distinct sound, a solid rhythm section, and the Edge playing some fine guitar. And Bono. Love him or hate him, you have to admit he's been influential. Good band!

Although one could argue that this isn't a "Best Of" as much as it is a "Most Well Known" collection of U2's eighties work, as a fan, I couldn't help but pick it up if only for the remastered tracks and remade version of "Sweetest Thing", originally the b-side to "Where the Streets Have No Name" (if you can still find the version of this compilation with the b-side disc, it's definitely worth the inflated price). Most of their earlier work is neglected...Boy has one track present, October has none (sacrilege!), and War has two. I can understand the lack of their lesser known singles like "Fire" and "A Celebration," but the absence of "11 O'Clock Tick Tock," "Gloria," and "Two Hearts Beat As One" is downright blasphemous.

"The Unforgettable Fire" is well-represented, with not only the definitive U2 anthem "Pride" ringing in the album, but the title track and the live favorite "Bad," which is the only track on the collection that was not released as a single. The three obvious picks off "The Joshua Tree" are here as well, but are somewhat more skippable in this setting.

The track list is rather good, if you excuse that the four Rattle and Hum selections (and as much as I adore "Angel of Harlem" and "When Love Comes To Town," they're a bit unnecessary here) that were just thrown on the end of the disc. The entire section from "Bad" to "Sweetest Thing" works surprisingly well.

It's not a bad place to start if you're new to the band, although you may as well just pick up "The Joshua Tree" and "Achtung Baby," which are far more rewarding experiences. There is only one new track (the live versions of "Bad" and "Bullet the Blue Sky" that the Edge once said would make it didn't), so it's a little light, and the edited versions of "New Year's Day" and "Bad" are just plain annoying, but the track order makes it very listenable regardless.

First off, I love U2. I'm fifteen years old only but I think that they're the greatest rock band on the face of the earth. I've never been to a concert but it would be a dream of mine to see one someday. All of these songs are excellent. They have so much power and meaning to them, I can't even describe it. I could rock out to U2 all the time. This album is just way too hard for me to pick a favorite. Cuz I love all of them. I think "Bad" and "The Unforgettable Fire" are beautiful and the lyrics are so wonderful. "New Year's Day" and "Pride" is given a great performance by Bono's vocals. "With or Without You", "Where the Street's Have No Name", and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" are number one hits that I could listen to for hours on end. The whole album is just.....GOOD. I hope U2 stays around for a long time spreading good news through their faith and music. Cuz I'll always be around to listen.