Customer Reviews

U2 - The Best of 1990-2000

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(26)
3 star:		(29)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(14)

 

 

U2's 1990s "Best Of" album is a rather strange collection. The band recorded only four studio albums during that time, all of which ardent U2 fans most likely already own. So this disc is for casual fans who want only the highlights, right? Well, not exactly. 1991's "Ach-tung Baby" gets the most conventional treatment--the four selections from it ("Even Better than the Real Thing," "Mysterious Ways," "One" and "Until the End of the World") are all the original versions. Likewise, the band's most recent studio album, "All That You Can't Leave Behind" is grossly underepresnted with only two selections ("Beautiful Day" and "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of") that are also original versions.

It is the rest of the material where things really get strange. The three songs from the album "Pop" are all remixes, probably in acknowledgement that it was U2's least successful album. Likewise, the "Zooropa" cut "Numb" gets a similar realtering, but one that serves it very well. Otherwise that album is also underrepresented. Of the non-studio album tracks, "The Hands That Built America" from the "Gangs of New York" soundtrack is a ho-hum ballad (like the movie), while the two other new songs included add little to the band's legacy. The CD booklet, however, is quite cool--lots of photographs of the band looking pretty slick for a bunch of forty-somethings.

Overall, "The Best of...1990-2000" contains a lot of outstanding music, but is nevertheless a terribly confused anthology.

I would give this CD five stars if it contained U2's best songs of the 90's. But it doesn't!

Where is "The Fly" - the first single off Achtung Baby? Where is the single or album version of "Lemon" - the most popular song on Zooropa? What about Pop's most important song - "Mofo"? What about the single - "Please"?

Why is "Beautiful Day" and "Stuck in a Moment..." on this basically 90's CD? Shouldn't they really begin the next Best Of version: 2000 - 2010?

If I wasn't a fan I would be extremely unimpressed with some of the remixes, especially "Staring at the Sun". I would like to have the album-versions of these songs that I remembered and liked at the time.

I still bought this CD because I am a U2 fan, and I guess if you're not a U2 'fan' than you would buy this CD before you bought any other U2 album anyway - as most people that build up a collection of CD's usually start with the greatest hits CD's.

This CD does provide for the general music fan, but as a U2 fan I'm a little disappointed.

"Incomplete" is the word that comes to my mind when I look at the tracklisting for "The Best of 1990-2000," U2's retrospective of the band's second decade of music. First off, "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" was not released until 2001, so trade that track for "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses," and the compilation seems better already. The songs representing Achtung Baby are strong ones, though an argument in favor of "The Fly" being included can be made. "Hold Me..." was a great track to put on the CD because it was overshadowed by Seal's big hit from the Batman Forever Soundtrack. The middle two albums of the 90's, Zooropa and Pop, did produce some hits, though "If God Will Send His Angels" is the only song I can recall at my young age. I found a quote that said the Edge did not want the compilation to be weighted toward All That You Can't Leave Behind, so only two songs were included. "Beautiful Day" would have been just fine on its own, and save the other three hits for the Best of 2000-2010. In my opinion, if you want a true taste of U2 in the 90's, I recommend listening to the individual albums.

From my estimation, there seems to be 5 kinds of U2 fans:
1. Those who think they went downhill after War
2. Those who think they went downhill after The Joshua Tree
3. Those who think they went downhill after Achtung Baby
4. Those who think they went downhill after Pop
5. Those who think U2 have been consistently good from beginning to present.

If you're apart of groups 1 & 2, don't get this record.

'90-'00 covers albums Achtung Baby, Zooropa, Pop, apart of All That You Can't Leave Behind, some soundtrack songs, and one new song.

Achtung Baby-all of the usual suspects are here except The Fly; but that song isn't really good anyway, so I'm glad they left it off.

Zooropa-Where's Lemon? Numb is remixed but the original is better.

Pop-All of its songs have been remixed and the remixes are actually better, but I listen to the originals as well.

All That You Can't Leave Behind-first 2 singles are represented, Beautiful Day and Stuck in a Moment...Personally, I think they're pushing it by putting these songs on this album. They should have all been saved for the 2000-2010 collection (that's if they make enough music to get a third collection.)

The song Miss Sarajevo is from another album called Passengers.

Hold Me...and Hands That Built America are songs from soundtracks.

Electrical Storm is a new song.

This is a dreadful compilation. This is not a 'Best Of'. I don't even need to talk about those shameful 'new mixes'. They just destroyed 3 songs of Pop and 1 song of Zooropa. As a R.E.M fan pointed out about R.E.M's 'In time: Best of': "And how did those new songs merit "great" status, anyway? I bought this CD in order to listen to songs that have already proved their weight, not to listen to anything new".

The truth is both 'Electrical Storm' and 'The Hands That Built America' were another hit and miss stuff of the worst U2 decade ever.

I just want to see out there their long-time rumored 'The Rest Of The Best'. My suggestions:

CD1: 1- Out Of Control, 2- The Electric Co, 3- Gloria, 4- I Threw a Brick Through a Window, 5- A Celebration, 6- Seconds, 7- Two Hearts Beat As One, 8- '40', 9- A Sort Of Homecoming, 10- MLK, 11- Bullet The Blue Sky, 12- Running To Stand Still, 13- In God's Country, 14- One Tree Hill, 15- God Part II, 16- Heartland

CD2: 1- Zoo Station, 2- The Fly, 3- Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses, 4- Acrobat, 5- Love Is Blindness, 6- Zooropa, 7- Numb (ORIGINAL), 8- Lemon, 9- Discothèque (ORIGINAL), 10- Staring at the Sun (ORIGINAL), 11- Last Night on Earth (Single), 12- Mofo, 13- Please (Single), 14- Elevation, 15- Kite, 16- Walk On.

It's in your hands U2!.

The second U2 "best of" was a waste of time. The first one, "The best of 1980-1990" was a pretty good compilation, but quite short ( 65 minutes, U2 could have added 2 extra songs like Gloria, Out Of Control or MLK ). This time, this compilation is 50% horrible.
The hands that built America is so boring, one of the worst U2 songs, without a doubt. All the remixes are so bad !!!!. This is overall a big, big mistake. This is not the best of. I remember once participating in a U2 poll, in which they asked to the fans the best song from each album, before this "best of". One of those songs was "Please"... so where is this song ??? why U2 didn't include it ??. I don't know why U2 keep putting "Until The end Of The World" as one of their best songs. "The Fly" or "Who's Gonna Ride..." were real songs for a "Best Of".
This would be my "Best of 1990-2000"

1- Even Better Than The Real Thing
2- Mysterious Ways
3- Beautiful Day
4- Electrical Storm
5- One
6- Miss Sarajevo ( COMPLETE )
7- Stay ( faraway so close )
8- Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Off
9- Lemon
10- Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
11- The Fly
12- Discotheque ( ORIGINAL )
13- Hold me, Thrill me, Kiss me, Kill me
14- Staring At The Sun ( ORIGINAL )
15- Please ( single )
16- If God Will Send His Angels ( single )

This was the first U2 cd that I listened to. This cd is the reason that I have now been out and bought every single one of their albums. I see here a lot of fans saying that these are not U2's best songs and now that I've heard the rest of their albums, I agree. But when I first bought this cd, I didn't know that! I listened to this, and I instantly loved nearly every song. Thats what this cd is about, in my opinion. Its a gateway for new fans to start listening to U2. Its not a compilation of U2's best songs, Its's a compilation of U2's easiest songs to listen to.

Achtung Baby is a brilliant album but it's such a complex album that it's not one i loved right away. Having listened to this though, I knew how great U2 was and I had the faith in them to keep listening to it, and pretty soon I was hooked.

That's what a lot of fans who already had all their albums don't quite understand. They already know how great U2 is, they don't need this. This is a new fans cd.

Thats why I don't listen to it much anymore, (except for songs like Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill me and Miss Sarejevo, which I don't have) because I'm not a new fan anymore, but when I was, I was literally listening to it all the time.

This album isn't getting the reviews that it deserves. Thats why I give it a 5/5.

I like U2. Despite my fears, this album does not sound like a rehash of U2, even though it's a best-of compilation. I recommend it just for the Electrical Storm track, which to me is the most moving, powerful U2 song in years. Also, Beautiful Day and Stuck in a Moment, truly great U2 songs, are reasons to buy this disc if you don't own them on an album. These songs, especially Electrical Storm, remind me of the heyday of U2 when people were first in awe of them in the 80's and early 90's.

There are a host of other tracks that I forgot about from the mid 90's along with some I have not heard before. They are yet another reason to own this disc. You won't be dissappointed even listening to the Achtung Baby tracks (which were played to death in the early 90's).

Put this disc on and you will listen attentively to every song from start to finish. It's that good. And it's great to know this band still has that kind of effect after all these years.

I thought that the "Best of 1980-1990" collection musically, was awesome with alot of their strongest songs from their 80s heyday. However, I thought that compilation was forced with only one new song "Sweetest Thing" being a re-recording of a previous B-Side and with the hit songs having large parts cut out especially "New Years Day" & "Where The Streets Have No Name" and it dragged down the collection as a whole. However that was made up for with a 2-CD edition that made it a worthy addition to my CD collection and the same holds true with it's successor "The Best of 1990-2000.

U2 did not have as many major hits during the 1990s like they did during the 1980s and they were going further & further into experimenting with techno sounds which started with their 1991 masterpiece "Achtung Baby", went even further into techno with the craziness of "Zooropa" and eventually imploded with their vastly underrated opus "Pop", the latter of which the songs lifted off if were re-recorded. After that, they returned to their 'pre-techno' days with their critically acclaimed "All That You Can't Leave Behind" which is yet another great album from U2.

This second hits collection is a playing tape of U2's 90s experimental material and it
S a great retrospective of their music from this decade although it has minor flaws just like every 'hits' CD does. I mean, there isn't such a thing as a 'perfect' "Greatest Hits" CD, even from my perspective but "Best of 1990-2000" nonetheless is a marvelous 72 minute CD of 16 tracks of amazing U2 music. There are 6 new tracks, four of which are re-recordings of older songs. There are also three songs that are lifted from soundtracks such as the haunting "The Hands That Built America" from "Gangs Of New York", and the bizarre "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" from Batman Forever.

Ok, the flaws begin with "Electrical Storm". There are two version, one original, and one William Orbit Mix. From my perspective, this is one of U2's best songs in many years with elements of Orbit's haunting production and the song is one of the strongest cuts on the CD. However, I'm not sure if they messed up in placing Orbt's Mix on the regular 1-CD version of this collection instead of the regular version which is one the 2nd dico of the deluxe 2-CD edition as it should've been reversed with the original on the 'hits' CD and the Orbit Remix on CD2 of the 2-CD edition. Brushing aside the clumsy choice of the songs positions, both version are great but I love the Orbit Remix more.

The second flaw begins with some of the re-recordings of some older songs. While I have nothing against this, I feel that in the case of "Gone", & especially "Discotheque", the stripping away of the techno sounds reduces the pleasure ability of the songs that were present on the parent album version from the "Pop" album. "Discotheque" especially suffers from this. While the "New Mix" version is good, the original version on "Pop" with it's techno-pop charisma, has a very explosive, loud, & colorful feel to it where as the stripping away of it's techno feel, it robs the song of much of it's colorful sound. Overall, though, the song remains a classic nonetheless even in it's newer reincarnation. All is forgiven. "Staring At The Sun" and "Gone" on the other hand don't suffer as badly as the previous two tracks I mentioned even though I enjoy the originals more.

Third, of course is the exclusion of strong songs like "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?", "Trying to Throw Your Arms around the World", and "Lemon" and "Elevation". Then again there was so much strong music that U2 did that there isn't enough room to fit them all on just one disc and making it a double album of just hits would probably kill the sales of the parent albums so I'm cool about all that.

It's still a smart decision to include "One" and "Mysterious Ways" on here as these two songs are as strong as anything that U2 did during the 80s if not better. "One" is a bittersweet ballad with a sense of bitterness, sadness, yet happiness, and warmth melted in with the sad & bitter feel to it. "Mysterious Ways" is one that's hard to explain but most of us have already heard it so there's little need to but what I can say is is that this and "One" are among U2's best songs they ever made. I personally think that U2's 90s works are as strong as their 80s works.

Apart from all of that, I think that this CD is a marvelous successor to the 1980-1990 collection. In fact, I think that 1990-2000 was much better assembled than the previous hits CD was as where that one offered little new, the 1990-2000 set offers plenty of new or non-album(not B-Sides) tracks that are worthy of having on here.

If you find this which isn't hard to do, I suggest getting the Deluxe Edition of this collection as the second disc contains some B-Sides and some awesome remixes that are truly haunting, fun, & amazing. By just getting the regular version of "Best of 1990-2000" you'll be missing out on some incredible yet obscure music that U2 made that I think is even stronger than what made it one the "Hits" CD. Even if you decide to just get the 1-CD version, this collection offers a lot more new material than what the 1980-1990 collection does in terms of 1-CD editions. This collection was worth the wait. If you can afford it, get the deluxe edition because disc two is worth the money. If not, then the regular version of this collection will do well too. Buy it! :-) :D

U2’s second greatest hits package stands in stark contrast to their first greatest hits album. Listening to the two side-by-side, it almost seems as if they are two different bands. The discrepancy in sounds shows how this band are truly gifted musicians. The 1990’s found the band sliding into the Alternative music scene with their first release of the decade, Acthung Baby. That album is representing by the brilliant “Mysterious Ways”, “Even Better Than The Real Thing”, “Until The End Of The World” and the heartbreaking beautiful “One”. The album and, in particular, “One” (which is about AIDS) showed they could adapt their music to modern styles, yet still make music with a message. Zooropa was their next and it really was an extension of Acthung Baby, but it moved them even more away from their main sounds. Pop was a complete move into electronica and really sounds nothing like a U2 record. Long time fans were displeased with the album and the press jumped all over the band. While it is clearly the weakest album the band has made, they should be applauded for not standing still and have a willingness to experiment with new sounds. They also did some movie soundtrack work in the 1990’s with songs like “Miss Sarajevo” and the overlooked “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” from Batman Forever which is one of their best singles as well as contributing album tracks “Stay (Faraway, So Close!)” and “Until The End Of The World” to soundtracks (One of the two new tracks “The Hands That Built America” is also from a movie, Martin Scorcese’s Gangs Of New York). In 2000, the band returned to a more traditional U2 sound with All That You Can’t Leave Behind. The album was universally hailed and produced the glorious “Beautiful Day” that won a slew of Grammys. The album contains two new songs, but it also has new mixes of songs like “Discotheque”, “Numb” and others. U2 is one of the biggest rock groups in the world, but they are constantly evolving their sound and refuse to rest on their laurels. Not all of the sound changes they have attempted have worked, but they are constantly challenging their fans and keeping them entertained in the process.