Curious Hair wrote:
War - arguably the only time U2 didn't make an album that never let up or utterly crapped out at the end. I love every song, especially "Surrender," which kind of weaves little bits of the first eight songs into the fabric. Very underrated as a conceptual piece because it was pre-Eno.
The Joshua Tree - all-time great 1-2-3 punch to start, stays relatively strong
Achtung Baby - really good
The Unforgettable Fire - ''
Boy - nice slice of post-punk, I love "An Cat Dubh" and can't think of a track I dislike!
Rattle and Hum - love the studio tracks/new songs, skip the live retreads
Passengers - I am a huge Brian Eno dork, so not only am I including this, I'm giving it pretty decent consideration
vast chasm follows
Zooropa - I like it more than most people do, I guess! I like the first four tracks a lot, but it falls off hard. "The Wanderer" is a very failed experiment. Johnny Cash grafted upon warmed-over Kraftwerk was a terrible idea.
All That You Can't Leave Behind - solely on the strength of "Beautiful Day" and "Elevation"
October - forgettable except the title track, which is nice, and whichever one has Uilleann pipes (EDIT: "Tomorrow")
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb - I want to forget "Vertigo" forever, and a lot of songs are retreads
Pop - bad
I would still have Zooropa and Pop up there, not near the top, but off the bottom.
Their ATYCLB on up to NLOTH is so squishy and middle of the road, to prepackaged for my tastes. You could cobble together a great album (12 songs or so) by taking the best material from the post-Pop albums. October is the worst for me.