U2 is a rock band from Dublin, Ireland. Formed in 1976 by Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr, They are perhaps one of the biggest bands ever, having sold approximately 150 million records, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005. Simply put, if you don't know who U2 is, you've been living under a rock for the past 32 years.

In their early discography, the band played post-punk, and with their fourth album, The Unforgettable Fire, started diversifying their sound with experimental elements. Their fifth album, The Joshua Tree blasted U2 into worldwide attention with the singles "With or Without You", "Where The Streets Have No Name", and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." Their success continued into the early 1990s, with a more European influenced, yet another best-selling album Achtung Baby, which featured the songs "One" and "Mysterious Ways." The rest of the 90's were a low point for U2, however. Zooropa, Achtung Baby's followup had a lot of experimentation going on for it, and the strange sounds didn't settle well with fans and critics alike. Their next album Pop didn't help the situation and they spent a large sum of their money on huge tour stages supporting both.

Their increase in popularity came again in 2000, when All That You Can't Leave Behind was released, along with the single "Beautiful Day." U2 blasted back into the mainstream, and held their ground with another two releases this past decade to be one of the most influential and largest bands spanning generations.

A lot of people have beef with U2, but I don't care. They always say "oh, Bono sings dumb lyrics," or "Bono is an uptight bum," or "What the fuck kind of name is The Edge?"

Know what? My father and I both share U2's entire studio album discography, and let me tell you this: U2 is an example of a band whose hits are so overrated that people don't bother checking out the rest of their brilliant stuff. It's sad that that's how music works, but....well.....it does. So maybe, just maybe, spreading the word a bit on this thread will help. Well, that and it will decrease my hipster-band-threadness by a good 50%.

U2's studio albums are as follows:
Boy - 1980
October - 1981
War - 1983
The Unforgettable Fire - 1984
The Joshua Tree - 1987
Rattle and Hum - 1988
Achtung Baby - 1991
Zooropa - 1993
Pop - 1997
All That You Can't Leave Behind - 2000
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb - 2004
No Line on the Horizon - 2009

Ok, seriously? One of the biggest fucking bands in music history and... really? That this hasn't gotten more attention is kinda fucked up.

Still, having said that, I never really saw U2 as a particularly interesting band for one of the reason that Yata stated above pretty much, because their singles were blown so far out of propoertion. But a couple of days ago, my uncle lent me a copy of Achtung Baby, and I've gotta say, it's kinda amazing.
It's a weird feeling when a band you've been determined to hate for years turns out to actually be pretty good on further listening. You feel kinda foolish, but enlightened at the same time, and you're loving what you hear but trying to hate it as well.
And this band is awesome.

So bump.

I did an essay on one of their songs a while back. Haven't heard an awful lot of their music, but the stuff I have heard was pretty good.

Oh yeah I forgot that Yata made a U2 thread. My mom absolutley loves U2 and Im starting to love them to. Good thread Yata mah dear.

Do you have an iTunes account? Yeah?
Cool, you can go download their new album Songs of Innocence for free.
Right now. No joke. They released it for free on iTunes.

Not one of their best, but also not near their worst.
"Cedarwood Road" is muh jam.

Did I mention it's free?

I'm not really sure that I agree with Yata when it comes to this band and their singles. I've heard at least 5 of their albums, and I thought that their singles were always the highlights of all of them. So I guess my opinion of U2 hasn't really changed since I actually started listening to them. Far as albums go, they've all got a few good songs on them but none of them are classics in my eyes. The Joshua Tree's good for a listen every now and then, same with Achtung Baby, and I have more of an inclination for their earlier 80's stuff - favourite album by them is probably War, and October was pretty awesome too.

These guys are also the very definition of a huge, overblown, larger-than-life rock band, but I actually kinda like that about them.

Also, songs of Innocence was alright. Not great, but alright. It was also all I had on my iPhone after I had to reset it, and because iTunes is shit and wouldn't let me sync anything else, it took me through my first week of Uni.

But that's not why I'm bumping this anyway.

the setlist from last night.

They made great use of this tour's stage and screen. Really neat stuff.
They don't play "40" after every show these days; when they do, it's something special. Loved that.