HenryToday's #1001albums is Achtung Baby by #U2. I was very much expecting to be underwhelmed...but now after two listens, I don't hate it? My previous opinion being that the artistic value of anything U2 did after about 1987 is basically a rounding error.
Brian Nicar@hl It's not bad, but they kind of lost the plot after that one. Granted, they were trying something new...
Jake in the desert
Gavin@jake4480 @wendigo @hl It is funny how close Metallica and U2 are in their career trajectories. Both were at the top of their game up to the early 90s, but then it started to go wrong.
Since Achtung Baby they've just been extremely forgettable. I have the Rattle & Hum movie on blu-ray and it is great. It (and Master of Puppets) was one of the things that got me to pick up a guitar in my early teen --my sister was a big U2 fan and had it on VHS.
@jake4480 @wendigo I'm always for bands trying new things; they can't keep doing the same stuff, and even if the end result is not great. It shows they're curious and want to push their musical skills further.
In U2's case they seemed to try some random stuff, and then instead of incorporating what they'd learnt there, they just went...super bland.
Ben Daubney 
@bendaubney any particular tracks on Pop that you like? To me the album always felt a bit like they were told to do dance music, but couldn't somehow commit to it. Apart from Staring At The Sun, which I always think is an Oasis song.
@bendaubney Thanks. I'll try and give it a listen over the weekend.
Also I second the feeling for ATYCLB - I somehow feel that I like it, but whenever I've listened to it I can't find where that feeling comes from and just it's U2 blandness again. I /think/ it's because it was so hyped and presented as this amazing thing at the time, my subconscious absorbed the marketing, resulting in this distant feeling of it being good.
@hl @bendaubney @jake4480 U2 had a good run and some exceptional albums, so I don't disparage them too much. Creating a successful record must be hard as hell and to keep doing it year after year?
@wendigo Oh yeah. And you're completely right, so perhaps I'm being too harsh on them. I suspect its residual resentment from the U2 marketing and promo I, like @bendaubney, was subjected to in my youth. Especially the inescapable ATYCLB, which made that, and more recent albums, out to be these amazing achievements, and I feel they were pretty modest, and so perhaps I have this slight grudge?
Albums like War, Joshua Tree, Unforgettable Fire are amazing though, and deserve their praise. We also used the first 1:40 of Where The Streets Have No Name as the walk on music for our wedding.
@hl @bendaubney @jake4480 Oh yes, I remember those debacles. It takes some brass to think your still relevant when you haven't pushed a great album in years. That said, I'd say they lost some of that essential youthful vigor, and that it happens to everyone outside of the Rolling Stones. ;>) Very cool that you used that bit for your wedding. My brother was a HUGE fan back in the day...
@wendigo @hl @bendaubney ha! Wild. Yeah I mean there's a song or two here or there if I hear I don't mind. But an album? Not for me. Pretty wild they're the biggest rock band in the world (are they still?) 😂 I had a coworker/eventual boss who was like, obsessed. Her favorite band. 😂🤣
@jake4480 @hl @bendaubney I guess everyone my age says this, but the world moves so fast now compared to when I was in my twenties. Who knows who is on top anymore? That stratification is history. We have genre or niche cultures now, and I first noticed them in the 90s. In the 80s, we didn't call R.E.M. 'alternative rock'. Punk had been around since the 60s really, so it had sort of earned its selection from the masses...