Well I don't know of a single classic rock band that didn't go dramatically downhill. Though 80s U2 is the best U2. Joshua Tree and Unforgettable Fire are indisputable masterpieces.

Only know the singles.
The Fly, Lemon and that song they did for the Batman movie are all fantastic pop songs.
Seeing them live during the ZooTV era must have been pretty spectacular.

>>64229814
Listen to Achtung Baby and Zooropa at least. The 80s work is great but those two albums are far more interesting.

Achtung Baby's the best alt rock album of the 90's, Zooropa's a perfect follow-up since it was written and performed during the touring for Achtung, Pop's more electronic-oriented but has some great singles

U2's one of those few bands that can dramatically change their sound with their different eras (post-punk, Eno, electronic, stadium rock) and still stay at the top of the game

>>64229785
>implying they did anything in the 90s worth remembering.

>>64229785
U2 has always been lame

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAtpN1ls874

Jam of a lifetime

I'm old enough to remember the absolute shock that Achtung Baby caused longtime U2 fans. They'd come to expect po-faced stadium filling anthem rock and got this weird electronic/pop/industrial lite album with Bono wearing makeup and playing up the decadent rock star persona. It was really a brave move on their part. Too bad they eventually shifted back to their old safe style.

>>64230468
I remember around that time Edge talking about how he was into bands like Einstürzende Neubauten, Nine Inch Nails, the Young Gods, and KMFDM. Bono was into Bowie's Berlin trilogy, Iggy's The Idiot and they were embracing multimedia like never before. It was a pretty dramatic shift for the band. I think Mullen and Clayton kept complaining about not being able to play the music live and forced the band to go back to their more traditional sound. Too bad because those years produced some of their most ambitious material.

>>64230468
It's interesting to think about just how far U2 could have gone if they developed further after Pop, rather than attempting to be a "rock band" again.

I also think it's a bit sad that Zooropa/Pop don't get the appreciation they deserve. Achtung Baby is accepted into the pop canon now, but you still see people bashing the latter 90s work as "bad" without really understanding the point of it.

There was a lot of more experimental/electronic work on Zooropa and Pop that I would have loved to seen taken further. Numb, Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car, Discotheque, Mofo, etc. A lot of really great stuff that was probably the furthest thing possible from the sound of The Joshua Tree.

>>64229785
zooropa is dope as fuck, i've been a U2 fan since I was a kid. Great album.

>>64229814
WAR is still my favorite album of theirs

U2 is stupidly underrated

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vdLuk2Agamk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gWuSAxoC9_w

Achtung Baby is unironically one of my favorite albums.

>>64230468
>>64230853
They also made an ambient album with Eno

https://rateyourmusic.com/release/album/passengers/original_soundtracks_1/

>>64230853
>I think Mullen and Clayton kept complaining about not being able to play the music live and forced the band to go back to their more traditional sound.

Probably. It was Bono/Edge that spearheaded the Achtung Baby shift. I don't think Mullen and Clayton were ever quite into the kind of alternative music that inspired the 90s work.

That said, I think the band still has it in them in some sense. The problem is that they have too much of a "filter" now, whereas in the 90s they didn't set out to make records of any particular style or genre.

I think The Edge commented that the next U2 album will be more akin to Zooropa, but take it with a grain of salt.

>>64230961
haven't listened to new U2 since that garbage ass "put on your boots" song

hope they go in a Zooropa direction desu

I always liked their cover of Cole Porter's Night and Day. It was the beginning of their darker more experimental phase that led to Achtung Baby.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DgRD676EIVI