I've always wished I could get inside the band member's head to discover how they would pit their own albums against each other - if they had to put the time into ranking the 14 albums in order best to worst, what would it look like?
I think we have a fair idea of how the band views most of their albums, which one's their consider failures and which one's they are most proud of. Based on my cumulative memory of the band member's statements on their albums from over the years of watching U2 interviews, articles and listening to radio interviews this is my rough estimation of how I think the band rates their 14 albums:
1)The Joshua Tree
2)Achtung Baby
3)War/UF/Boy
4)SOI/SOE
5)ATYCLB
6)HTDAAB
7)Rattle And Hum
8)Zooropa
9)October
10)Pop
11)NLOTH
I'm just making a bold guess based on statements I've heard members of the band say in various interviews and from what I've read in U2 books,
I'm really interested to know does anyone have any quotes or statements from articles, has any of the band members at any point actually highlighted specifically which albums they think are their greatest work?
The band (bono especially) always promote their albums with great enthusiasm after the release, and after each release they seem to exaggerate and try to sell it as if it's better than it really is, in order to generate hype, like Bono will say something like "this is our best album in years"
There's a quote where after the release of Zooropa where Bono claimed it was their "Sargent Peppers" and one of their greatest pieces of work to date
I think at one point after the release of Pop (and even though the band lamented over the whole rushed situation) the Edge made a bold statement that Pop was their best album and that over time people will see that.. big if true.. imagine reading that quote back to him in 2018! Haha, he'd probably just tell you that it was a heat in the moment thing and that he was just trying to promote the new album and paint it in a more positive view..