SOI / WORST: Best, Worst, Underrated

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Song for Someone is the cheesiest song they’ve ever done. Embarrassing

An embarrassment of riches here. Hard to choose between:

Miracle
California
SFS
Iris
volcano
RBW

I voted volcano on account of these lyrics:

Volcano, you don't wanna, you don't wanna know
Volcano
Something in you must to blow
Volcano

SFS is the only song on the album that I really can't stand. Also not the biggest fan of The Miracle as I feel they ruined what could have been a good song.

Song for Someone is the albums biggest clunker

The Miracle is vomit inducing.

I almost didn’t vote. There’s no song on that album that I really dislike. Including what most people define as clunkers (more on that on the upcoming underrated thread).

My vote goes to California for the intro. I hate that they’ve included this Beach Boys bit. If I could skip it, I would. A bit like Fez (I did my own mix of Being Born which begins after the Fez intro).

V v v volcano is already not great, but also it’s kind of guilty by association with American Soul, so it gets my vote.

Miracle by a mile. 

Awful as the album opener, awful as the show opener, awful as an Apple event shitshow.

Just awful.

I almost didn’t vote. There’s no song on that album that I really dislike. Including what most people define as clunkers (more on that on the upcoming underrated thread).

That’s a hot take… but I’ll join you.

ATYCLB is the first album of theirs that has hard skippers for me.

HTDAAB itself as a whole is a hard skip. Sometimes is the only song I will ever potentially hear again.

NLOTH has two absolute “never listening again” skippers (don’t love Crazy but I can sit through it).

But SOI is an album that I could listen to in entirety if I could make it past The Miracle. I’m not saying every song is great.

I won’t argue on behalf of Volcano. But you know what? If it were on right now, I’d live. I’d live through SFS. And I think there’s a lot of enjoyable stuff on there.

I enjoy California.
I enjoy TIWYCRMN.
Iris is quite good.
RBW is interesting.
EBW has something under the bubble gum.
SLABT fucking slays.

So, except The Miracle (and it’s so easy to skip the first song), it’s an actual album for me.

No, it’s not Achtung Baby. But a nice pop album.

V v v volcano is already not great, but also it’s kind of guilty by association with American Soul, so it gets my vote.

American soul - refujesus notwithstanding - is excellent. Volcano, literally, blows as a song

American soul - refujesus notwithstanding - is excellent.

I'll save my thoughts on AS for the SOE worst poll, but, uh, I disagree.

IMO Volcano is better melodically (not good but better). Volcano begins pretty neat with just Larry and Adam, some muted chk-chking from Edge behind Bono during the first verse. The instrumental during the second verse is cool too with the little atmospheric synth sound and Edge's picking. That's all pretty minor with regard to the whole of the song, but it's more than I can say about AS. Volcano is also a full minute shorter than AS, to its benefit. Still the worst track on SOI, but also better than at least four songs on SOE.

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Also I've never understood the hate for The Miracle. I've always thought it was a pretty decent, catchy song. It's not among the very best from SOI but I don't think it's one of the worst either. On par with California for me.

SFS

My opinion of it did improve after seeing it live, though I still think Crystal Ballroom should have taken its place.

Quote from: Soloyan on June 30, 2024, 10:49:24 AM

I almost didn’t vote. There’s no song on that album that I really dislike. Including what most people define as clunkers (more on that on the upcoming underrated thread).

That’s a hot take… but I’ll join you.

ATYCLB is the first album of theirs that has hard skippers for me.

HTDAAB itself as a whole is a hard skip. Sometimes is the only song I will ever potentially hear again.

NLOTH has two absolute “never listening again” skippers (don’t love Crazy but I can sit through it).

But SOI is an album that I could listen to in entirety if I could make it past The Miracle. I’m not saying every song is great.

I won’t argue on behalf of Volcano. But you know what? If it were on right now, I’d live. I’d live through SFS. And I think there’s a lot of enjoyable stuff on there.

I enjoy California.
I enjoy TIWYCRMN.
Iris is quite good.
RBW is interesting.
EBW has something under the bubble gum.
SLABT fucking slays.

So, except The Miracle (and it’s so easy to skip the first song), it’s an actual album for me.

No, it’s not Achtung Baby. But a nice pop album.

To be frank, for my taste U2 have not released a really bad album.
I find a lot to enjoy in both SOI and SOE.
Very high stuff on NLOTH. The first half of ATYCLB is really good.
HTDAAB isn’t a bad album. It’s not bad music to my ears. It’s just the least U2 of all U2 albums.

After the release of No Line, this was the first u2 album i wasn't anxiously awaiting for.
I could've easily picked SFS but went with California.