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The Best of 1980-1990 / The B-Sides


Amazon.com
One need hear only the first notes of this collection–the Edge’s ringing guitar notes ushering in “Pride (In the Name of Love)”–to be taken back to 1984: Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher rule the Western world, the L.A. Olympics is the top sports story, and Ms. Pac-Man reigns at arcades. In rock & roll, there’s U2 growing in stature with each new tour and title. Even doubters of the Irish lads have to concede that together they formed the one ’80s band with the skill and … More >>

The Best of 1980-1990 / The B-Sides

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  1. #1 by Howard L Lambert on July 28, 2010 - 12:22 am

    This “Best of…” album contains a lot of U2’s worst songs.

    Buy thier 1st 3 albums (Boy, October, and War) and you’ll be as about as close as a mortal can get to having U2’s best from the 80’s…heck, best ever.
    Rating: 1 / 5

  2. #2 by Anonymous on July 28, 2010 - 2:32 am

    my father (who’s like ancient) heard bono singing with or without you with pavarotti on tv and made me go out with him straight away to go get the cd. so of course i grabbed one for myself too. then my sister came back and when she found out she was so upset that i hadn’t gotten one for her too! but it’s great! i’m enjoying it so much.
    Rating: 5 / 5

  3. #3 by Anonymous on July 28, 2010 - 5:09 am

    I don’t have the CD but it looks like a CD that I would like
    Rating: 5 / 5

  4. #4 by Ashurra on July 28, 2010 - 7:17 am

    The Best of U2 1980-1990 is a perfect example of why I hate “best of” collections. It is also probably one of the best rock “best of” collections out there: and thats because U2 has enough classics from the decade to fill the disc with must-have tracks. There’s not a dud on the disc. Each track is an awesome rock song in and of itself, and not many other bands can boast 15 tracks from any decade that are as varied and essential as whats found on this collection.

    And yet so much of the vitality, charm and effect of these songs is diminished by lining them up hit by hit outside of their original context. Great albums strengthen individual tracks with good sequencing, and are better together as a whole than apart separately. That said, U2 had many great albums from this era. No one should be able to stomach the three Joshua Tree tracks in this format: they are SO much better on the original CD. Note to new fans: DON’T YOU DARE BUY THIS BEFORE YOU ADD JOSHUA TREE TO YOUR COLLECTION! The same is probably true (to a lesser extent) for The Unforgettable Fire and Rattle and Hum. And that comprises 10 of the 15 tracks. However, unless you’re a die-hard U2 fan, purchasing this over their more spotty early work for such gems as October, New Year’s Day and Sunday Bloody Sunday can be excused. Still, as far as best of collections go, you can’t really go wrong with these 15 songs.

    The Limited Editions B-Side disc is a little more problematic. First off: Whoever decided to order the tracks out of chronological order should be shot in the foot. That said, for most of these songs it should be obvious why they never made the final cut. Out of the few tracks from before or around The Unforgettable Fire era, only The Three Sunrises is any good. Bass Trap is pretty, but unnecessary. The Joshua Tree outtakes, although interesting, are definately better as B-sides. Silver and Gold is surprisingly good, Spanish Eyes is a good listen, and “Sweetest Thing” was thankfully not put on Joshua Tree; it’s not up to par with anything that ended up on that album. Walk to the Water is painfully long, and uses the Bullet the Blue Sky style breathy delivery with poor effect. The Rattle and Hum B-sides are forgettable. Tracks 6-8 are end of the decade covers, and only Unchained Melody is memorable. Unfortunately, it slaughters the original almost as violently as Limp Bizkit hacked “Faith.”

    The Best Of: 3 stars – It’s worth a purchase.
    Limited Edition: B-Sides: 2 stars – Fans only.
    Rating: 3 / 5

  5. #5 by Anonymous on July 28, 2010 - 7:18 am

    There is only one reason to buy this CD set – the B-sides. It’s nice to have all their Joshua Tree B-sides together on one disc. Make no mistake – the Joshua Tree B-sides are good enough to have been included on the album itself. Otherwise, this special edition CD is really almost worthless. You’d be much better off buying the ‘Wide Awake in America’ EP and all of U2’s albums before it. It would be well worth your money to buy Boy, October, War, the Live Album and Unforgettable Fire at the rate of one a month or whatever your budget allows so that you can have U2 at their best properly represented in your CD collection. Of course, if you don’t have The Joshua Tree – it’s a must have. Then, and only then, when you are a die-hard U2 fan, go out and buy this CD collection so that you can have most of their B-sides together on one disc. As far as song selection, it is really shocking how much of Rattle and Hum is represented on this collection (B-sides included). R&H has it’s moments, but it can’t compare to anything this band did before it. It’s hard to believe they’re still trying to ‘milk’ R&H after all these years.
    Rating: 3 / 5