U2 Albums #5

#5.  Rattle and Hum

Votes: 52

Highest Rank: 3rd (3)

Lowest Rank: 9th (1)

Despite being an extremely popular album, the failure of the accompanying movie (and the hype that it brought along) left this is a critical black mark on the band. Only grossing $8.6M, the movie was a bit of disappointment, and the tour led to the band decide to "dream it all up again."

However, despite the critical issues with the movie, the album is still a really, really good one. The third of their American influenced trilogy (U. Fire, J. Tree and R. and Hum), the band digs deep into embracing American blues, soul and surrounds themselves in red, white and blue. First, the live songs are outstanding - "Helter Skelter" kicks the album off with Bono announcing "Charles Manson stole this from the Beatles...we're stealing it back." "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" becomes a soul anthem and "All Along the Watchtower" also bristles with Edge's guitar strokes bringing out everything Bob Dylan intended.

As for the new tracks, there are some real gems. "Desire", "All I Want Is You" and "Angel of Harlem" have become live staples, with "All I Want Is You" becoming the most prevalent song added to all mixtapes given to significant others made in the past 20 years. The duet "When Love Comes to Town" with BB King is a keeper as well - BB is the man. Finally, I happen to love the bassline and drums of "God, Part II" and the heartfelt emotion of "Van Diemen's Land" rings true as one of the best ballads the band has ever done - even with Edge singing instead of Bono. Actually, the first time I ever saw U2 in concert, in Houston on the PopMart tour, the Edge sang "Sunday Bloody Sunday" with just his guitar and it still to this say is one of the best live songs I've ever seen. I love Bono, but Edge has a great voice too.

The rest of the album isn't necessarily bad at all, it's just...kind of dull. "Hawkmoon 269", "Silver and Gold", "Love Rescue Me", "Heartland"...instead of capturing the soul of America, the band comes off as trying to BE an American band...big difference. Unlike nearly any album up to this point, they just have some dull songs. Other songs before this didn't work, but not from a lack of creativity like here. Still, not only is Rattle and Hum a very good album, the dissatisfaction with the direction of the band resulted in one of the best albums ever made - Achtung Baby.