Imaginary Albums: U2

I've never been a huge U2 fan. While I've delved into their music over the years, from their earliest work to (occasionally) the newer stuff, to the extent I ever pull out one of their records these days, it's either 1987's The Joshua Tree or 1991's Achtung Baby. The former largely wrapped up their classic 80s period with triumphant, epic bombast; the latter opened up latter-day U2 with newfound energy and imagination.

In-between those two, however, came Rattle And Hum, 1988's coda to their initial era. And it's kind of a mess, an album which critics largely trashed, and even the band seems to have left it behind (never getting a much-needed remastering & repackaging, unlike everything else through Achtung).

I almost never listen to it. That's largely because it's a weird mix of new studio tracks and somewhat random live tracks, making for a disjointed listening experience. Plus, Bono's pretention here was at its peak--between the recurring motif of an Irish band coming to America and teaching us about Black music, and over-the-top covers of the Beatles and Dylan/Hendrix, it wasn't the most modest of affairs.

That said, I think the studio tracks are largely pretty good. Segregate them from the live stuff and the filler, and you've got half a great album. So, inspired by some online discussion of the record earlier this week, I decided to create my own imaginary 1988 U2 studio album, Prattle And Strum.

The project is comprised of five Rattle And Hum studio tracks, filled out to double-album length with various b-sides and outtakes from The Joshua Tree and its 1984 predecessor The Unforgettable Fire. It's not the most chronologically honest of my imaginary albums, with some sonic variations, but it still coheres nicely. And while most of this can be found on the 1980-1990 A-sides/B-sides compilation, it's still interesting to hear all these stray tracks rearranged and re-sequenced into what sounds like a proper long-player, rather than parsing through the chaotic sprawl of Rattle And Hum or a random assortment of mixed-quality outtakes. Maybe not quite as great as Joshua/Achtung, but a worthy bridge between them and certainly a solid close-out to their amazing 80s run.

Here's the Spotify version (I made some edits to deal with over-long tracks on my CDR version, obviously lacking here).