YMMV / U2

• Audience-Alienating Premise: Whatever the merits of Songs of Innocence, a lot of people were creeped out by the way Apple automatically downloaded it to their libraries. Apple ended up having to release a tool to remove the album.
• Awesome Art: "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" blends some very fluid animation with footage from Batman Forever and is one of only two music videos (the other being "Lemon") where Macphisto gets any exposure. What's especially impressive is that the animation team completed the entire video within the space of two weeks.
• Awesome Music: "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Beautiful Day", "Vertigo", "City of Blinding Lights", "Magnificent", "Where the Streets Have No Name", "Desire", "Elevation", "Pride (in the Name of Love)", "Even Better Than the Real Thing", "The Fly", "Mysterious Ways", "Zooropa", "Lemon", "Discothèque", "One"... and that's barely scratching the surface.
  • So far, U2 have debuted four new songs live on the U2 360 Tour, and they're all awesome in one way or another: Glastonbury rocks, Return of the Stingray Guitar is a standout example of Epic Instrumental Opener, North Star is a gorgeous acoustic ballad, and Every Breaking Wave... well, just listen.
    • They're going for five!
  • "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me", anyone?! Even people who hate U2 admit to absolutely loving its guts. That guitar riff in the chorus may be recycled from "Dirty Day" but it's still a quality riff nonetheless, and those strings and the dark and brooding atmosphere. Possibly the best Batman song ever.
  • From the controversial Songs of Innocence album, "Volcano", "This is Where You Can Reach Me Now" and "The Miracle" are regarded as strong titles. As well as "Raised by Wolves".
• Broken Base: Songs of Innocence and its automatic download on iTunes; several pointed out that there are a lot of people who didn't want the album and just got their hard drives clogged up because of something they didn't ask for. Others called people who complained "Entitled brats" who were merely complaining about free music.
  • Musically, the album has also been a bit of a base breaker, with opinions ranging from "another great U2 album!" to "(yawn) just another U2 album."
  • Though, as expanded under Fanon Discontinuity, every album after Achtung Baby has split opinions, with the possible exception of All That You Can't Leave Behind.
• Critical Backlash: Critics and many long time U2 fans felt the band went too far with their electronic sound on Pop and it got mixed to negative reviews back then. However, most fans listening to the album today for the first time think it is very underrated and will wonder why it got so much hate back then.
• Critical Dissonance: The general public reaction to Songs of Innocence has been either that it is a decent album or it is creepy that U2 even uploaded an album to people's phones without their consent. Critics however were more forgiving and Rolling Stone magazine actually voted it as the best album of 2015.
• Crosses the Line Twice: Every other thing Mr. MacPhisto said.
  People of Sarajevo! Count your blessings. There are many others around the world who have food, heat and security, but they're not on television like you are!
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • AC/DC versus U2. Most of the band's detractors are avid AC/DC fans, and vice versa.
    • Brian Johnson has also notably slammed Bono's public charity works, though it seems that the latter has yet to respond.
    • Malcolm Young has said that AC/DC's induction on the Rock n' Roll Hall of Fame was preceded with The Clash's induction, hosted by The Edge. "He spoke about Joe Strummer for 15 minutes. Dullest guy I've ever heard"
  • Negativland vs. U2, in part due to a legal clash between the former and the latter's record label for which the latter was blamed.
  • Tends to have this with other Post-Punk artists including The Cure and Echo & the Bunnymen . Despite (or perhaps because of) emerging from the Post-Punk movement as its most commercially successful act, U2 has often been excluded or distanced from other artists and associated more with a mainstream Arena Rock image.
• Fanon Discontinuity: For some fans, everything after Pop does not exist. Others think they stopped when Bono put on those sunglasses. The band themselves feel this way about Bono's mullet. To quote Adam: "A lot of people dislike the band because of that hairstyle". To quote Bono: "It looked like I was wearing a skunk on my head!"
  • Overlaps with Old Guard Versus New Blood: You can find a bit of a disconnect between older fans who loved their Joshua Tree sound (nicknamed "Joshua Types" by Slant Magazine) and newer recruits who loved their experimental sound in The '90s (nicknamed "Achtungoids"). Still, there's probably many more who enjoy both periods just fine.
• First Installment Wins: Fans of the more Post-Punk-oriented U2 tend to hold Boy in high regard, to the point where it's one of the few U2 albums that some will admit to liking.
• Friendly Fandoms:
  • With Bruce Springsteen fans. The two artists are often associated with sincerity and social conscience, and have been friends since the 80s. Notably, Bono inducted Bruce into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 while Bruce returned the favor for U2 in 2005.
  • U2 has been an influence on a number of major bands ranging from Arcade Fire, The Killers, Radiohead, Coldplay, and more. As such, the fandoms tends to be shared among these artists and U2 to some extent.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: The band was relatively quick to break through in America in the early '80s, through constant airplay on the then-new MTV, College Radio, early commercial alternative stations, and finally crossing over onto AOR stations.
• It's Popular, Now It Sucks!: Try to find someone on the Internet who will admit to liking U2. No, you can't look on U2 fansites. Good luck!
• Misaimed Fandom:
  • "Sunday Bloody Sunday" is NOT an endorsement of The Revolution, and Bono made that real clear in Rattle and Hum when he went into a mid-song rant denouncing the notorious Remembrance Day bombing by the IRA and all the violence in general.
  • "One" is a song about divorce, and yet many of U2's fans have used this song in weddings. U2 are, understandably, annoyed by this. Though alternatively, you can interpret it as a song about the relationship between East and West Germany, which ended with a union.
• Mis-blamed: Regardless of your opinions on the band, all of the debacle regarding Songs of Innocence should be directed to Apple's mishandling of the album rather than the band themselves, since the latter's biggest involvement on the project was the recording and promotion of it and it's pretty stupid to blame the people who aren't behind iTunes of shoving a product you didn't want forced onto you.
  • The band also had no involvement in the lawsuit over Negativland's "U2" EP. Their label, Island Records, jumped into it without letting the band know, and they were unable to stop it once they figured out what was going on. The Edge stated in an interview (conducted by Negativland themselves) that they felt Island went too far, and denounced the label's claim of them not allowing samples of their work as "bollocks", as "there's at least six records out there that are direct samples from our stuff."
• Narm Charm: Engineer Mark "Flood" Ellis recounted that the band couldn't stop laughing or debating among themselves while he was mixing "Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" because they weren't sure if Bono could get away with the previously-avoided cliché of repeating the word "baby" in the chorus. He commented, "I think he got away with it alright."
• Never Live It Down: Since 1988, the band has maintained a reputation among fans as entitled, egotistical PR yes-men, developed entirely due to the band's downright deifying documentary and album Rattle and Hum. While they quickly rebounded among fans and critics with Achtung Baby, Rattle and Hum continues to act as an albatross around their public image's necks, with most non-fans pointing to it as the most naked proof of the arrogance they attribute to the band.
  • In more recent years, just about any comment section related to U2 will inevitably include mention of Songs of Innocence being automatically downloaded to phones.
• Nightmare Fuel: You wouldn't expect it from a band like this, but "Exit" and "Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car" are both highly unnerving.
  • Even worse, serial killer Robert John Bardo stated in court that “Exit” influenced his murder of actress Rebecca Schaeffer.
  • Don't forget "Bullet the Blue Sky", one of the most torturous musical simulations of an active battlefield since Hendrix's rendition of "The Star-Spangled Banner". Bono reportedly told The Edge to "put the war through an amplifier". It's fair to say he succeeded.
  • The video for "Lemon" can have plenty of this, depending on whether or not you find the dark atmosphere foreboding. An extreme close-up of Bono as MacPhisto singing directly into the camera can also be just a bit much.
  • Pop's closing track, "Wake Up Dead Man", easily takes the cake for being the eeriest song that they have ever made, and it doubles as a Tear Jerker. Bono sounds broken and defeated through the entire song, with even his screams in the chorus, he's barely weighing any power like he's usually known for. This is not helped by skeletal arragement delivered by the band and the song's very muddy production. And after final chorus, with Bono's perishing scream, the song ends abruptly, closing the album with an uncanny sense of emptiness and despair. It's dark even for the standards of band.
• Once Original, Now Overdone: A lot of people think of U2 as a middle-of-the-road Arena Rock band, but in the '80s, their sound, particularly The Edge's guitar tone, was unique among rock bands, even other alternative rock bands.
• Signature Song: A lot of candidates, but "With or Without You", "One", and "Beautiful Day" are probably the leads, along with "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", another high contender as their most commonly recognized (and covered) song.
  • "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Pride (In the Name of Love)", "Where the Streets Have No Name", and "Vertigo" are also very popular and recognizable songs, and are among their most played live songs, along with "I Will Follow", which can be considered as their first classic overall.
  • Going by album:
    • Boy: "I Will Follow".
    • October: "Gloria", though also the Title Track is fairly well-known (and the only track from the album included on the first "best of" volume, though as a ghost track).
    • War: "Sunday Bloody Sunday". "New Year's Day" is also well-remembered.
    • The Unforgettable Fire: "Pride (In the Name of Love)". "Bad" and the Title Track are also well-known, especially the former which became a classic thanks to the iconic Live Aid performance and its overall popularity with American audiences.
    • The Joshua Tree: Especially "With or Without You" and "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", but also "Where the Streets Have No Name". Though the album has several notable songs actually ("Bullet the Blue Sky", "In God's Country" and "Running to Stand Still" being very good examples).
    • Rattle and Hum: "Desire" and "All I Want is You", with "When Love Comes to Town" and "Angel of Harlem" not too far behind.
    • Achtung Baby: "One". "Mysterious Ways" is second place, though, and the album has several notable tracks ("Even Better Than the Real Thing", "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" and the list goes on).
    • Zooropa: "Stay", although "Lemon" and "Numb" are also quite well-known.
    • Pop: "Staring at the Sun". Also "Discotheque" to some extent, as it was a big hit but its popularity declined.
    • All That You Can't Leave Behind: "Beautiful Day", followed by "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out of" and "Elevation". "Walk On" is also well-known.
    • How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb: "Vertigo" especially, but also "City of Blinding Lights" and "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own".
    • No Line On the Horizon: "Magnificent", "I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" and "Moment of Surrender". "Get On Your Boots" to an extent as well - it's the biggest hit on the album but suddenly declined in popularity.
    • Songs of Innocence: "Every Breaking Wave" especially, but also "The Miracle" and "Song for Someone".
    • Songs of Experience: "You're the Best Thing About Me", with "Get out of Your Own Way" not too far behind.
    • Of the non-album singles released on the Best of series, "Sweetest Thing" and "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me".
• Overshadowed by Controversy: Songs of Innocence's quality and merits are completely overshadowed by the controversy that it was automatically uploaded to all users' iTunes account, and as the band's relevance begins to wane this controversy tends to come up in any mention of them whatsoever.
• Tough Act to Follow: While they've continued making great albums since (notably with Achtung Baby), it's been said that all of U2's work after The Joshua Tree is a reaction to it; either expanding it, rejecting it, mocking it, and eventually trying to recapture it.
• Unintentional Period Piece: "Seconds" from War dates itself to the early 80s with its references to the USSR and East Germany, both of which have long since fallen.
  • "Zooropa" dates itself by using advertising slogans that were popular in the 90s (i.e. "Be all that you can be" from the US Army), most of which are not used anymore.
• Vindicated by History: Pop, of all the albums. The album received mixed reactions by critics and fans for pushing the electronica and dance influences previously seen in Achtung Baby and Zooropa way into the forefront (its PopMart tour still made heaps of money), causing the band to return to a more traditional sound with All That You Can't Leave Behind. However, unlike albums like Cut the Crap, a lot of fans have come around to it, proclaiming it as their boldest and rawest album to date and that it contains some of U2's best songs. Interestingly enough, it also caused a small backlash for the band playing safe in their subsequent albums.

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