The whole album is fantastic. I’m mad at myself for ignoring it for so long because Steve Jobs foisted it on my phone. SLaBT is an amazing track - although creepy once you figure out it’s about clergy abuse of minors
I feel like something weird had to have happened legally between them and the band that wrote the song it was pretty much based on. I don’t understand why it wasn’t made a single or played more live.
Drowning Man. I think it is some of the best vocals Bono ever delivered. Such a raw, acoustic song with some traditional Irish instrumentations as well. Such a wonderful song heavily overlooked.
You could make the case that far more attention should be given to all the “deep cuts” from their first 3 albums. There are some utterly fantastic songs on them that no one knows about.
Lemon. I had not listened to that entire album until a few years ago and the bass groove on that song is one of Adam’s best!
The guitar work is sneaky good and Bono with the falsetto is out of this world.
Another is Cedarwood Road. After visiting Dublin and taking a U2 tour, the guy running it started playing the live version of that song from the 2015 tour and it just hit me like a ton of bricks. Amazing guitar riff!
I haven’t seen it mentioned yet, but Wake Up Dead Man. A very atypical U2 song, especially to people who are only familiar with the hits and radio songs. I love that U2 allowed themselves to get that cynical at one point. And why not? By the time Pop was released, U2 had either seen or done it all in the music business. It would be enough to turn the once youthful, optimistic boys into hardened men. Love the spaghetti western like guitar on the refrain.
Also, I’m seeing a lack of songs from Boy being mentioned here. I think I saw one comment for Another Time Another Place and The Electric Co. I would fully endorse those, but would also throw in Twilight and A Day Without Me as criminally underrated songs from that album. I would also mention 11 o’clock Tick Tock, but I feel that song is at its best live as opposed to the single version produced by Martin Hannet.
Let’s also throw in Tomorrow from October. It’s a near miss at being a masterpiece. Maybe U2’s earliest success at an atmospheric track?
It’s off Joshua Tree so I’m not sure how little attention it gets, but “Exit” is probably one of my favorites. I think it’s so beautiful. I couldn’t believe got to see it live at the Joshua Tree tour.
Like A Song…