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U2
U218 Videos [DVD]
Release Date: 2006 11 21
Label: Interscope Records
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U2's first two greatest-hits albums neatly divided themselves by decade, with the first covering the '80s and the second summing up the '90s. Their third hits comp, 2006's U218 Singles, is at once more ambitious and more concise, offering an overview of their first 26 years on a single disc comprised of 18 tracks -- and since two of those are new songs, that leaves just 16 songs to tell their whole story. That's not much space for a band with a career as lengthy and ambitious as U2, so it's inevitable that some painful cuts have been made. Nothing from October, Zooropa or Pop is here, and unless you're buying various import editions that have "I Will Follow" as a bonus track, there's nothing from Boy, either. There's only one cut each from The Unforgettable Fire and Rattle and Hum -- and bucking conventional wisdom, none of their three widely accepted masterpieces -- War, The Joshua Tree, or Achtung Baby -- provide the most songs here. No, out of all their albums the one that dominates U218 Singles is All That You Can't Leave Behind, their 2000 comeback from the depths of the misguided Pop, and one of two records that they've released since their last hits compilation, The Best of 1990-2000.

The other record they've released since then is How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, which provides two songs here -- or, as many as there are from War and Achtung Baby. What this means is that this compilation skews very heavily toward latter-day U2 -- eight out of 18 tracks, a full 44 percent of the collection, are from 2000 on, which means that U218 Singles presents the classicist version of the band, featuring the anthems from U2 at their peak, plus the highlights from when U2 were trying their best to sound like U2 at their peak. They did it quite well, of course, from both a commercial and artistic standpoint, sometimes writing songs that stood proudly alongside "Pride (In the Name of Love)" and "Sunday Bloody Sunday" (as in "Beautiful Day") and sometimes not ("Elevation"). When it's all mixed together, it paints a portrait of a band that's a little slicker and streamlined than it often was, and it's hard not to miss the big-hearted yet moody band that made "Bad," "Gloria," and "A Sort of Homecoming," not to mention the middle-aged Euro experimentalists responsible for "Numb" and "Stay! (Faraway, So Close)," two essential components of the band that has been forced aside by the arena rock pros on display here.

Then again, U2 always were the best arena rockers of their generation, and for those who love the spectacle and sound of the band in full flight, U218 Singles serves up that side of the band quite well, along with two new entries that find the band continuing the assured, even-handed sound of Atomic Bomb: a cover of the Skids' "The Saints Are Coming," recorded with Green Day and rewritten to vaguely address the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and "Window in the Skies," an anthemic pop number that relies too heavily on synth strings yet is saved by the band's sturdy songwriting and reliable performance. As such, it might not cover all the bases, but it covers enough of the major ones to be a good summary for fellow travelers who just know U2 from the radio, and it's also a good one-stop introduction to the basics for neophytes. [U218 Singles was also released as a deluxe edition that contained a live show from the Vertigo tour as a bonus CD. Also, Interscope released a companion video collection on DVD in 2006.] Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide

Tracks:
TitleComposerTime
1Beautiful Day [DVD]U Two
2I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For [DVD]U Two
3Pride (In the Name of Love) [DVD]U Two
4With or Without You [DVD]U Two
5Vertigo [DVD]U Two
6New Year's Day [DVD]U Two
7Mysterious Ways [DVD]U Two
8Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of [US Version][Multimedia Track]U Two
9Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of [International Version][MultimedU Two
10Where the Streets Have No Name [DVD]U Two
11Sweetest Thing [DVD]U Two
12Sunday Bloody Sunday [DVD][Live]U Two
13One [DVD]U Two
14Desire [DVD]U Two
15Walk On [DVD][Version]U Two
16Walk On [DVD][Version]U Two
17Elevation [DVD]U Two
18Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own [DVD]U Two
19Saints Are Coming [DVD][Live]Adamson, Jobson
20Making of Vertigo [DVD][*]U Two
21Story of One [DVD][*]U Two
22Beautiful Day [Eze Version][*][Multimedia Track]U Two
23Pride (In the Name of Love) [DVD][*]U Two
24Vertigo [Long Version][*][Multimedia Track]U Two
25Vertigo [DVD][*]U Two
26One [Buffalo Version][*][Multimedia Track]U Two
27One [DVD][*]U Two
28Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own [U Two







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