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 Lists
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All U2 Songs Ranked 40-1

took me long enough
40U2
The Joshua Tree

40. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For (5/5)

Although this gripped me the least in my youth of Joshua Tree's mega hits, in recent years I've come around a lot on it, making it the only of them that I dig now more than I used to. I guess this is probably attributed to this song being like air when I was younger. I mentioned earlier that "Sweetest Thing" was the first U2 song I'd ever heard where I consciously knew it was a U2 song, but this song was so ubiquitous on the radio and in my household when I was little that I'm sure it was actually the first song of theirs I'd heard. I wasn't made aware it was by U2 until after "Sweetest Thing" had already hooked my ear, which was one of my first glimpses into just how fucking big this band is. The distance provided by mostly dictating what exactly I'm listening to, as well taking like 6 years off from this band, I think has allowed me to connect with it more on its own terms more easily than, say, "With or Without You"
39U2
Pop

39. Please (5/5)

This kinda flips the lens in which Ireland's Troubles are reflected within their music. This song carries itself moreso as a weathered, desperate plea rather than "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and it's explosive firepower. Pairs up perfectly with the closer too.
38U2
The Joshua Tree

38. Where the Streets Have No Name (5/5)

Would have been much higher in my youth but it's still an undeniable track in all of it's over the top, soaring, anthemic glory. The ambient intro is a big part of what's maintained it's staying power for me. A gorgeous, sprawling, cinematic soundscape to get lost in before Edge's shimmering guitar arpeggio fades in like sunlight beaming through the clouds, that's how you start a fuckin album.
37U2
War

37. Surrender (5/5)

Some of Edge's most colorful pre Eno guitar work as he heavily weaves in his signature delays into War's punchier landscape for a killer penultimate. The band flips relative keys seamlessly and the choir vocals at the end help provide the grandiosity warranted to start bringing the album to a close.
36U2
Boy

36. Shadows and Tall Trees (5/5)

U2's first closer sets the bar high out of the gate, effortlessly rising out of the rubble of the outro of "The Electric Co" with a track that rides the line between epic and hypnotic. It's one of the first glimpses Boy provides into the band's future, which makes it all the refreshing a close after an album mostly full of early rippers. That key change at the end is also one of their most successful, paired with an outro meant to be shouted to the heavens.
35U2
Rattle and Hum

35. Heartland (5/5)

We send Rattle and Hum off with a Joshua Tree outtake that was prior left unfinished, but polished up a year later for this release. While it strengthens this album a good bit in being what I think is this album's best track, it also thematically feels like a pretty significant cornerstone whenever I playlist it into Joshua Tree, making me slightly wish they finished it back then (then again I'm one of those folks who swears by Bono's initial idea that it should have been a double album, and that it sounds incomplete in it's present state). This arrangement is phenomenal though, presenting a morose, haunted soundscape for Bono to grace overtop with some of his strongest vocal writing, highlighting both his low and high registers at their finest.
34U2
No Line on the Horizon

34. Unknown Caller (5/5)

I think Bono's vocals here are pretty cool and thematically match the whole "paranoia in the digital age" vibe but goddamn if this was just an instrumental track it might be in the top 10. That first minute is so cinematic and captures the whole scope from serene to unsettling that makes this band so remarkable for me. The back half boasts one of Edge's best solos too as he brings the track to an explosive conclusion.
33U2
Achtung Baby

33. Acrobat (5/5)

One of my all time favorite penultimate tracks, Edge's slide guitar timbre on this song takes on a liquidity through the distortion that's the fuckin sickest shit ever whenever it's happening. This has always been my favorite track in Achtung Baby's closing run, and it embodies so many of this album's successes as it gloriously rides that line between tense, noisy darkness and melodic beauty.
32U2
War

32. Like a Song... (5/5)

As mentioned somewhere beforehand probably I'm sure, a big part of my U2 fandom comes from dismantling and rearranging their albums. War doesn't actually need this at all because all of the songs on War are perfect and the sequencing is mostly very good, but ever since I saw an alternate running that threw this song as the opener I've been very drawn to not only it's power in that slot (a lot more was changed around besides that though the whole thing was different) and it's firepower as a song in general. One of their most propulsive rippers that positions whatever punk edge they have front and center.
31U2
All That You Can't Leave Behind

31. Levitate (5/5)

A gorgeous, sprawling journey that is everything ATYCLB is not. It's not hard to see why they deemed this unfit for the record but it makes it all the more frustrating that this isn't what the album sounds like instead. "Levitate" is exactly what they should have been doing, taking the lessons they learned in the 90s regarding integrating electronics into their sound and, with the help of Eno and Lanois, finding new, more textural avenues of deploying them as to fuse them with the earnestness and influence of their 80s stuff.
30U2
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

30. Mercy (5/5)

I cannot believe this fucking band wrote a song of this caliber that they also think is one of their strongest songs in any decade, and then not only dropped it from the album (which has been well documented here as otherwise being one of their worst), but still have never released it in any official capacity other than a live version. Who knows where this song could have landed if I wasn't permanently cursed listening to a 192 kbps Youtube rip (edit: this was written before I know the Atom Bomb box set was dropping this year, which BETTER have this song!!!!)
29U2
The Unforgettable Fire

29. Wire (5/5)

This would be in any other band's top 10 and it being outside of their top 25 speaks to how unbelievably cracked their golden period used to be. Edge explores a much colder guitar timbre than he does on the opening duo which makes this track feel all the more refreshing since it's arguably the album's fastest and most energetic, and it's a timbre Adam bounces off of well. His bass sounds really punchy here and he leans into that well with small little riffs here and there. Bono howls over top this track like a madman at points, leaning into some of the most visceral territory he's ever explored as a singer, and he rides this energy through one of their most memorable and energizing outros.
28U2
Boy

28. The Electric Co. (5/5)

Probably would have been top 10 growing up so it's fall off is probably attributed to self induced overexposure but it still fucks incredibly hard with Edge's catchiest riffing across the entire album. The cacophonous, triumphant outro that fades out and then fades back in again is such a wicked choice too, and one that brings the road of the little interludes they'd throw into all these songs to it's natural and most exciting conclusion.
27U2
All That You Can't Leave Behind

27. The Ground Beneath Her Feet (5/5)

The other Million Dollar Hotel Soundtrack cut, "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" is another display in ATYCLB's bonus material demolishing the main tracklist output. "Ground" balances shuffling Zooropa esque drums with gorgeous slide guitars and pads before setting up one of their more rewarding late period builds and codas. Bono's performance and writing here are both phenomenal and among his strongest contributions to a turn of the century U2 song.
26U2
War

26. "40" (5/5)

Something about this song went up another level for me with the realization that Adam is playing the guitar and Edge is playing the bass, because you can hear their voices as writers pretty clearly assembling the beautiful foundation of the song. I've never seen U2 live but it's not hard to see why this has been considered a highlight of their set for pretty much their whole career. Such gorgeous melody writing from Bono and the light swells of backing vocals help fill in the atmosphere wonderfully.
25U2
The Unforgettable Fire

25. Bass Trap (5/5)

A sparse little instrumental built off of a bass loop that's been repitched and drenched in reverb with Edge playing overtop it, this probably isn't gonna show up this high on any other U2 lists but goddamn if it isn't one of the most gorgeous things they've ever done. This is is a similar case to R.E.M.'s "Airportman" where it's not really much of a proper song but ranks in the top 10 most listened to tracks from the artist for me simply because of how soothing and calming it is, and this is a lifeline in moments when I need it. It really takes on an effortless water-like flow and gives off the sensation of overlapping waves, as if you're floating at sea at night.
24U2
Pop

24. Do You Feel Loved (5/5)

Although we have two more songs after this to hit from Pop, this is the song that pops into my head musically the most when I think about this album, probably because it's pretty emblematic of a lot of the shades the album goes through. This is one of their most effective dance rock blends in my mind. Adam's bass riff owns and propels the song perfectly alongside the weird vocoded guitar thingy. The desperation in Bono's voice bleeds throughout this entire song and keeps it tethered to the band's identity thoroughly, but it would still sound absolutely sick as fuck without that as it's also home of one of Edge's sickest solos timbrally. Very simple part but it sounds like it's able to sear metal.
23U2
Achtung Baby

23. The Fly (5/5)

This band is insane for making this the lead off single for this album lmao and that choice embodies why I love these guys. The chorus and verses balance the two polar opposites of Bono's range magnificently through wailing walls of Edge's distortion as the band flips relative keys seamlessly. Adam and Larry provide the stability that keeps it groovin', and the way they bridge all this through to dance music helps it embody so much of what makes this album exhilarating.
22U2
October

22. Tomorrow (5/5)

I didn't know what this song was about when I was younger and mostly found it kinda dozey, making it the song that's seen the most dramatic shift in my opinion overtime since it's a goddamn emotional powerhouse. Of all the songs written about Bono's mother, this one breaks the fucking soul, and it's sparsity in the introduction musically only boosts that more and more. The image of the funeral car alongside the pipes only make Bono's vocal belts sound like anguished cries. They lead this into a full band section eventually and it releases the tension remarkably as well.
21U2
Pop

21. Wake Up Dead Man (5/5)

If "Please" tapped into muted, aching desperation, this is them at their most weathered, and stands as one of their strongest closers. This bare, broken track's frail atmosphere held together near entirely by acoustic guitar at the beginning is shattered in the chorus by loud, ringing clangs of guitar that respond to Bono's vocals that sound as if he can barely get them out. This has one of the only uses of profanity in their catalog (off the top of my head I can only think of three other songs), and this scarcity makes this particular utterance hit with the force of a fist, despite how barely held together the song feels. Eventually it builds to a full band section that devolves into a little bit of screeching feedback, a fitting end to the band's most fucked album.
20U2
The Joshua Tree

20. Bullet the Blue Sky (5/5)

Edge is the hero of this song as he mans his guitar feedback. I said elsewhere that Edge's timbre on another song could sear through metal, but at the intro he's fucking around with his guitar in a way that sounds like the metal itself is melting. Of course this leads into his glorious slides that evoke fighter planes, relevant to the subject matter of a firefight that broke out while Bono was leaving El Salvador. The pacing of the song is weird as fuck as it flips entirely into spoken word in the back half, but his sorta preacher man schtick he rides out in the back half honestly works perfectly for me here. Larry is arguably also the hero of the song has his drum groove kicks ass and Adam's bass groove slides overtop perfectly. Their chemistry here is all around outstanding.
19U2
Boy

19. I Will Follow (5/5)

U2 fucking kill it with their openers usually and there are few better examples than "I Will Follow", which leads off their debut album in spectacular fashion. That hook may mostly ride out one pitch but that rhythm is hooky enough that anything else would detract, and it emphasizes the bridge phenomenally. The bells on this track send it over the top for me too. They launch me into heaven.
18U2
The Joshua Tree

18. Running to Stand Still (5/5)

Pretty shaking song about the perils of heroin addiction that feels all the more brutal coming after "Bullet the Blue Sky", "Running to Stand Still" pairs Joshua Tree's softest arrangement with some of it's harshest subject matter in a way that really brings it out. The slight build at the end is pretty restrained by the standards of this album, given "With or Without You" came songs just beforehand, and it's one of the album's more tasteful moments.
17U2
Pop

17. If God Will Send His Angels (5/5)

At last we send off Pop with it's most beautiful moment, as they pair both my favorite set of lyrics from this album with the most gorgeous melodies they wrote for these sessions. Only really crept up on me in recent years but it's one of the best things they ever did.
16U2
The Joshua Tree

16. Luminous Times (5/5)

This is the last non album track to show up on the list, and it's a remarkable fusion of Eno-isms and the earthier sound U2 was trying to pull from at the time. It's tethered to the Earth by Larry's rapturous, rattling drum pounding that set a thrilling bed for the song the further it progresses, but as it hangs in the air at the beginning it's atmosphere is filled by some of their most gorgeous keys and guitars ever thank you Eno. It all takes on this really stunning, chiming bell like timbre that really adds to the "luminous" quality of the track hehe. Even within the framework of a single disc Joshua Tree, this was a no brainer inclusion that they majorly missed out on.
15U2
War

15. Sunday Bloody Sunday (5/5)

This list generally didn't favor a lot of their mega songs, particularly relative to other material on those albums, but the two titanic singles from War are big exceptions since they're both incredible and majorly defining songs in their catalog for a reason. I was honestly kind of expecting to place this song the higher of the two since it was always the bigger staple for me growing up between the two, and I do think it's lyrically a little better and more impactful, but "New Year's Day" is also just too fucking good (as will soon be discussed). This song is still incredible though and has not lost any of its luster.
14U2
Boy

14. A Day Without Me (5/5)

Hooks fuckin galore. While I love "I Will Follow" with all my heart, I have no idea why this one didn't take off nearly as well as a single given it's an absolutely impeccably composed pop song that leans so gloriously into both the hallmarks of that early Cure post punky style and into U2's own personality. If I was a kid listening back in 80 and heard this for the first time I would have devoured it like crack. Even now, I kind of do.
13U2
Achtung Baby

13. Zoo Station (5/5)

U2 usually crushed it with their openers but this was an album where they really crucially needed to present something wild right out of the gate, and they fuckin did it all right. As the crashing distorted guitar smashes alongside the slow building dance groove that launches right into the tripped out phased out beat with Bono's incredible wordless vocal acrobatics, they seamlessly present a fuckin universe of sounds you'd never even imagined they could do right out of the gate before a single word is uttered. That's my fuckin boys right there.
12U2
War

12. New Year's Day (5/5)

There is no fuckin with this absolutely perfect song (although it is only War's 2nd highest). From that piano riff, to Bono's firepower of a performance backed up by the right melodies to sell it, to Edge's screeching guitars throughout the track that fully develop into one of his strongest solos, this song is emblematic of their grandiosity and shows that they were already able to build sweeping, cinematic tracks before Eno was ever in the picture.
11U2
No Line on the Horizon

11. Moment of Surrender (5/5)

The last song from my lifetime to make the list comes a lot higher than it should all things considered. "Moment of Surrender" is the furthest glimpse we have into the fullest potential of the "future hymns" they were trying to write during the initial sessions for No Line on the Horizon, and while I enjoy the majority of that album and think its songs that sound like "just regular U2" are still usually better than the standard set by the two albums before it, an album of shit like this would have been one of the best in their career full stop. At least we have this unbelievable track, which Eno went as far enough to describe as "the most magical experience [he's] ever had in a studio" (which is a goddamn wild thing for that man to say), where Bono belts an all timer performance of his while a percussion loop grinds on, backed by the rhythm section and a blanket of heart wrenching organs and strings that paint an aching, desolate backdrop.
10U2
The Joshua Tree

10. Mothers of the Disappeared (5/5)

Bit of a sleeper hit for me over the years, probably because I started out listening to this album on a CD player across the room and it's intro is very quiet, but it overtime has cemented itself as my favorite U2 closer. The way the almost jaw-harp esque texture of the start builds into the main portion of the song is one of the smoothest yet most exciting texture shifts and build ups within the album, and Bono yet again fuses melody and tragedy beautifully as he cries out for the children who had "disappeared" in El Salvador by the hands of the government through a melody that he apparently first wrote in a tune he used to teach children hygiene years beforehand, which is wild to me since it's one of the most beautiful passages I've heard from the man. The outro is incredible, and despite the deep sadness in this song is a really sweepingly gorgeous moment in which, like "Moment of Surrender", Eno and U2 fuse together in a way only they can
9U2
War

9. Drowning Man (5/5)

War's highest track is U2's finest display of sonic architecture without Eno's hands involved at all, as the band whirl together a pool of acoustic harmonics, electric violin, and volume swells held together only by Larry and Adam as this one of the hardest U2 songs to count. The little riff that rides into the third verse only adds to this more and more, an incredible melody but one that only adds to the lack of sturdiness underneath Bono. This all makes it sound like he's fighting for life at sea and make his passionate belts all the more anguished and evocative, paving way for an incredible violin solo that wraps it all up.
8U2
Zooropa

8. Stay (5/5)

Stay comes at a pretty crucial point in the sequencing after the madness of "Numb" and "Lemon", and it's more reserved, linear presentation both helps the listener breathe a second and go "okay yes I am still listening to a U2 album" while also really nakedly exposing the brutal heaviness of the lyrics, dealing pretty heavily with themes of domestic violence (albeit from the perspective of a ghost passing by). Edge's simple guitar ostinato that goes follows a half step resolution up to the tonic and then immediately leaps to the 2nd and back down sounds pretty stable on it's own, but over and over again alongside the backing swells of guitars add a slight degree of unsteadiness to the song that gets greatly resolved by one of Bono's greatest final choruses ever.
7U2
Achtung Baby

7. So Cruel (5/5)

For as much as Achtung Baby's appeal to me comes from the vibrant shades of colors it fuses together, it's this relatively more reserved ballad track that's stood with me the most with time. Not to say the production isn't elaborate, magnificently utilizing it's strings and Edge's feedback eventually shifting into a trem layer, just with more restraint than, say, "The Fly" or "Zoo Station". Not to mention Larry is still there keeping a firm, steady, yet interesting and dynamic beat. But this is a song where Bono is the star of the show for me, with his lyrics expressing codependency in a relationship with the most vivid use of duality across the whole album, beautifully tapping thematically into the album all around while also boasting some of his, if not outright his strongest lyrics to date. And my god does he grace these words with one of the most stunning melodies the man has ever come up with.
6U2
The Unforgettable Fire

6. The Unforgettable Fire (5/5)

I've recently been watching the fuck out of Springsteen's induction of these guys into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame because he really poetically understands what makes these guys special and that's a very resonating thing to hear since (despite this list existing), I have a hard time putting the magic into words, and one phrase he used in reference to The Edge particularly that has lingered in my lexicon since is "sonic architecture", which has always been one of my biggest priorities and values when it comes to this band because I started my whole U2 journey on their first Eno escapade where they flipped their sound on its head entirely and went from punchy post punkers into ambient soundscapers. This gorgeously builds a crystalline, icy, heartbreaking display of "sonic architecture" that Bono serenades overtop with some of his most agile and passionate vocal writing ever. This song embodies "the magic" I hear in these guys
5U2
Zooropa

5. Zooropa (5/5)

Although not their highest ranking opener here (by a very slim margin), Zooropa is their most effective kickoff to an album and the most excitingly they've ever used that role. An eerie, odd fade in of effects, loops and noise is only threaded to the musical world clearly through a little piano riff that eventually then breaks into the noise again until Edge's wah-d out guitar fades in and serves at two points in the song as one of the band's coolest transition devices. The first half rides along with a much more comfortable and relaxed swagger, leaning perfectly into the themes of hyper commercialization in the verses (to the point where the lyrics are basically just product slogans), and it all paints a very vivid world until the main wah riff re-emerges and, after a quick flurry of effects, the tempo bumps up and launches us into hyperspace, as the B section stands as one of their most exhilarating moments.
4U2
The Joshua Tree

4. One Tree Hill (5/5)

Although I'm a reasonably big fan of The Joshua Tree, it's an album I've always had a harder time assessing on it's own terms compared to other U2 "classics" like War, Achtung Baby, The Unforgettable Fire, and even Zooropa nowadays. It's great, I like most of the songs on it, but it's the most incomplete feeling (good) U2 album to me in it's main form and its sequencing generally frontloads its most recognizable songs in a way that rather awkwardly makes half the record feel like a greatest hits album. One area this album gets remarkably right though is its closing duo, and "One Tree Hill" kicks this run off magnificently with the album's highlight moment. Pretty much anything you could want out of a Joshua Tree song is here, with Larry and Adam providing a propulsive yet reserved rhythmic grounding as Eno and Edge fill up the sky, perfectly setting up a moving tribute to Bono's late friend. Also goddamn Bono how did you one take that shit what the fuck
3U2
The Unforgettable Fire

3. A Sort of Homecoming (5/5)

For a pretty hefty portion of my life this was my number 1 song of theirs, and honestly on any given day any track from this point onward has reasonable claim to that spot, but that first listen, and then the subsequent 20-30 in immediate succession that followed stand as one of the most exhilarating moments I ever had with music growing up. It's since become one of my most enduring lifelong favorite songs, and the only reason it isn't still my number 1 is just the power of how fucking incredible these guys are. I love how loose the structuring of the song is after it's second chorus. I love how Edge's chords ring out like sunlight across the track, still not yet really his signature style but shimmering and beautiful and vivid in the soundscape they paint nonetheless. I love every melody Bono drops on this track and they are all perfectly paced but not too predictably placed fuck me what a song.
2U2
Boy

2. An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart (5/5)

I kinda bent the rules here to maintain the limit of an even divisible of 40 but also who the fuck listens to these two songs apart from each other they are a linked they are breathing they are deeply incomplete without the other but together stand as one of the finest moments I've ever heard on a debut album. "An Cat Dubh" particularly is that gooood shit, as Edge deploys a very un Edge creepy ass riff that the lo-fi violin recording sounds eerie as hell overtop. The production quality really leans into the unsettlingness of this song, which gets broken in the verses a bit to pair alongside Bono's melodic writing to fully bring itself around once the chorus closes. And "Into the Heart" takes us into a much softer, more graceful section that details childhood and the loss of innocence with a level of purity and grace they've never been able to reach with that same subject matter since. It's a jawdropping 8 minutes to come on any band's debut album
1U2
The Unforgettable Fire

1. Bad (5/5)

Some bands it's easy to pick a top song but literally any song starting with the title track from this album was a contender for the top here. After ruminating about it, I settled with the song that has maintained and reflected it's brilliance the most strongly in every single version and adaptation I've heard the band put it through. Lyrically this is already my favorite U2 song, offering both a lifeline of comfort yet a stark understanding of the harsh realities of addiction in a way that hit a little close to home. The studio cut is gorgeous, shimmering, yearning, and somber in all the right ways, and the live one adds some bombast to bring it to life even further, but Bono flipping this perspective purely on himself for Songs of Surrender has also further deepened my appreciation of the track as that may arguably be that albums biggest justification. No matter what they've done with this, it's always torn me apart, and at its purest core to me is their best song.
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