U2 - War (1983)

Thank goodness. If I have to review another U2 album I'm glad it's from their young and naive days as opposed to their up-their-own-asses days. This one is even earlier than The Joshua Tree, the album that made me realize that U2 really isn't so bad if you can just get past all the pretentiousness. They're even better if you look past all the people who say they're the greatest band in the world and realize that yeah, they can write a pretty solid tune.

U2 - The Joshua Tree (1987)

I got a comment from my sister on my recent review of Californication saying The Red Hot Chili Peppers were her least favorite band. In her own words, "I'd rather listen to U2 (and that's saying a lot)." Now I don't really know a lot about U2, other than I generally don't like them or their music. But I don't really have a good reason why. I know I didn't really like the one album of their's I've heard so far. I also know they have a massive air of pretentiousness surrounding them, whether it's an applied attribute given them by a presupposing media, or their own fault by taking themselves uber-serious and using album names such as How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.