Search - U2 :: Best of U2 1990-2000 (Shm)

Great collection of U2's overlooked 90s music!

Distant Voyageur | Io | 01/10/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I thought that the "Best of 1980-1990" collection musically, was awesome with alot of their strongest songs from their 80s heyday. However, I thought that compilation was forced with only one new song "Sweetest Thing" being a re-recording of a previous B-Side and with the hit songs having large parts cut out especially "New Years Day" & "Where The Streets Have No Name" and it dragged down the collection as a whole. However that was made up for with a 2-CD edition that made it a worthy addition to my CD collection and the same holds true with it's successor "The Best of 1990-2000. U2 did not have as many major hits during the 1990s like they did during the 1980s and they were going further & further into experimenting with techno sounds which started with their 1991 masterpiece "Achtung Baby", went even further into techno with the craziness of "Zooropa" and eventually imploded with their vastly underrated opus "Pop", the latter of which the songs lifted off if were re-recorded. After that, they returned to their `pre-techno' days with their critically acclaimed "All That You Can't Leave Behind" which is yet another great album from U2. This second hits collection is a playing tape of U2's 90s experimental material and it
S a great retrospective of their music from this decade although it has minor flaws just like every `hits' CD does. I mean, there isn't such a thing as a `perfect' "Greatest Hits" CD, even from my perspective but "Best of 1990-2000" nonetheless is a marvelous 72 minute CD of 16 tracks of amazing U2 music. There are 6 new tracks, four of which are re-recordings of older songs. There are also three songs that are lifted from soundtracks such as the haunting "The Hands That Built America" from "Gangs Of New York", and the bizarre "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" from Batman Forever. Ok, the flaws begin with "Electrical Storm". There are two version, one original, and one William Orbit Mix. From my perspective, this is one of U2's best songs in many years with elements of Orbit's haunting production and the song is one of the strongest cuts on the CD. However, I'm not sure if they messed up in placing Orbt's Mix on the regular 1-CD version of this collection instead of the regular version which is one the 2nd dico of the deluxe 2-CD edition as it should've been reversed with the original on the `hits' CD and the Orbit Remix on CD2 of the 2-CD edition. Brushing aside the clumsy choice of the songs positions, both version are great but I love the Orbit Remix more. The second flaw begins with some of the re-recordings of some older songs. While I have nothing against this, I feel that in the case of "Gone", & especially "Discotheque", the stripping away of the techno sounds reduces the pleasure ability of the songs that were present on the parent album version from the "Pop" album. "Discotheque" especially suffers from this. While the "New Mix" version is good, the original version on "Pop" with it's techno-pop charisma, has a very explosive, loud, & colorful feel to it where as the stripping away of it's techno feel, it robs the song of much of it's colorful sound. Overall, though, the song remains a classic nonetheless even in it's newer reincarnation. All is forgiven. "Staring At The Sun" and "Gone" on the other hand don't suffer as badly as the previous two tracks I mentioned even though I enjoy the originals more. Third, of course is the exclusion of strong songs like "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?", "Trying to Throw Your Arms around the World", and "Lemon" and "Elevation". Then again there was so much strong music that U2 did that there isn't enough room to fit them all on just one disc and making it a double album of just hits would probably kill the sales of the parent albums so I'm cool about all that. It's still a smart decision to include "One" and "Mysterious Ways" on here as these two songs are as strong as anything that U2 did during the 80s if not better. "One" is a bittersweet ballad with a sense of bitterness, sadness, yet happiness, and warmth melted in with the sad & bitter feel to it. "Mysterious Ways" is one that's hard to explain but most of us have already heard it so there's little need to but what I can say is is that this and "One" are among U2's best songs they ever made. I personally think that U2's 90s works are as strong as their 80s works. Apart from all of that, I think that this CD is a marvelous successor to the 1980-1990 collection. In fact, I think that 1990-2000 was much better assembled than the previous hits CD was as where that one offered little new, the 1990-2000 set offers plenty of new or non-album(not B-Sides) tracks that are worthy of having on here.If you find this which isn't hard to do, I suggest getting the Deluxe Edition of this collection as the second disc contains some B-Sides and some awesome remixes that are truly haunting, fun, & amazing. By just getting the regular version of "Best of 1990-2000" you'll be missing out on some incredible yet obscure music that U2 made that I think is even stronger than what made it one the "Hits" CD. Even if you decide to just get the 1-CD version, this collection offers a lot more new material than what the 1980-1990 collection does in terms of 1-CD editions. This collection was worth the wait. If you can afford it, get the deluxe edition because disc two is worth the money. If not, then the regular version of this collection will do well too. Buy it! :-) :D"