After listening to a few of their albums again that I don't own, I have to say that Zooropa is probably my least favorite album of theirs ever (with the exception of that track with Johnny Cash and Brian Eno..oh yeah entitled The Wanderer..) but anyways..I still haven't heard Boy..and probably another one..but overall..i'm even moving Pop ahead of Zooropa..I wanted to stab my eardrums with pencils.
Zooropa is one of those albums that I like to defend just because it's the underdog. It kind of seems like a glorified EP, and it's definitely the weakest of U2's 90's entries, but I think the first half is pretty good, actually. The second half definitely shows us more of what happens when Bono tries do hard, but then, so does about half of my least favorite U2 album,
Rattle and Hum. (Though I need to re-listen to
Boy before I go ahead and make that claim for sure.)
If I had to rank all of U2's albums right now:
1.
Pop2.
The Joshua Tree3.
Achtung Baby4.
War5.
All that You Can't Leave Behind6.
Zooropa7.
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb8.
October9.
The Unforgettable Fire10.
Rattle and Hum (don't get me wrong, the studio tracks are largely excellent, but the live stuff totally kills the flow)
N/A:
Boy (because I've only listened to it 2 or 3 times, though I'd probably put it towards the bottom)
To be honest, as much as I love U2, I think all of their albums are pretty inconsistent except for the Top 4.