For the past several months I’ve been identifying the best three albums by my top 50 favorite rock bands. I have had a lot of fun listening to great music, making YouTube videos, and writing these blogs. I hope you’ve enjoyed this series. There’s one band missing from the list. Anyone who knows me knows that my favorite rock band is U2.

Criteria for selecting the best three albums

First greatest hits albums are not permitted. Second, no live albums. I will share that I have seen U2 live in concert more than any other band. They put on an unbelievably awesome show. The last few days they’ve been in the news. Apparently, their new show in Vegas at The Sphere is mind-bending. I might need to make my first trip to Vegas to see them. I will be including an honorable mention album or two for the top 25 bands.

U2’s albums ranked by ChatGPT

Let’s look at what artificial intelligence has to say about this list. According to ChatGPT below are the top five U2 albums based on sales and critical acclaim.

I will highlight there is one album that absolutely is missing. You’ll see it on my list.

Popular releases for this band

Let’s look at some data from Spotify. According to that musical streaming platform below are the top five most popular U2 albums as well as their most recent single “Atomic City” which I think is okay. There’s the album I was looking for, War. I will talk about why that album was such a critical record for this band.

The third-best album by this band is War

The third-best album by U2 is War, their third album. This record kept this band alive. Here’s what happened. They released their debut album Boy to many accolades. Then they had the classic sophomore slump in October which is not a good record. The band wondered whether or not they should continue to play rock music. They decided to stay together and released War. It starts with the best song they ever wrote “Sunday Bloody Sunday”. It includes “New Year’s Day” as well as “Surrender” and several other good songs. Without this album, the band would have quit and disappeared into oblivion.

The other third-best album by the boys from Dublin

The other third-best album by U2 is All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Once again the band was in a bad place. They were recovering from the release of Pop, a generally awful album. It may be their worst one. Critics and fans had written them off and then U2 returned with a killer album. I saw them on tour in Chicago for this album and they just put on a hell of a show. It was clear to everyone the boys were back.

The second-best album by U2

The second-best album by U2 is The Joshua Tree. Many consider this to be their masterpiece record. Indeed it is a masterpiece record. Released while I was in college, I played it endlessly. The album includes “With or Without You”, and “Where the Streets Have No Name” as well as several other great tunes. In fact, there’s not a bad song on this record. I will say the same thing about U2 that I said about Led Zeppelin. If The Joshua Tree is your second-best record, boy you are an epic band.

Honorable mention albums for this band

Here are the honorable mention albums for this band. The first is The Unforgettable Fire. I saw them on this tour at Constitution Hall Downtown in DC. Only 3,000 in the audience, an amazing show. It includes the song “Pride” about Martin Luther King and “Bad”, one of the songs that sounds great when they play it live. The other honorable mention album is How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, one of their more recent releases. It opens with the rocking guitar song “Vertigo”, and includes “City of Blinding Lights”.

The third honorable mention album for this band

The third honorable mention album for U2 is Rattle and Hum. The Joshua Tree made them megastars. They got a little too big for their britches and came up with a really bad idea – to make a concert movie. The movie was not great, but the album that was released with it is really good. It includes one of my favorite songs “Desire”. It ends with probably the best love song this band ever wrote “All I Want is You”.

The best album by U2

The best album by U2 is Achtung Baby. After the fame and fortune of The Joshua Tree and all the exposure from Rattle and Hum the band was labeled as a little too serious. Bono specifically for being a self-righteous Messianic complex frontman who was full of himself. All true. The band decided they needed to change it up. Bono put on some silly glasses and became the fly. They moved to Berlin after the wall went down and decided to make a fun rock and roll record. That’s exactly what Achtung Baby is. The band peaked with this record because they stepped outside their comfort zone and said you know what? At the end of the day, we’re just the best rock band in the world. Nothing more, nothing less.

There you have it – the three best U2 albums. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

I am Doug Keating and this is my letter to my sons.