Music: Buy U2 - The Best of 1990-2000 [Deluxe Limited Edition w/ Bonus DVD] Online

Average Rating:

Unlike the 1980-1990 collection, 1990-2000 offers plenty of new music and songs previously unavailable on any of their 'proper' studio albums, new songs, and some revamped version of some of their older songs. While I have no problem with re-recording the songs "Discotheque" and "Staring At The Sun", the stripping away of the techno coating to me, takes away a lot of their colorful blaze that they had on their original and the result is the songs being just good, where in their original versions on "POP", they are awesome. Still, it's good hearing these songs from a different light though. Songs like "One", "Mysterious Ways", and "Beautiful Day" are among their best songs they made during this decade.

The 1990s found U2 diving into techno tinged rock with their masterpiece "Achtung Baby", dove even further with the craziness of "Zooropa", and the techno experiments eventually implode after their vastly underappreciated 1997 opus "Pop". This best of set, plays a tape of U2's journey through their time through their underrated 90s music. I personally think that they were as strong during the 90s as they were during the 80s and they are still going strong now in the 21st century with the new classic "Electrical Storm".

However, it doesn't stop there! This 2-CD edition also has a second disc of 73 minutes of great B-Sides & remixes of their hits and even B-Sides remixes. While this surely disappointed many including me, by excluding many B-Sides like "Paint It Black", the remixes though make up for it. The Zooromancer mix of "Salome" is a hypnotizing classic with an eerie, danceable, and dark atmosphere. The beats are phat, the atmosphere is eerie in a stunning way, and the melody is intoxicating. This 2-CD edition is worth getting just for this song alone. The Perfecto Mix of "Even Better Than The Real Thing" is surprisingly great and almost as good as the original classic. It's quite a great, and forward-looking dance mix that doesn't wreck the songs power at all. "Summer Rain" from the recording sessions of their "All That You Can't Leave Behind" sessions was on the limited edition of that album and now with it no longer available, the song makes it's way here and it's a nice acoustic track with a spring rain feels as the song title demonstrates. "North & South Of The River" is a drippy, electronic classic. The Solar Plexis Club Mix of "Mysterious Way" is a nice reworking of the original classic although not as strong. I love the Jeep Mix of "Lemon" with it's old school hip-hop vibe mixed with aggressive melody and I enjoy it almost as much as the original. The final track, the Hexidecimal Mix of "Discotheque" is great too although not as good as the original version but superior to the the 'new version'. All other tracks that I did not point out are great too but the ones I mentioned are the ones that stand out the most.

However, it's disc two that makes me have a bone to pick with Universal. While the music is far more than five starts, the title says that it's a B-Sides CD, but the truth is, there are only three 'original' B-Sides, as the rest are remixes of other B-Sides that have yet to see the light of day, and of songs that made it on studio albums. I have no idea what on Earth was going through the record executives minds when they were assembling disc two. For Pete's sake, it's a B-Sides disc, not a remix album. In fact, they should've entitled the second disc "B-Sides & remixes" and then it would've been less disappointing for most fans. Hopefully, in the near future, they'll assemble a U2 box set of songs, and material that never made onto their regular albums, nor on any of their hits CDs. Doing so, I think that they could fix what was botched up on this 2-CD collection. A thumbs down to Universal where mediocrity abounds and recycling the same old music seems to be endemic. Even worse, they failed to put the original version of "Electrical Storm" on the Hits' CD and instead, the Orbit Mix was put on there. Personally, while I like The William Orbit Remix much more, that version belongs on here while the original should've been put on CD-1. What were they thinking??? What they should've done was including the original versions of their B-Sides and assembled a remix double album to go along with this collection. God only knows, maybe there's a Box Set that's in the making hopefully.

Apart from the bumbling job done when conceiving this hits project, this "Best of 1990-2000" is a great follow-up and in fact, an improvement over the 1980-1990 set. If you can afford it, get this 2-CD edition. Believe me, the amount of new material that this collection offers is far more than what the previous hits CD offered.

A great collection that was badly mishandled in it's conception, U2's "Best of 1990-2000" nonetheless deserves a place in every U2 fan's collection. If you can afford it, get this 2 CD edition because if you wind up getting the single disc version, you might end up missing out on some great music that is present on CD 2. It's a pity that they bumbled badly enough to include the original B-Sides. Buy this collection anyway. It's so worth it!

2. Mysterious Ways - groovy tune that, well, I don't know, has something to do with sex 4

3. Beautiful Day - no comment. you've probably heard this song a million times, and a million times is not enough 5

4. Electrical Storm - Bono compares the state of the world to a fighting couple. 4

5. One. No comment. Wonderful. 5

6. Miss Sarajevo - this was "Passengers",not U2. I don't like that opera dude too much either. 3

7. Stay. Some of Bono's most disturbing-imagery lyrics: "Just the bang and the clatter as an angel hits the ground." 4

8. Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Of - uplifting song that tells you to cheer up, and put the gun away. 4

9. Gone - this new mix starts off beat. It's weird, and this "new mix" has also deprived the original of it's POP flavor. If you're going to deprive songs of their 90s experimentation, don't put them on the album. Yet I will admit I like this mix too. 3

10. Until the End of the World - aggresive duel between Bono's voice and Edge's guitar was possibly written during the frustrations of the Berlin period. Also great lyrics about Jesus and Judus 4

11. The Hand That Built America - good song that I don't think belongs on a greatest hits CD for a specific period ... 2

12. Discotheque. New mix also deprives listener from POP experimentation 3

13. Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me - Bono, (or MacPhisto) sums up the life of a rock star in 5 minutes flat. 5

14. Staring at the Sun - well I just don't like this mix. Period. 2

15. Numb - these guys are determined on tweaking with these songs for this release like a deranged George Lucas . Still good. 4

16. First Time - really great song the first time I heard it. 2
Average:3.5

B-Sides
1. Lady w/ spinning Head. 5
2. Dirty Day (Junk Day) 4
3. Summer Rain 4
4. Electrical Storm 3
5. North and South of the River 3
6. Your Blue Room 3
7. Happiness is a warm gun 3
8. Salome Zooromancer 2
9. Even Better Than the Real thing Perfecto 2
10. Numb (Gimme Some Dignity) 2
11. Mysterious Ways Solar Plexus 4
12. If God Will Send His Angels Big Yam 3
13. Lemon (Jeep Mix) 4
14. Discoteque hexidecimal 3