Retro Spins: U2 - Rattle And Hum

For their final entry into the 80's, U2 set to task to create a hybrid live / studio album, which in turn would be accompanied by a rockumentary film. While the band intended the project to be a tribute to many of the legacy artists who came before them, the band were accused by some of trying to place themselves amongst the ranks of such artists.

In total, nine studio tracks would be recorded, and mixed within them would be live songs recorded from several shows, including Denver's McNichols Sports Arena, Tempe, Arizona's Sun Devil Stadium, "Save the Yuppie Free Concert" in San Francisco, and Madison Square Garden, New York. For the film, the Denver shows were represented in black and white, while Arizona in color.

Upon its release, critics were split, and those against it were not kind. While some stated U2 were making a deliberate and pretentious attempt at rock and roll renown. Things didn't get much better, or nicer from there. From the perspective of multiple reviewers, it was called a mess, disjointed, stylistically confused, lacking cohesion, U2's self-celebrated ascension into pop history books, flat out awful, and probably the best for last, stated that Rattle And Hum just prattles and numbs.

To be fair, not everyone hated it. However, as it usually goes, the most critical are the loudest. The critics also didn't hinder album sales, with Rattle And Hum becoming another platinum seller for the band. It would also become the first double album to reach number one in the USA since Bruce Springsteen's The River in 1980 and would also reach number one in the UK and Australia.

As for me, I have to agree with the harsher critics. Specifically, in that it feels like there's no direction to the album. It's consistent jumping back and forth between live tracks and studio cuts makes it difficult to get into a rhythm with it all. Perhaps the better approach would have been to relegate the studio tracks to one platter, with the live portions being on another. This separation would have perhaps helped everything flow better.

I won't pan it fully, though. It's not without its hits, such as Desire, and Angel Of Harlem. However, wading through almost seventy-five minutes of music to find seven minutes of good stuff isn't really conducive or appealing.

Overall, the biggest fault I have with Rattle And Hum is that it's just too bloated, and unfocused. Again, separating the live from the studio may have helped to fix this. I don't know, it just feels like a poor note for U2 to end the 80's on, but ultimately, it's no surprise. Like I said from the very beginning, I was never a big fan, or I suppose fan at all, of them.

Obviously, my opinion on the subject isn't the end all be all, and U2's popularity only continued to soar. They released six albums between 1991 and 2009, all of them becoming multiplatinum sellers. It was only with 2014's Songs of Innocence, that sales would vastly plummet. However, we were also in a digital era at this point, so it's difficult to say that their popularity waned, so much as the general population was consuming music differently.

U2 continues to tour, showing no signs of slowing down. As of this writing, November 2025, the band was also working on material for a new studio album, tentatively slated for 2026.

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