U2 Best Of 1980-1990/The B-Sides CD

The double disc edition of the Irish band's first decade coupled with a second disc of single b-sides.

U2: Bono (vocals, guitar); The Edge (guitar, keyboards, vocals); Adam Clayton (bass); Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums).
Additional personnel includes: B.B. King (vocals, guitar); Una O'Kane, Nicola Cleary, Aengus O'Connor, Nicholas Milne (strings); The Memphis Horns (horns); Paul Barrett (piano, keyboards); Billy Preston (Hammond organ, background vocals); Joey Miskulin (organ); Brian Eno (synthesizer); Benmont Tench (keyboards); Ms. Bobbye Hall (percussion); Rebecca Evans Russell, Phyllis Duncan, Helen Duncan, Edna Wright, Maxine Waters, Julia Waters (background vocals).
Producers: Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Steve Lillywhite, Jimmy Iovine.
Engineers include: Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Paul Thomas.
Island and U2 realized that longtime fans of the band wouldn't need The Best of 1980-1990. Unlike the proposed Best of 1990-2000, which would likely boast the non-LP "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me" and the Passengers' "Miss Sarajevo," 1980-1990 contained nothing but material culled directly from the albums, which didn't exactly entice hardcore followers. So, the label and the band decided to pair the compilation with a collection of the group's B-sides from the '80s, none of which had ever appeared on an album before. For die-hard U2 fans, this is something of a godsend -- not necessarily a holy grail, which would have been a complete B-sides collection, including the long-missing early EPs -- since many of these tracks have been out of print for years. That's not to say they'll be entirely pleased with what they hear. The B-Sides is wildly uneven, fluctuating between a handful of lost masterpieces ("Spanish Eyes," "Sweetest Thing," "Hallelujah Here She Comes," "Silver and Gold," "A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel," "Trash, Trampoline and the Party Girl"), a momentum-crushing triptych of mediocre karaoke ("Dancing Barefoot," "Everlasting Love," "Unchained Melody"), and formless filler (pretty much everything else). Despite the uneven music, fans will need The B-Sides, not just for the handful of worthy contenders but for its sheer rarity. Not only have the B-sides themselves been difficult to locate, but the disc itself was designed as a collector's item: after the first week of sales, The B-Sides was pulled from the market, and Island shipped only The Best of 1980-1990. Clearly, this was a tactic to raise press awareness and boost sales, but that doesn't mean that fans shouldn't take advantage of its limited release. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
As one of the most popular bands of the '80s, U2 didn't quite fit into any particular category. They were a post-punk band that quickly found acceptance from a hard rock audience, a group that made fully formed albums but often made their best statements on individual songs, especially during the '80s. Consequently, they're a very hard band to anthologize. Since they were most effective on single songs, it seems that throwing all of them together on one disc would work. The problem is, each of the albums, from Boy to Rattle and Hum, has a distinctive flavor that doesn't necessarily blend when combined, especially in the nonchronological form of The Best of 1980-1990. There's little quibbling with the featured tracks on U2's first compilation -- a few important songs, such as "Gloria," "I Fall Down," "Seconds," and "Two Hearts Beat as One," may be missing, but everything else deserves to be here ("Pride," "New Year's Day," "With or Without You," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "Sunday Bloody Sunday," "Bad," "Desire," etc.). Even though the song selection is strong, the album winds up as less than the sum of its parts -- each song is pretty great of its own accord (even the single mix of the B-side "Sweetest Thing," which is, in truth, not much different at all), but the overall effect is a little underwhelming. On one hand, it may be a good choice for casual fans or noEntertainment Weekly (12/11/98, p.80) - "The martial snares and boyish histrionics that made them one of the world's biggest rock acts have held up pretty well....As for disc 2, aside from the playful `Sweetest Thing' and some worthy covers, the B sides sound like it." - Rating: B