Ranking the U2 Albums (in honor of their new release)

I've been toying with this idea for some time, as U2 are my favorite band. I finally came up with a system (DORK WARNING! DORK WARNING!) that I liked and decided to rank the albums via "song ranking averages"; aka, 1 is "who were the ad wizards who thought this song was a good idea?" to 10, which is "simply one of my favorite songs ever, across the board". I ranked each song and averaged, and each album thus has a score.

A few disclaimers before I post:
*** This is MY ranking...there are some songs by U2 that are deemed "10" by many out there that just don't capture me as much...and I'm sure the reverse is true as well...

*** I have so far chosen to not rank the new album, "No Line on the Horizon"...although I may leave some small commentary at the end based on my initial opinions...

*** I am only including true studio albums save "Rattle and Hum", which had enough studio material (vs. "live") to be ranked. As a result, though, I only ranked studio songs for "RaH".

*** What is interesting about this list is how the album I usually consider as my favorite did not get #1 on this list...or 2 or 3 for that matter...this is probably due to the fact that it has such a wide range of rankings...but some of my absolute favorite songs are on that album (I'll leave it to your imagination for now), but it has just enough "meh"-songs to drop it down a bit...

*** My criteria for "highlight songs" on each album was a ranking of 8 or better. Essentially, these are the songs that most "move me"...

HERE WE GO...

# 11: Pop (1997), 4.58 avg: Highlight song: "Wake Up Dead Man"

# 10: Zooropa (1993), 4.7 avg: Highlight song: "The First Time"

# 9: October (1981), 5.18 avg: Highlight song: "Gloria"

# 8: Boy (1980), 5.82 avg: : Highlight songs: "I Will Follow", "Out of Control"

# 7: Rattle and Hum (1988), 6.11 avg: Highlight songs: "Heartland", "When Love Comes to Town", "All I Want is You"

# 6: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004), 7.18 avg: Highlight songs: "Vertigo", "City of Blinding Lights"

# 5: Achtung Baby (1991), 7.25 avg: Highlight songs: "Until the End of the World", "Zoo Station", "Mysterious Ways", "The Fly"

# 4: The Unforgettable Fire (1984), 7.3 avg: Highlight songs: "Pride", "Bad", "A Sort of Homecoming", "The Unforgettable Fire", "Wire"

# 3: War (1983), 7.4 avg: Highlight songs: "New Years' Day", "Like a Song", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", "Two Hearts Beat as One", "40"

# 2: All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000), 7.64 avg/7 median:Highlight songs: "Beautiful Day", "Grace", "Walk On", "Elevation", "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of"

# 1: The Joshua Tree (1987), 7.64 avg/8 median: Highlight songs: "Where the Streets Have No Name", "With or Without You", "In God's Country", "Bullet the Blue Sky", "Red Hill Mining Town", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"

So there you go. The last 6 are quite close, with 1 and 2 being so close I needed a tiebreaker (the median). Where does "No Line on the Horizon" rank? Well, it's entirely too early to make a true ranking (only heard most songs on it once), but at first glance, I'd say in the "Rattle and Hum"-range ("6ish"). But, one interesting thing is while I have generally enjoyed the songs at some level, I'm not finding ANY "8 or aboves" so far on it...even my least favorite U2 albums have at least one song that I think is worthy of mention as a classic U2 song...not sure yet if "NLotH" will deliver that... I may update this list later when I feel I have a better grasp of things!