Month: October 2020

Cardi B and Megan Thee Stallion teamed up to release their fiery collaboration “WAP” back in August. The song and it’s raunchy visual went instantly viral, garnering reactions from seemingly everyone like conservative talk show hosts, right-wing politicians, and even PETA. The track soared to No. 1 upon its debut but despite its success, the song will not be considered at next year’s Grammy ceremony.

Per the Recording Academy’s guidelines, a song is eligible for a Grammy at the 63rd annual ceremony only if it was released between September 1, 2019 and August 31, 2020. Since “WAP” was released on August 7, it still makes the deadline but Cardi has decided to forgo its submission. According to a report from Pitchfork, “WAP” was not submitted for Grammy consideration this year. Instead, the report states that Cardi has decided to wait for her upcoming album’s release, which has yet to be announced. Cardi will then be submitting the song along with her forthcoming album as a whole.

Though the song won’t be the talk of February’s Grammy’s, it will definitely be remembered for its viral moment — something that Megan didn’t expect. In a recent interview, Megan revealed she was surprised to hear that the song had been controversial upon its release. “When I saw all of the politicians in an uproar about mine and Cardi’s ‘WAP,’ I was just really taken aback,” she said. “Like, why is this your focus right now? If you have an issue with what I’m saying, don’t listen to it.”

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Last Updated: October 12th

While the choices of what you listen to are virtually endless, recent years have added another decision to the equation: how are you going to listen. Uproxx has already highlighted one platform, Spotify, in search of the best playlists available across genres. But pretending that Spotify is the only source for playlist listening would be to overlook some of the best curation happening right now. And that’s happening over on Apple Music.

The cool thing about Apple Music is how they’ve put some of their most visible content in the hands of marquee names. Aside from their tentpole figures like Zane Lowe, Ebro Darden, and Julie Adenuga, they’ve got the likes of Drake, Frank Ocean, St. Vincent, and Elton John hosting radio shows on the regular. But those figures also are working their taste into playlists, which are available on demand for your listening pleasure. Appropriately, our choices for the best playlists on Apple Music show a mix of both of these worlds, with content that you legitimately can’t find anywhere else.

New Music Daily (Eclectic)

How can you go wrong with a title like that? Apple Music’s flagship playlist is exactly what it sounds like — a roundup of the best new music, updated on a weekly basis, and curated by the top figures of the platform. It’s an eclectic interpretation of pop music, and you can expect the biggest hits while they are still fresh, as well as music’s brightest rising stars.

OVO Sound Radio (Hip-Hop, Curated By Drake)

There are a few radio shows on Apple Music that have become “can’t miss” events, and Drake‘s OVO Sound Radio is at the top of that list. It’s not just Drake’s taste, which is generally on point and filled with his own signees. No, it’s the fact that Drake often uses his platform to debut new original tunes. His playlist updates place him next to the expected cohorts and less predictable entries, giving not just insight into Drake’s taste, but also what might be infiltrating its way into his own sound.

Weekend Worthy (Hip-Hop)

One of the most important decisions you will ever make in life is what to listen to as you prepare to go out on the weekend. Okay, maybe that’s not true, but it does feel pretty important. Apple Music has you covered, though, with a playlist that’s updated every Friday with tunes great for getting you pumped up to leave your house (only if necessary and while wearing a mask). Or, maybe they are just songs to make a nice dinner for yourself and watch Succession with your dog. Whatevs!

Elton John Rocket Hour (Eclectic Pop, Curated By Elton John)

Whether you call him Sir Elton, the Rocket Man, or Mr. John, Elton John is one of the highest regarded figures in the music world. And as the host of his own show on Beats 1, fans get a frequent dose of what is striking Elton John’s ear. In its playlist form, that means mixing artists like Kacey Musgraves, The Blaze, and Childish Gambino. You can tell John takes joy in his varied taste, as even the description of the playlist notes it, saying, “Only Elton John could play Led Zeppelin, Kaytranada, and Beyonce back-to-back.”

Soulection (Future Soul, Curated By Joe Kay)

Soulection has grown from a Long Beach college radio show to a Beats 1 fixture, with Zane Lowe nabbing Joe Kay for his singular taste. If you are looking for music discovery and wanting to hear the sounds of tomorrow, there might not be a better playlist available. But even in a sea of artists that might be unfamiliar to the average listener, artists like Saba, Jay-Z, and The Internet still stand out.

St. Vincent’s Mixtape Delivery Service (Eclectic, Curated By St. Vincent)

Before there were playlists, there were mixtapes. And St. Vincent wants you to remember that. Her Beats 1 show makes custom playli… err … mixtapes for fans the write her based on the information they provide. The result has been a few years of great listens. One effort manages to include Grimes, Metallica, The Strokes, and Jorja Smith. Sure, it might be a mix specifically for one person, but it’s also a playlist that will manage to entertain the masses.

House Work Radio (Dance, Curated By Jax Jones)

You don’t need to go to a dance club to hear the best in dance music and get yourself moving. Thanks to Jax Jones, Apple Music has an incredible dance playlist that gets updated regularly. From big names like Calvin Harris to more indie selections like DJ Koze, the common thread is that the music is new and perfect for the dancefloor.

Untitled (Indie)

Apple Music’s best indie playlist doesn’t need a name. It also doesn’t need a particular genre to pull from besides being music that belongs left of the dial. You’ll find rock, electronic, R&B, and even the occasional hip-hop in its ranks, focusing on the newest and strongest music released on a weekly basis. It’s where you go to hear Mitski next to Jon Hopkins, Young Fathers next to Courtney Barnett, and Beach House side-by-side with, uh, more Beach House. There is seriously a lot of Beach House on the playlist at the moment.

Blonded Radio (Eclectic, Curated By Frank Ocean)

Much like Drake, Frank Ocean‘s Beats 1 radio show and accompanying playlists are most notable for the occasional new Frank Ocean song. And though this one doesn’t appear with new installations frequently, it’s a fascinating dive into the listening habits of one of music’s most iconic voices. He might spin some Beyonce, some Sinatra, Japanese Breakfast or Sly Stone. Frank Ocean plays by his own rules as an artist, and his playlist does the same thing.

It’s Electric (Rock, Curated By Lars Ulrich)

Just because Metallica has been around for more than 30 years, it doesn’t mean that their drummer, Lars Ulrich, is out of touch. In fact, his Beats 1 show is regularly getting some of the biggest guests on the platform, often making news be it through what he is playing or what is being said. As a standalone playlist, it might be Apple Music’s best listen for people unconcerned with what is new or what is hip. This is rock from both yesterday and today, played together because it sounds good. It’s the playlist equivalent of Metallica’s no bullsh*t attitude.

One Mix (Dance, Various Curators)

One Mix is a series in which the biggest names in dance and electronica create a new mix, especially for Apple Music. Whether you want to hear Allison Wonderland, Louis The Child, Moby, or Marshmello, One Mix has you covered. Each artist brings their own taste and interests to their own mix, and when delivered in playlist form, it’s an ideal party playlist for fans of music that makes you move.

The Pharmacy (Hip-Hop, Curated By Dr. Dre)

If you were making a shortlist of the most influential figures in hip-hop history, Dr. Dre would be near or at the top. But part of what has made his career so notable is his impeccable skill of surrounding himself with the best. That holds true for his Beats 1 show The Pharmacy, which Dre employs the likes of Xzibit, DJ Pooh, and Eddie Francis for help. The resulting playlist mixes Dre associates like Anderson .Paak with other newer talent like Tyler The Creator, along with plenty of old school rap from the ear Dre came up in and beyond.

Julie Adenuga’s Playlist (Eclectic, Curated By Julie Adenuga)

We were told that the internet would make the world smaller, and in many ways, it has. It allows us to hear music from the tiny corners of the world, and in turn, makes regional authorities less essential. That said, finding the right experts to speak to certain parts of the world are still critically important. Look no further than Julie Adenuga’s stranglehold on the British scene and the incredible playlist she curates for Apple Music. It’s not necessarily British music, but just the music impacting the culture over there, and the kind of thing that only someone with a deep understanding of the region could craft.

The Echo Chamber (Eclectic, Curated By Mike D)

As one third of the Beastie Boys, Mike D spent a couple decades making music that would shape a generation. These days, he’s doing whatever interests him, and that includes hosting a Beats 1 show. Mike D’s taste runs the gamut, ranging from Parquet Courts to Kanye West, giving fans of any particular musical genre a nice introduction to what they might be missing.

The Candy Shop (Pop, Curated By Charli XCX)

Pop means something different to Charli XCX than it does to most people, but her vision for the style is something of a visionary. You’ll find a lot of female voices here and a lot of stuff not quite built for the radio. You’ll also find a lot of the people that Charli works with, because she actually walks the walk with the music she tries to amplify. If pop as a whole starts falling in line with Charli’s taste, then music as a whole would be a lot more interesting.

danceXL (Dance)

The clubs may not be as packed these days as they once were, but dancing at home is a perfect alternative to getting dolled up and going out. Apple’s danceXL playlist is the perfect soundtrack for at-home dance parties, or even for the times when you don’t much feel like moving but want consistent, propulsive beats. There are a lot of different things that can get blood pumping, and this playlist represents a lot of them with songs from a diverse array of artists like Disclosure, Kygo, and Robyn.

BEATstrumentals (Instrumental)

A song that you know all the words to is one of life’s greatest pleasures, but if you’re trying to get some work done, those memorable tunes could actually do more harm than good. This playlist has you covered in those cases, as it features entirely instrumental songs that can allow you to get fully absorbed into whatever it is you want to absorb you.

Some artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Donald Trump’s campaign continues to add names to an already long list of musicians who refuse to work with him. Neil Young finally sued Trump this August after continuously denying the president’s request to play his music during rallies. Leonard Cohen’s estate made a similar move the same month when they threatened to sue the RNC for playing “Hallelujah,” even after the late singer-songwriter’s family refused to grant them permission. Now, Tupac’s family is bashing Trump after his campaign used the late rapper’s name to mock Senator Kamala Harris.

It all started when the Trump campaign joked about leaving a ticket to the vice presidential debate with Tupac’s name on it. The jab refers to an interview between Harris and CNN political commentator Angela Rye where the Senator was asked to name her favorite rapper alive and she responded with “Tupac.” While Trump’s campaign thought the move was for laughs, Tupac’s family didn’t take it lightly.

Speaking to TMZ about the situation, Tupac’s stepbrother, Mopreme Shakur, called the joke “clearly disrespectful.” Shakur said he wanted an apology from the president, but isn’t holding on to hope that he’ll get one. “We should know Trump’s lack of respect for the Black and brown community,” Shakur said.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

Mitch McConnell probably isn’t going anywhere. The Senate Majority leader is currently handily beating Amy McGrath, the Kentucky Democrat challenging his seat, so he’s likely not sweating it the way his friend Lindsey Graham is. But that doesn’t mean he isn’t inspiring the same level of ire. In some circles he’s viewed with the same level of animosity as Donald Trump. And on Monday, new clips of him acting particularly evil went viral.

McConnell was partaking in the first and only debate against McGrath, and despite being down in the polls, his competitor came ready to fight. She pummeled him over his failure to pass a new coronavirus relief package. She took him to task for creating “a Senate that is so dysfunction and so partisan that even in the middle of a national crisis he can’t get it done.” And through it all, during each and every critique, McConnell kept laughing.

There was one laugh that stood out more than the rest. McGrath torched McConnell for allowing a Senate vacation to happen over the summer, before they reached a deal on how to help ailing families. She pointed out that this is “the first time in a century, where we have a major international crisis where no one in the world is looking to the United States for leadership.” And in response McConnell kept laughing.

On one hand, laughing off your opponent’s critiques is exclusive to either party. Joe Biden has regularly used it, including during his debate with Donald Trump two weeks prior. But the accusations Biden was laughing off were not equal to the ones McGrath was throwing at McConnell’s feet. For some, it seemed as though McConnell was showing people who he really was.

Some singled out his diabolical laugh.

For the record, it’s a laugh he’s used before, as in this arguably even more chilling old Hannity clip that made the rounds during the weekend.

Many were furious.

Some compared him to fictional villains.

Or to fictional but at least somewhat nicer vampires.

Some tried to use humor to redirect their anger.

Some wondered how the Kentucky voters put up with someone who would laugh as he was criticized for not taking care of struggling Americans during a pandemic.

And while, again, McConnell may not be losing his seat in the Senate, in a few weeks his job may wind up looking very different.

(Via The Hill)

The Third Day, HBO’s genre-bending limited series, has taken fans on a wild, nonlinear ride right from the start. The show’s first few episodes focused on Jude Law’s grieving father figure, Sam, who arrives to a mysterious island called Osea and tries to make sense of the strange customs of its inhabitants 00 and where he fits in their grander scheme. But halfway through the series’ run, The Third Day does a bit of a 180-degree turn, transporting viewers from the bright, unsettling springtime celebrations on the island to the cold, harsh reality of winter — leaving Law’s character behind and picking up in the aftermath of his disappearance with the story of his wife, Helen (Naomie Harris), who’s come to Osea looking for him. And for answers.

We got a few — answers, that is — from Harris and director Philippa Lowthorpe that might clear up some questions, or leave you with more. (Really, the best way to watch this show is in a state of terrified confusion.)

You guys have taken a really inventive approach to telling this story. What can you say about the show’s remaining episodes and how they fit into this weird timeline?

Philippa: I can say that you will be led on a wonderful journey, through the summer and be left with a fantastic denouement of summer. And then they will pick it up by winter with a new character — Naomi playing Helen and the children — and be taken on another wonderful. So it’s like two journeys which link at the end. You will absolutely be surprised, shocked, disturbed, excited…

Definitely disturbed. Still a bit confused, but I think the mixing of genres really enhances the experience. Naomie was that something you were interested in, playing this mother-figure on a show whose tone is hard to nail down?

Naomie: Yeah, it’s this incredible world. It transports you to a world that you haven’t seen before. It’s not a true horror. It’s something other. It’s not a fantasy world either. It keeps you on the edge of your seat and you don’t know what’s happening. What drew me to Helen was really that, for me, she represents my mum and she represents all good mothers. There are so many themes in the series, but what I really focused on as a performer throughout this when I was acting was the mother’s love and how fierce it can be and how it’s so nuanced because it’s about sensitivity, being sensitive to your children’s needs. It’s about nurturing and kindness and firmness sometimes. Then it’s also about when you’re cornered, and you need to protect your children. It’s about becoming this warrior who will literally kill too. That is just such a gift of a part to be able to explore the full range of a mother’s love and what it means to truly be a good mother.

I always felt growing up that that was my mother. I always knew that if anybody tried anything with me my mom would be there protecting me. I just think it’s an honor for me to play a role that is representative of her. For me, it’s irrespective of color. This is about humanity. This is about universal motherhood and what that means.

As a mother, you’d think Helen would have better intuition. Why doesn’t she just take her family and get the hell off this island?

Naomie: [Laughs] Helen totally has all those intuitions, but there’s a very strong reason why she needs to stay there.

Philippa: That’s why you’ve got to watch all the way through.

Naomie: Exactly. I think that’s what’s so great for the audience — we’re thinking, “Why is she staying? Why is she staying?” I think that’s the hook that will keep us watching into the next episodes. We find out, we find out why.

Talking about how this show defies genre, it feels worth noting that you’re both women playing in this horror/thriller sandbox that’s traditionally reserved for men. Has #TimesUp and #MeToo changed things in that way?

Naomie: I think a great example for me of the way things have definitely changed as a result of the #MeToo movement is when Adrian Sturgess, our producer, stood up before we started our readthrough and just said, “We operate a zero-tolerance policy towards any form of sexual harassment, bullying, and intimidation of women.” I actually welled up because I realized, “How rare is that?” I’ve never, in my 30 years of being in this profession, never heard a producer ever say that. I just thought, “Wow, I was in so many other productions where I was never ever protected like this.” I always felt like you had to just fend for yourself, and it’s changed dramatically, but it depends on what production you’re a part of. I think there has been a massive shift, and I’m super excited about it and super grateful.

Philippa: Yeah, I totally agree with Naomie. I think that is the first time I’ve ever heard those words, and it was at the read-through. It was not even at the beginning of production. It was before that. So the stamp on this production was one of equality and respect. As a woman director, I think that I wouldn’t have been asked to do something like this a few years ago because many stories about women get directed by men. Let’s face it. Still, even now, that’s quite annoying. But I just don’t think that this would have been coming my way. When you watch the rest of the episodes, and you get to the last one, you’ll see why they may not have thought of a woman director, but I was actually really, really grateful to be part of this thing, and to show that women directors can direct anything. Anything you put before them, they can do.

HBO’s ‘The Third Day’ airs on Mondays at 9:00pm EST.

U2 was my first favorite band.

If you were a kid in the late ’80s and early ’90s who read music magazines and nurtured a burgeoning interest in rock history, this was hardly an unusual take. At that time, when they were in the midst of putting out classics like The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, U2 was the world’s most acclaimed and popular rock band. Critics wrote with the assumption that anything U2 did was important, and audiences turned songs like “With Or Without You” and “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” into massive pop hits. U2 was a true zeitgeist band, and they had their finger on the pulse of culture for longer than you might remember.

In 2020, of course, U2’s status is less certain. In the ’10s, they suffered prolonged fallout from the decade’s worst music-related PR stunt, which was compounded by the albums they released during this time being among the weakest of their career. Even Rolling Stone, possibly the band’s most loyal patron in the media, couldn’t finesse a single U2 album into the upper reaches of its recent 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list. (Their highest-ranked LP, Achtung Baby, clocks in at No. 124.)

But U2 has been down before. Few major bands have as many boom-bust fluctuations in their career arc. You can chart one major flap in practically every decade of their existence: Rattle & Hum in the ’80s, the PopMart tour in the ’90s, No Line On The Horizon in the ’00s, and the Songs Of Innocence iPhone debacle in the ’10s. Even with all of those backlashes, however, U2 remains an extraordinarily popular (if also chronically uncool) rock band. In pre-Covid times, they were among the few acts of any genre with a proven, multi-decade track record of selling out stadiums. When (if) live concerts return, U2 will surely be playing the world’s largest concert venues once again. Counting them out at this point seems unwise.

Besides, U2 willful embrace of risk — whether artistic or commercial — makes their catalogue very interesting to revisit and contemplate. Yes, their output is uneven, with undeniable peaks standing next to embarrassing lows. But their failures are often richer than many bands’ successes.

Here are my 100 favorite U2 songs.

100. “You’re The Best Thing About Me” (2017)

In 2017, on my 40th birthday, I did what many 40-year-olds did that year and saw U2 on The Joshua Tree anniversary tour. I went with my good friend who works in radio, and before the show he got us into this exclusive VIP area with other high-ranking radio muckity-mucks. Before I knew it, we were ushered into a room with none other than The Edge. Turns out The Edge wanted to play us some tracks from the forthcoming U2 album, Songs Of Experience. Just to reiterate something I said before: U2 was my first favorite band. The idea that I would ever get to hear an unreleased U2 album in the company of Mr. Dave Evans would have blown my 13-year-old mind. You might as well have told me at that age that I would eventually sire several children with Elle MacPherson. Anyway, the only problem with this scenario is that the album in question wasn’t Achtung Baby or The Unforgettable Fire or even How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. It was the very worst album that U2 has ever made. Have you ever had to listen to an album made by a superstar band in front of that band’s guitarist and go through the motions of smiling and bobbing your head and playing half-hearted air guitar just because you’re trying to be polite to a musician you revere? No? Well, let me tell you: It’s strange! The whole situation was excruciatingly awkward! Honestly, I only put this song at No. 100 so I would have an excuse to tell this story.

99. “No Line On The Horizon” (2009)

Every album that U2 has made in the 21st century has, on some level, been a mess. Good songs commingle freely with dreck. Some albums, such as All That You Can’t Leave Behind, balance this equation better than most. Then there’s No Line On The Horizon, possibly the most schizophrenic LP in the U2 catalogue, in which the gap between the good and the truly awful is wider than it is on any other album. But that actually works in the favor of No Line On The Horizon, which reunited U2 with their most celebrated producers, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, and stands as their final (for now) attempt to truly shake up their sound. Again, when it comes to dreck like “Get On Your Boots,” the merits of experimentation can be called into question. But the album overall has a weird, ragged, live-wire energy that I prefer to U2’s misguided attempts to court pop audiences with embalmed “rockers” like “The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone),” their most cloying and annoying single ever. You can feel that energy on the album’s title track, in which Bono contemplates the non-linear nature of time while a woman sticks a tongue in his ear. It’s just that kind of record.

98. “Song For Someone” (2014)

Is the early part of this list just going to be me carrying water for poorly received late-period U2 albums? I’m afraid so. Like the rest of the world, I ripped Songs Of Innocence upon release, in the wake of the iPhone debacle, when the band’s stock plummeted to an all-time low. But in the years since I’ve come around — the production still stinks, defanging what is still a vital and powerful live band. (If I had a time machine, I would first go back and kill Hitler. Then I would prevent U2 from meeting Danger Mouse and Ryan Tedder.) But many of the songs are rock-solid, speaking to the underrated craftsmanship of Bono and The Edge. “Song For Someone” isn’t an earth-shattering tune, and giving it the glossy pop-factory treatment does it no favors. But if you can get past that, and appreciate the sound of a really good band playing an affecting song, “Song For Someone” will get under your skin as surely as any first-class U2 ballad.

97. “Raised By Wolves” (2014)

U2 had a good concept for Songs Of Innocence — write a song cycle about our early days, infused with the wisdom that we have as middle-aged men. It was an idea that called out for U2 returning to the sound of their early records, which would have sonically conveyed what Bono was expressing in his lyrics. Unfortunately, U2’s impulse to play the middle worked against them, and they ultimately resisted reverting full-on to their War guise. But one of the album’s most aggressive tracks, “Raised By Wolves,” shows that they could have worked effectively in that lane, and possibly produced a late-period gem instead of a fascinating misfire.

96.”Walk On” (2000)

U2 came roaring back at the start of the 21st century with All That You Can’t Leave Behind, an effort that rewarded the band’s most conservative instincts by selling 12 million copies worldwide. The thesis of that record is simple: “Let’s pretend the ’90s never happened.” Gone was that era’s irony, post-modern media obsessions, and focus on European music. All That You Can’t Leave Behind was consciously constructed to sound like a record that could’ve followed The Joshua Tree and Rattle & Hum if U2 had never made Achtung Baby. While this approach rebooted U2’s career initially, it eventually hurt them artistically in the long run — they’ve never really recovered the creative momentum they had in the ’90s since then. But for now, let’s focus on the short game: “Walk On” is an excuse for The Edge to play a soaring guitar riff that can only be described as extremely Edge-like. He hadn’t really allowed himself to sound like this since the late ’80s, and “Walk On” demonstrates why — it’s so on-the-nose that you suspect The Edge actually recorded it in the mystical California desert, right off of a street that has no name.

95. “Sweetest Thing” (1998)

Before All That You Can’t Leave Behind, U2 cleared the decks in the wake of the semi-disasters of Pop (which I will also be defending soon, don’t worry!) and the PopMart tour in 1997 and ’98. I saw two shows on that tour, including a really good gig at a dispiritingly half-full Metrodome in Minneapolis. “Sweetest Thing” was released as a single six months after that tour wrapped, and it was about as far from “Discotheque” as you could get. In this instance, U2 literally took a song from their Joshua Tree period — originally released as the B-side of “Where The Streets Have No Name” — and re-recorded it. When the song became a hit, it hinted at a new (old) direction that would inform the next decade of their career.

94. “Walk To The Water” (1987)

U2 could have plundered their Joshua Tree B-sides for other future hits. It truly was their most productive period in terms of songwriting, with enough cast-offs from the proper album to form another excellent late-’80s masterwork. This spooky number could’ve fit on The Joshua Tree, though perhaps it was left off because Bono seems to be doing a David Byrne impression.

93. “Love Comes Tumbling” (1985)

U2’s career transcends so many different eras that it’s often forgotten that they started out as a post-punk band whose closest contemporaries in the early ’80s were groups much more associated with that time: Echo And The Bunnymen, Simple Minds, Big Country. “Love Comes Tumbling” is one of the last vestiges of that era, evidencing the lush romantic sweep of other “big” music bands right before U2 moved into a completely different strata of sound and stardom with The Joshua Tree.

92. “Cedarwood Road” (2014)

The first time I met a member of U2 it was 2015, at the tour opener for the Songs Of Innocence + Experience run in Vancouver, when I sat backstage with Adam Clayton for about 20 minutes. Clayton is one of “the other two guys” in U2, though being one of “the other two guys” in this band still makes you richer than 99.9999 percent of the musicians on the planet, as well as any bass player not named Paul McCartney. During our conversation, I found Clayton — who speaks like a Bond villain — to be refreshingly smart and self-aware. When I gently suggested that U2 should stop pursuing pop success and simply make records for people who already like U2, he seemed to agree. “We have a very loyal, strong, intelligent audience,” he said. “We might make music just for them in the future. We might not want to connect with other people.” In that scenario, I could see U2 writing more songs like “Cedarwood Road,” a wistful childhood remembrance with an evocative, ringing guitar hook that sounds like it was recorded on an Irish bluff.

91. “Breathe” (2009)

Here’s another example of the wild ‘n’ wacky energy that permeates U2’s greatest “bad” album, No Line On The Horizon. Musically, this is more Edge guitar porn, with one of his classic solos that initially sounds choked off and then suddenly explodes out to the heavens. Meanwhile, Bono is attempting something Dylanesque in the lyrics, though it really just sounds like he’s trying to sing too many words at once and losing his breath. (Perhaps the song title is a meta-reference to this. Or maybe Bono just needs an editor.) Either way, he does manage to sing about a “new Asian virus” that might in fact kill him. “Nine-oh-nine, St. John Divine on the line, my pulse is fine / But I’m running down the road like loose electricity / While the band in my head plays a striptease.” Like many U2 lyrics, I can’t tell if that’s brilliant or dumb. The genius is that it’s both.

90. “I Threw A Brick Through A Window” (1981)

Bono’s lyrical shortcomings are going to come up a lot on this list. Even the best U2 songs have more than their fair share of clunkers, though Bono’s most essential talent is delivering his bullshit with such conviction that it becomes profound. (Like Jesus, a man deeply influenced by Bono, he can turn the gunkiest water into the richest wine.) Part of the mythology of U2’s second album October is that the notebook containing Bono’s lyrics was stolen during the sessions, forcing him to largely extemporize the words. You can feel that during “I Threw A Brick Through A Window,” which definitely sounds like a 21-year-old man talking out of his ass: “I was walking / I was walking into walls / I’m back again / I just keep walking.” Are you walking, Bono? We can’t tell. Nevertheless, when Bono belts those lines over an enormous Edge guitar riff, I somehow completely buy it as teenage existentialism.

89. “Babyface” (1993)

As suspect as Bono could be as a lyricist for most of U2’s career, he briefly became a really good, even remarkable writer for precisely two albums, Achtung Baby and Zooropa. On the slinky “Babyface,” a highlight of the latter record, he might have very well written the first great rock song about internet porn. “Coming home late at night / To turn you on / Checking out every frame / I’ve got slow motion on my side / Turning around and around / With the sound and color.”

88. “Crumbs From Your Table” (2004)

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is U2’s ultimate tribute to itself, a bald-faced attempt to embody every lyrical and musical cliché ever associated with this band, the anti-Achtung Baby. This might sound like a criticism, and sometimes it is. But Atomic Bomb has always been a guilty pleasure for me, delivering the U2-ness I crave more reliably than most of the band’s late-period albums. Even if “Crumbs From Your Table” sounds like the output of a Joshua Tree algorithm, I can’t deny that it goes down so well.

87. “Daddy’s Gonna Pay From Your Crashed Car” (1993)

That U2 came to regard their most adventurous album, Zooropa, as a self-indulgent over-reach goes a long way to explain the path they’ve taken in the past 20 years. After favoring albums that harken to their ’80s prime, they’ve made stabs at pop relevance in recent years that have made them seem, I’m afraid, like a very old rock band. But in the ’90s, U2 revitalized themselves by shrinking back from pop music (even on the album actually called Pop) and subverting the public’s image of what this band was supposed to be. One of the least un-U2-like songs ever, “Daddy’s Gonna Pay From Your Crashed Car” alludes to David Bowie’s Low in the title, but musically it nods to the druggy “Madchester” scene that fuses classicist rock with dance music, with a slightly heavier emphasis on the latter.

86. “Wake Up Dead Man” (1997)

Speaking of Pop, here’s an example of how not-Pop that album gets. Originally derived from the Zooropa sessions, this rivals “Love Is Blindness” and “Mothers Of The Disappeared” as the grimmest album closer in the U2 canon. The memorable opening lyric evokes one of the band’s heroes, Patti Smith: “Jesus / Jesus help me / I’m alone in this world / And a fucked up world it is too.”

85. “In A Little While” (2000)

U2 is so associated with arena-rock anthems that other aspects of their musical personality tend to get overlooked, such as their underrated blue-eyed soul side. “Angel Of Harlem” is the most successful example of this, but this deep cut from All That You Can’t Leave Behind also stands out as a fine Al Green homage.

84. “Lady With The Spinning Head” (1992)

If this infectious Achtung Baby era B-side sounds familiar, it’s because the band mined it for parts that eventually ended up in “The Fly,” “Zoo Station,” and “Ultraviolet (Light My Way).” Providing grist for three foundational tracks from their greatest album ought to relegate “Lady With The Spinning Head” to mere curio status, and yet this is one of their grabbiest and most purely enjoyable B-sides. I mean, that guitar solo from “The Fly” is so good that you really don’t mind in hearing it in two different songs.

83. “Hawkmoon 269” (1988)

You can hear a lot of what made Rattle & Hum a punchline in this deep cut: The Americana signifiers, the wanton bombast of the chorus, the extreme bloat that allows a gospel choir to enter around the five-minute mark right when the song ought to be fading out. To a non-U2 fan, I imagine this probably sounds like Young Guns 2-era Jon Bon Jovi. But as a U2 partisan who has long had a soft spot for this album, I would merely describe “Hawkmoon 269” as expansive, with U2 leaning into all of the cowboy-hatted mannerisms that made them heroes and villains in the late ’80s.

82. “Wire” (1984)

Take another bow, Adam Clayton. Along with being a thoughtful interviewee, Clayton supplies the most underrated “important” element of the U2 sound, his massively steady bass murmur. That aspect of U2 will really blossom on The Joshua Tree, but The Unforgettable Fire found Clayton stepping out with some of his funkiest playing on this furious dance-punk number.

81. “Fire” (1981)

Religiosity runs through every U2 album, but it’s most pronounced on October, the album in which they practically morphed into a Christian rock outfit. For Bono, life is a nonstop tempest in which God tests the faith of intense young men from Dublin with a series of spiritual crises that can only be solved by wailing over a heavily treated guitar riff bounding out of a Flying V. In the song “Fire,” Bono’s elevates his youthful angst to that of an Old Testament-type story, in which a devout person faces nothing less than the apocalypse: “The moon is running red / Falling falling / It’s pulling me instead / With a fire.”

80. “MLK” (1984)

U2’s social justice sloganeering made them a punchline in the ’80s, but it might be the one aspect of their persona that feels most contemporary. On The Unforgettable Fire, there are two songs about Martin Luther King. This is the more restrained and less famous one: “Sleep / Sleep tonight / And may your dreams / Be realized.”

79. “Surrender” (1983)

The “best U2 album” discourse has been reduced a two-horse race between The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, but those of us who also value the band’s early years believe War also belongs in this conversation. U2’s most aggressive and hardest rocking record, War is the pinnacle of the band’s “mullet” period, when they most closely resembled a mainstream early ’80s rock band and risked being fixed in that guise forever. A less forward-thinking band would’ve simply replicated War a few more times before gently fading into obscurity. But on “Surrender,” one of War‘s dreamier cuts, you can already sense the pivot they will take on their next record, The Unforgettable Fire.

78. “Love Rescue Me” (1988)

Bono apparently dreamed this song, assumed it was actually a Dylan tune that he couldn’t remember the title of, and then asked Dylan himself if he wrote it. When Dylan said no, Bono asked him to help finish it. Bob contributed one line: “I’m hanging by my thumbs, I’m ready for whatever comes, love rescue me.” For that, Bono gave Dylan a songwriting credit. Honestly, he probably just thought it would be cool to have a co-write with Bob Dylan.

77. “Where Did It All Go Wrong” (1992)

Another great Achtung Baby B-side. It’s obvious why it didn’t make the album — this catchy guitar workout is more akin to the desert rock of The Joshua Tree than the pan-Euro futurism of Achtung Baby. Though it’s ultimately a little too lightweight to fit in the context of either record. Still, “Where Did It All Go Wrong” is another example of U2’s most underrated attributes — their unerring melodic sense and firm grasp of songwriting craftsmanship. Especially in the late ’80s and early ’90s, U2 seemingly couldn’t plug in at a rehearsal without knocking out highly enjoyable rock songs like this.

76. “The Three Sunrises” (1985)

U2 connected with Brian Eno not long after his association with Talking Heads ended. To their credit, U2 recognized early on that being a messianic post-punk band was only going to take them so far, and with Eno (as well as Lanois) they would begin shading their mile-high anthems with actual capital-A Art. During their Unforgettable Fire era, this mostly manifested with the inclusion of portentous synths and ethereal instrumentals that flirted fitfully with ambient music. Eno and Lanois also, paradoxically, helped to tease out U2’s pop side, though they saved one of the most gorgeous songs of this era (credited as a co-write with Eno), “The Three Sunrises,” for the Wide Wake In America EP.

75. “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” (1991)

The fifth single from Achtung Baby, and kind of the black sheep of the record. The members of U2 have talked about how difficult it was to capture properly on tape, and even after cycling through many different versions they were never quite happy with it. They apparently also aren’t crazy about playing it live — it’s been performed only 101 times over the years. (Consider that the fourth single from Achtung Baby, “Even Better Than The Real Thing,” has been played 419 times.) The problem is that “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” is a great song, but not necessarily a great U2 song. A gothic country-rock hymn with Phil Spector overtones, “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” should’ve been given to The Jesus And The Mary Chain, who would’ve blown it out with distortion and lathered it with all the reverb it deserved.

74. “With A Shout” (1981)

October is U2’s most underrated album because it’s their least thoughtful, operating solely on furious energy and extremely intense conviction to make as big of a sound as possible. They would get much smarter and skillful after this, but I find the “over-energetic evangelical puppy” aspect of October irresistible. “With A Shout” is about nothing other than the thrill of giving a shout and making yourself heard, and therefore seen. Really, that’s all U2 has ever wanted in any of their songs.

73. “An Cat Dubh”/”Into The Heart” (1980)

Nothing quite captures the gawky awkwardness of early U2 than titling the dramatic showcase of their debut Boy “An Cat Dubh,” which means “the black cat” in Scottish Gaelic but in English looks like straight-up gibberish. Fortunately, Bono does not attempt to sing “An Cat Dubh” in this coming-of-age tale of illicit sex — inspired by a brief relationship Bono had when temporarily split from his eventual wife, Ali — which rides Adam Clayton fat bassline and Edge’s twangy guitar to the plaintive “Into The Heart” section. While technically listed as two separate tracks on Boy’s sleeve, it really feels like one epic, which is why they were usually played in sequence on the band’s early tours. (The UK and US versions post different song lengths for each track, underscoring the difficulty in separating them.)

72. “Lemon” (1993)

“Lemon” is their sleazy Eurotrash death-disco number, U2’s equivalent to the Cruising-core of the Rolling Stones’ Emotional Rescue period. The Edge worked up the track with a drum machine and bass, and then treated his guitar with a gated effect that made it sound like a psychedelic wind machine. Then Bono applied his falsetto — what he called his “fat lady” voice, a signature of this period that he would have trouble coming back to later on — to an affecting lyric inspired by a home movie of his late mother.

71. “Salome” (1992)

Yet another great Achtung Baby B-side, and one of the sexiest songs in U2’s discography. “Salome” is also another instance of U2 leaving a great song off of a record not because it wasn’t up to snuff, but simply because it didn’t fit with the other tracks. Achtung Baby is a song cycle about heavy adult stuff like loss and heartbreak and the frailty of human relationships. “Salome” meanwhile is simply a groove-heavy rocker with loud, spiky guitars about a guy who really wants to get laid. Given their self-serious image, it’s too bad that songs like “Salome” don’t have a higher profile. It doesn’t have the gravitas of “One,” but it’s a lot more fun to blast when you’re drunk.

70. “Elvis Presley and America” (1984)

With Bono, what he’s saying almost never matters as much as how he says it. His commitment to delivering utter nonsense with the passion of a preacher sharing the gospel with his flock is his most polarizing attribute. It’s the thing that makes people who hate U2 wince, but it’s impossible to love U2 and not appreciate Bono’s religious faith in the truth of what he’s singing. This is taken to its logical extreme in “Elvis Presley and America,” in which he is literally singing nonsense words that he improvised in the studio. Most of the lyrics are just sounds, and yet the sound of his voice does evoke a profound longing that lives up to the iconography of national fantasy and squandered potential.

69. “Party Girl” Under A Blood Red Sky version (1983)

The “we only play this on special occasions” early live favorite. My love of “Party Girl” stems mostly from the moment when The Edge messes up the guitar solo, and Bono yells “it’s our hero!” It seems like a mistake, but honestly: where’s the lie?

68. “Another Time, Another Place” (1980)

Let me be clear: The Edge is my hero, and hands down my favorite member of U2. Sure, he is not a conventional guitar hero in the ’70s classic-rock sense. In the 2008 documentary It Might Get Loud, The Edge’s battery of effects pedals is put in comic contrast with the studied primitivism of Jack White and the gentleman virtuosity of Jimmy Page. As a guitarist, he’s more concerned with constructing sound than, like, totally wailing on his six-string. But what a sound! The Edge’s signature guitar ring can’t really be compared with the hopped-up blues swagger propagated by Page or White. I would liken it more to cathedral bells echoing off tall buildings on a bright Sunday morning. His playing had that quality from the very beginning, which elevated songs like “Another Time, Another Place” beyond the usual post-punk gloom to something that evokes the sacred and the divine.

67. “Two Hearts Beat As One” (1983)

Another spotlight for Adam Clayton’s surprisingly funky early period. Along with the indefatigable Larry Mullen Jr., Clayton really came into his own around the time of War, supplying the heavy grooves that would eventually separate U2 from their early post-punk peers. In the case of “Two Hearts Beat As One,” what helps this song transcend the era is how alive and active the rhythm section is. At a time when so many UK acts were leaning into synthetic rhythms, Adam and Larry grounded U2 in soulful, gritty rock.

66. “Moment Of Surrender” (2009)

If U2 had exercised a bit more discipline on No Line On The Horizon, they might’ve polished this gospel-tinged song up and turned it into one of their defining late-period ballads. As it is, Bono’s vocal is a little harsh, and the track is allowed to meander for seven and a half minutes, well past the point when the melody has been exhausted. But, again, I am a fan of this album’s weird, unbridled energy, and the fact that they didn’t buff “Moment Of Surrender” to a high gloss is preferable to the too-slick ’10s albums. This isn’t an attempt to “be relevant,” it sounds like an honest reach for spiritual transcendence that inevitably falls short, but nevertheless inspires as it grasps at stars.

65. “Original Of The Species” (2004)

Here is a late-period ballad that U2 did buff to a high gloss, all the while hitting the expected U2 beats: An uplifting Bono lyric that doubles as a pep talk (“Please stay a child somewhere in your heart”), a string section that enters by the first pre-chorus, and The Edge’s church-bell guitar that enters when Bono’s is delivering the emotional money shot (the part when he sings “under controlllllll!“). Like everything else about How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, I am supposed to be cynical about “Original Of The Species.” But, like atheists in foxholes, cynics don’t last long with U2 anyway. If you’ve made it this far into the list, you might as well admit that even extremely obvious U2 songs like this can really deliver the goods.

64. “Kite” (2000)

All That You Can’t Leave Behind was retconned after 9/11 into an album about an entire culture getting over a life-changing disaster. But when the album was released in October 2000, it was informed by Bono’s troubled relationship with his father, who would die the following year of cancer. Several of the album’s most moving songs are about Bono’s attempt to reconcile a lifetime of hurt at the end of the old man’s life. In “Kite,” he achieves a catharsis moment when he sings, “I’m a man, I’m not a child,” reaching for a note he can’t possibly hit and somehow nailing it.

63. “Numb” (1993)

For all of the praise heaped upon Radiohead for their provocative anti-technology statement, Kid A, I’m not sure that anything on that album is quite as radical as “Numb,” a similarly tech-averse track from Zooropa that U2 put into regular rotation on MTV in the summer of 1993, right at the moment when they were arguably the biggest band in the world. It’s weird to think that rock stars were already feeling “numb” from information overload in 1993, a distant pre-internet era that might as well be 1893 from our modern vantage point. But The Edge’s flat monotone suggests that cable TV was already melting our brains even before we were all online.

62. “Exit” (1987)

When I first got The Joshua Tree, this was my favorite track. It’s the kind of song to which an 11-year-old gravitates, the “serial killer” ode that goes from really soft to really loud. (This is the closest that U2 gets to The Doors.) Now, I consider it the weakest track on The Joshua Tree. Though that still means it’s better than most other U2 songs.

61. “So Cruel” (1991)

For all of the snarky remarks I’ve already made about Bono’s lyrics, and will continue to make as this list unfolds, I must also point out again how good he was in the early ’90s. “So Cruel” is one of many songs from the Achtung Baby/Zooropa nexus that I would compare favorably to Blood On The Tracks era Bob Dylan. For as corny and vague as Bono can often be, he is so sharp and cutting in “So Cruel,” a song about how romantic longing can quickly curdle into hostility, and then circle back to devotion: ” I’m only hanging on / To watch you go down / My love.”

60. “Every Breaking Wave” (2014)

The best song U2 has produced in the past 10 years, and the most meta: “Every gambler knows that to lose / Is what you’re really there for.” To me, that’s Bono addressing his audience. Whatever else they can be accused of, U2 has made many sizable gambles with their credibility over the years. The Zoo Tour was a gamble. Rattle & Hum was a gamble. Making 9/11 such a big part of their 2002 Super Bowl performance was a gamble. Putting Songs Of Innocence on everybody’s phone was a gamble. Some of these bets paid off, and some of them busted. But the possibility that U2 might lose has animated their entire career.

59. “Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” (2000)

This pop-gospel number is another kind of gamble, another musical pep talk with a wordy title that flirts with obviousness and yet somehow avoids it. The opening line (“I am not afraid of anything in this world”) has the bluster of Bono in his arena-rock guise, but the rest of the song gets under your skin because Bono reveals the emptiness of that boast. (He wrote it for his friend, INXS singer Michael Hutchence, an obscenely handsome and charismatic man with layers of darkness and insecurity he never fully revealed to the world.) This is a song about acknowledging fear and figuring out a way to navigate around it — or, really, waiting it out until it passes.

58. “Gone” (1997)

One of many songs from Pop that U2 kept on tinkering with after the album came out, both with remixes and altered live arrangements. (The Edge later said he thought the song ultimately sounded best on acoustic guitar.) But I still prefer the relatively raw version that’s on the album. “Gone” is an example of U2 once again going against the grain of their “ironically frivolous” image; Bono ruminates on the upside of leaving the rock business behind over a track that sounds like an expensive redux of their War guise.

57. “The First Time” (1993)

In the early ’90s, U2 memorably covered “Satellite Of Love.” Lou Reed should have returned the favor and covered this song, which evokes the self-titled Velvet Underground album.

56. “The Electric Co.” (1980)

A fascinating “what if?” in U2’s career concerns producer Martin Hannett working on their debut, Boy. Hannett was originally slated to produce Boy, a byproduct of U2’s love of Hannett’s most famous collaborators, Joy Division. (The members of U2 met Hannett for the first time during the session for “Love Will Tear Us Apart.” They were apparently listening to Wagner between takes.) After Ian Curtis killed himself, a devastated Hannett swiftly canceled his session with U2, prompting the band to instead work with Steve Lillywhite. While Hannett was moody and inclined to sonically deconstruct rowdy rock bands in the studio, Lillywhite was gregarious and determined to harness U2’s power as a live act. You can hear that in “The Electric Co.,” which captures their youthful energy and maximizes the excitement of Bono’s vocal and The Edge’s livewire guitar.

55. “October” (1981)

Here’s a song in which U2’s early Joy Division hero-worship is highly apparent. Only U2 was never as hip as Joy Division, which was evident on October‘s dorky-ass album cover, which is on the opposite end of the iconic spectrum from Unknown Pleasures. “It’s a picture of four guys with funny haircuts,” is how Larry Mullen Jr. once accurately described it.

54. “Drowning Man” (1983)

This strange little Celtic-sounding folk song is about as dark as U2 gets. There isn’t another track in their catalogue that sounds remotely like it. Perhaps that’s why U2 has never played it live. (They should!)

53. “Mysterious Ways” (1991)

The poppiest U2 single ever, and the funkiest. I’ll always love this song, but it’s probably the last thing I’d play for a U2 skeptic. It has an undeniable “extremely ’90s” stench to it. (There’s very little that separates “Mysterious Ways” from Jesus Jones, the Soup Dragons, or any of the “extremely ’90s” guitar bands dabbling in hip-hop rhythms at the time.) The Edge later married the belly dancer who came out when they played “Mysterious Ways” on the Zoo TV tour, which is probably the most heartwarming story involving a belly dancer ever.

52. “Rejoice” (1981)

The most famous story about U2’s early years is that they almost broke up after October because Bono, The Edge, and Larry were involved in a Christian group — I don’t think “cult” applies though it seems more involved than your typical Bible study — that frowned on rock bands. This oft-repeated anecdote strains credulity; how could a band as maniacally ambitious as U2 ever get derailed by anything, even God? But when I listen to this very underrated track — which U2 dropped from their concerts in 1982 and haven’t revisited since — I can almost believe it. I can also understand why they stopped playing it — “Rejoice” is the impassioned cry of very intense, very confused and very churchy young men demanding that Jesus explain the meaning of life right now.

51. “Out Of Control” (1980)

When I covered the opening of the Innocence + Experience tour in 2015, they played this song right after beginning the show with “The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone).” The difference in those songs was clear — the first was nostalgia, the second was an invocation of a still-potent spirit. Yes, it doesn’t get more “on the nose” than calling a punk song “Out Of Control.” And, sure, U2 was doing songs like this around the time that The Clash had moved on to London Calling. From the beginning, U2 was not on the cutting edge. But if that matters, why does my furiously beating heart not seem to care?

INTERMISSION

This column was written in an office room in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It’s a column about a band born in Dublin. A band that is sick of not having lifetime “biggest rock band in the world” status.

Is this list bugging you? I don’t mind to bug ya.

OK Edge, play the blues.

50. “Silver And Gold” Rattle & Hum live version (1988)

Is this the blues? U2 had no right to play the blues, even with the help of the great B.B. King. But Bono’s intra-song patter here is still next level: The Little Steven name drop. The pronunciation of apartheid as “apar-tight.” The microphone slam at the end. Also, for all the crap that he got for making the movie, Phil Joanou can really film the hell out of a rock band. This looks like Raging Bull.

49. “Like A Song …” (1983)

U2 has played “Like A Song …” exactly once — Feb. 26, 1983 in Dundee Scotland — and I have no idea why. Once you get past “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “New Years Day,” the rest of War Side 1 gets mostly slept on. But the riff on “Like A Song …” is one of The Edge’s best from this period, and “Like A Song…” generally is one of the most exciting examples of the hard-rock side that U2 largely abandoned after this album.

48. “Gloria” Under A Blood Red Sky version (1983)

For all the ups and downs they’ve had as a recording act, U2’s ability as a live unit has never really failed them. Time and again, songs that confounded listeners on record — a phenomenon that started around the time of The Unforgettable Fire — have fully blossomed on stage. And then there are songs like “Gloria” that are merely undercooked in their recorded incarnation, and then explode to life in front of audience. Even Adam Clayton’s unconvincing bass solo recovered some long lost funk under those flaming torches at Red Rocks.

47 . “City Of Blinding Lights” (2004)

I’ve already used the phrase “Edge guitar porn” in this column, but there really is no other way to describe the appeal of “City Of Blinding Lights.” If you love U2 because you are addicted to the sound of The Edge playing guitar arpeggios — what are you even doing here if that’s not the case? — then it’s impossible to resist “City Of Blinding Lights.” This is true even if, intellectually, you can see that this a pretty blatant attempt to rewrite “Where The Streets Have No Name” and getting maybe only 40 percent of the way there. As a hopeless Edge addict, I will take 40 percent of “Where The Streets Have No Name” over 99 percent of songs.

46. “Tomorrow” (1981)

Another song that Bono improvised in the studio during the October sessions. He realized later that he was recounting his mother’s funeral: “There’s a black car parked / At the side of the road / Don’t go to the door.” This funereal vibe carries to the music, in which languid a Joy Division melody is offset by bagpipes until The Edge barges in around the 2:45-mark. That’s when Bono starts praying again for Christ’s return. Again, this is a lot, even for U2. But the unguarded, almost unsettling religious intensity of October has always endeared me to the album, the most underrated in their catalogue.

45. “Please” (1997)

One of the great unsung U2 songs of the ’90s, though the band again believed later that it wasn’t finished on the album and tinkered with it on the subsequent single release. (One point of contention: The bass and guitar are in different keys. “That probably why it’s so unresolved because it’s straddling a couple of different keys without really committing to one or the other,” Clayton told Neil McCormick in U2 By U2.) But, again, I like the relatively rough-hewn version on Pop. Yet another track from that record that doesn’t really fit the Pop format. I wonder how that album would’ve been received had it been given a more accurate title, like Spiritual Dysfunction.

44. “Unknown Caller” (2009)

The ultimate manifestation of that No Line On The Horizon “weird energy.” If there’s a bias on this list, it’s my soft spot for U2’s less polished and riskier moments. And “Unknown Caller” is certainly that — a narrative told from the perspective of a drug addict and dotted with bizarre techno-speak that was recorded, in extremely un-U2-like fashion, in one take. I’ve talked with many U2 fans who absolutely loathe this song, but “Unknown Caller” always moves me, both for the strain you hear in U2 reaching for something new and revelatory and The Edge’s stunning, careening guitar solo.

43. “Staring At The Sun” (1997)

“We thought we had a solid gold number one hit,” U2’s former manager Paul McGuinness once said of “Staring At The Sun,” the ill-fated would-be breakout from Pop. “It clearly wasn’t the song we thought it was.” I think that’s unfair — the pop charts in 1997 were not a welcome place for a psychedelic-folk track about self-delusion that evokes the late-’60s Kinks. U2 could have put out “With Or Without You” and the kids would’ve still gravitated to Korn and the Backstreet Boys.

42. “Twilight” (1980)

When U2 set out to conquer America upon the release of their debut album Boy, they gained an early foothold in this country’s gay clubs. Listening to “Twilight,” it’s easy to see why — this song about spiritual and sexual awakening has heavy queer overtones, describing a scenario that sounds an awful lot like a young man losing his virginity to an older lover. Combined with the orgasmic surge of the music, which peaks with a valedictory Edge guitar solo, “Twilight” seems like the rousing gay anthem that U2 has never quite owned up to acknowledging as such.

41. “Deep In The Heart” (1987)

The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby are the top two “best U2 album” contenders, as well as the two best producer of great U2 B-sides. On that count, I have to give The Joshua Tree the slight edge — there is nearly enough material relegated to B-side status to account for another top-flight U2 album. This spooky number with a heavy Badlands vibe — the Terrence Malick film, not the Springsteen song — is one of the very best B-sides from this period: “Thirteen years old, sweet as rose / Every petal of her wafer thin / Love will make you mine / Creep up from behind / Get you jumping out of your skin.”

40. “Spanish Eyes” (1987)

The best B-side from The Joshua Tree, and the best U2 B-side, period. Everyone involved seems to agree that “Spanish Eyes” could’ve made the album — maybe even should’ve made the album — though apparently it wasn’t finished in time. As it is, the wide-open sound slots pretty much perfectly between “In God’s Country” and “One Tree Hill.”

39. “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” Under A Blood Red Sky version (1983)

Though not included on the original release of Boy, “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” is among the most significant early U2 songs. It was the track that initially convinced Martin Hannett to work with them. (“He wasn’t impressed with the demo, but he said he liked the song,” The Edge later recalled.) But more than that, it distilled their original essence, which was introspective atmospheric post-punk (the first half of the song) blown up to the size and scale of stadium rock (the second half). Most U2 fans didn’t come to know “11 O’Clock Tick Tock” until it appeared on Under A Blood Red Sky, by which point U2’s positive visualization about their larger-than-life future put them on the cusp of playing the kinds of rooms that could contain a song this big.

38. “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” (1995)

Remember when Batman movies were lighthearted enough to foster soundtracks spinning multiple pop hits? “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” wasn’t even the biggest smash from the Batman Forever soundtrack — take a bow, Seal, for “Kiss From A Rose.” In terms of U2’s arc in the ’90s, “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me” is either the end of the Zoo TV/Zooropa era or the unofficial beginning of the Pop period set to officially kick off two years later. Or maybe it doesn’t really fit in either place — this song is flat-out riffier and all-around trashier than anything from the relatively self-serious U2 albums that surround it. Lyrically, however, it does owe something to the “artist as thief” philosophizing of “The Fly.” Give Bono some extra bonus points for rhyming “turning tricks” with “your crucifix.”

37. “Do You Feel Loved” (1997)

If the narrative of Pop (at least from U2’s perspective) is of a promising album undone by a looming stadium tour that forced the band to turn it in before fully realizing the songs, then “Do You Feel Loved” might be their single greatest lost opportunity at achieving a hit single. The band themselves seemed eager to discard it, setting the song aside after only six performances on the PopMart tour. But to my ears, “Do You Feel Loved” is the most successful attempt on Pop at eschewing U2’s conventional guitar-centric approach for a sultry, groove-heavy, electro-rock alternative. So much of Pop is decidedly not pop music, but “Do You Feel Loved” was a genuine departure that actually works. Unfortunately, U2’s own failure of nerve has relegated the song to obscurity.

36. “Zooropa” (1993)

U2’s experimental followup to Achtung Baby represents another failure of nerve — not initially, as Zooropa is among U2’s best albums. But in retrospect, given how the band came to see the LP as self-indulgent. “I thought of Zooropa at the time as a work of genius,” Bono tells Neil McCormick in U2 By U2. “I really thought our pop discipline was matching our experimentation and this was our Sgt. Pepper. I was a little wrong about that. The truth is our pop disciplines were letting us down. We didn’t create hits. We didn’t quite deliver the songs. And what would Sgt. Pepper be without the pop songs?” The irony is that chasing hits for much of the 21st century has likely undermined U2’s credibility with younger generations far more than making albums like Zooropa would have. Even now, the title track feels like an invitation to adventure, a cyberspace remix of “Where The Streets Have No Name”: “And I have no compass / And I have no map / And I have no reason / No reason to get back.”

35. “Some Days Are Better Than Others” (1993)

One more note for Bono re: Zooropa: You guy did deliver songs! This is a great pop tune! You made Edge’s guitar sound like actual church bells! That’s brilliant! And your lyrics are also really good! (My personal fave: “Some days are sulky, some days have a grin / And some days have bouncers and won’t let you in.”) Be proud of this record, man!

34. “Bullet The Blue Sky” (1987)

The story everyone knows about “Bullet The Blue Sky” is that Bono told The Edge to “put El Salvador through an amplifier.” Though I’m guessing what The Edge actually did is just listen to some Hendrix and try to emulate “Voodoo Child (Slight Return).” But the stars of “Bullet The Blue Sky” aren’t really The Edge or Bono — though “peeling off those dollar bills / slapping ’em down” is undeniably badass — but Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. This song just straight-up swings harder than any other U2 track on record. Led Zeppelin is an easy point of comparison, but those guys really just invented Rage Against The Machine about five years early.

33. “Mothers Of The Disappeared” (1987)

The easiest way to spot a great U2 album is by listening to the final track. If it’s a total downer, then the album is probably classic. It’s appropriate that The Joshua Tree has one of the most exquisite closing downers of all, this ballad inspired by the children snatched up from their parents by dastardly governments in Chile and Argentina. The backbone of this track is the eerie sound of Larry Mullen Jr.’s digitally treated rhythm, which gives “Mothers Of The Disappeared” a sinister clang that rings like wires being stretched across someone’s neck. And then there’s Bono’s falsetto, one of his all-time greatest vocal performances, in which he pulls back just enough to hint at the reservoir of pain just below the surface of this song.

32. “Zoo Station” (1991)

Another motif of the greatest U2 albums: Sweeping “introduction” tracks that draw you into a vast new musical world. I posited “Zooropa” as that kind of song a few entries back; “Zoo Station” from Achtung Baby is the original zoo crew. “Time is a train / Makes the future the past / Leaves you standing in the station / Your face pressed up against the glass.”

31. “Running To Stand Still” (1987)

Adam Clayton has called this song “Bad” Part II, though if that’s the case this is the subtler, more restrained sequel. Both songs are about the devastation of heroin addiction, which Bono writes about more directly in “Running To Stand Still”: “You know I took the poison / From the poison stream / Then I floated out of here.” But whereas “Bad” builds to an overpowering climax, “Running To Stand Still” is practically prairie music in the vein of Springsteen’s Nebraska.

30. “40” (1983)

The best-ever instance of rock ‘n’ roll stagecraft at the end of a gig is James Brown’s “exit robe” routine. The second best instance is U2 playing “40” and then exiting the stage one by one, with The Edge on bass and Adam Clayton on guitar, until Larry Mullen is left alone to pound out the beat.

29. “Van Diemen’s Land” (1988)

If U2 were more like The Stones, there would be one track set aside per record where The Edge gets to sing lead. Alas, The Edge is more of a team player than Keith Richards, so “Van Diemen’s Land” is the rare track to spotlight his hearty tenor. While Rattle & Hum is known as U2’s most America-obsessed record, “Van Diemen’s Land” also stands out for being the most traditionally Irish-sounding piece that U2 has ever committed to tape. Named after the former British prison colony of Tasmania, where Irish activist John Boyle O’Reilly was sent after leading a popular uprising in the 1860s, “Van Diemen’s Land” is understated and yet one of the most quietly powerful U2 “protest” numbers.

28. “Desire” (1988)

It’s impossible to separate in my mind “Van Diemen’s Land” from “Desire,” since those tracks are sequenced together on Rattle & Hum, with the little misbegotten Phil Joanou interview clip in the middle. I wish U2 had done one of those five-disc box sets for the 30th anniversary of Rattle & Hum in 2018, because (1) I think the album is generally misunderstood and underappreciated and (2) I want to hear all of the interview outtakes where Joanou asks earnest questions about how U2 is grappling with fame in the wake of The Joshua Tree. As for “Desire”: For a band that started out less than a decade earlier with zero connection to Bo Diddley, this is a shockingly effective use of the Diddley shuffle.

27. “Red Hill Mining Town” (1987)

The Joshua Tree was so loaded with expressive, mid-tempo heartland rockers that they didn’t come around to playing “Red Hill Mining Town” live until the anniversary tour in 2017. That could be read as a vote of “no confidence” from the band — Mullen called it “over-produced and under-written,” a classification that makes no sense on either count — though it’s possible “Red Hill Mining Town” suffered from comparison to the best songs from that album. On its own, however, it’s hard not to love this song for how the swinging verse builds to the pure emotionalism of the chorus, in which Bono’s high-lonesome howl meshes perfectly with The Edge’s searching twang.

26. “Pride (In The Name Of Love)” (1984)

The U2 warhorse I’m the most sick of. Also, the lyric mangles the circumstances of MLK’s murder, which is a crucial error in a song that seeks to honor MLK in the wake of his murder. Now, if you have by some chance never heard “Pride,” first of all, how? Second of all, I envy you. The first 25 or so seconds might be the most purely exciting music that U2 ever made. Even as a person who would be fine never hearing this song again, I have no doubt when The Edge’s obituary is written, the riff from “Pride” will be in the first paragraph.

25. “Even Better Than The Real Thing” (1991)

Put this riff in the second paragraph of the obituary. (Actually, let’s just stop talking about The Edge’s death.) When he wrote it, he likened the riff to that classic ’68-’72 era of The Rolling Stones, a reference point that typically wouldn’t be applied to U2. But once The Edge added that distinctive whammy-pedal effect, it turned whiskey-and-cocaine blues-rock into anti-consumerist science fiction.

24. “Angel Of Harlem” (1988)

U2 was clobbered in the media for the Americana cosplay of Rattle & Hum, but now that we’re more than three decades removed, can we admit that you have to work very hard to hate a song as affectionate as “Angel Of Harlem”? Recorded at Sun Studios with a Springsteen-esque horn section, “Angel Of Harlem” is a straight-up retelling of U2’s first visit to America in the early ’80s. They landed at JFK in New York City, they listened to American radio, they heard Billie Holiday, and years later Bono wrote a song about it. Unlike a lot of his lyrics, he lays it all pretty plainly — this is an unabashed love letter to the country that U2 would eventually conquer.

23. “Stay (Faraway, So Close!) (1993)

A personal favorite for Bono and The Edge, who worked on “Stay” throughout the early ’90s as a kind of magnum opus. It started during the Achtung Baby era as a potential song for Frank Sinatra. (The Edge even worked out the chord progression in imitation of classic Tin Pan Alley songwriting.) You can sense Bono going for a crooner vibe in the lyric: A guy stops for a pack of cigarettes even though he doesn’t want to smoke. He talks to a femme fatale trapped in a bad, sadomasochistic relationship. Just pure film noir. But “Stay” is also very early ’90s U2: “Dressed up like a car crash / Your wheels are turning but you’re upside down” is something you can imagine Bowie singing even more than the Chairman of the Board.

22. “Love Is Blindness” (1991)

Here’s Bono once again approaching Dylan-level greatness as a lyricist on Achtung Baby: “A little death / Without mourning / No call / And no warning / Baby, a dangerous idea / That almost makes sense.” This is also the album where The Edge peaked as a soloist. So much of his playing on this record conjures the feeling of a once ebullient spirit being shot through the heart and slowly bleeding out, none more so than on this track.

21. “The Wanderer” (1993)

Yes, Rick Rubin was wise in the early ’90s to strip back Johnny Cash’s music to an acoustic guitar and that low, rumbling, Old Testament voice on the “American” albums. But I don’t think he was quite as smart as U2 was to put that voice and presence on Zooropa‘s techno-western closer. On the “American” albums, Cash sounds like the town crier for a civilization on the verge of the apocalypse. But on “The Wanderer,” he’s positively post-apocalyptic: “I went out searching, looking for one good man/ A spirit who would not bend or break / Who would sit at his father’s right hand / I went out walking with a bible and a gun / The word of God lay heavy on my heart / I was sure I was the one.”

20. “Seconds” (1983)

Side 1 of War is the best U2 album side that is not on The Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby, and “Seconds” is the best song on that side that’s not a massively successful classic-rock radio staple. (We’ll be talking about the two songs that are massively successful from this side a little later on.) I also stump for this song because The Edge sings the first verse, though you can’t really tell because he sounds so much like Bono. Otherwise, this song always sucks me in as soon as I hear Larry Mullen Jr. pounding out that martial-funk beat on a toy drum.

19. “In God’s Country” (1987)

My connection to U2 began in the summer when I was 11 or 12. Every night after dinner, I would ride my bike at dusk and listen to my tape of The Joshua Tree on my Walkman, and in the process fell in love with music. For the longest time, I would only play the first three songs on Side 1 — all of the hits, basically — and then rewind and listen to them again. But eventually I made it to the end of Side 1, and then flipped over to Side 2. And that’s when I heard one of my favorite bike-riding songs of all-time, “In God’s Country,” which still makes me think about burning thighs and sweat on my brow as I tried to pedal as quickly as The Edge strummed that quicksilver riff. Years later, I learned that U2 themselves never thought much of “In God’s Country.” (Bono blamed his guitarist: “The lyric was really good, the tune is pretty good, and the hook is pretty average — thanks to The Edge.”) But U2 is wrong about this, and I am right.

18. “Heartland” (1988)

Another “riding my bike at dusk when I was 11 or 12” song. I still think this is one Bono’s greatest vocals. It has that “One Tree Hill” vocal crack when he reaches for the high notes, which he lost not long after the ’80s ended.

17. “A Sort Of Homecoming” (1984)

The Edge’s favorite Brian Eno album is Before And After Science, and the lead-off track from U2’s first album with Eno/Lanois, The Unforgettable Fire, sounds like an attempt to marry that album’s “rock” and “ambient” sides. It has the drive of the first three U2 albums, but the edges have been blurred and the band’s overall attack has been made vaguer and less aggressive. In the studio, the producers slowed the original backing track down to half speed and encouraged Bono to improvise over the new soundscape, before lifting his best bits for the final edit. The result is a questing song that you can play 100 times without deciphering it, which only makes you want to play it 100 more.

16. “All I Want Is You” (1988)

This song was the fourth and final single from Rattle & Hum, and pretty much bombed on the charts, peaking at No. 83. It didn’t really become popular until it was featured in Reality Bites six years later. Now, anecdotally speaking, I feel like this is one of the most popular U2 songs. This isn’t really borne out by streaming data. (It is not among the top 10 most streamed U2 songs on Spotify.) But if you were to count all of mixtapes that I have made in my lifetime for people that I was trying to seduce, and added that number to all of the mixtapes that people I know have made for people they were trying to seduce and all the people that you know who have done that, then “All I Want Is You” would be among the most popular all-time love songs ever.

15. “Sunday Bloody Sunday” (1983)

You know the most iconic image of early U2: Red Rocks, flaming torches, white flag, Bono mullet, “No more!” It’s all from the Under The Blood Red Sky performance of “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” and it’s still maybe one of the most influential things they’ve ever done. Not so much sonically, perhaps, but certainly aspirationally. A generation of over-ambitious alt-indie rockers — from Coldplay to The Killers to Arcade Fire — studied that video closely and learned how to channel their burgeoning megalomania into dreams of arena domination.

14. “Acrobat” (1991)

It’s not one of the hits from Achtung Baby, but “Acrobat” has all of the qualities I treasure about the album: The Edge’s guitar is nasty and his solo is hellacious, the rhythm section is inventive and also hellacious, and Bono’s lyrics are extra-penetrating and bleak. (“What are we going to do now it’s all been said / No new ideas in the house and every book has been read.”) The band suspected that audiences didn’t respond more favorably to “Acrobat” because it’s not the kind of song that people typically turn to U2 for. But the real heads understand that this is the cream of Achtung Baby.

13. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” (1987)

This song is so ubiquitous and familiar that I just recently came to appreciate how unusual it is. “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” is basically a sneaky-weird instrumental track that sounds like a gospel tune because of Bono’s lyrics and vocals, in which the wondrously slippery rhythm part is the primary hook. If this is heartland rock, it’s from a planet that resembles Another Green World. In an alternate universe, this is a beloved “strange” outtake that retained its original title, “Under The Weather Girls.”

12. “The Unforgettable Fire” (1984)

If grander ambitions hadn’t been driving them, U2 could have been a damn fine dream pop band. The title track from the fourth album is one of their most ravishing numbers, an almost-synth pop number that revisits the nuclear annihilation concerns of War with a much softer, lusher touch. Bono’s lyric about distracting yourself with romantic notions in the midst of common disaster hits a different way at the moment: “Stay this time / Stay tonight in a lie / I’m only asking but I / I think you know/ Come on take me away.”

11. “Until The End Of The World” (1991)

Bono goes biblical. Over one of the thickest, heaviest guitar riffs in the U2 canon, he brilliantly voices the guilty conscience of Judas Iscariot in a conversational voice that previews the “con man in hell” voice that he’ll use later in Achtung Baby on “The Fly.” The final verse is perhaps Bono’s finest writing, partly fiction and partly exorcism: “In my dream I was drowning my sorrows / But my sorrows, they learned to swim / Surrounding me, going down on me / Spilling over the brim / Waves of regret and waves of joy / I reached out for the one I tried to destroy / You, you said you’d wait / ‘Til the end of the world.”

10. “One Tree Hill” (1987)

My favorite Bono vocal performance. Written in memory of his friend and former U2 roadie Greg Carroll, who died in 1986 of a motorcycle accident, “One Tree Hill” was delivered in just one take, as Bono couldn’t make it through the lyrics a second time. But “One Tree Hill” isn’t so much about one man’s grief but rather a collective sadness caused by the toll of human loss that everyone endures. Carroll isn’t actually mentioned directly in the song, but the late Chilean folk singer Victor Jara — an outspoken critic of Augusto Pinochet who was subsequently tortured and murdered by the government — is referenced as a kind of symbol for heroic universal suffering. “One Tree Hill” later inspired the title of a CW soap opera that I have never seen.

9. “New Year’s Day” (1983)

The second and more famous song about nuclear annihilation from Side 1 of War (the first being “Seconds,” No. 20 on this list). While Adam Clayton tends to be a glue guy in U2, this song remains his greatest showcase. “New Year’s Day” features the biggest, fastest, and most aggressive bassline heard regularly on the classic-rock station in your town outside of “Another One Bites The Dust.”

8. “Beautiful Day” (2000)

Along with being one of the greatest U2 songs, “Beautiful Day” unquestionably is among the most important, at least in terms of giving U2’s career new life after they appeared to hit a snag at the onset of middle age. Much like The Rolling Stones with “Tattoo You,” which arrived 20 years into their career and subsequently became a deathless jock jams standard, “Beautiful Day” was precisely the Great And Iconic Mid-Career Single that every legacy act aims for and rarely achieves. The power of “Beautiful Day” is how it (1) reminds those of us who love U2 why we love U2 without (2) directly ripping off an old song or explicitly pandering to the most conservative instincts of the audience. “Beautiful Day” is the epitome of “classic” U2 while also bringing a certain survivor’s energy to the song that only a veteran band could conjure.

7. “Ultra Violet (Light My Way)” (1991)

Bono is known for his decidedly unsubtle, Cliff’s Of Dover-style arena-rock caterwaul, which is why his vocal performances on Achtung Baby are so consistently surprising. Like “Until The End Of The World” and “The Fly,” he speak-sings “Ultra Violet,” a rare ray of light on the album after all of the despairing and brutalist songs about relationships that proceed it. Like Bruce Springsteen on Tunnel Of Love, Bono used Achtung Baby to ruminate on the gap between his romantic intentions (i.e. the topic of most U2 songs) and the reality of human beings rarely living up to the image that they have of themselves. While “Ultra Violet” doesn’t deny or downplay that gap, it is an admission that the path to reconciling it comes with accepting that these battles for our own souls can’t be fought alone: “There is a silence that comes to a house / Where no one can sleep / I guess it’s the price of love / I know it’s not cheap.”

6. “The Fly” (1991)

The peak of U2’s “Euro-Trash” guise. Also the greatest “heavy” Edge guitar riff and his best guitar solo, as well as perhaps Bono’s finest set of lyrics. It’s also the funniest U2 song — which isn’t saying much, since this isn’t a funny band, but it’s still pretty witty! If you’re going to quote any U2 song, it will probably be this one: “It’s no secret that a conscience can sometimes be a pest / It’s no secret ambition bites the nails of success / Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief / All kill their inspiration and sing about their grief.”

5. “With Or Without You” (1987)

The final 80 seconds of this song is the best music U2 ever made, and some of my favorite music by anybody. It’s the coda, when The Edge starts strumming out of Larry Mullen Jr.’s drum break and Adam Clayton’s bass makes a murmuring sound that is impossibly deep and wide. It’s a moment that should explode, since this is U2’s quintessential power ballad. But it doesn’t. It just stays in that pocket for several seconds, ringing and murmuring, until it flattens you.

4. “I Will Follow” (1980)

The most crucial fact about U2 is that the four guys who played on their first record are the same four guys who played on their most recent record, and it’s impossible to imagine it being any other way. Even if you don’t know that the bass player is named Adam Clayton and the drummer is named Larry Mullen Jr., you would suddenly feel extremely weird if suddenly one of those guys were replaced by, like, Flea or Travis Barker. The sense of continuity with U2 is their greatest attribute, and distinguishes them from practically ever other significant band in rock history. What you hear on “I Will Follow,” the very first track on their debut — The Edge’s guitar, Adam Clayton’s mile-wide bass, Larry Mullen Jr.’s unpretentious drums, Bono’s messianic posturing — is what you’ll get from U2 for the next 40 years. They invented themselves immediately. And then they reinvented themselves, time and again.

3. “One” (1991)

You might think you’re sick of this song. Put it on right now. Set aside your cynicism. (I should have advised this at the beginning of this U2 list.) This is one of the great standards to come out of the alt-rock era. It is “Bridge Over Troubled Water” for Generation X, meaning that it is an outsized, reassuring ballad calling for communal unity directed at people who have been highly conditioned to resist such messages. Which might be why “One” functions as both a “let’s stick together” and “let’s break up” anthem. Bono’s clear-eyed view of marriage is certainly bruising, but it still sounds ultimately hopeful to me: “Well it’s too late, tonight / To drag the past out into the light / We’re one, but we’re not the same / We get to carry each other.” But it’s also possible to get the opposite message, and to take “One” as a “moving on”-type song: “Love is a temple, love is a higher law / You ask me of me to enter, but then you make me crawl / And I can’t keep holding on to what you got, ’cause all you got is hurt.” Either way, there is a path forward away from hurt and toward healing.

2. “Bad” Wide Awake In America version (1985)

If “One” is a song I can imagine anyone singing, “Bad” only works if U2 is delivering it. The lyrics make no sense unless Bono is singing them. The riff is practically nonexistent if not for The Edge’s stirring arpeggios. The whole bottom end would be painfully boring if Adam and Larry didn’t play the hell out of it. Even U2 couldn’t really get this song right on The Unforgettable Fire. They had to drag it out in front of at least 20,000 people every night to conjure whatever that elusive special thing there is about “Bad.” But in that environment, U2 has been able to make “Bad” their own Astral Weeks, an intense journey into the spiritual and emotional netherworld that can’t really be articulated with words, because the sound of this song tends to render those held in its rapture temporarily speechless.

1. “Where The Streets Have No Name” (1987)

What if U2 had failed? Failure for his band wouldn’t have been not getting a record deal or an opportunity to tour America. Failure would have meant merely being medium popular. The sort of group that plays clubs and theaters. A career to which most musicians aspire, but for U2 would’ve equaled death. Because you can’t be a band that plays clubs and theaters and also writes songs like “Where The Streets Have No Name.” It simply would not make sense. It’s like making a film with the size and scope of Lawrence Of Arabia in order to post it on TikTok. If your ambition is to be epic and awe audiences with heretofore unimagined grandness, you simply cannot exist if the venue itself is small and ordinary. U2 needed extraordinary success in order to make extraordinary music, and “Where The Streets Have No Name” represents that magic moment when their ambitions perfectly matched their circumstances. They had toured long and hard enough for the world to accept them into its largest stadiums, and U2 responded with a song so large and imaginative that it feels like a world onto itself. You hear this song and you suddenly long for the lack of intimacy at a stadium show — because you sense that this band will make a stadium feel like a club, and also because the intimacy you seek isn’t with a band but with 60,000 other people held in the very same rapture you are. Where the streets have no name? What place can that be but heaven?

Finding the best taco in every state in the U.S. feels like an impossible task. A very fun and delicious task, sure. But too big to take on, especially in the midst of a pandemic. Still, we like to compile lists of things we love — whiskey, beer, pizza — and tacos felt like a natural next step.

To help with this fool’s errand, we looked to a newly released list from Yelp of the Best Tacos in every state. While Yelp is never a perfect indicator of quality (trolls can destroy a place for little reason if they see fit), they do carry a lot of data on restaurants. So much data, in fact, that the whole Yelp project generally seems to lean towards some sort of general validity for the average diner. Like any social media, there are ways that the system is gamed or tampered with (and making the company financially viable has hurt its ability to be unbiased), but… I generally find it to be relatively solid.

In this case, Yelp calibrated their results for best taco joints based on “restaurants and food categories with a large concentration of reviews mentioning ‘taco.’” They then ranked those spots by the “total volume and ratings of reviews” amongst other “factors” — which they do not mention. Again, this is Yelp. These aren’t our picks or even Instagram’s. This is a list of taco places people like on Yelp. Are they “best?” All that we can say from compiling this list and pulling images from all 51 joints (50 states plus Washington, DC), they all certainly look tasty.

That’s not the critical take that we’d like to give, but it’s enough to get our mouths watering. We also added a review by a fan of each spot. These fans do a pretty solid job of describing the food and making us hungry. And in the COVID era, you take small pleasures like that where you can get them.

Alabama — Dos Hermanos Taco Truck, Birmingham

The Taco Joint:

This Birmingham taco truck looks like it drove straight from the streets of Los Angeles to Alabama and set up shop. Everything from the menu (with tripe and tongue) to the icebox full of drinks under the service window to the jars of sauce gives this truck some serious street cred.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“BEST TACOS IN BIRMINGHAM!! I moved to Dallas and can’t find anything that compares to the authentic tacos served at this truck!!!! Double corn tortilla, delicious protein, and fresh onion and cilantro! The hot sauces are made in house and will blow you away! Can’t get enough!”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

Alaska — Deckhand Dave’s Fish Tacos, Juneau

The Taco Joint:

A fish taco stand on the water in Alaska where some of the world’s best wild fish is caught? Sign. Us. Up. Hopefully, this fish shack survives the pandemic because it looks like the real-deal Alaska taco experience.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Delicious tacos and fun (covid friendly) seating area. New to the area and wanted a bite to eat after hiking all day – this was a perfect respite! Despite the chilly weather, the large space heaters, good food, and great service kept us warm!”

Current Status:

Temporarily closed.

Arkansas — Doomsday Coffee & Roasterie, Fayetteville

The Taco Joint:

This is really a coffee spot that happens to have tacos that people really dig. The coffee roastery was formed to help U.S. veterans with PTSD by using a portion of their coffee profits for that fight. The tacos look like they adhere to a Tex-Mex formula by way of San Antonio (puffed tortillas). If you want to pair some fine coffee with a plate of tacos, this is the place to hit up.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Love this place they have the best breakfast tacos coffee and banana bread we live in Texas but when we come to see our daughter in school we always go to this place!!:”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in, outdoor dining, and takeout.

Arizona — Cocina Madrigal, Phoenix

The Taco Joint:

Chef Leo Madrigal came up in the Mexican food scene before moving to Phoenix to open restaurants and serve tacos. The menu is pure Southwest with a chef’s flair — but not too overwrought.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Really close to the Phoenix airport so it’s a perfect spot to grab a bite! By the looks of it, I probably would have never picked this place but the food is fantastic!

Al pastor tacos were yummy! They also have a really good habanero sauce that you should def ask for the steak was tender and crispy on the outside. The potato pancake is mashed potatoes with a cheese crust on top which was delicious as well.

Service was fast. Server was pleasant. Prices are great! Definitely would go again!”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in, outdoor dining, and takeout.

California — Roundhouse Deli, Roseville

The Taco Joint:

This is actually a pretty interesting pick. For one, the central valley of California is a great region for tacos, in general. Also, a tri-tip taco with a turned up to eleven cafeteria taco Tuesday look and feel is always a delight. Smoked tri-tip, grated yellow cheese, shredded iceberg, and diced tomato in a corn tortilla with some sauce … what’s not to love?

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Tri-tip tacos are worth the hype! I’ve heard from several people that the tacos here are amazing, so I thought I’d check them out. 10/10! The tortillas are on another level. Tri-tip smoked to perfection. The salsa was super spicy but really good flavor. I will be back!”

Current Status:

Delivery and takeout only.

Colorado — Xicamiti La Taquería Bistro, Golden

The Taco Joint:

This is a classic strip-mall hole-in-the-wall that gets the local love. The tacos look straightforward, colorful, and very much on-point. Add in Colorado’s legal cannabis and we could see spending a long time at this joint.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“This place is excellent. My husband had the shrimp tacos and I had the tacos with plantains and caramelized onions. It had the perfect balance of spicy, acid, and sweet. The menu is simple but the flavors are complex. Customer service is friendly and fast. Don’t walk but run here. You will not be disappointed. During the pandemic, there is dine-in with social distancing. Decor is simple but festive. My kids love the food and they are picky eaters.”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in, takeout, and delivery.

Connecticut — Tacos El Azteca, Norwalk

The Taco Joint:

This is another truck that looks like it was driven cross-country from California to Connecticut. The menu is everything you want from a taco truck that only charges $2 per taco. You know you’re getting a styrofoam plate of bliss from the belly of this truck just by looking at it.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“It’s shocking that these tacos are this good, in Norwalk CT of all places. I’ve been going here for years and they have actually been getting better as time goes on.

You can usually see a small like of people waiting for tacos here, and I want to emphasize that this is actually a good thing, because the service is so fast, that the line never gets outrageously long. If there is no line, you can expect to be in and out in about 5 minutes.

Their Al pastor taco is the way to go. The taste is….man oh man, the taste is amazing. Cannot recommend enough. Always stop by when I am in town for a visit.”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

Delaware — El Pique, Wilmington

The Taco Joint:

This taco shack in Delaware looks humble but also like a destination that’s been calling you to it for years. The tacos have a classic Mexicana vibe and, if the reports are to be believed, they deliver on the taste and quality.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“I have been eating here since they opened many many years ago, they never disappoint!! Tacos are the best ones I have ever had! 5 Asada, Tex Mex style, green sauce, and sour cream!!! AMAZING!!!! Thanks El Pique!”

Current Status:

Takeout and delivery only.

Florida — Los Bocados, Parkland

The Taco Joint:

This Floridian taco joint seems legit. Albeit, there’s a slight bit of Instagram pandering at play — we see your squeeze bottle lines everywhere. Still, the chefs don’t pretend to be anything but Mexican street food “inspired.” It looks good and we’re willing to forgive all those sauce lines for a solid plate of tacos.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“I can say for sure that the service is fantastic. Better service than you would expect from a gas station (friendly, attentive, helpful), but the food is the star. Each taco flavor is delicious, unique, and flavorful. Our go-to order is the taco combo, but the chef recommended the barbecue brisket tostadas which were incredible (just the right amount of kick). They will definitely be making a regular appearance at our house.

Every time we order carry out we wonder why we don’t get it more often. 10/10 would recommend.”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

Georgia — Tacos Del Chavo, Kennesaw

The Taco Joint:

This family-run taco shack looks like it’s serving the real goods. The tacos look pure Mexicana with a well-crafted protein selection. Also, the outdoor seating you get in the American South is a nice touch given the dangers of indoor dining at the moment.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“We stopped on our way back to the airport and we are so glad we did. The tortas were light and airy with so much flavor. The Tacos Mexican with carne asada was full of flavor and tender. The empanadas have a crust that was to die for. It was buttery and flaky but had enough structure to hold the empanada together. 10/10 will come back here next time we are in the area. 100% worth the drive!”

Current Status:

Outdoor dining and takeout.

Hawai’i — Shaka Tacoz, Captain Cook

The Taco Joint:

Speaking of outdoor dining. This fixed food truck has a big outdoor patio with a view for your taco dining pleasure. The tacos look like they adhere to Mexican streetfood ways with a nice hint of Hawai’i’s wild fish and bright produce at play.

Frankly, Hawaiian-Mexican street tacos sound like the tacos we’ve been waiting for all our lives.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Oh my goodness the food was so fresh and delicious! Extremely delicious flavors! Loved the veg tacos! Will be back at least weekly. And I can’t forget the excellent customer service. Mahalos”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in, takeout, and delivery.

Idaho — Morenita’s Mexican Restaurant & Bakery, Idaho Falls

The Taco Joint:

This taco joint has an old-school diner feel with old Formica booths and bakery vibe. The menu looks like a glorious mix of solid Mexican street food and Tex-Mex standards served in a hometown atmosphere. This looks like the perfect spot to crack open a few Modelo’s and let the tacos keep coming.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“The tacos here are fat, delicious, and authentic. Freshly made tortillas, hot sauce, and horchata! I had the ranchero tacos with carne asada and an adoba taco. Delicious. We had the posolo which was also good but I’m a loyal fan to my mother’s posolo. The horchata was also a favorite. It was slightly sweetened with a light touch of cinnamon.

In total, for 2 tacos rancheros, 1 taco adobada, 1 posole, 1 horchata and a beer = $26 total. Not bad :)”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in and takeout.

Illinois — Edgewater Tacos, Chicago

The Taco Joint:

Chicago has a lot of great taquerias to choose from. Edgewater is a solid choice, Yelpers. This family-run joint has a deep menu of Tex-Mex favorites (you can get sour cream on everything) with a good selection of tacos that you can still get in either a hard shell or soft corn tortilla.

Try the hard shells, it’s a nice throwback.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“This is my favorite place in Edgewater and one of my favorite places in Chicago. The tacos are amazing and the staff is awesome. You can’t go wrong with any of the tacos although my faves are the al pastor and chorizo. I also love the steak quesadilla.”

Current Status:

Open for takeout and delivery.

Indiana — Tlaolli, Indianapolis

The Taco Joint:

Tlaolli is all about their olive oil-based tamales. And they look great. But this is a taco list and their tacos also look mouthwatering. Look at that image up there, those are fine-looking tacos that we think are worth trying if you’re in Indianapolis.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Flavor explosion! I had the most incredible experience at Tlaolli’s. My sister gave up eating meet for the month and Tlaolli’s had been on my list for a while. They do have some meat options (chicken, steak) but the majority of their food is vegetarian. I’m not normally a big vegetarian fan but this place blew it out of the water.

My sister had three tacos (hibiscus flower, soy chorizo, and black bean and jackfruit). Her favorite was the soy chorizo and black bean, then jackfruit and hibiscus flower. I tried the soy chorizo quesadilla and have been dreaming about it ever since! It’s filled with the most amazing tasting chorizo I’ve ever had and gooey white cheese. It’s served disc style and not folder over. It’s topped with red and green salsas, crema and some tomatoes. My sister and I couldn’t stop taking about the depth of flavor. We just wanted more.

This place quickly became a top 5 for me in Indianapolis!”

Current Status:

Open for takeout.

Iowa — La Regia Taqueria, Iowa City

The Taco Joint:

Oh yes, another strip mall hole-in-the-wall for the win in Iowa. This place looks like the quintessential no-frills Mexican joint that blends solid street food tacos with a Tex-Mex side of “Spanish” rice and refried beans for good measure.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“This place is BY FAR my favorite Mexican place in Iowa City. The space itself is casual and definitely a good place for families and groups. The first time I came here was with a fairly large group and they were super accommodating. I was impressed with their menu and their prices are really reasonable. I wish they served alcohol but the food is so good it doesn’t even need a Marg on the side. I got three tacos (shrimp and fish) with refried beans and rice. Everything was SO delicious I was so impressed. The portions are so large I had to take a taco home. The service is also very nice every time I come here and each server is very friendly. Overall I really love this place when I’m craving Mexican food and would definitely recommend this place to anyone!”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in and takeout.

Kansas — Don Antonio’s Carnicería Y Taqueria, Kansas City

The Taco Joint:

This Kansas City mainstay prides itself on making everything in-house every day. The tacos look classic, simple, and spot on. If nothing else, we know our first stop the next time we’re in Kansas City.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Great tacos, great burritos, great tortas, great carnitas, great salsa roja, great chicharrones, great house-made tortillas. Am I missing anything? Oh yes; very COVID responsible atmosphere. Keep up the good work!”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in, takeout, and delivery.

Kentucky — Taco Choza, Louisville

The Taco Joint:

This Kentucky taco shack looks like a solid balance of old-school and inventive. There’s a lot to love on the menu from classic street tacos to Mahi tacos with mango pico. This sounds like the perfect stop post-Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“This place is fast becoming our go-to for great fresh food! They follow all COVID protocols and have a great outdoor patio. The food is hot, fresh, and delicious! We’ll be back again soon!”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in, outdoor seating, and takeout.

Louisiana — Catty Shack, New Orleans

The Taco Joint:

A taco by way of the Big Easy? Take us there now. Wild catfish tacos sound superb with some spicy chipotle mayo and cabbage. Or some spicy pork sausage with peach salsa? Yes.

We’ll take ten…of each.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“I’ve lived here for 3 years (from Texas) and I haven’t been able to find good Mexican food!! This place is amazing! Best guac and queso in the city and the tacos were Perfect! Best Tex-Mex in the city hands down!”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

Maine — Taco Trio, South Portland

The Taco Joint:

This taco spot looks like a taco truck in a shack format. The menu leans into classic Mexican street food proteins and accompaniments. The results look enticing, especially washed down with a Maine craft beer.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Taco Trio is a great local spot for authentic Mexican food. Everything on the menu is fresh and delicious. Most items on the menu come with a side of chips and 2 salsa choice from the salsa bar. The salsa bar has everything from a mild pineapple salsa to very spicy, chipotle salsa. The carne asada is the most flavorful I’ve ever had. Expect to pay a little more, but definitely worth it for the quality. Always have rotating specials as well.”

Current Status:

Open for takeout.

Maryland — Taqueria Los Primos Truck 1, Jessup

The Taco Joint:

This taco truck is an unassuming spot for fantastic looking tacos. The menu leans into standard street food filings and sauces at an affordable price. There’s no reinventing the wheel here and that seems like a good thing.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Authentic Mexican Tacos! I’ve tried the Chicken and the Asada (Grilled Steak) tacos, they are amazing every time I order them! Chicken quesadillas are really good too! These portions will fill you up! Customer service is 5/5 (English or Spanish). Outdoor dining is available, they have 3 picnic tables that can seat 8 people comfortably. Cash or Credit accepted.”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

Massachusetts — Taqueria Jalisco, Boston

The Taco Joint:

Look at those birria tacos in that Instagram image! The sweet-sour-spicy-smoky fried beef tacos are addictive and the height of great tacos. You can’t tell us you don’t want to eat a plate of those right now.

[Ed. note: There is a typo in the Yelp list that names two Maine locations instead of a Maine and Massachusetts location. So, we used the top taco joint from a standard search of the Massachusetts area to fill this slot.]

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Honestly, the best chicken tacos that I’ve ever had in my life. I dream about these. Customer service:10/10 sweet women ready to serve you and answer any questions you might have. Price: Super affordable and worth every penny. Location/atmosphere: this is definitely a hole in the wall but offers an authentic and homey vibe. No need for a dress and tie. Leggings and a tee will do just fine here. Like I said these are the best chicken tacos I’ve ever had. They also offer different types of Latin drinks and tons of different salsas. This place is amazing and worth heading out to the east end for.”

Current Status:

Takeout and delivery only.

Michigan — Chino Loco Taqueria, Highland

The Taco Joint:

This small Michigan taco joint fuses classic Mexican street styles with pan East Asian influence. Korean BBQ, char siu, and Mongolian beef sit on the menu next to carne asada and diablo shrimp. It feels like the sort of place worth giving a shot for sure.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“I’m kicking myself for not trying this in the two years we have lived in Milford! This place has food truck/street-style Mexican food and very affordable prices. The tacos are amazing and the beans and rice are great! We will definitely be back. Staff friendly!”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

Minnesota — Catrinas Cerveza & Mexican Grill, Oakdale

The Taco Joint:

This Tex-Mex joint in Minnesota has a hole-in-the-wall vibe with build-your-own ethos. The taco menu starts off in the style of Chipotle with the choice of corn, flour, or hard shell tortillas. From there, you choose your proteins, sauces, and toppings, allowing you to mix and match as you see fit.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Great experience at this place – Friday’s fish tacos were fabulous and the service was friendly, fast, and quality. Ingredients were fresh and tasty.”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

Mississippi — The Pig & Pint, Jackson

The Taco Joint:

This BBQ joint also dabbles in barbecue tacos and we’re all about it. Brisket tacos, fried green tomato tacos, and pulled pork tacos all grab our attention and they look like they deliver if the photos are to believed. They also serve pork belly corndogs, which is something we need to try ASAP.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Love the BBQ here! Had the taco sampler and the briskets flavor was mouth-watering. Pulled pork delicious! Smoked chicken had just the right amount of smoke. The slaw on the tacos was delicious and gave the taco the right flavor profile! The mustard and bbq sauce is tasty! You must eat here!!!”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in, outdoor seating, takeout, and delivery.

Missouri — Scott’s Kitchen, Kansas City

The Taco Joint:

This Kansas City BBQ joint also plays in the world of tacos with their smoked meats. The spot only has a breakfast and lunch menu. And while we love a great breakfast taco, their smoke whitefish tacos and burnt end tacos on the lunch menu are what piques our interest most right now.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“You never find food this good close to the airport. I have driven by this place a number of times staying near MCO. No more! Very solid barbecue in a town full of solid barbecue. Good menu with a base of items you would expect and a couple twits like house made chorizo, tacos and burritos featuring their smoked meats. Simple sides round things out.

Easy take out, COVID and all. Great staff to explain the menus and guide you. Love a place this good close to hotel row at the airport.”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in, outdoor seating, takeout, and delivery.

Montana — Mas Taco, Red Lodge

The Taco Joint:

This taco shack on the eastern edge of the Rockies looks like the perfect spot to stop on a mountain adventure. The menu is to the point with a large spit of Al Pastor spinning away and plenty of pollo and carne asada alongside house-made sauces and corn tortillas. It’s easy, filling, and looks damn good.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Carne Asada and Al Pastor were awesome. Some of the best tacos I’ve had outside Texas.”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in, outdoor seating, and takeout.

Nebraska — Taqueria Tijuana, Omaha

The Taco Joint:

This Omaha institution looks like a cross between a hole-in-the-wall diner and a killer taco truck. The menu is chill with a Mexican street food choice of meats (think the standards with plenty of pork stomach, beef cheek, and tongue). These are straightforward tacos at a $1.95 a pop. You can’t ask for much more.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“This spot is great for some deliciously flavored small authentic tacos!! We come here a lot for the Tacos and the Tortas! I highly recommend “Al Pastor” ANYTHING!

The tacos are so good, they’re small though so I usually order 5 or 6! The “Torta” is a delicious sandwich with toppings and you choose the meat! I always get the Al Pastor! It is some of the best in town!”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in, takeout, and delivery.

Nevada — Bajamar Seafood & Tacos, Las Vegas

The Taco Joint:

There’s a trendy look to this Vegas spot. But the seafood tacos look delightful. There’s colorful and bold and full of good-looking fish. The spicy octopus looks particularly enticing.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Loved this place so much! Very friendly stuff and food is incredible! Gobernador taco with saúteed shrimp is a must!!! Can’t wait to come back here when I visit Las Vegas again!”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in, takeout, and delivery.

New Hampshire — California Burritos, Nashua

The Taco Joint:

This might be the most “TEX”-Mex place on this list. We think we see spicy ranch on those tacos and we’re not sure what to think, New Hampshire. We’ll keep our minds open since Taco Bell basically uses a spicy ranch all the time.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Best tacos in New Hampshire. I hardly go anywhere else for Mexican food because the tacos are never as good. Love that they put cheese between the corn tortillas when they heat them. Also fantastic margaritas. Can’t wait to go back.”

Current Status:

Varies by location, generally open for takeout and delivery.

New Jersey — Mi Mariachi Taqueria, Jersey City

The Taco Joint:

This joint in Jersey City feels like a vintage hole-in-the-wall slinging old-school Mexican street food. The big plates of double-layer corn tortilla tacos filled with colorful fillings look spot on. Grab a Jarritos and tuck in!

What a Random Yelper Says:

“So. Darn. GOOD! Was craving some tacos and wanted to try this place out as it has amazing reviews. CAUTION: it’s cash only!!

Ordered the Carnitas tacos and the meat was spectacular. Honestly have no complaints about the food! Can’t wait to come back and try more of their menu but hands down their tacos are the highlight of the store from what I’ve seen. Highly recommend!”

Current Status:

Takeout and delivery only.

New Mexico — El Chile Toreado, Santa Fe

The Taco Joint:

This breakfast and lunch only walk-up has some serious looking breakfast tacos on the menu. The “Mixed” breakfast tacos come with chorizo, bacon, and Polish sausage. We may need a mid-morning nap but we’re 100 percent in for that combo.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“No question the best tacos I’ve had in my entire life. Even after leaving Santa Fe I’m still thinking about my meal. The Tacos Al pastor are perfect, a little heat, fat, and pineapple made probably the best taco I’ve ever had. This review is short because a long-form is going to be me blabbering on about tacos for 20 years, so just take everyone’s advice and come eat here.”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

New York — The Alcove, Queens

The Taco Joint:

Okay, this isn’t a “taco joint.” It’s a crafty gastropub and that seems to have some killer tacos. Perusing the menu and photos of the tacos, they do look good. However, it’s hard to believe these are the best tacos in all of New York City, much less all of New York.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“One of my favorites in the area. Love their red sangria and fries! Their popularity ceases to wane even during the covid era. Super friendly staff in solidarity with their matching Alcove masks. I’ve also tried their burgers, tacos – their food are all great. IN PARTICULAR, the steak skewers are just incredible. I recently discovered having some of my friend’s and I can never not order it. So tasty.”

Current Status:

Open for outdoor seating, takeout, and delivery.

North Carolina — Gym Tacos, Raleigh

The Taco Joint:

On the hipper end of the taco truck scene, you’ll find trucks like Gym. There’s a brand to it, but the tacos do look solid. The digs from Gym look like classic street food tacos with a little flair and a lot of heart.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Gym Tacos became an instant favorite! Their tacos are so flavorful and much larger than the average street taco — which is an added bonus! Their homemade corn tortillas are amazing.

I would highly recommend — you won’t be disappointed!”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

North Dakota — Taqueria El Guerro, Mandan

The Taco Joint:

This is your old-school Tex-Mex place with plenty of combo plates, sugary margaritas, and a fine selection of tacos. But we all know why you hit up these sort of places and that’s for the Chimichanga.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“A little hole in the wall that has amazing food. We stopped off because this place was open and we were extremely surprised. They advertise 100% mesquite and it was extremely delicious. It was a different flavor of Mexican food and we will be returning. The fish tacos are a must-try.”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

Ohio — Guerra’s Krazy Taco, Springfield

The Taco Joint:

These tacos look good. The menu reflects the Korean-Mexican post-Kogi taco world of 2020 and that’s fine. The beer list also looks legit, which is expected in a place like Ohio.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Recommended by those in the business to me so highly that I had to get out to this place ASAP. It did not disappoint! A wide range of taco creations that all were fantastic in different ways; Vegetarian options that were exciting; Lobster tacos that preserved, not overwhelmed, that delicate taste; and traditional sounding tacos that were outstanding. On top of all this, a full bar with a nice draft beer selection and wonderful Margaritas. You MUST try this place!”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in, outdoor seating, and takeout.

Oklahoma — Taqueria Sanchez, Oklahoma City

The Taco Joint:

You just can’t beat these old-school food trucks. The braised meats, the sharp sauces, and the low prices are all hard to argue with. Plus, they almost always deliver a great plate of food, tacos, or otherwise.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“How can you beat an amazing food truck? Tacos here go for about $1.25, so we got a bunch of the carne asada, a few of the lingua and carnitas. Delicious beef with the classic onions and cilantro on a warmed double corn tortilla. Something so simple, but so good. These are well worth the trip out west to visit the truck. Also got a wet burrito with carnitas and it was massive for the $7 we paid. Highly recommended!”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

Oregon — The Spicy Spoon, Portland

The Taco Joint:

This neighborhood walk-up blends the worlds of Mexican street food and BBQ. Pulled pork next to BBQ rice bowls next to street tacos is always a win and worth a stop on any trip across Portland.

What a Radom Yelper Says:

“Ok, definitely get the mango fresh made juice drink! I know it’s like $7or something, but it is so yummy and really large. All the tacos we ordered were great, but will definitely be back for the fish taco and beef taco. Rice and beans were also a must! Left full and happy!”

Current Status:

Open for takeout and delivery.

Pennsylvania — Las Palmas, Pittsburgh

The Taco Joint:

This taco joint is in a Mexican grocery store. Those spots are almost always dialed in. The key to these grocery store walk-ups is the no-nonsense approach to serving good food fast. Tortilla, meat, sauce, move on. Enjoy!

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Best tacos anywhere, not just Pittsburgh. I come from California where tacos are incredible, and this beats all of them pants down! Their steak and beef tongue is absolutely incredible, and their prices are unreal.”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

Rhode Island — Monahan’s Clam Shack, Narragansett

The Taco Joint:

A clam shack that serves fried fish tacos and raw oysters? We’re there. Add in a view of the sea and a tasty lobster roll and we may never leave.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“This is my summer happy place! Great food, service & stunning ocean views with fresh, affordable, food! Had the grilled swordfish tacos, a cheeseburger & coleslaw all under $20. I highly recommend.”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

South Carolina — 167 Raw, Charleston

The Taco Joint:

Another raw bar with endless oysters and fish tacos? Maybe we’ll end up staying in Charleston. They also have a lobster taco and a “10-hour Pork Carnitas” taco. That’s a clean edge to Charleston for getting our culinary senses popping.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“I really liked this spot! Great quality of fish and oysters. I got the lobster tostada, fish taco, oysters and the blueberry slush. All great! Boyfriend got the swordfish sandwich and I had plate envy! Love the atmosphere too.”

Current Status:

Open for outdoor seating, dine-in, and takeout.

South Dakota — El Columpio, Mitchell

The Taco Joint:

This is another road-stop diner with a chill vibe. The menu leans into Tex-Mex combo meals with plenty of rice and beans to fill those platters. The tacos adhere to the same Tex-Mex joint feel.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Really exceeds expectations for Mexican food in the middle of SD! I got an enchilada + taco combo, and both were great, as were the beans/rice. They had Cholula too, which I always like to add. Also, I really appreciate that servers/cooks are in masks, taking Covid seriously.”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in and takeout.

Tennessee — Maciel’s Tortas and Tacos, Memphis

The Taco Joint:

The Memphis joint has a solid selection of classic tacos. There’s the standard pollo, carne asada, fish, shrimp, and fajita tacos. Then, you can get all those tacos fried, which is a solid move. We’re always down for fried tacos, especially on a plate heaped with rice, beans, cheese, and sour cream.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“A must visit while in Memphis. When you’re ready to break up your BBQ and fried chicken, do yourself a favor and eat at (or takeout) Maciel’s. You cannot go wrong with the menu, but a few personal faves:

-Queso con fundido
-Any Torta!
-Garlic Shrimp taco

Literally, everything is delicious and the employees are wonderfully friendly.”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in, takeout, and delivery.

Texas — Granny’s Tacos, Austin

The Taco Joint:

This is pretty much a breakfast and lunch institution. This truck is all about comfort and brings it in their breakfast and specialty tacos. The Abuela taco is a classic order with shredded pork, adobo sauce, pico, and avocado. Though, the Rico with chicken and mole is another must-try.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Delicious tacos and great, quick service! We decided to stop and get some Granny’s Tacos for a late breakfast before a long Saturday. We we very happy! I got the beans, eggs and cheese (delicious!) and my boyfriend got the chorizo, egg and cheese as well as abuela taco. He enjoyed both!

We will definitely be back next time we’re in Austin!”

Current Status:

Outdoor seating and takeout only.

Utah — Tacos La Pasadita, Green River

The Taco Joint:

This former gas station turned taco truck is a must-stop for anyone heading into the wilds of southern Utah. The menu is filled with classic tacos for $2 a pop. You can’t ask for a more nourishing meal when you’re either heading out into the national parks or coming back in.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Stopped by here on the way back from Moab/ Arches NP, and was so happy we did. The food truck is in the parking lot of a gas station, and has outdoor seating that allows you to social distance. There’s also bathrooms available to customers!

I got a carne asada burrito, and also tried the tacos. The burrito was absolutely massive, and had a simple filling (rice, beans, carne asada). My sister got the 4 taco plate, which also was a ton of food. The carne asada was great in all forms (burrito, tacos, etc), and I would highly recommend. Wish we got some to go for the next day also!”

Current Status:

Outdoor seating and takeout only.

Vermont — Taco Gordo, Burlington

The Taco Joint:

We have to say, these tacos look good. The 16-hour smoked chopped brisket tacos also grab our attention. The next time we’re around the Green State way, we’re definitely dropping into this taco joint for a nosh.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“We had one of every kind of taco. Al pastor was our favorite. Margaritas and guacamole were excellent. The churros were a nice finishing touch. Service was top notch. Will come back and visit next year!”

Current Status:

Takeout and delivery only.

Virginia — Tacos El Chilango Food Truck, Arlington

The Taco Joint:

This is a classic food truck in the DC suburbs that looks like it’s worth the trek out of the city. This is a good-looking truck with good-looking tacos. There’s really not much more to say besides, “Go and try it!”

What a Random Yelper Says:

“If you’re not having tacos here, you’re not doing life right. This is the tacos al pastor. They have perfected every flavor element. I have fallen in love with a taco truck. Personally, they are all good. But the sauces are dank. All the meats are juicy and perfectly flavor. It’s just a well-balanced palate.

CASH ONLY. Honey, I carry cash only for this place.”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

Washington — Taqueria Pollo Asado, Lynnwood

The Taco Joint:

Gas station taco joints are almost always on point. This taqueria takes all the charm (and menu) of a classic taco food truck and puts it into a gas station. You can roll up, order a few plates of tacos, and roll on. It feels like the perfect, social-distanced business plan for these days.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“I was quite confused at first because I remember looking for a restaurant not a gas station. However when you go inside, you’d find probably one of the best tacos in the Lynnwood area.

I ordered one torta with asada (beef) and two tacos with tripe and lengua (beef tongue). I love how they serve the way I expected it to be. Plus, I love the green salsa! Great place and definitely would come back.”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

West Virginia — Maria’s Taqueria, Shepherdstown

The Taco Joint:

This main street joint looks like a standard Tex-Mex restaurant with a street food edge. The tacos look simple and to the point. There’s nothing wrong with that when you’re taking street tacos.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“We’ve been going to Maria’s for years. And now realize how we took the fresh ingredients, consistently delicious food & generous portions for granted. When we heard they were reopening we jumped at the chance to have those fish tacos we’ve been craving during the pandemic. Maria’s did not disappoint today, in fact they exceeded our high expectations. We ordered & paid by phone and our food was waiting at the front door. Couldn’t wait to get our 3 taco meals home, so we made a picnic of it.”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in and takeout.

Wisconsin — Mazorca Tacos, Milwaukee

The Taco Joint:

This small walk-up trailer has an equally small menu. They offer chicken, pork, Al Pastor, and vegetarian tacos done well. The sauces bring bright colors to the mix and they also look pretty fine to our eye.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Mazorca Tacos is hands down one of my favorite spots to get tacos in all of Milwaukee. I love the taco truck experience and the variety of the menu. Everything is so fresh, authentic, and delicious. My only regret is that I didn’t take photos of my tacos — I ate them too quickly! They also have really amazing salsa and guac, so make sure to get a side. Bonus: vegan tacos so you can bring your vegan friends too!”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

Wyoming — The Coop, Gillette

The Taco Joint:

The Coop is a chicken joint with solid rotisserie chicken at the heart of its menu. Put that rotisserie chicken into a tortilla with some chorizo and grilled pineapple and you’ve got a damn fine taco in your hands. We’ll meet you in Wyoming!

What a Random Yelper Says:

“What a great spot, especially if you like Chicken. Not much from the outside and it’s very small inside. It’s pretty much chicken centered but that’s ok because the rotisserie chicken is fabulous!

Ordered the chorizo chicken tacos and they were amazing! The pineapple gives a nice sweet counter to the spice. I also had the green salsa which is fresh and full of flavor. These tacos were fresh tasting and wonderful! Husband had the chicken Empanadas which were also very good. Nice crispy pastry around that oh so wonderful chicken. Noticed they also do a lot of take out so if that works for you, that is an option also.”

Current Status:

Open for dine-in and takeout.

Washington, DC — PhoWheels

The Taco Joint:

If you’re in the DC area and can’t make it to Arlington, you can always hit up this uber-hip Vietnam-fusion food truck. They serve Bahn mi, pho, and Vietnamese style tacos. That’s either chicken thigh, pork belly, or mushroom-onion tofu served with cilantro, pickled veg, and sriracha lime mayo. As we said above, it’s a post-Kogi world on the streets in 2020 and we’re fine with that.

What a Random Yelper Says:

“Whaaaaaat? A food truck that sells tacos, pho, bahn mi, and egg rolls? A super weird but stellar combination. I had the chicken thigh tacos and veggie egg rolls, and it was probably the best food truck meal I have ever had.

The 2 chicken tacos are MASSIVE and STUFFED with chicken. The taco is some weird fried shell, stuffed with pickled carrots, chicken, cilantro, some other stuff, and topped with this perfectly slightly hot sauce that gave the perfect after taste punch to keep the taste buds going. Even if the list of ingredients looks odd to you, don’t change a thing. It’s a masterpiece.

The egg rolls were good-sized, perfectly crispy without being greasy. Great taste as well.

The food didn’t take very long at all, and everything was beautifully staged and hot. I will 100% be back!”

Current Status:

Takeout only.

Last Updated: October 12th

There’s nothing better than bingeing some good scary movies on Netflix on a dark, stormy night. From ghosts to vampires and zombies just about every morbid fantasy that your demented mind can conjure has representation. We’ve watched the best horror movies on Netflix streaming right now, and here they are, in their beastly, blood-curdling glory. It’s perfect for that late night movie binge to keep you wide awake all the way through Halloween.

Related: The Best Thrillers On Netflix Right Now

It Comes At Night (2017)

Run Time: 86 min | IMDb: 7.4/10

Writer/director Trey Edward Shults followed up his unnerving family portrait in 2015’s Krisha with a look at another family under the most desperate of circumstances. After an unknown illness has wiped out most of civilization, a number of threats — both seen and unseen — come for a family held up in their home out in the wilderness. It’s a subtle, dream-like tale that stars Joel Edgerton and Christopher Abbot as two patriarchs intent on keeping their families safe, no matter the cost.

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The Silence of The Lambs (1991)

Run Time: 118 min | IMDb: 8.6/10

Hannibal Lecter is one of horror’s most iconic characters, but it’s a testament to the creepiness of Anthony Hopkins in a leather muzzle that, no matter how many times the film gets quoted, hearing him tell Clarice Starling he’s having an old friend for dinner still sends chills up our spines. Jodie Foster plays the FBI agent tasked with catching another serial killer with Lecter’s same M.O. and she does it by striking up unnerving conversations with the guy, but Hopkins is the real star here, playing Lecter with a restrained insanity that makes his small talk of enjoying human liver with fava beans so much more nightmarish.

As Above So Below (2014)

Run Time: 93 min | IMDb: 6.2/10

Before Ben Feldman played a lovable know-it-all on Superstore, the guy was surviving a terror-filled jaunt through the catacombs of Paris in this horror movie. Feldman plays George, a reluctant sidekick to Scarlett (Perdita Weeks), a young alchemy scholar and his former girlfriend. Scarlett convinces George a few others to venture into the famous Paris underground in order to find the fabled philosopher’s stone (Harry Potter kids should know all about this thing, we’re not explaining it here). What they find instead is basically Dante’s Inferno come to life as they face down cults, demons, ghosts, and all manner of horrific beings. Let this be a warning, children: Nothing good happens this far below street level. Nothing.

The Perfection (2018)

Run Time: 90 min | IMDb: 6.1/10

Allison Williams, who’s become something of a scream queen after her work in Get Out, continues her horror track record with this thriller about a gifted musician who befriends the talented student who replaced her. Strange happenings begin to occur, events that sabotage the young girl, but as terrifying as this story is, there’s absolutely no way you’ll be able to predict its ending.

The Platform (2019)

Run Time: 94 min | IMDb: 7/10

This Spanish-language sci-fi flick is all kinds of f*cked up but in the best way. The film is set in a large, tower-style “Vertical Self-Management Center” where the residents, who are periodically switched at random between floors, are fed by a platform, initially filled with food, that gradually descends through the levels. Conflicts arise when inmates at the top begin eating all the food, leaving the people lower down to fight for survival.

Red Dragon (2002)

Run Time: 124 min | IMDb: 7.4/10

This 2002 prequel to Silence of the Lambs features everyone’s favorite cannibal – Hannibal Lector (Anthony Hopkins) – and a copy cat serial killer played by Ralph Fiennes. The film follows a detective named Will Graham (Edward Norton) who gets roped into solving a string of homicides that are committed by a killer known as The Tooth Fairy, a guy who eats his victims in the hopes of transforming himself. Fiennes is chilling in his portrayal of a psychopath whose childhood trauma causes him to target the innocent and Norton is the kind of hero you root for in weird, terrifying stories like these.

The Ritual (2017)

Run Time: 94 min | IMDb: 6.3/10

This Netflix nightmare follows a group of friends who venture into the Scandinavian wilderness in order to honor their recently-murdered brother. The guys, Luke (Rafe Spall), Phil (Arsher Ali), Hutch (Robert James-Collier), and Dom (Sam Troughton) are forced to take a different path from the one planned, a mistake that leads them to cults and sacrificial offerings and an ancient being who prefers to stake its prey. The scenery is gorgeous, the chemistry of the cast is spot on, and the premise — how these men confront their fears and failures thanks to a supernatural being — starts out promising, though it could’ve delivered a better ending.

Dark Skies (2013)

Run Time: 97 min | IMDb: 6.3/10

Keri Russell stars in this Blumhouse sci-fi horror flick about a happy suburban family terrorized by extraterrestrial beings. Russell plays Lacy, a mom to two boys, who begins to worry when strange occurrences start happening at home. The family discovers aliens have been paying them visits in an attempt to select one of the boys to abduct. Things just get weirder from there and while the plot sounds ridiculous on paper, there’s plenty of suspense here to rack up the tension.

The Girl With All The Gifts (2016)

Run Time: 111 min | IMDb: 6.6/10

Despite a cast that includes Gemma Arterton, Paddy Considine, and Glenn Close, this unusual, post-apocalyptic film got a bit overlooked during its brief theatrical release. It’s best enjoyed without knowing too much of the plot. Suffice it to say that Melanie (Sennia Nanua), the girl of the title, isn’t quite what she seems, and there’s a reason that she, and others her age, are kept in a secure military facility. But the best trick of the film, thanks in large part to Nanua’s winning performance, is the way its innovations go beyond just putting twists on a familiar genre and, instead, making us question where our sympathies ought to lie.

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Green Room (2015)

Run Time: 95 min | IMDb: 7/10

When a punk rock group accidentally witnesses the aftermath of a murder, they are forced to fight for their lives by the owner of a Nazi bar (Patrick Stewart) and his team. It’s an extremely brutal and violent story, much like the first two features from director Jeremy Saulnier (Blue Ruin and Murder Party), but this one is made even tenser by its claustrophobic cat-and-cornered-mouse nature. Once the impending danger kicks in, it doesn’t let up until the very end, driven heavily by Stewart playing against type as a harsh, unforgiving, violent character.

Horns (2013)

Run Time: 120 min | IMDb: 6.5/10

This dark fantasy film starring Daniel Radcliffe and Juno Temple imagines a nightmare scenario. Radcliffe plays Ig, a young man whose girlfriend Merrin (Temple) mysteriously dies. The morning after her death, Ig wakes up with a set of horns that seem to grow as time goes on. It’s a story tinged with horror elements and a surprising twist at the end.

Cam (2018)

Run Time: 94 min | IMDb: 5.9/10

The Handmaid’s Tale actress Madeline Brewer stars in this unnerving thriller that questions our collective reliance on technology and imagines the nightmare scenario if that same tech decided to royally f*ck with us. Brewer plays Alice, an ambitious, in-demand cam girl making money with her online hustle until one day she logs on to find her channel has been sabotaged by a woman who looks just like her. It’s a trippy, dark ride through some of the bleakest parts of the internet with just enough horror to make things interesting.

Sleepy Hollow (1999)

Run Time: 105 min | IMDb: 7.3/10

Strange, spooky sh*t happens when Tim Burton and Johnny Depp team up and that fact remains true for this re-telling of a particularly haunting legend. Depp plays Ichabod Crane, a detective of sorts who’s sent to Sleepy Hollow to investigate three deaths by decapitation. What he ends up encountering instead is a malevolent specter known as The Headless Horseman who’s been terrorizing the town and now has his sights set on him.

Shutter (2004)

Run Time: 97 min | IMDb: 7.1/10

This Thai horror film follows a young man named Tun and his girlfriend, Jane, who accidentally run over a young woman after a party and are haunted by her spirit. Hauntings and horror go hand-in-hand, but this film digs deeper into the supernatural trope by revealing a surprising, gruesome connection between the woman’s ghost and the film’s protagonist. We won’t spoil anything here, but let’s just say there’s a reason this death follows this guy wherever he goes.

Malevolent (2018)

Hush (2016)

Run Time: 81 min | IMDb: 6.6/10

Mike Flanagan, who directed Oculus and Ouija: Origin of Evil, expertly directs this simple tale of a deaf woman being menaced by a masked (and later unmasked) killer in her remote home. This is nothing you haven’t seen before, but Flanagan brings real panache and visual energy to a film that could have easily felt redundant in the hands of a lesser filmmaker.

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The Autopsy Of Jane Doe (2016)

Run Time: 86 min | IMDb: 6.8/10

Succession’s Brian Cox and Emile Hirsch star in this horror mystery about a father-son coroner team attempting to identify a Jane Doe who was harboring all kinds of dark secrets. When a corpse is brought into a small-town coroner’s lab, he and his son begin to experience supernatural phenomena. Tommy (Cox) and Austin (Hirsch) try to escape the lab but quickly realize that they’re dealing with something far more dangerous than a dead body while demonic spirits, old curses, and witches come to life.

Sweetheart (2019)

Run Time: 82 min | IMDb: 5.8/10

This survivalist horror story starring Kiersey Clemmons is more than it appears. Sure, the main story follows Clemmon’s Jennifer, a young woman stranded on a remote island after the boat she was partying on with her white, privileged friends, sinks and it contains monsters — both fantastical and extraordinarily human — but it also trades in allegories about emotional abuse, class warfare, and believing survivors. Basically, it’s a horror flick that packs a savvy metaphorical punch.

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Gerald’s Game (2017)

Run Time: 103 min | IMDb: 6.7/10

Stephen King’s 1992 novel transpires mostly in one isolated lake house’s bedroom where its protagonist, Jessie, lies bound to a bed after her husband dies in the midst of a sex game. That makes it a tough story to film, which may explain why it took 25 years to get turned into a movie. But the wait was worth it: director Mike Flanagan delivers a resourceful, disturbing adaptation anchored by a great Carla Gugino performance (with some fine supporting work from Bruce Greenwood). Forced to find a way out of her situation, while confronting her own past, Gugino’s Jessie is made to go to extremes, which leads to, among other things, one of the squirmiest scenes in recent memory.

Under the Shadow (2016)

Run Time: 84 min | IMDb: 6.9/10

This Iranian horror flick manages to tie in relevant world events with a darker story of demonic possession. The film follows Shideh, a former medical student and mother trapped in her home during the bombings of Tehran with her daughter, Dorsa. The pair are soon haunted by a djinn, a malevolent spirit who can possess a human by taking what’s most important to them. For Dorsa, it’s her doll, for Shideh, it’s a medical textbook her dead mother gave her. The two fight to survive the bombs and this evil spirit, and you’ll be fighting to get to sleep after the nightmares from this one begin

Veronica (2017)

Run Time: 105 min | IMDb: 6.2/10

After losing her father, young Veronica (Sandra Escacena) and two classmates attempt to contact the other side with a Ouija board during a solar eclipse. Something more sinister breaks through, though, as Veronica is haunted by a dark presence everywhere she goes. Veronica excels phenomenally in the cliche horror bits every viewer has seen a thousand times over, such as mishandled Ouija use, frightening entities that only the protagonist is privy to, and twisted dreams. Based on a true story, the film relies on the strong performance of newcomer Escacena, highlighted by her haunting expressions of terror and anguish.

#Alive (2020)

Run Time: 98 min | IMDb: 6.2/10

This South Korean zombie flick imagines a very specific Millennial nightmare — a zombie apocalypse interrupting your video game live stream. The film follows Joon-woo, a kid who’s forced to barricade himself in his parents’ apartment when a zombie outbreak happens after his family goes on a grocery run. He survives hordes of the undead and a self-imposed quarantine by bonding with a neighbor in the building across the street. But both the living and the dead have some pretty gruesome plans for them so we wouldn’t count on a happy ending here.

The Evil Dead (1981)

Run Time: 85 min | IMDb: 7.5/10

This ’80s Sam Raimi creation launched the director’s career and has since become a cult classic. The story follows a group of college students vacationing in an isolated cabin in a remote wooded area when they find an audio tape that somehow releases a legion of demons and spirits. Most of the group suffer varying degrees of possession which leads to gory mayhem (hence the film’s NC-17 rating).

Creep (2014)

Run Time: 82 min | IMDb: 6.3/10

One of the better found-footage movies to come down the pike in Paranormal Activity‘s wake is this creepy gem about a videographer (director Patrick Brice) who answers a strange Craigslist ad from a man (Mark Duplass) who requests to be followed around with a camera for 24 hours. There are a few points late in the narrative where suspension of disbelief becomes an issue (a not-atypical problem for the genre), but if you can look past that, you’ll be treated to a very scary turn by Duplass and a supremely-unnerving epilogue.

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Creep 2 (2017)

Run Time: 80 min | IMDb: 6.4/10

(Spoilers for Creep🙂 What could have very well been a stand-alone character exploration in 2014’s Creep is heightened in Creep 2, which sees Mark Duplass’ chameleon-like killer seeking a different kind of self-portrait. Burned out on his string of murders, Aaron reaches out to a woman who’s looking for her own kind of story by meeting and filming the lonely people she meets online. Instead of a wolf-in-sheep’s-clothing path the killer normally follows, he tells the woman what he is off-the-bat and what he wants: An ending to his journey. With all his cards (seemingly) on the table — and her hiding some of her own — it’s an even more fascinating tale than the original.

Eli (2019)

Run Time: 98 min | IMDb: 5.9/10

Netflix is running the market on creepy AF movies lately. This one comes in the form of a young kid suffering from a rare autoimmune disease that forces him to live life inside a bubble. When a new treatment option presents itself, his family sends him to a kind of safe house where specialist can test out the cure, but the boy quickly discovers things aren’t what they seem, that the mansion may in fact be haunted by past patients, and his doctors are probably trying to kill him. Yikes.

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The Invitation (2016)

Run Time: 100 min | IMDb: 6.7/10

After back-to-back big studio bombs, Karyn Kusama returned to her scrappy indie roots with this contained, brilliantly suspenseful study of the darkness that can arise when people don’t allow themselves to feel. The Invitation isn’t a perfect film, but Kusama does a lot with the scant resources she had to play with here, and you have to appreciate her willingness to tackle grief so directly in a genre that tends to have little time for genuine human emotion.

The Bar (2017)

Run Time: 102 min | IMDb: 6.4/10

A varied group of people is stuck in a bar after a man is gunned down outside. As the paranoia spreads and they turn on one another, they discover a mysterious sickness could be the culprit. It’s a bottle-type plot that has been done before — locking a bunch of frenzied folks in a cage and let instincts take their course — but this Spanish horror comedy injects its own dark humor and keeps the answers to a minimum, making an entertaining story that unfortunately favors the “dark” over the “comedy” in its final act.

Poltergeist (1984)

Run Time: 114 min | IMDb: 7.4/10

Steven Spielberg and Tobe Hooper collaborate on this nightmare-inducing horror flick about a suburban family whose young daughter is kidnapped by malevolent spirits. Steven and Diane Freeling live a relatively normal life, taking care of their three children, the youngest of which begins conversing with a static television and issuing ominous warnings about ghosts. Steven and Diane hire a medium to figure out why their house is haunted and discover spirits are using the children’s bedroom closet to kidnap them and bring them to another dimension, forcing both parents to confront their own fears to save their family. It’s the ghost story that all other ghost stories are modeled after, and there’s nothing more terrifying than little blonde-headed girls that are possessed.

Apostle (2018)

Run Time: 130 min | IMDb: 6.3/10

A man (Legion‘s Dan Stevens) travels to an island to infiltrate a brutal cult in the hopes of saving his kidnapped sister. As the group’s leaders close in on discovering his identity, the dark secrets of the island start to present themselves. Written and directed by The Raid: Redemption director Gareth Evans, Apostle is a tense, beautifully shot thriller that doesn’t even seem like a horror film from the get-go. Stevens provides another icy, powerful performance alongside Michael Sheen’s turn as the leader of the harsh cult. It’s certainly a highlight among the Netflix original films.

Recent Changes Through October 2020:
Removed: Sinister, Insidious, Emelie, Devil’s Advocate, Paranormal Activity
Added: Eli, Cam, The Platform, Dark Skies, #Alive

Nicki Minaj’s recent No. 1 song “Say So,” featuring Doja Cat, has helped continue to solidify her status as the Queen of Rap. But her recent output almost never happened at all. It wasn’t long ago that the rapper announced her retirement so she could start a family with longtime boyfriend Kenneth Petty. That retirement didn’t last long, but she did succeed in getting kid of her own. Now that she’s a mom, fans are circulating an old video of her as a young child, in which she shared her dream career — and what she once wanted to be was not a rapper.

In an old clip resurfaced by XXL, a young Nicki reveals to the camera what her dream job is. Explaining the reason for her choice, she says: “I would like to be a nurse when I grow up so that I could help people less fortunate than I am.”

While Minaj didn’t end up being a nurse, she was successful in helping people by making an impact with her music. Among other charitable acts, Minaj began sending fans money to pay their college tuition a few years back, handing over thousands of dollars for classes, books, and loans.

Watch the adorable clip of Nicki above.

Some of the artists covered here are Warner Music artists. Uproxx is an independent subsidiary of Warner Music Group.

It’s been a while (read: a couple weeks) since Donald J. Trump has been allowed to hold a rally, and for good reason: He caught COVID-19. As though written by one of the great, classical tragedians, the president tested positive for the very virus whose severity he’s spent the last nine months playing down. In yet another hairpin twist, he got better. Last week he took a cocktail of experimental drugs that had him making even less sense than usual. Now, allegedly coronavirus-free, he’s back on the trail, telling supporters some new alarming things, like that he wants to “kiss everyone.”

Trump was in Sandford, Florida on Monday — the day the state confirmed 1,533 additional COVID cases, plus another 48 deaths. The rally occurred mere hours after his doctor claimed he’d tested negative on consecutive days. He certainly seemed jubilant, speaking to his usual maskless crowd about how polls show him crushing his opponent Joe Biden (they don’t), threatened to jail him, Obama, and (still) Hillary, and, course, greatly inflated his team’s response to the pandemic that’s once again been seeing another uptick. (This comes a day after he got busted for taking the words of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the most trusted member of his task force, out of context in an ad.)

Speaking of which, he couldn’t help but tell the adoring crowd how great he felt, just a week over he spent a few days at Walter Reed when his condition worsened. Now that he’s had a deadly disease, he feels better than ever, he says. “They say I’m immune. I feel so powerful,” Trump raved. “I’ll watch into that audience, I’ll walk in there, kiss everyone in that audience. I’ll kiss the guys and the beautiful women.”

It didn’t take long for Trump to walk that back a bit, albeit without admitting he spoke incorrectly. “They say you’re immune. I don’t know for how long,” he said. “Some people say for life, some people say for four months.”

There was more to come. For one thing, Trump went back to talking about how the border wall is near completion (it isn’t), and still repeating, years later, that Mexico will pay for it (more unlikely now than even then). But the “kiss everyone” line seemed to be the stand-out line of the night, especially considering he could still be contagious.

Some pointed out that this is the same man who, four years earlier, nearly lost his first election after a tape surfaced of him bragging about sexual assault.

(Via New York Daily News)