You can particularly tell crap attitude-by-rote music reviewers by the sheer amounts of overly adjectivified bilge they pour upon Eighties U2. Oh yes, Achtung Baby was alright, they discovered the I-word! But before that? Bombastic nonsense, of course! Well, bombastic? Yes, definitely. Nonsense? Well, the thing was, it all made too much sense, obscurely cryptic lyrics were not part of the U2 gameplan. And it's fair to say that they did step over the mark on occasions on Rattle and Hum, a combination of studio and live tracks recorded during their world domination tour of 1987 following The Joshua Tree, which for some reason has been nominated number one album in another of those meaningless lists that mainstream glorps seem to like indulging in.

So Rattle and Hum is just about U2's patchiest album, but fortunately it still has a lot going for it, particularly the noted singles. "Desire" and "All I Want Is You" are just about perfect, the former with its roots-rock shuffle, the latter's simple theme which swells up into a marvellous mix of the infinite guitar and Van Dyke Parks orchestration, as well as "Angel of Harlem" and "When Love Comes To Down", which sees these Dublin punks 'discovering the roots of rock'n'roll', as the concept has it, plus "Van Diemen's Land", a ballad inspired by the transportation of convicts to the colonies, manages to achieve the tone it strives for. There are of course the points when the earnestness gets a bit nauseating, "Silver and Gold", the gospel choir on "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"? puh-leez.

But on the live version of "Bullet the Blue Sky", Bono hits the mark, putting into stark relief the US's actions in Central America, contrasted with the fake imitation of Christianity at America's core. Earnest? Yep. Hammy? Perhaps a little. The most powerful thing U2 have put out? You betcha, though "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and the more recent "Peace On Earth" get close.

Perhaps the last thing to note is that for the late-80s, U2 were about as guitaristic as pop music got at the time. Heavy metal? Fnah! The decent examples of that around that time remained relatively obscure until Guns'n'Roses turned up the next year, the noticeable presences in that area were funny little bands like Bon Jovi or Whitesnake who used too much synth and hairgel and were too indulgently hedonistic to get close to any moderate assessment of bad-arsed grunt. Nope. Love'em or hate'em, U2 were the shit.