It's that time of year again -- publications are frantically churning out "Best of" lists for the 2000s.  It's hard to believe the decade is coming to a close; in my opinion, it has been a great decade for music, much better than the 1990s, but then again, I did pretty much grow up during this decade, so I may be a bit biased.

I think it's fair to say -- even for non-U2 fanatics -- that U2 is one of the very few artists (if any?) that can claim to have made some of the best music of the decade for 3 decades consecutively.  Granted, in my opinion, their best music ushered out at the beginning of the decade -- from an objective standpoint, I think only "Beautiful Day" could qualify as one of the best songs of the 2000s (when considering both its quality and cultural saturation).  That being said, I would definitely put it in the top 10.

NME has put out a decent list of both the 100 best albums and 100 best songs of the "naughties."  Conspicuously, U2 is absent from both.  Pitchfork also released a list of the 500 best tracks of the decade, and U2 is NOWHERE to be found.  Neither of these are particularly suprising, however, given their snarky, holier-than-thou attitudes to music and storied disdain of U2.

Spinner has put out a list of the 50 best tracks and thankfully includes "Beautiful Day" at #3.

I'm awaiting lists from Allmusic.com and Rolling Stone, which I think will be the most balanced and legitimate.  I'll find it hard to believe if at least one of U2's songs is not included on either list.

As far as albums go, however, I'm not sure if any of U2's 3 albums will make the cut.  Rolling Stone really liked NLOTH, so that is a possibility.  ATYCLB is the obvious candidate; I really don't think HTDAAB stands/deserves a chance.

Have you come across any Best of music lists that included U2?  It will be interesting to see how the critical consensus judges U2's output this decade.  Of course, in the end the work stands for itself, and as I said, I think U2 is possibly the only artist to have a legitimate claim to having produced some of the best music of the 80s, 90s, and 00s.

What do you think?

None of these lists are in any way meaningful or relevant or legitimate in any way shape or form.

None of these lists are in any way meaningful or relevant or legitimate in any way shape or form.

No, but they are all FUN!  I love reading "best-of" lists, top 10's, greatest of all-time, etc.