U218 Singles by U2
U218 Singles is a greatest hits-style compilation album by the Irish rock band U2, released in November 2006. It contains (oddly enough) 19 songs: 17 of their most successful and popular singles, "The Saints Are Coming" (a cover version in collaboration with Green Day of a song by The Skids) and "Window in the Skies" (a new song). U218 Videos, a DVD featuring music videos from throughout U2's career, was released concurrently. The album debuted on the Billboard 200 albums chart on 9 December 2006 at number 12 with sales of 134,000 copies. It spent 45 weeks on the chart. As of 24 January 2008,[dated info] it has sold 847,490 copies in the US. Despite not being released until November 2006, it was the seventh highest-selling album in the world that year.
Narrowing down a career this vast and expansive is asking for trouble — or at least for some painful omissions. 26 years are condensed into 16 tracks with additional previously unreleased tracks produced by Rick Rubin — “The Saints Are Coming”, a cover of the 1970s Scottish punk band the Skids performed with Green Day, and a very arena rock U2-sounding “Window in the Skies” — and several special edits (“Vertigo,” “Where the Streets Have No Name,” “Sweetest Thing”), summing up the group to date. The emphasis here is on later U2, as <i>All That You Can’t Leave Behind</i> and <i>How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb</i> are represented while <i>October</i>, <i>Zooropa</i>, and <i>Pop</i> are not. But there’s no denying the anthemic, overwhelming majesty of “Pride (In the Name of Love),” “With or Without You,” and “New Year’s Day,” the brashy punk attitude of “Vertigo,” or the masterful tension of “One,” “Walk On” or “Mysterious Ways,’ which define an era as well as any.
