U2 produces the ideal best-of

U2 may not have aged that gracefully, but looking back on the '90s, who can blame the band? As one of the most consistent and somehow experimental bands of the '80s, U2 made some of the greatest, freshest-sounding rock albums in history.\nBut in the '90s, aside from Achtung Baby (which is overrated anyway), the guys essentially became a singles band that used its albums to find out just how much the group's fans would be willing to accept.\nSo this collection makes much more sense than the idiotic idea of the first "Best of." I mean, who doesn't own War and The Joshua Tree at least? And what about The Unforgettable Fire and the often overlooked, masterful debut Boy? I mean, don't even call yourself a U2 fan if you don't have at least the first two.\nThis disc gives the band's later output the necessary touches to keep them in the good graces of Rolling Stone and even the fans who were smart enough to wait for a hits package. The obvious hits like "Beautiful Day," "One" and "Mysterious Ways" are all here, but so are some of the better album cuts that didn't make it on the radio (the real distinction between a good "best of" and "greatest hits" collection) like "Until the End of the World," "Miss Sarajevo" and "Electrical Storm."\nLike their best '90s album, Achtung Baby, this disc is sequenced well and mixed (or often remixed) so the songs flow together. But it's also a little top-heavy. The last third of the disc would be hard to make it through if it weren't for the experimental sounds.\nBy never standing still, U2 can prove it's still alive, and instead of wading through Pop to find the three or four songs that work, Best of 1990-2000 allows the fans and the pop-music lovers both to hear what truly was this band's best during that time. It's a well-deserved apology for those fans who defended them as one of the best bands in rock after letting us down with most of their album output in the last decade.\nThis is what greatest hits/best of albums are supposed to do. The band may have hurt most of its true fans with the last decade of very average albums -- Achtung Baby and All That You Can't Leave Behind are the exceptions (though they both fall short of lesser '80s albums like October) -- this is a good start to the healing process.