Entertainment For Lively Minds
Achtung to the Baby but what about its little brother?
In all the hoopla of the re-release of Achtung Baby with its documentaries and bigger super deluxe uber big box sets something has been forgotten. Inside the uber deluxe 70+ quid set they have included seemingly unremastered and unheralded 1993's 'Zooropa'.
For me 'Zooropa' is equally as imporetant and interesting as AB if not more so. It contains one of their most effecting songs and melodies in 'Stay (Faraway So Close)' with a fab heartfelt vocal from Bono. Edge's deadpan delivery to 'Numb' is hypnotic. The album is looser and funkier than the dance rhythms on Achtung Baby.
The falsetto on 'Lemon', the tenderness of 'The First Time', the title tracks has a freedom and humour and its crowning glory is the mighty Johnny Cash appearance on 'The Wanderer' as Bono croons from the back seat.
I think it may be the most blanced and complete LP that ver 2 have ever produced. Not bad for what started out as a tour promoting EP.
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Agree
and Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me is their best single
I agree
Zooropa is just as important and interesting as Achtung Baby, but not perhaps in the same way as you mean it.
Thanks
for that
I'll agree DFB!
Zooropa is a great record. I have happy memories of its release in the summer of 93 while I waited for the Zoo TV bandwagon to roll into Dublin. It has a looseness that is often missing from U2 plus Adam Clayton is the star of the record. Great thick baselines like Somedays Are Better Than Others and Lemon.
Plus 10 songs, all killer, no filler.
Give me 90s U2 over 80s any day. Hmmm, iI want to go listen to it now...
I'm with you on Zooropa
Speaking as a pretty die-hard U2 fan, I’ve never really understood why AB seems to be so widely adored. It has some beautiful songs on it, but the majority just strike me as, not bad, but not great either. Zooropa, on the other hand, I didn’t really ‘get’ when it first came out, but I came back to it a few years later and it just suddenly made sense. I think it’s their last truly great album, and it's definitely one of their best ever.
Pseud’s Corner Here I Come Alert: when I think of Achtung Baby, I have a mental image of Bono flapping around in an oversized jacket like a kid pretending to be grown-up by wearing their parents’ clothes - ‘Hey! Look at me! I’m being ironic!’ With Zooropa, he’s grown into it and it fits him perfectly. I think Zooropa manages to be both ironic and utterly heartfelt, which is some trick to pull off.
Anyway. My 2c-worth. Loved the ‘From the Sky Down’ documentary BTW (but it didn’t make me put AB on my playlist).
I wish 'From The Sky Down'
had been a bit morer Classic Albums and talked a bit about songs often ignored like 'Ultraviolet' and 'Acrobat' and how a still pretty divided Berlin fed into the lyrics.