U2's 'Achtung Baby' - Happy 25th anniversary

Shame they have never played this one live.

 

my favorite U2 album, easily one of the best album to come out of the 90's.
people focus on sonic change but for me...this is where U2 went inwards rather than outwardly stuff that felt pretentious at times.

 

I'm pulling out the Super Deluxe edition tomorrow in honor of this anniversary. I have bought this album twice on cassette over the years, once on regular cd, and once used for the 6cd/4dvd boxset, that I finally found at a reasonable price.....

If I was rich I'd have bought the Uber version and wear my Bono sunglasses around tomorrow as well...

 

I still prefer The Joshua Tree (top 10 favorite of mine) and War over Achtung Baby. But, this is still an all-time classic and one of the best albums of the '90s. Even though some of the songs are dated, style-wise, the album holds up better than War in that regards. On the other hand, I think The Joshua Tree is timeless. That album could've been released this year or at any time since it was released and still would've been a hit. Not so certain Achtung Baby would've.

 

It's been the slowest burning but most rewarding album of my lifetime. 12yr old when it was released, I spent most of the time listening and recording the top 40 and Chart Shows only knowing of a handful of U2 songs - I was more familiar with The Chimes (still terrific) version of Still Haven't Found than the original.

October '91, I remember watching The Fly video on Top Of The Pops straight into number 1 (think it finally knocked that Brian Adams song off the top). It the least typical number 1 pop single Id ever heard. The verse was monotone, it didn't seem to have a chorus, nothing you'd hear a milkman whistling and I remember thinking it was a mistake. The dumbstruck looks on the teenage girls back in the TOTP audience afterwards seemed to agree. It stayed at the top for just 1 week and very quickly plummeted out the top 40. Follow-up singles Mysterious Ways and One seemed more palatable but came and went without really troubling the top 10.

April '92, The Freddie Mercury tribute concert had millions watching the likes of Elton John and Lisa Stansfield singing We Are The Champions and Friends Will Be Friends at Wembley but halfway through I remember a live video-link to a U2 concert elsewhere wailing through an absolute mess that nobody amongst the 4 generations of my family watching this huge TV event recognised or enjoyed for one second. Recording it all over 2 videos i remember writing down on the setlist "U2 - ?????????????" (I later know it to be Until The End Of The World). The only act through the whole day not play a Queen song. It was embarrassing.

But then I heard Even Better Than The Real Thing, but not what turned out to be the album version but a dance remix that was was on local radio constantly, and had completely overridden the single version. It was brilliant. Absolute genius crossover collaboration with Paul Oakenfold that opened up club scene to rock music with my friends older brothers and sisters bringing back tapes of nights out in Cream and other clubs with that song always involved. Thought it worthwhile now to give Achting Baby a go and bought the cassette.

It still took a while to get my head around. Mechanical and robotic headaches like Zoo Station, End Of The World & The Fly didn't make sense for ages but immediate soft rock songs like Whos Gonna Run Your Wild Horses, So Cruel and One glued them together to make the album never in trouble of running out of steam like I had found alongside solid rock albums of that time like Pearl Jam Ten and Black Crowes Southern Harmony. Add the tremendous B-sides / remixes and Achtung Baby was gaining momentum over a year after release, with Wild Horses breaking the UK top 5 at Xmas '92 (unbelievable really for a 5th single).

The next summer I watched the ZOOTV show in awe at Roundhey Park, Leeds amongst 120'000 rock fans, pop fans and dance fans (Oakenfold playing a warm up set to clubbers stood in front of me off their heads on ecstacy) and it wouldn't get any better than that for me. Best concert of my life.

I wish soon U2 vinyl would get the treatment Pink Floyd has got this year (Unforgettable Fire remaster i bought recently was pathetic). It's truly unbelivable 25 years on a great vinyl version of such a momentous, critically aclaimed album isn't available in every record shop.

 

My favorite U2 album & their best IMHO. One of the best albums of the 90s.

 

I always loved how much the music and performance match the lyrical metaphor in this song almost like onomatopoeia. The way Edge's upwards and downwards swirling guitar figures alternate with Adam Clayton's bass line evoke the somersaults and flips of the titular acrobat, the way Larry Mullen Jr.'s cymbal crashes evoke the "tah-dah" cymbal crashes of the circus band during a high wire act, it's all quite a masterpiece really.

 

still my favorite album of all time.

u2 started as a band that wanted to sound like siouxsie and the banshees and became a band that siouxsie and the banshees sounded like.

 

If it could have been predicted, it wouldn't have necessarily been an evolution. Was "God Part II" predicted by The Joshua Tree?

I guess what I'm saying is that since the signs were there it wasn't a reinvention as much as a continued evolution. My argument is with the writer of the article originally quoted.

 

I like the b sides for this album, I still have all my cd singles with those great cover tunes and original songs.

 

It would be interesting to hear where God Part II came from. All of the other songs on Rattle & Hum have clear influences tied to the "journey through America" narrative of the film. Likewise AB is rooted in their Berlin experience. Where did these transitional songs come from, though?

 

The same place many of the songs on Rattle and Hum and most of the songs on Achtung Baby came from: drugs.

 

I always thought of Achtung Baby, Zooropa and Pop as almost a Trilogy with POP being the most extreme, like them all

 

It did knock Adams from the number 1 spot.
The single was deleted/unavailable from retailers after 1 week of sales in an attempt/plan to get the song straight to no.1.......which worked.
they gave the reason for it being available for 1 week only as they wanted to release a second single as quickly as possible.
Roundhay Park was terrific.
What a Night......What a Show!
They returned 4 years later and stated it was the best show of the '93 tour.

 

Is this speculation or verified by the songwriters?

 

I think that poster is talking about how he writes his own posts and comes up with his theories.
There's no story (verified or otherwise) that the people in U2 used anything heavier than alcohol and occasionally cannabis.

 

IMO, this album was the start of the downward spiral with their albums. U2 albums became cold and sterile with no feeling.

 

I always say this is my favorite. I think what I mean is, to me, this is their best album, but The Unforgettable Fire has my heart.

 

I'm not claiming to have knowledge of their personal chemical intake . I'm just going by what they chose to give lyrically and musically to their audience.

Does "The Fly" not sound (and the video appear) at the very least druggy, if not downright acidic?

Were there not multiple mentions of heroin (and at least one of cocaine) on Rattle and Hum?

 

Personally I think that Achtung Baby is their best work. I agree with @JannL that some tracks of The Unforgettable Fire are deeply engraved in my heart, like Pride, the title track and Bad. But there's also lots of (very atmospheric) filler on that album.

The Joshua Tree and Rattle and Hum are both awesome, and I love all the tracks on those albums. Then they released Achtung Baby and it was beyond awesome. A great mix of their songwriting skills with electronics. For me it felt like they moved my way: I've always loved electronic music and now this epic rock band included that into their sound palette. It was heaven on earth.

 

HUGE album. Saw the tour and it is still probably a top 3 show for me ever!

 

Not to get too far astray, but I believe "Running To Stand Still" off Joshua Tree was about someone addicted to heroin. That said, I never had the impression that drug use - if it even occurred - was a factor in the writing of Achtung Baby.

I take the band at their word that they were trying to radically reinvent their sound, holing up in Berlin to soak up new influences and shake things up. Then again, I guess only the band knows...

 

So was "Bad". But those were about other persons. With Rattle and Hum the drug references started to become more personal. "I've got a speedball in my head". "I'm like the needle, needle and spoon".

I'm not speaking to their personal intake, whatever that may have been. What I am saying is that they seemed to have been contemplating drugs in a more personal way than they had before.

 

I was never a big U2 fan in my teens during the 80s and I certainty didn't jump on the Joshua Tree bandwagon when I was 17.
But Achtung Baby was too powerful to resist.
A top 10 best rock album ever for me.
Poetic and passionate.

 

I'm excited to catch the 30th anniversary show for Joshua Tree this spring and to hear that album in its entirety!

I would welcome an Achtung Baby anniversary tour in 2021-22 and that album to be played in its entirety. I believe "Acrobat" has never been performed live in concert.