It may surprise one or two people on here, but I like quite a few albums by U2. That is to say I like U2 up to and including Zooropa (1993). Since then they've become as dull and predictable as The Rolling Stones. Today they embody everything that is musically wrong about rock music, yet twelve years ago they released a cutting edge album that caught many a listener on the hop.
After the indulgent, yet in parts brilliant, "Rattle And Hum", U2 disappeared for three years. They holed themselves up in Germany and talked about "redefining the sound of the band." Achtung Baby is in every sense a brave record. Larry Mullen's drumming bows respectfully to hip-hop/baggy sounds without sounding over the top. Adam Clayton's basses are slick and give a brooding, late-night feel to the slower tracks. Most crucially The Edge's guitars are captivating. Whether it's the wall of sound guitars of "Zoo Station", the angular shapes he makes on "...End Of The World" or the stunningly innovative lead guitar on "The Fly" - The Edge is practically all over this record.
Bono himself isn't typical Bono. Vocally he does his usual thing, although at times takes his voice down a notch, to provide a darker feel for a darker, more personal album. Lyrically the campaigning, self-congratulatory Bono of the early-mid 1980s is replaced by a more introspective and thoughtful writer. Ultimately the band and Bono in particular, come across as vulnerable, yet more accessible and refreshing at the same time.
The tea-cup tapping meets pneumatic drill introduction to "Zoo Station" sounds a million miles away from traditional U2. An awkward, fuzzy guitar and a distorted drum pattern clunk away whilst some choo choo train noises build momentum. After forty seconds of strangeness U2 suddenly announce themselves with a trademark Edge guitarline. The verse starts with a hugely distorted (and at times tuneless) vocal from Mr Vox. By the time the shimmery guitars present the chorus most listeners will have fallen into two camps;
Camp One - "This is crap. At least their old stuff was radio friendly, if at times it was mildly annoying."
Camp Two - "This is brilliant. It is weird but there's something about it."
Lyrically it isn't vintage. Bono sings about being "ready for the laughing gas" and being "ready for the shuffle,
ready for the deal...ready to let go of the steering wheel." More worryingly he comes up with the following abstract wisdom;
"Time is a train Makes the future the past Leaves you standing in the station Your face pressed up against the glass"
Nonetheless, it is still strangely compelling. When I first got this album it was, for a time, my favourite track. Following on is the polished "Even Better Than The Real Thing", which has never done a huge amount for me, but is nonetheless a well written and well produced track, with some fine guitar playing and splendid production. Next comes the album's centre-piece (in many senses) - the majestic ballad "One."
Vocally Bono has never given a stronger performance on record than on "One" (with the possible exception of "With Or Without You"); he is composed, yet sounds genuinely battered and bruised by the car crash nature of his own relationship. The Edge adds depth and colour to the song with some perceptively restrained guitars. The song isn't the most immediate the band have released but on third or fourth listen it hits you right between the eyes with its honesty and bravery.
"One" leads perfectly into the alternative rock sounding "Until The End Of The World." The song was written for film maker Wim Wenders, whom the band are all said to be big fans of. Whether Wenders (who made a film with a similar title I believe) is a big fan of U2's homage to him or not I can't say. For me, "...End Of The World" is as good as anything on the album. Bono sounds bitter and hurt, the rhythm section are flawlessly concise and unfussy, whilst The Edge sounds like a moody Johnny Marr in possession of a fuzzbox and decent distortion pedal.
In stark contrast to track four is the grand and self-important "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses." A track which leaves me cold - it is one of those songs everyone is supposed to love. Musically it showcases some massively droning and distorted guitars (very un-U2), yet it is old U2 trapped inside a new early 90s packaging - It just doesn't work. It isn't a bad song, it's just mediocre and out of place. Lyrically there are some nice touches but the Americanised title undermines any lyrical muscles the song can flex;
"Well you left my heart Empty as a vacant lot For any spirit to haunt"
Track 6 is the late-night funk-ballad (does that make any sense??) "So Cruel" - a wonderfully candid account of the end of a relationship viewed through the eyes of a still bleeding heart. Musically it is awesome! Mullen's groove-orientated beat seems oddly out of place, yet somehow acts as a heartbeat for the ornate strings and stately piano line. Bono sounds fragile and human and is very much the polar opposite of the mullet-sporting, fist-clenching, rock god of 1980s sell-out stadium shows. My favourite lyrical extract of the album comes midway through "So Cruel";
"She wears my love Like a see-through dress Her lips say one thing Her movements something else Oh love Like a screaming flower Love Dying every hour"
The aching melancholy of "So Cruel" gives way all of a sudden to the heavy rock carnage of smash-hit single "The Fly." This is a classic example (perhaps the only one!!) of where Music Cassettes (remember those) helped rock bands out. I owned "Achtung Baby" on cassette and the time it took to fast-forward through all the dead tape at the end of side one gave you time to allow "So Cruel" to slip into the back of your mind. On CD the way in which the anaemic "So Cruel" practically trips over the burly, masculinity of "The Fly" is almost comedic. Anyway, back to said "Fly"....
"The Fly" must be just about the best number one single ever. It had no right to even scrape into the top twenty as a commercial representative of an international rock act's forthcoming album. A huge, grotesque beast of a rock song, it comes resplendent with heavy vocal distortion and a wild, yet wonderful Hendrix guitar solo.
The track always reminds me of revising for French GCSE exams (can you picture a 15 year old version of me resplendent with sony walkman and crap headphones saying out loud to myself "la chien est dans la poubelle") and of my Mum and Dad listening to radio one in the car one day with my Mum enquiring tentatively;
"is THIS really U2?"
After the maleovelent, mother-shocking "Fly" comes the funky, squelching "Mysterious Ways." Much like "Even Better Than The Real Thing", this is one of those songs that I can see why people treasure, yet personally, I find it to be predictable and one-dimensional compared to some of the other material on the album. It is a decent track on a more than decent album, is I suppose the best way of describing it. Like "The Fly", it fared surprisingly well when released into the murky waters of the British Top 40 singles market.
"Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World" is a quirky, quiet track, which does little on first inspection. Once the album has made itself familiar however, it announces itself as one of the more enduring offerings. Bizarrely Bono manages to get the line "I dreamed that I saw Dali with a supermarket trolley" into a serious rock song. Syd Barrett could have made it sound funny, Bono makes the line sound scary.
"Ultra Violet" picks the tempo (and noise) up again. Slotting in at track ten in a long batting order it is a wonderfully crafted and produced track. Lyrically it deals with loss and love, yet once again, in an original and uncorny way. Musically it is a first cousin of "...End of The World", yet its haunting backing vocals and breakneck paced guitars give it enough individuality to make its own mark on the album. Dan Lanois and Brian Eno give the song a helping hand with some wonderful production tricks, whilst Bono does Bono to PHD standard.
Disappointly the album tails off with tracks 11 and 12. Either "Ultra Violet" or the bizarrely positioned "So Cruel" would have ended the album perfectly, but U2 and their team of record making people saw fit to cock things up in terms of running order. "Acrobat" is run of the mill, earnest rock with a hint of rebellion thrown in for good measure, whilst "Love Is Blindness" is needlessly repetitive and laden with empty imagery. Musically neither song takes the album to unchartered territory and both songs sound like cast offs from "Rattle And Hum." However, both songs would have hidden quite snugly in the fat belly of this glutinous record. Positioned as they are, at the head of the table, they just don't feel quite right, although both tracks are passable enough in the main.
So "Achtung Baby"....we don't know why it's so named, we don't know what the band were listening to/reading/smoking (surely not?!?) to have come up with something so exciting and fresh. The album title is possibly explained by the fact that the band spent so long in Germany, although I think they should have been daring enough to call it "The sheer face of love", after a line from "The Fly"...can you imagine the stick they'd have got for that?
Worthy of a brief mention is the album artwork. A collage of photo's of the band loitering lazily around the world and strange pictures of cars and snakes, it somehow captures the mood of the album...especially the eyeliner-wearing, po faced picture of Bono on the front cover. Suddenly the be-mulleted one looks as glum as The Cure and The Bunnymen and you've just GOT to find out why by actually listening. Clever eh?
One thing I do know is that as much as I think "The Joshua Tree" is a great album, I listen to "Achtung Baby" to a ratio of about 3-1 against any other U2 album. It demands constant re-inspection, it deserves widespread accolade. It got the predictable treatment from some..."It's just U2 trying to sound cool" they said. Well, fair enough, but maybe, just maybe, four blokes honest enough to try something new and argue that self-taught musicianship is an advantage not a hindrance to a touring rock band, should be given a pat on the back once in a while. (*9)
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Tip top stuff, and so I've had to give you a Sweary e. I just hope you are getting nearer that £5 target. It's a lot of money you know...! Mmmmm..... Cheers Sweary.
deanmeister 05.09.2004 00:59
Excellent review of another excellent album. Personally I think that this is U2's best!
Even though it was greeted at the time as U2's reinvention as a dance/rock post-modern ... more
revue, with a bit of post-Wall Berlin thrown in for luck, distance now shows thatAchtung Babyis in fact a suite of extraordinarily perceptive and tender songs on the...
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Even though it was greeted at the time as U2's reinvention as a dance/rock post-modern ... more
revue, with a bit of post-Wall Berlin thrown in for luck, distance now shows that Achtung Baby is in fact a suite of extraordinarily perceptive and tender songs on t...
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