Listened to: MP3Oh, U2. The Coldplay of it’s day. When they hit their big album, everyone loved them (The Joshua Tree, A Rush Of Blood To the Head), then everyone bitched about how much they sucked (Rattle & Hum, X&Y). So, they gathered their efforts, and put out a terrific album (Achtung Baby, Viva La Vida). I say this all because today, it’s hard to imagine U2 getting anything but blown by critics and fans alike, but there was a time where U2 was thought to be dead in the water. Now, without further ado, let’s get to the album, Achtung Baby.
The album opens on “Zoo Station”, a track which opened and assuredly inspired the multimedia extravaganza Zoo TV Tour that took place to promote the album. The sounds of the tracks, the odd vocal and guitar distortion, the dance-style beat, the Talking Heads feel, al of it is added on here to say “Forget the pretension of Rattle & Hum, this is the new U2”, and god bless them it was a great new incarnation. I gotta say, gentlemen, I believe we’ve found the missing link between The Talking Heads and Radiohead on this track. Then we charge into the repetitive-play-radio-darling “Even Better Than The Real Thing”, produced by one of the masters, Brian Eno. If “Zoo Station” said “There’s a new U2”, then “Even Better Than The Real Thing” said what that new U2 was. Here on this track we start to hear Bono do his infamous exhalation into the microphone, an element we receive a lot more of as the album progresses.
Track 3 of the album might be (and in my opinion is) U2’s greatest song. “One” is a gorgeous, sincere, honest track, the type where the first time you hear it, you know something special just happened. I really do wonder what it feels like to compose a classic. “Did you come here for forgiveness/or did you come to raise the dead?/Did you come here to play Jesus/To the lepers in your head?” The story of it’s composition is almost as inspiring as the lyrics. Tension in the band caused a giant rift, and U2 almost saw it’s last days, but they came together to jam on this song, composed improvisationally, with Bono singing the lyrics about his own flaws and his struggle to keep his band together. “One” may not be the only classic on the album, but it truly is one of the highlights of U2’s career, and it, along with the rest of this album, proved they were more than just another band.
“Until The End Of The World” is traditional U2 fare, at least for the new U2. It’s a good song, don’t get me wrong, but you sit there going “Hey, look, Bono’s singing in a lower register, and then wait for it, by the end, he’ll repeat the melody an octave up!”, or in this case performing back-up vocals in a higher octave. Look, not trying to knock Bono here. He’s one of the best in the game, but every great front man has their trademark, and this is his. Seriously, listen to enough U2, he’ll follow this pattern. This song was written for Wim Wenders’ film “Until The End Of The World”, and lyrics all seem to fit Wenders’ themes, which I’m sure you’re all as familiar with as I am, so I’ll just move on.
“Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?” is fun to listen to for no other reason but the fact that the band themselves hate this song now. Perhaps it’ an homage to the Rolling Stones (“Wild Horses”) perhaps it’s a ballad gone epic, or maybe just a thrown together track, but whatever the band though was so magical about this track is lost on me. “So Cruel” is another standard U2 track, and while it’s nice, there’s nothing more that can be said for it but that. Their explanation of the sound of “The Fly”, “the sound of four men chopping down the Joshua Tree”, is so badass that they’d get props even if the song sucked. Of course, it doesn’t, and this industrial anthem of a playful hell and rock-and-roll-excess-done-right, even with it’s dance beat (which readers will know isn’t my dig) is a severely underrated and ignored U2 classic.
What can be said about “Mysterious Ways” that hasn’t already been said? Thrying to find something original or creative to write about this track (or “One” for that matter) is near impossible, but I can just say that it’s an incredible feat of writing, and a has-to-feel-amazing-to-have-the-guitar-in-your-hands-and-compose-it kinda track. We move into “Tryin’ To Throw My Arms Around The World”, who’s instrumentation is surprisingly minimal for a U2 track, especially one on this album, but I gotta tell you, it works. I’m surprised at how much I like this track, one I’m sure most people considered a throwaway track. “Ultraviolet (Light My Way)” is the track where U2’s spiritual side comes clear, as the band musically prays for guidance, and digs back into their past to find the perfect sound to do it with. The song is magically both triumphant and desperate, and you can’t help while listening to the recording but to imagine what it sounds like live. “Acrobats” has the chorus “Don't let the bastards grind you down”. That’s more than enough o explain what this song is, and why it’s so great. U2 at it’s harshest and yet most encouraging. It’s a shame they’ll never play this live.
The album closes on “Love Is Blindness”, a nice soft ending track, which after reading that Bono had become friends with Frank Sinatra makes a lot more sense. This is what would happen if a softer Patti Smith had covered a Sinatra cabaret track.
Obviously, this album earns it’s place on the list, compositionally, recording-wise, performance-wise, it’s all nearly flawless. The only thing I think is could you imagine fi the album had closed on “One”? You know, switch the plases of “One and “Love Is Blindness”? What a fucking mind-blowing, heart warming, and thoroughly touching impact that would have. Anyway, just a thought. Regardless, this album is a true classic, and highly, HIGHLY worth a listen or three.
-Mike
Well, catch you tomorrow for #360: Siamese Dream by The Smashing Pumpkins.
No comments:
Post a Comment