I Don't Like Zooropa

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theedgeu2

theedgeu2

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Here I go again. I hope this is the right section of the forum.:reject:

Anyway I can't get myself to like Zooropa (album). I don't know what it is. I just never have gone into that one much so maybe that explains it?:shrug: So here's my thoughts on these (my reviews aren't by all means the best):
Zooropa: This just seems too electronic-a. I mean the whole Zooooorrropppa! is catchy but I just don't feel it.
Babyface: It's weird to me. I mean I don't know how to explain it but it's like Zooropa. REAL ELECTRONIC-A. It does have that cool distorted guitar in there though.
Numb: It's cool that Edge sings lead here but this song is way out there from their other stuff. Numb makes me numb to the song. I just don't feel it!
Lemon: Nothin' on this one! I love this track! I enjoy cracking jokes about this song on here with Bono's high pitch vocals.
Stay: I like this one too. It's soft and mellow and fits my moods a lot. It's a good song (which is rare on this album IMO).
DGPFYCC: Ok I don't know if I should say more cowbell or just stop hitting the drum kit Larry! Some cool experimental sounds on this especially with the wah but not what I think of when I hear U2.
SDABTO: Wacky and using more weird sounds. Also a bit slow in the verse. Just not appealing to me.
TFT: I like this song. Nice little guitar and piano movement. Good lyrics as well Bono!:applaud:
Dirty Day: A slow mover. Not really making an impact on me. Not the worst on this album though and it gets a bit of a kick in the chorus with Edge's guitar.
The Wanderer: Strange feel. Makes me fall asleep. Although Mr. Cash sounds great! Bono's falsetto at the end is nice.

All in all I'm not hating on this album it just doesn't appeal to me. I do like 3 out of 10 songs though. It's by all means not a bad album just a bit different from what U2 really is. I will say that there is definitely electronic influence in this. Should I just force myself to listen to it and see what happens?
 
I think this belongs in EYKIW. :) This forum is more for personal confessions and emotional stuff rather than discussion on music.
 
Listen to whatever you want! I'm personally tired of music snobs telling us all what we need to be listening to.

But really, I love Zooropa! Consider it one of my top 3 favorite U2 albums (even over Achtung Baby!).

Why?

- Lemon is an AMAZING song. Beautiful. Five stars. Epic. Masterpiece. True art. etc etc. I've already praised this song too many times on this forum so I won't get into details again.

- This album feels like there is a central theme. Unlike many albums, this one seems as if it was meant to be listened to as one. It's mellow. It's generally melancholy, yet uplifting at the same time. It's not depressing, but reflective. It isn't like ATYCLB (which I love, btw) where the message is "everything is alright. be happy and jolly." Instead, it's more like "Ok...things suck. But we accept it, learn from it, and move on." At least for me anyway. Every single song on this album contributes to this theme. It's like...a living, breathing album.

-More of a personal preference, but I find the electronic music to be more "pop-ish" and generally more appealing. I'm going to get killed for this, but I find Achtung Baby bland and boring. But this album gets my attention (in a curious way). SDABTO's groovy bass, Zooropa's electronica, The Wanderer's wacky sound, the uniqueness of Lemon, etc. I know you said this album doesn't grab your attention, but I find that it works for me. It definitely won't grab you in the same way AB is meant to grab you right off the bat... but if you look deeper, who knows.


And then theres the subjectiveness of it all. Zooropa's general themes and lyrics all personally connect to me. There were times where, yeah, the song could have been written especially for me (cliche). Also makes for a nostalgia factor. In the end, most of what really matters in music is this personal subjectiveness. If you can't relate to a slow song that is meant to be related to for it to work, then you'll hate it (I think this is the case with much of this album).
 
theedgeu2 said:
All in all I'm not hating on this album it just doesn't appeal to me. I do like 3 out of 10 songs though. It's by all means not a bad album just a bit different from what U2 really is. I will say that there is definitely electronic influence in this. Should I just force myself to listen to it and see what happens?
Click to expand...

i totally get what your saying, the last 2 albums were a total snorefest for me. zooropa, i didn't know how to like it when it first came out. as time went on i grew to like it and the fact that it stands out so well in the u2 catalogue.
 
I don't like it either. I really tried. I hardly listen to it, though I like Stay and First Time. I listen to all the other U2 albums much more. It's hard for me to enjoy Zooropa.
 
I love this record and there are many here that worship it. It took me a while to get into it, but when it came out I was so into ZOO TV that I didn't mind. Now I'd rank Zooropa at around 5th in U2's album league, NLOTH is arund the same.

I respect your opnion though, you feel the same about Zooropa as I do about HTDAAB.
 
It's an awkward album, a sort of rustic charm about it because the songs can sometimes seem so average, yet I adore the concept behind some of the songs, and while I find it lacking in flow, the songs themselves are actually quite enjoyable. Strange album, very uncommercial.

I don't hate it, I love it, but I prefer about 7 other U2 albums over it.

The title track and Lemon are the real standouts here.
 
How long have you had it, mate? Cos when I first heard it I was pretty indifferent too, but now I adore it.

The only song I don't really like is Dirty Day
 
i heard this album when i was about 12, and it just catapulted U2 to a new level of music greatness for me, which they are still at.

Mind you this was when i had just started to discover them, and the only other albums i had heard were Achtung and Joshua Tree.

However its quite personal and nostalgic, as it reminds me of my trip to Greece where i discovered it, and feels homey in a way...
 
Oh, I adore it because I adore everything U2 does.

Bought it back in '04 I think, I don't think I was initially indifferent to it because my mind was overwhelmingly blown by the masterpiece that is Zooropa the song, but it's just never really grown on me as an album. Maybe that day will come, but it has always just paled in comparison to most other U2 albums.

There, just something a little awkward about Numb into Lemon into Stay into Crashed Car that and it isn't endearing....just doesn't sound ideal, as enjoyable as those four songs taken individually are.
 
Dirty Day = :drool: (perhaps one of the most underrated U2 songs ever)

and I felt the same way when I first got the album...now it gives me chills down my spine. It is one of my top 3 albums, its definitely a big grower. You'll start to listen to it to "try" and like it, and soon the songs will get stuck in your head and that distorted noise will spin round and round inside your mind and you'll realize...whoa this actually is U2, just a different, strange, cool, and super artistic side of them.

At least thats what I hear. I would definitely try to get into it, if not you are missing out if you ask me.
 
last unicorn said:
I really tried. I hardly listen to it...I listen to all the other U2 albums much more. It's hard for me to enjoy Zooropa.
Click to expand...

Same here. I got it for Christmas back in 2002, when I was in the process of transforming from a casual U2 fan to a superfan, and had the same "eh, it's all right" reaction then as I do now. I don't connect with it like I do with every other U2 album, which makes it harder for me to appreciate it as an album. Dirty Day is the only standout for me, and has been from the first time I heard it, and it's made its way into my top ten U2 songs. Just recently I've warmed up to a few of the other songs - Stay (hated it before, now it's fairly good), DGPFYCC (after hearing it live in bootlegs), and The Wanderer and Lemon (only for the lyrics). I'm virtually indifferent about the title track, Babyface, SDABTO, and The First Time, and Numb is one of my least favorite U2 songs.

That't not to say I've got it locked away on some dusty shelf. I haven't given up on it yet. Maybe one of these days something will click and I'll appreciate it more. :up:
 
i'm a 90's U2 guy, so this album is naturally in my top 5. you just have to get through the weirdness, then you'll realize that Zooropa, Lemon, Stay, and The First Time are some of U2's greatest songs ever.
 
I think I bought Zooropa on the day it was released.

I personally don't really think of it as a major U2-project/album; it seems more like an addendum to the whole Achtung/Zoo TV spectacle. That's how it felt at the time. The ZooTV tour was ongoing, and suddenly in magazines you read: "Zooropa: the new studio album coming out next week" or something, and it was like, "Whoa! Wasn't expecting that!" It just seemed an added bonus. I do appreciate that if you're buying the albums in this decade you wouldn't think of it that way.

Anyway, I like it. It's clearly more of an ideas-percolating album than a song-album, but it's quite enjoyable. For me, it really hangs together well conceptually and has a nice, new, but still natural-sounding U2 (which wasn't the case with Pop, which to me sounded like a creepy, old, and forced U2). There's also a lightness of touch about Zooropa, which is missing from the two albums that frame it.

Unlike most of you on this forum, I don't think "Zooropa" (the song) is anything special. Nice arrangement, but the song itself is just all right. "Babyface" is equally average -- just a passable little song. I really like "Numb" -- the sound, style, and lyrics are great. "Lemon" is great, if a little overlong. "Stay" is obviously one of their best songs, and the class of the whole album. "Daddy's Gonna Pay..." is again just a passable U2 song, but the sound of it is very interesting in itself (unlike almost all the 2000s' stuff, I must say). "Some Days are Better" rubs some people the wrong way, but I really like it -- it's much better than the wretched "I'll Go Crazy" on the new album (easily the worst lyrics Bono has ever written, and somewhat reminds me of this earlier song). "The First Time" and "Dirty Day" were not really impact songs when the record was released, but they have grown in stature over time. The latter tune is especially good, but it does take some warming up to (it took me about 10 years to realize how good it was). The outro of it is spellbinding, especially live. And "The Wanderer" is a really good song, if a little weird to hear Cash's baritone over the electronica instrumentation -- I wouldn't have minded hearing Bono's take on it, and save J.R. for the B-side.
 
I like this album, but it's not one I pop in my car all that much these days...

Zooropa - fantastic track minus the long ass intro.

Babyface - very underrated.

Numb - was interesting back then, but now it just bores me.

Lemon - I have a love hate relationship with this song, something about it really bugs me, but part of really moves me...:shrug:

Stay - is gorgeous, bridge is a little weak lyrically, but I've always hated the ending, the production of that cymbal just irks me.

Daddy - love this song, now the production of the drums on this song is amazing. Never really worked live for me though.

Some Days - some days I skip it, some days the bass line amuzes me...

First Time - :drool:

Dirty Day - great song, but I really don't like the album version the remixes were SO MUCH better.

Wanderer - love this song, and I will cry tears of joy the day they release the Bono vocal version, it's the one archive I'm really jonsing for... I love this version, but I just have a feeling that version is :drool::drool::drool:
 
I actually like Zooropa, but this is the album that I always forget from my library.
Must be the album cover art.:hmm:
:shrug:
 
I don't understand how someone cannot like the title track.

Though I agree with what you're saying on a lot of it, it's hard to get past that.
 
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