Achtung Baby voted best album in last 25 years

[roy]

by Spin magazine:

125 Best Albums of the Past 25 Years | Spin Magazine Online

Have to say 'The Joshua Tree' has always been my favourite (it suffers greatly from ubiquity). None the less it's great to see ABs genius being recognised.

 

[corianderstem]

Darn tootin'!

 

[trevgreg]

They're right on. And yes, I'm AB>JT anyday.

 

[Galeongirl]

Finally, a best U2 album poll I can agree with.

which featured a Bono mot that would haunt many of us for years to come: "Okay, Edge, play the blues!" Flailing and directionless,

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

i agree with #1. I would think that JT belongs a bit higher on that list.

as a guilty pleasure, ive been surfing that list listening to ceratin albums or songs.

Current selection, Yoshimi Battles the Pink RObots

 

[secretly alone]

You go, Spin Magazine

Except that I can't understand JT being at, what was it, sixty something? But still...win.

 

[An Cat Gav]

Best album of the last 25 years, therefore the best U2 album

 

[An Cat Gav]

It was a very good list in actual fact.

 

[Mr. Green Eyes]

AB is my #1 album from the band so far. JT and NLOH come in a close 2nd and 3rd. Good job Spin magazine!!

 

[65980]

That's funny. I'm old enough to remember when Spin reviewed Achtung Baby back in late 1991. At that time, the magazine was mired in the onset of the Alternative Rock revolution, which it decided to jump, bandwagon style, onto. U2, the very symbol of bloated 80s stadium-rock, were made "uncool" by Spin overnight. At the time, Spin used a simple "Green Light", "Yellow", or "Red" system to evaluate albums. Achtung Baby was, amazingly, given a "Yellow" light review.

Guess they're eating humble pie now.

It's actually a good article. What's amazing -- and what younger Interferencers won't fully appreciate -- is a line from the penultimate sentence: "U2 became the emblematic band of the alternative-rock era with Achtung Baby." That was an absolutely stunning achievement, the more so when we consider how instantly outdated U2's 80s peers were at that very moment (think: Simple Minds, The Alarm, etc.).

Achtung remains as fine an album as post-punk rock has ever produced, and the creative/career pivot upon which the band's long career turns. The fact that they're still relevant and topping charts today is largely down to Achtung Baby's existence, which forever separated U2 from their peers and from the 80s itself.

 

[david]

I remember when Spin gave The Bends a not so great review.

 

[IanIinTheSky]

Damn it, I had Passengers winning.

 

[65980]

It appears that Spin had gone full circle, and is back to moderate mainstream / slightly left-of-centre editorial policy now. When it started, in the mid-80s, its policy was to focus on tasteful white music (features: Madonna, Sting, etc.), and then, as I mentioned above, it smelled money from alt-rock so it jumped on that and successfully challenged Rolling Stone by becoming the beacon of college music.

You can tell from their choices that they're leaning towards the mainstream more now. So, for example, we get Oasis ahead of The Stone Roses, OK Computer ahead of The Bends, and Nirvana ahead of Pavement. All of those would have been reversed in the old days. (Not to mention they wouldn't have put U2 at number one.) Although those choices I mention are a bit commercially compromised, I still think this is a decent list. Spin at least takes non-American music into consideration, unlike the increasingly corporate (if that's even possible) Rolling Stone, whose critical authority is now equivalent to MTV or the Grammy Awards.

 

[U2girl]

Always good to see Nirvana NOT at no. 1.

Ok Computer not winning ?

 

[Y2K]

For reference purposes, here's Spin's original review of the record:

SPIN - Google Books

 

[powerhour24]

Amen, except it's 'most influential albums of the past 25 years', and in that case JT needs to be in the top 15 or so as well.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Always good to see Nirvana NOT at no. 1.

Ok Computer not winning ?

 

[Yahweh]

Good to see the over rated Radiohead not at the top of the list.

although OK Computer is a good album its not the greatest thing since electricity

 

[trevgreg]

That's funny. I'm old enough to remember when Spin reviewed Achtung Baby back in late 1991. At that time, the magazine was mired in the onset of the Alternative Rock revolution, which it decided to jump, bandwagon style, onto. U2, the very symbol of bloated 80s stadium-rock, were made "uncool" by Spin overnight. At the time, Spin used a simple "Green Light", "Yellow", or "Red" system to evaluate albums. Achtung Baby was, amazingly, given a "Yellow" light review.

Guess they're eating humble pie now.

It's actually a good article. What's amazing -- and what younger Interferencers won't fully appreciate -- is a line from the penultimate sentence: "U2 became the emblematic band of the alternative-rock era with Achtung Baby." That was an absolutely stunning achievement, the more so when we consider how instantly outdated U2's 80s peers were at that very moment (think: Simple Minds, The Alarm, etc.).

Achtung remains as fine an album as post-punk rock has ever produced, and the creative/career pivot upon which the band's long career turns. The fact that they're still relevant and topping charts today is largely down to Achtung Baby's existence, which forever separated U2 from their peers and from the 80s itself.

Very nicely put!

 

[Joey788]

For reference purposes, here's Spin's original review of the record:

SPIN - Google Books

I think my favorite part of that review is where they think that 3 years between records is a long time for U2. If only they knew!

 

[kingofsorrow]

 

[65980]

I think my favorite part of that review is where they think that 3 years between records is a long time for U2. If only they knew!

Heh. Yeah, it is an amazingly crap review. The writer mentions only "Acrobat" and "The Fly" by name, which makes me wonder if he had an advance copy without the song titles. There is no mention of breakbeats or "industrial" influences, which would seem to be the most obvious thing about it upon first listenings. Worse, the writer implicitly disses The Stone Roses, by far the best British group of the last 23-odd years.

If you flip down a few pages, they review Nirvana's Nevermind. The reviewer describes it as "a little bit country" (!).

 

[trevgreg]

In their defense though (and as a former music reviewer myself), you can only know so much about an album if you only listen to it a handful of times. Heck, I can remember the first time I bought the album myself, which was solely for Mysterious Ways and One. On a whim, I listened to the whole thing once through, but didn't think much of it after that. But as I got more into the band within the following months when the Elevation tour was kicking in, I kept going back to hear the other songs on it, and it slowly hit me how brilliant the entire thing was. So personally, it doesn't shock me that Spin magazine had changed it's tune about Achtung in the 20 years since it came out. Sometimes it takes awhile to sink in I guess...

And while at it, yes, 3 years is nothing in the U2 world nowadays, lol. Perhaps the follow up will change that though.

 

[cobl04]

the follow up? i can't understand how people think it'll come out soon.

 

[trevgreg]

the follow up? i can't understand how people think it'll come out soon.

Haha... well, it's not like it's going to be a Chinese Democracy-like wait, you know.

 

[LemonMelon]

although OK Computer is a good album its not the greatest thing since electricity

Perhaps not, but providing us with OK Computer was its peak.

Honestly, Achtung isn't even my favorite U2 album, but it's nice to see it receive such recognition, if only because Nevermind is kept away from #1 by default.

 

[cobl04]

Perhaps not, but providing us with OK Computer was its peak.

surprised it took you this long to make a comment mate

to be honest, and this is probably a little one-sighted, naive and unfair, but the pedestal that Nevermind, Kurt and Nirvana get put on really makes me despise all of them.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

I've never been in Spin Magazine, and yet this hall's filled twice. I don't need Spin Magazine. I mean, it's a certain class of people that take the magazine seriously. I mean, sure, I could read it. I read it on the airplanes. But I don't take it seriously. If I want to find out anything, I'm not going to read Spin Magazine. I'm not going to read Newsweek. I'm not going to read any of those magazines. Because they've just got too much to lose by printing the truth.

 

[65980]

I've never been in Spin Magazine, and yet this hall's filled twice. I don't need Spin Magazine. I mean, it's a certain class of people that take the magazine seriously. I mean, sure, I could read it. I read it on the airplanes. But I don't take it seriously. If I want to find out anything, I'm not going to read Spin Magazine. I'm not going to read Newsweek. I'm not going to read any of those magazines. Because they've just got too much to lose by printing the truth.

I'll tell you what the truth is... it's... a tramp vomiting in the gutter.

It's... a green door!

 

[monsieur fly]

Justice has been done I think. I like TJT but I don't reckon it's anywhere near as good as AB.