more on Achtung Baby!

[zooroper]

Ok...now looking back at the complete U2 catalouge, it's easy to say that AB = U2. Why? Well...It sounds like nothing else U2 ever recorded, nor anybody else. Even today it sounds fresh and inovative, and I am pretty sure that in 10-20 years, when some new kids get theyr hands on AB will say "WOW!!! This has been recorded 30 years ago?!?"

AB belongs in the "unique" groop of albums...and whit all my discophilic expirience, I don't know many albums of that kind. (My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless" for example).

It's one of the best rock albums ever, and if U2 recorded only AB and nothing else...that would be enough.

 

[Lo-Fi]

Can't agree more, one of THE best albums of all time, I rate this higher than TJT.

 

[zooroper]

that's what i'm saying...JT sounds like the end of the 80's.

AB dosen't! it sounds like out of time.

 

[ZeroDude]

Yea that is true but JT is also timeless imo except trip that is but thats the only weakness in it's concept

 

[Lo-Fi]

Yeah, I guess TJT does have that timeless quality to it as well. I just prefer the sounds on AB, they connect with me more. Both amazing records, but AB is the better record IMHO.

I can't believe that it's already 14 years old. That's pretty scary, especially listening to it now.

 

[ZeroDude]

Achtungs my fave too just have to protect the auld Joshua Tree

 

[TheFlyOnTheWall]

With Or Without You is the most "Out Of Time" song. Of U2. IMO. Well, maybe there are some more, but I like that one best!

 

[TheFlyOnTheWall]

(double post)

 

[Sleep Over Jack]

Definitely their artistic high-point, IMO.

 

[yimou]

I bought an AB album cover poster when the album got out, to piss my then Girlfriend off who was totally into New kids .. I covered her New kids posters, with the AB poster, and all hell broke loose... BUT, The poster has survived the torment of hanging over new kids posters, and i still have it up on the wall in my apartment. Its about 14 years old, but this poster refuses to die,,,

 

[~BrightestStar~]

I wish I had an AB poster - however, I did buy a JT poster the other day for like 3 bucks....(you can't go wrong for 3$)

 

[Shawn Bonneau]

I think Achtung Baby sets the tone for the 90s. It was the first big album of the decade. And it was released around the same time as Pearl Jam's "Ten". Great fall for 1991 with those releases. But, Achtung Baby is yet to be matched.

SMB

 

[bsp77]

I think Achtung Baby sets the tone for the 90s. It was the first big album of the decade. And it was released around the same time as Pearl Jam's "Ten". Great fall for 1991 with those releases. But, Achtung Baby is yet to be matched.

SMB

Nirvana's Nevermind was released then as well. They are lucky they released AB when they did, it fit in perfectly with the exploding alternative scene, but they made the album before the explosion so they were not actually trying to fit in. BTW, I am not saying the album sounds like grunge, please don't take it that way. But if they had released another JT around that time, it might have been a disaster.

 

[bedouin fire]

pop/rock music would be different from what it is today if achtung baby didn't exist.

 

[miss becky]

See my posts in the Survivor thread for more AB love...

Achtung Baby is my desert island CD. The one I could never bear to be parted from. It is far and away the greatest CD I own.

I will never forget that fall of 1991...hearing the opening notes of Zoo Station...and being utterly mesmerized. It was like being put in a trance. And I only woke up when the last note of Love is Blindness died away. I listened to it over and over. It was like I couldn't get enough. To this day, of all my U2 CDs, Achtung Baby is the one I listen to most, and the only one I listen to straight through, without even thinking of skipping even a few seconds of any song.

Oh, how I love my Achtung Baby.

 

[ZeroDude]

The thing is Achtung was something of a cultural event would anyone in the world not know who the guy with the huge shades dressed in leather was no, It's iconic captured the zeitgeist of the times, it is pure, it is better than you, if it was a person, I'd want to shag him/her btw it's adrogynous too

Achtung Baby
plus the name of it is amazingly cool

 

[zooroper]

But if they had released another JT around that time, it might have been a disaster.

Indeed!

 

[shaun vox]

AB gave us great rocknroll songs! it gave us the fly and macphisto! it gave u2 ZOO fucking tv(and put that shit on dvd u2!!!!!) actung is u2 last great rock album!!!!!!!! they can never match that album ever. atyclb and htdaab are albums that will be forgot in about 10 yeras!!!!!!!!!!!!(oops getting off topic)

to me ab was u2s last album!!!!!! now its all just a reunion tour , dont give a shit for the music they are making now!!!!!!!!!!!
just watch them live and just hope they play the classic!!!

 

[Axver]

Oh joy, more AB worship.

Let's go back to eighties U2.

 

[shaun vox]

hey ab, war, jt ,boy they all keep you up!!!

atyclb ,htdaab are good when you want to sleep zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!!!

 

[zooroper]

ture. (zooropa and pop are a different story)

 

[Saracene]

I'd still say that Joshua Tree will always remain the definitive U2 Album. But AB is unarguably the ultimate U2 Re-invention Album.

 

[nathan1977]

I remember hearing "The Fly" in the fall of 91 and thinking, THESE are the guys who did With or Without You?! Then I heard Mysterious Ways and I knew I had to have it -- picked it up on a Friday from a record store on Thayer St in Providence RI while with my (then non-, now ex-) girlfriend, listened to it that night with my headphones so as not to wake up mom and dad, and was utterly mesmerized.

That album brings back so many memories -- sights, smells, emotions. It's like dreaming out loud.

 

[ulove2]

Dreaming out loud, well put!!!!

 

[in the tempest]

Best album ever. Changed my fucking life.

 

[Zoots]

Yes!... you can never have enough Achtung nostalgia!!! Awesome thread, Zooroper. I'd like to bring up something I've noticed over the years... that Achtung doesn't get as much respect as The Joshua Tree. Because of any of these reasons maybe?

1. AB is too techno/euro trash to be considered good music according to some people?

2. People didn't like Bono doing a total 180 by making fun of his own righteous image of the late 80s?

3. Some thought it was too gimmicky with the images, slogans and the ZooTV stuff?

Just wondering how anybody who's actually listened to the album could ever dislike it!

 

[saxgoddess]

Achtung!!!!

 

[Flying FuManchu]

My favorite U2 album, I think...

 

[Axver]

Achtung doesn't get as much respect as The Joshua Tree. Because of any of these reasons maybe?

I can't speak for anyone else, but my reason is that the band totally turned on Lovetown. It almost feels hypocritical, like we'd all been conned on Lovetown and the rest of the eighties. Almost. It's as if a bunch of guys in fly glasses stole my favourite band and used the bodies to make some admittedly very good music.

And the ZooTV tour was weak. Nice technology, but the songs, setlists, and improvisation just don't compare to Lovetown.

 

[Zoocoustic]

Ok...now looking back at the complete U2 catalouge, it's easy to say that AB = U2.

Let me go out on a limb here and say that AB does NOT equal U2 at all and that is why it is their best work.

Typical U2 is:

Trying to save the world.
Trying to appeal to the masses.
Trying to sound "like U2".

With AB they ignored all this and simply put out an album that reflected what they were experiencing at the time...and it sounded like nothing else.

They weren't being U2 and that's why it is so brilliant. They should try not being U2 more often.