Zooropa - I think it might be my favourite album!

[gareth brown]

Zooropa is just too good for words. I remember hearing it for the first time in 2001 when I was on holiday and the sun was always out and I was just generally happy and this album was a joy to listen to.

I just loved the music for what it was [another U2 album I'd been fixed on the Joshua Tree earlier in the year and it had basically flipped my life upside down] but it took me quite a while to really appreciate it the way I do now as I didn't really appreciate music as much and just accepted it as it was and didn't really "listen" to it until hearing The Joshua Tree. To this day I still hear new things hidden in each track and hearing things in different ways to when I first heard them!

A while ago I decided that my personal opinion was that 'Zooropa' and 'Lemon' were U2's greatest songs, the former now my favourite song of all time, yet I still regarded 'The Joshua Tree' as my favourite ever album. It's still as amazing as I ever thought it was but there's just something about Zooropa that I love so much that Joshua Tree really has to take second place.

It's the experimentation, the complete shift in direction and welcoming of new sounds and ideas that makes you forget and remember you're listening to U2 in the same 30 seconds just makes me forgive U2 for any "mistakes" I or anyone else feel they may have made in the years that followed.

I really am running out of things to say but Zooropa really is just indescribable in some aspects. The opening of Zooropa before the choppy guitars and the final burst at the end, the middle section of Numb, everything about Lemon, GOD...I don't know what to say. Just someone PLEASE tell me they share my thoughts!!

 

[Popmartijn]

Although Achtung Baby is my favourite, Zooropa is a very, very close second.

 

[pgv]

Zooropa was the best thing to come out of the 90's I think.
I like achtung baby, and i like pop. But zooropa is in a league of its own!

 

[pgv]

(and yeah i totally agree with your love of lemon. i still havent got it out of my head and its over ten years old!)

 

[one4u2]

Zooropa

 

[DreamOutLoud13]

Though Zooropa is not my favourite U2 album, I often find myself listening to it more than the rest of them. I like to refer to the entire album as "purple space crack". It's bizarre and addicting. It's a total trip through a bizarre new world. I love it.

 

[An Cat Gav]

Let's not forget that "Zooropa" also houses Stay and The Wanderer!! Two of the best U2 songs ever!
It's an album I love more and more with time!
For me Achtung Baby will always be the best but Zooropa is close to being my second favourite.

 

[BANZAI]

I really appreciate the album, but Babyface is a song that diminishes the overall quality of the album.

 

[Mogi]

Took me many years to like this album, but now I love it. Wonderful to listen to thru headphones. I think it was quite cutting edge for the time and I think it opened many doors for electronic music to break into the mainstream.

 

[1stepcloser]

I like every song except for 'Some Days....'

Still a great album though. In my Top 5 easily.

 

[JanuaryStar]

Lemon...

 

[TheQuiet1]

I hated it when I first heard it but now it's the one I find myself wanting to listen to the most. That's not to say that I think it's a brilliant U2 album but there's something about it that sustains my interest somehow

 

[babyman]

That's even Bono's fav album. What a triple Numb-Lemon-Stay

 

[Galeongirl]

I absolutely thought it was the weirdest thing I ever heard when I first bought it...
Stay is one of my favorite songs and Lemon is just
It didn't surprise me it won an awards for best alternative album.. it sure is something different...

 

[babyman]

Somewhere in the future Zooropa will be recognised as U2's best ever album.

 

[prmdbr]

Somewhere in the future Zooropa will be recognised as U2's best ever album.

I wouldn't say that. Achtung Baby probably will get that accolade, seeing as how it was indeed the catalyst for Zooropa and even further, Pop.

 

[babyman]

Achtung Baby already got it, Zooropa is still 1 mile down the line and it's arriving. I feel this album will be rehabilitate in 8-10 years, when probably U2 will stop doing records.

 

[annie_vox]

Dirty Day and specially Stay are two of my favourite songs... And nobody can be indifferent to Daddy's Gonna Pay and Numb! This album is fantastic! I feel sorry that it isn't recognized. But maybe one day in the future it will be as some of you said.

 

[prmdbr]

I remember getting Zooropa the day it came out. Lemon had just begun rotation on MTV. I was largely indifferent and quite honestly, put the CD down for a few months as I was 'STILL' digesting Achtung Baby. It wasn't until around late 1994 that I 'GOT' Zooropa. The concepts really started to gel.

It quickly became the number 2 CD in my rotation for that entire year, only to be preceeded by James - "Wah Wah". Another truly briliant album produced by Brian Eno.. whom I don't really need to discuss relavancy to U2 and their success.

Also: I always felt as though Zooropa would have done better as an extended EP, tracks like Babyface I find -- well, just weird. Then again, I find my self giving in to wabi sabi and just loving the imperfections of the project as a whole.

 

[PookaMacP]

After Acthung Baby, there is little doubt that Zooropa is my favourite U2 album and one of their best. The whole rushed atmosphere that it was created in probably works massively in its favour, as well as actually using the energy that had been created from the tour brilliantly. A great concept, and very well executed. The opener Zooropa is a classic, as are Lemon, Stay, Daddy's Gonna Pay... and The First Time. And that synthesizer/bass on Some Days Are Better Than Others - just fantastic. It's interesting also that they left a lot of the tracks at a long length, and held the album up to 10 songs. Lemon runs nearly to seven minutes, Zooropa six and a half, Stay closer to five than four, Daddy's over five. Great to see a band like that capitalise on the success of an 'arty' album and put out something that sounds like nothing else I've ever heard. Quite simply, a great album.

 

[prmdbr]

After Acthung Baby, there is little doubt that Zooropa is my favourite U2 album and one of their best. The whole rushed atmosphere that it was created in probably works massively in its favour, as well as actually using the energy that had been created from the tour brilliantly. A great concept, and very well executed. The opener Zooropa is a classic, as are Lemon, Stay, Daddy's Gonna Pay... and The First Time. And that synthesizer/bass on Some Days Are Better Than Others - just fantastic. It's interesting also that they left a lot of the tracks at a long length, and held the album up to 10 songs. Lemon runs nearly to seven minutes, Zooropa six and a half, Stay closer to five than four, Daddy's over five. Great to see a band like that capitalise on the success of an 'arty' album and put out something that sounds like nothing else I've ever heard. Quite simply, a great album.

Great point about the band's choice to leave some of the songs in their long version.

 

[WalkOnTheEdge]

Worst album ever. Period.

 

[vaz02]

Didnt care for it for a while but inrecent months it has become a fav of mine , stay , lemon , numb, daddys... . All classical songs.

 

[youtooellen]

when I bought Zooropa, I was scared to take a listen because of all the bashing I read on reviews and such (including this place ). But when I listened to it, I couldn't stop listening to it.

It was in my cd player for a month straight. It's not my absolute favorite album by U2, but it's definitely up there for me

 

[amerrydeath]

I just listened to it all the way through the other day--it's one of the few albums I can do that with. A lot. I also was listening to the August 12th 1993 Wembley concert--and I never have been able to listen to Babyface before this--Babyface sounded fantastic!

 

[MacHat]

I love Zooropa *hugs Zooropa CD*

 

[The Disciple]

I really appreciate the album, but Babyface is a song that diminishes the overall quality of the album.

I love Babyface.

 

[scha]

Like many of you have said, my favourite album is Achtung Baby as well, but my favourite song of all time is not from that album but from Zooropa: Stay . For me it is just perfect. Nothing could be done to make it better. The lyrics, the music, even the video .... it saves my life from time and again .

 

[bonsai]

That's even Bono's fav album. What a triple Numb-Lemon-Stay

I love this guy's taste in music. He doesn't go for the obvious choice. It did take me a few listens but now I love it.

Although I would place AB as my fav, I always find it difficult when
I'm considering my second fav album. I'd say it's between POP, HTDAAB, JT, UF and Zooropa! I personally find War quite boring

 

[xaviMF22]

my favorite after achtung baby