Zooropa is amazing!

[sulawesigirl4]

This isn?t new news to me, but it?s just been on my mind lately. I?ve been listening to this album a LOT over the last few weeks, and I just can?t get over how much I love it! Every single little note and inflection. From the hazy trippiness of the title track to the melancholy of Stay to the darkness of Dirty Day to the Johnny Cash vocals on Wanderer. If U2 ever sees fit to put together another ?experimental? album like this one, count me in as the first in line to buy it.

So I guess this is a Zooropa appreciation thread. Feel free to add your thoughts.

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This thread has been Viggofied

 

[spanisheyes]

Sula, did I ever mention that I LOVE YOUR WRITING????

 

[oliveu2cm]

MSG 6/17 Bono introduces "Stay": "this is perhaps the most beautiful song we have ever written"

I've been stuck on UF lately so I will have to throw this in the mix soon. It is such a great album, so clever, the whole concept of it.

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Took you to a place now you can't get back

*U2 Take Me Higher*

 

[sulawesigirl4]

Lol, Chris. Errrm, I dunno.

 

[u2loopy]

I think, Lyrically, it is better than any of them. Zooropa rules!!!!!

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What are we going to do now It's all been said,
No new ideas in the house and Every book has been read....

 

[ouizy]

I have always thought this.

Zooropa is one of my favorite albums, and I think that Zooropa is one of their best songs to date. There is just something about that song that makes me think of a trip I took to Germany one cold summer week. I just think it is fantastic.

Although they have never played any of the songs at any of the shows I went to, if you can get your hands on live versions of

Zooropa
Numb
Babyface

they are worth it - super super cool...

 

[404 Not Found]

so strange that this thread suddenly appears - i've been in a major zooropa mood for the last week or so. listening to it non-stop!
the only song i skip over every time is babyface, for some reason i can't stand it. but the rest of it blows me away. i tend to rediscover it every 6 months or so.

 

[sulawesigirl4]

Anyone else just get totally pumped up listening to Daddy?s Gonna Pay? I just love the fanfare intro and the funky beat with the grinding bassline. One of my favorite driving songs. Well that?s also cuz of the words...?you gotta head full of traffic, you?re a siren?s song...? hehe.

 

[404 Not Found]

totally
ah, sha la

 

[HeartlandGirl]

I've been listening to Zooropa in the truck on the way to and from work, especially Dirty Day. It really rocks out after a long day of sitting at a desk.

Zooropa is, to this day, my favorite U2 album. I love its weirdness, its groundbreaking sounds, its lyrics, and, oh yeah, a-ha, sha-la.

It doesn't get any better!

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U2 @ The Blooming Heart

 

[Sicy]

I loveeeeeeeeeeeee Zooropa. I listen to it at work over and over and over again.

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Sexy poshin' sugar snarlin' rock and roll ...
sicy@interference.com
My Lair

 

[Zooropa]

Zooropa is U2's best album. I love it, love it, love it!!! I listen to it at least twice a week and I never get tired of it. It's just a total experience, if you know what I mean, and I love the alarm bells at the very end of the disc. Their like a warning bell eminding you to get off the "ride" and back to real life. It's good stuff.

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Don't let the bastards grind you down.

Zooropa FTP

 

[MBH]

Originally posted by Sicy:
I loveeeeeeeeeeeee Zooropa. I listen to it at work over and over and over again.

Uhhh, this has nothing to do with Zooropa, but I was referred to you for this question: how many members/viewers are there on Interference.com and how many have viewed this site since its inception? Just curious.

 

[ericb]

SinceI bought the Zooropa album last summer, there have been periods of time where I thought I liked it, and other times didn't. When I first bought it, I thought it was ok, but it didn't like it as much as the other albums I had up to that point(War and everything afterwards). Then I just lost interest in it. Then I bought the ZooTV Live In Sydney video and after seeing some of the Zooropa songs live, I started to listen to the album again, and I do like it now. Some songs were better live, mainly Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car. That song just sounds flat on the album, but was great with Bono in the MacPhisto character.

 

[elevatedmole]

Zooropa is such a wonderful album. I love it. It's incredibly atmospheric, and really captures the feel of ZooTV. Zooropa (the song) has such a gorgeous melody.. I love the entire album. It's a masterpiece.

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"I dance much better horizontally than vertically." - Bono

Popheart.org

 

[*Ally*]

"Some days are better than others"... great bassline, great lyrics, GREAT SONG!!!

zooropa is a wonderful album- i rediscover it about once every year (not in my "usual" rotation of U2 cds, but definitely one of my favorites).

 

[meegannie]

Zooropa is my second-favourite U2 album. "The First Time" is one of U2's most beautiful songs (and its being featured in the opening sequence completely made the movie "The Million Dollar Hotel" for me!). I love how the songs on the album flow into one another.

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A song is a beautiful lie

 

[gherman]

You guys are going to have to convince me more.
I think it is the worst album they made. I like Zooropa, babyface, lemon and Stay but what is it that makers you love it so much. Am I missing somethig here? I can only listen to it 4 times and I'm tired of it.

 

[wertsie]

For ages, I would only seem to pay attention to "Zooropa," "Numb," and "Stay," but I've recently discovered "Dirty Day." Great song! Great album, although I have to say that I could really do without "Wanderer." Maybe if Bono sang it it would be better. Well...not MAYBE. Of COURSE it would! Oh, well...They did what they wanted to do at the time...

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"We're one, but we're not the same..."

http://U2Baby.com

 

[sulawesigirl4]

Originally posted by gherman:
You guys are going to have to convince me more.
I think it is the worst album they made. I like Zooropa, babyface, lemon and Stay but what is it that makers you love it so much. Am I missing somethig here? I can only listen to it 4 times and I'm tired of it.

Ummm, perhaps you missed something. No one has to convince you of anything. We're merely celebrating what is in some of our opinions one of the best pieces of work U2 ever made. If you don't like it...that's your loss.

Now back to the programming. Babyface. One of U2's most underrated and misunderstood songs? Discuss!

 

[Jayhawk]

I have always thought "Dirty Day" stole the show in Sydney 1993 and I have always hoped they would pull this song out on subsequent tours but no luck as of yet. I love "Lemon" on the album probably more that I would like to admit. The lyrics are "so Bono" but the actual song kind of throws you for a loop. It's like they took the energy from ZOO TV and truly molded a great album from it.

 

[Michael Griffiths]

Sula,

Thanks for posting this! I just listened to Zooropa for the first time in months a few nights ago, and I've got to agree -- a groundbreaking record. I don't understand how people can't see and hear the imagination that permeates it. The songwriting is not traditional, but the essense is pure U2. Sonically, this album just blows the mind. So many examples to choose from. The buzz saw guitar/keyboard (or whatever it is) in 'Some Days' is crazy and raucously delightful. The little nuances in 'Baby Face' are cute. I really wish people would actually listen to this song, as I believe it's a great piece of soul music ("How can beauuuuuty be so kiiiiind, to an ordinary guuuuy, ohyyayyaaa" -- I love that part -- the layering is incredible).

Zooropa is definitely a "producers" album, and one has to appreciate the sonical layering of this to sense the genius. The title track is sheer genius and is explosive, textured within rythems that squeeze out the melody just so. 'Lemon' is perhaps the most effortless-sounding piece of music in the U2 canon: it's so well done that the complexity is masked. Bono's falsetto throughout the record marks his mastery of it. Never has he nailed it better. It just might be U2's best piece of dance music ever (with the exception of 'Pride' of course -- and yes, you can dance to 'Pride').

'Daddy's Gonna Pay' comes out of nowhere, and I love the studio version of it, simply because of the vocal changes at the beginning (the last word is distorted slightly differently and the end of each line). Lyrically incredible ("Head full of traffic"; "Silent Song"...)

Something about this record pushes the listener into an atmosphere outside the walls of the music. Into the sunlight, into the moonlight, into the barriers outside of our own perception. We get filled with an outside inspiration, it seems. This seems to be evoked no more strongly than on 'The First Time', where a simple piano motif at the end becomes a backdrop for a spiritual incline from something more than just a song about a lover, but into something else altogether -- beyond the father of the church, beyone the love a woman, but into a freedom that can come when the flesh has been punctured by its own light.

Despite what some have said, I love J. Cash in 'The Wanderer'. One of the best lines on the album is "Under an Atomic Sky" and I love the way he sings it. It's like a techno waste-land filled with a humanity not ready to die. A humanity ready to take over, and with Bono's falsetto (again) at the end, you get swept up into the concept of this album -- which is to survive, play a little, and get involved with creation itself -- and not forget "your way back home".

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The Tempest

[This message has been edited by Michael Griffiths (edited 05-16-2002).]

 

[theSoulfulMofo]

Yes, it is.

To me, it's a technicolor LSD surreal carefree dreamscape where Bono urges you to embrace whatever comes at you.

"Zooropa"-- Extension of Acthung Baby concepts. Acrobat's "dreaming out loud" and Ultraviolet's "light my way."

"Babyface"-- Can't help but think Bono's singing flirtatiously to one of those beautiful supermodels he plays with.

"Numb"-- Edge raps!? rotflmao... an artistic Dada portrayal of what technology does to you.

"Lemon"-- Bono gone Cabaret... In MacPhisto makeup, he's a scary looking version of Madame Edna.

"Stay"-- Perhaps the most beautiful pop-culture referenced love song... seductive, stylish, and soulful

"Daddy's Gonna Pay..." -- MacPhisto gone Disco in Drag.

"Some Days are Better..."-- Ultra-cool song... hilarious, trippy, care-free,.. always lights up my day whenever i hear it.

"the first time"-- damn, every time i hear this song, brings a tear to my eye.

"dirty day"-- THE f-you song of the whole album, good companion to "North and South of the River" .. BTW, Bitter kiss remix ROCKS!

"the wanderer"-- if "Please" doesn't convict you, then this is your last hope.... in a soulless world.


ZOOROPA has been the soundtrack of my life this past 8 years.


====================
Oh yeah, did you know Zooropa LP won Grammy for Best Alternative?

[This message has been edited by theSoulfulMofo (edited 05-16-2002).]

 

[follower]

Originally posted by Jayhawk:
I have always thought "Dirty Day" stole the show in Sydney 1993

Couldn?t agree more. I have stated here more than once that I really discovered how great Dirty Day is after watching that performance for the first time. Now I can?t have enough of it. It?s a pity they haven?t played it anymore.

Zooropa, the album, is an outstanding piece of work, a great collection of songs, with some of best Bono?s lyrics, like the ones for Zooropa, the song, Stay and The Wanderer. And the entire atmosphere of the album is so special, it reflects perfectly the mood of Zooropa, the tour. I definitely love it.

 

[dhodgdon]

I love the album...but what's with the annoying ALARM at the end? I listen to it last night, while I was romancing my lady friend, and it really spoiled the mood...

 

[gherman]

The album sounds like it is made of plastic.

 

[elevatedmole]

Originally posted by dhodgdon:
I love the album...but what's with the annoying ALARM at the end? I listen to it last night, while I was romancing my lady friend, and it really spoiled the mood...

Maybe it promotes safe sex?

From U2FAQ.com:

9.2 What's that annoying sound hidden at the very end of the Zooropa album?
{TVT} If you leave Zooropa playing for about one minute after "The Wanderer", you will hear an alarm going off. This is the same alarm which warns radio DJ's when there is a 10 second air silence.

{CG} Some editions of Zooropa don't have the DJ alarm at the end - mine, for example. (I have the Brazilian edition.)


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"I dance much better horizontally than vertically." - Bono

Popheart.org

 

[meegannie]

Originally posted by dhodgdon:
I love the album...but what's with the annoying ALARM at the end? I listen to it last night, while I was romancing my lady friend, and it really spoiled the mood...

Maybe the fact that you use the phrase "romancing my lady friend" spoiled the mood.

 

[wertsie]

I remember hearing somewhere that the alarm was from the studio, the sound announcing that it's time to record or something like that...

------------------
"We're one, but we're not the same..."

http://U2Baby.com

 

[AcrobatMan]

I love Stay, Zooropa & Wanderer and other few songs are ok but how can you like Numb?