Achtung Baby, released in November 1991, is U2's sixth album. Released after U2's earnest, anthemic albums of the 1980s, Achtung Baby, with its dark, ironic, and moody sound, was very much a surprise. The album began a decade-long experimentation with electronic sounds and dance beats, continuing two years later with the more openly-experimental Zooropa.
Musically, this may be U2's most densely textured album, forsaking the wide-open rock of The Joshua Tree without adding any of the minimalism that informed many parts of Zooropa. The texture varies throughout the album, but never really seems to 'break out' the way earlier U2 songs did.
- Zoo Station (4:36)
The album begins with a heavily distorted guitar riff and
the faint tapping of hammered glass. This unusual opening
eventually, with the full-scale entrance of guitars and the rhythm
section, leads into something that sounds something like classic
U2. Nevertheless, the distortion effect used on Bono's voice and the
corresponding distorted guitar create a sound that is markedly
different than the band's previous work, despite a bass line that
sounds like it's straight off The Joshua Tree. Later in
the song, vocal loops and synthesiser sounds lead the song further
from the U2 mainstream. It ends with a repeat of the opening's
reverberant drums, this time accompanied by bass and and
guitar.
- Even Better Than The Real Thing (3:41)
This song begins with a distorted, repetitive, octave-shifting guitar
riff before entering into the bass-backed main section. On the chorus,
the Infinite Guitar sound comes to the forefront for the first time
in the album, while it remains in the background through the
verses. The bridge features a heavily distorted guitar part which ends
with multiple-octave leaps before continuing towards the chorus and
the inevitable ending
- One (4:36)
This enduring classic begins with the tapping of
drumsticks before its gentle and quiet guitar riff enters, followed by
the vocals. The lyric is one of U2's all-time best, focusing on
interpersonal connections in many different levels. The
instrumentation builds and becomes more insistent as the song
proceeds, releasing some of its tension in occasional instrumental
breaks. Strings enter after a couple minutes and do not sound out of
place. For all of its seeming simplicity, the song plays host to a
wonderful amount of texture as it proceeds casually to a climax and
then the ending.
- Until The End Of The World (4:38)
One of the best songs on the album, this brings the
lyrical ambiguity and musical darkness of the albums to new
levels. Like several other songs on the album it lacks a
verse-chorus-verse structure and proceeds instead in a linear
storytelling fashion. The instrumentation strengthens the dark,
intimate mood of the lyrics and acts to sweep the listener away from
each scene after it is narrated.
- Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses (4:38)
One of the radio hits from the album, it begins with an
unusual electronic noise before the distorted guitar cuts in. An
overrated song, it is one of the less interesting ones on
Achtung Baby. The chorus is classic U2 but the verses
fall somewhat flat.
- So Cruel (5:49)
This slow, piano-accented song brings the newly-found
'dark side' to U2 into sharp focus. Dealing with the troubles that may
arise in an intimate interpersonal relationship, it remains very
vocal-centred, its quiet but not minimalist accompaniment remaining
subordinate. The poetry of the lyric is detailed and effective, as
fitting for such a vocal-centred piece.
- The Fly (4:29)
One of the more experimental songs on the album, The Fly
marries an insistent, distorted guitar riff to an equally frantic and
dark lyric during the verses. Then in the chorus, a conventional
soaring U2 vocal line and the same half-spoken tone used in the verses
are overlaid over a wide-open instrumentation. These alternate fairly
rapidly as the song proceeds, and soon they are joined by a distorted
and indistinct guitar line before it all draws to a
close.
- Mysterious Ways (4:03)
Possibly the best-known song from the album, this song,
despite the distortion, sounds relatively close to U2's previous
sound. As with many other songs on the album, much of it is driven by
the bass line, especially the chorus. Guitars are mainly used to provide
ornamentation and flourishes at the start, but in the bridge there is a simple
but interesting guitar solo. Brighter than most of the album, this
song exudes optimism and hope.
- Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World
(3:52)
A downtempo song, everthing about it feels
slowed-down. Some of the more imagistic lyrics of this period of U2's
career are found here, nestled among the swaying texture of the
instrumentation. Towards the end, the lyrics and vocals make a brief
shift to a more 'open' sound, returning quickly to the encompassing
mood of the rest of the song. The instrumentation clears up once more
at the ending of the song before falling silent.
- Ultra Violet (Light My Way) (5:30)
Its introduction foreshadowing some of the spacey textures
of Zooropa, this song then quickly breaks out into a
traditionalist U2 riff. One of the more explicitly romantic, even sexual, lyrics on
the album is here paired with a bright sonic palette befitting its
optimistic theme. The song 'breaks out' quite dramatically towards the
end, spiralling and tumbling joyfully towards the
ending.
- Acrobat (4:30)
Sounding like a conventional album closer, this
ambiguously upbeat song's clanging guitar riff and conversational
lyric have a sense of closure to them. The recurring line of 'Don't
let the bastards grind you down' ensures that optimism in the end
wins out, but the song's mood flip-flops between optimism and
pessimism a few times before the bright, final-sounding
ending.
- Love is Blindness (4:23)
At first, I thought this elegiac song felt somewhat 'tacked
on' to the album and that the preceding song deserved to be the true
closer. The more I listened to it, the more I realised that it was the
most fitting closure this album could have. The multi-layered poetry
of the song is fittingly discussed at Love is Blindness, but a word
to its instrumentation is certainly needed. The mood of the song is
perfectly sustained by the wavering bass and subtle percussion, as
well as the 'screaming' guitar that comes in and out of the
background. As the song proceeds towards the ending Bono's wordless
singing and a heavily distorted guitar solo merge and proceed towards
a perfectly-placed fadeout.
As a turning point in U2's career and as an album on its own
merits, this must be considered one of the best albums of the early
1990's. It represents an abrupt left turn for U2's sound, leading to a
decade of experimentation, some more successful, some
less. Furthermore, it remains, despite its emotional range, a
well-integrated and coherent album, one that is eminently listenable.
(CC)
This writeup is copyright 2004 D.G. Roberge and is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs-NonCommercial licence. Details can be found at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd-nc/2.0/ .