Vorsprung durch Technik: U2 Zooropa poll

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"Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car" – I wish more U2 songs sound like this.

The second side sounds like a hangover.

Zooropa is definitely frontloaded like pretty much every U2 album is, but the back half has grown on me quite a lot over the years.

I don't know, I guess it just feels to me like they took a bunch of Achtung, Baby demos and paired them with a bunch of Joshua Tree demos and then went on a pub crawl on the label's dime

have u heard the passengers record djp

I don't remember now. Probably? No memory of it if I did.

now that record is innocuous

am i the only person who loves it conditionally (the condition being "elvis in america" is improbably horrible)

"Your Blue Room" is lovely, the first half perfectly pleasant background music to play while reading Stendhal.

OH RIGHT I never listened to it after hearing "Elvis in America" because, well, why would I

Because Slug and Your Blue Room are on it

maybe they should have led with one of those then and hidden Elvis in America where it couldn't hurt anyone

U2 has a song called 'Slug'?

Oh, Passengers.

Is there a time for East 17?

the first four songs sound like unfinished demos to me

Even if this were the case, that in and of itself is appealing. This album is great, and I like the second half better than the first half. I mean, "Dirty Day" and "The First Time" are awesome, and for all their lame Rattle & Hum era pedantry, they recruited Johnny Cash for this before the Rick Rubin resurgence, which was pretty hip.

Still remarkable to me how many U2 fans I know that don't like it and dismiss it as some weird, inaccessible experiment. It's as strange a stance to me as people who truly bought into U2 as being somehow "ironic."

Demos interest me only in how they contrast with the final, polished songs that made the album (or the sketches of ideas that were abandoned). If I want to listen to half-finished, half-baked ideas, I have an entire folder full of abandoned GarageBand projects I can export to sound files and play to my heart's content.

I get that the loose, disconnected ramble is what you are all responding to with this album. That is precisely what is pushing me away from it. None of it speaks to me because none of it aside from "Stay" sounds or feels like a complete thought; I don't know exactly what the "more" I'm looking for is but it isn't present in the material as-presented on the album.

Yeah, 'Dirty Day' and 'The First Time' grew on me a hell of a lot. I don't think the record is inaccessible at all (of course) but I can definitely how people who love the U2 of The Joshua Tree or 'Beautiful Day' might find the record a little beyond their comfort zone.

For all that's been said about Kid A confounding expectations, tracks like 'Numb' and 'Lemon' must have sounded fucking bizarre to long-time U2 fans.

"Zooropa" and "Babyface" sound like demos? Wow. They sound complete to my ears (whether you like them is another point entirely).

I get that the loose, disconnected ramble is what you are all responding to with this album.

It's not, actually! I think the album is actually quite tight and well put together considering how quickly they made it. What I respond to is the way the album sounds... the guitar sounds, the synth sounds etc.

"Zooropa" especially sounds like someone threw a bunch of loops together with minimal editing to sketch out some ideas about where they wanted the song to go and then said "you know what, let's just use this"

I think Pop sounds more undercooked than Zooropa, and they spent far more time on that!

I'm not a big fan of Pop either but that statement is crazy to me.

Yeah I think your opinions about Zooropa are RONG but at least I can tell you've listened to it

The First Time and Dirty Day are the only tracks that sound half baked to me. I've taken them off my Zooropa playlist and replaced them with Night and Day and Miss Sarajevo.

I guess I should mention in the name of transparency that somewhere in U section my CD collection are the singles for "Discotheque" and "Last Night on Earth"

mofoooooooooooo

MOOTTHAHHHHHHHH

I wanted a whole album of "Mofo" and "Do You Feel Loved?"

'Do You Feel Loved?' definitely one of my favourite U2 songs of that period.

I wanted a whole album of "Mofo" and "Do You Feel Loved?"

― the Rain Man of nationalism. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, February 28, 2017 1:29 PM (six minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

brb gonna start a band that sounds like this

So, Jesus Jones?

lmao

International Brad Young Things

Bradrock

For all that's been said about Kid A confounding expectations, tracks like 'Numb' and 'Lemon' must have sounded fucking bizarre to long-time U2 fans.

Even this doesn't ring accurate to me. It's not like "Zooropa" came out of nowhere. They were in the middle of their "Achtung Baby" career peak, and don't forget, the song they returned from semi-hiatus with was "The Fly," which was a far bigger shock post "Joshua Tree"/"Rattle & Hum" than anything on "Zooropa" was post-"Achtung Baby."

I know we've all talked about it before, but there were two studios - one for the band, and one for Eno. Band would work on stuff then hand it off to Eno, who did his thing. Which is the exact thing he did with James around the same time, with "Laid" and "Wah-Wah," except "Wah Wah" was the weird, truly experimental, largely improvised and noisy and whatever album. I could easily imagine James fans swayed by "Laid" hearing "Wah-Wah" and reacting, more justifiably, the way some U2 fans did to "Zooropa."

"Zooropa" especially sounds like someone threw a bunch of loops together with minimal editing to sketch out some ideas about where they wanted the song to go and then said "you know what, let's just use this"

There's something illustrative to this, since I think even many of the best/my favorite U2 songs are massively underwritten or at least super-simple to the near point of banality, imo, but saved/enhanced/made by the production, the effects, the performance. Like the infamous scene in "It Might Get Loud" where Edge is showing Jimmy Page and Jack White how to play "I Will Follow." Edge is a bit embarrassed/bemused, Page and White react like parents of a kid who just gave them a shitty crayon picture of a cat for their anniversary.

I remember hearing "Numb" and "Lemon" at the time they came out, and really thinking U2 had lost the plot. Or more accurately, since I was 12, my reaction was more like "this is weird and it sucks". And I had been a U2 fan for 2+ years by that point and loved everything from Boy to Achtung Baby. "The Fly" didn't throw me the same way Zooropa did. Course, after a couple years living with Zooropa, my reaction changed to "this is weird and it's awesome"

I think Pop sounds more undercooked than Zooropa, and they spent far more time on that!

― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Tuesday, February 28

didn't the band think this as well, hence why they revisited and tweaked several tracks for the compilation that dealt with this era ?

Zooropa / Pop - only period of the band I can stomach. I especially like the song they made with Sinead O'C on the End of Violence soundtrack, "I'm not your baby".

didn't the band think this as well, hence why they revisited and tweaked several tracks for the compilation that dealt with this era ?

― mark e, Wednesday, March 1, 2017 8:40 AM (ten hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Yeah. There's portions of the Pop album where the final mixes aren't as great as they could be. Couple of really dodgy songs in the second half, too.

Truth be told some of those retooled mixes are actually worse than what came out in Pop.

i never minded any of the production on Pop, i though the unfinished nature of some of the tracks (and i always thought the most unfinished-sounding ones were Last Night on Earth, Gone, and Miami) actually gave them a more interesting sound.

For all that's been said about Kid A confounding expectations, tracks like 'Numb' and 'Lemon' must have sounded fucking bizarre to long-time U2 fans.

― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Tuesday, February 28, 2017 3:05 PM (yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I mentioned this upthread, but on release day some local rock radio DJs (in fact, Steve Dahl of "Disco Demolition" fame) played bits and pieces, skipping around and basically shitting on every song. "Where's the cool strumming thing?!"

Achtung still had guitars all over the place and Edge's delay thing on a couple of songs and the usual TRIUMPHANT choruses. Zooropa had none of the delay thing, long guitarless sections, and no cheer-along choruses.

"Where's the cool strumming thing?!"

Lolol

Yeah! I mean, Achtung Baby still had things like 'Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses' etc.

'The Fly' just comes across as U2 with some new effects pedals, whereas 'Numb' and 'Lemon' both sound like another band entirely. Those tracks sound quite modern in a way even certain tracks on Achtung Baby don't.

For the first and only time in her life my sister bought the album on the first day and gave it to me, disgusted, the next day.

I remember seeing the video to 'Lemon', long before I heard Zooropa in full, and thinking "ah, they must have released a remix as the single" ... I didn't realise it was the actual fucking track! It seemed far too radical to be them.

The British press liked it. I remember a complimentary review in Select comparing it to Bowie's Low, which made sense b/c Bowie was at the dawn of his '90s comeback and the Ryko reissues only a couple years old.

The Fly' just comes across as U2 with some new effects pedals, whereas 'Numb' and 'Lemon' both sound like another band entirely. Those tracks sound quite modern in a way even certain tracks on Achtung Baby don't.

― Working night & day, I tried to stay awake... (Turrican), Wednesday, March 1, 2017 7:39 PM (forty minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I disagree and am definitely with Josh in Chicago on this one. You are looking at the two albums from todays pov. But The Fly *at the time* was a huge shock, way more than Zooropa was. I remember it vividly, the radio premiere of the 'new U2' single when it came out. I was 13 years old and a big fan at the time. I stayed up late to hear it, through headphones, and remember being so thrilled and shocked I had a physical response to it - upset tummy. Because of the roaring sound, the 'danger' of the sound!

Zooropa and AB the only u2 records I can still appreciate, though I haven't listened in years because they went utter shit. But don't downplay that, at the time, The Fly was a big big deal. It paved the way for Zooropa, which, while much more experimental and refreshing, wasn't such a big step after AB.

* teh band became utter shite, not those two albums