Vorsprung durch Technik: U2 Zooropa poll

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

I don't remember "The Fly" being a huge shock -- it was different, but very recognizably U2 (basically, what Turrican said).

I always thought their version of "Night and Day" the year before -- which sounded less like standard U2 fare at the time than "The Fly" would -- softened their audience up/prepared them for something relatively atypical.

not sure how shocking the music was by itself, but i heard the song for the first time when i saw the video, and coming after rattle and hum they might as well have turned into slayer, they seemed like a wholly new creation in image and tone.

otm re Night and Day

in retrospect it wasn't so huge a shift but yeah 'the fly' was a very unexpected leap in 1991

'one' rather less so

True. 'When Loves Comes to Town', 'All I Want Is You' and the 'Everlasting Love' cover were the three singles preceding 'The Fly'. That's a huge difference in sound and approach.

There's a lot of tracks on Achtung Baby that, shorn of their window dressing - which essentially is all that it is - could have fit on any U2 LP. A lot of those tracks are indentifiably U2 songs at their core. The usual melodic sense, and even with the window dressing there's still one eye on classic rock.

'Lemon' would not work any other way than how it is presented on Zooropa, and there's barely an element of classic rock in there. It's far more modern a construction than, say, something like 'So Cruel', which could have closed The Joshua Tree or something.

But The Fly *at the time* was a huge shock, way more than Zooropa was.

It came as such a shock to this guy it took him 25 years to remember to sue them:

http://www.nme.com/news/music/u2-accused-of-stealing-song-for-achtung-baby-1996651

True. 'When Loves Comes to Town', 'All I Want Is You' and the 'Everlasting Love' cover were the three singles preceding 'The Fly'. That's a huge difference in sound and approach.

― Le Bateau Ivre, Wednesday, March 1, 2017 3:57 PM

You're forgetting their cover of "Night and Day," an aural precursor.

anyway "The Fly," a flop in America released like Def Leppard's "Women" several years earlier as a way to consolidate the Real Fans, wasn't such a shock in America. Remember: Jesus Jones and EMF had hits here.

"Night and Day" wasn't a single, oddly enough, but I remember hearing it on the radio, and the video was in regular rotation.

There's a lot of tracks on Achtung Baby that, shorn of their window dressing - which essentially is all that it is - could have fit on any U2 LP. A lot of those tracks are indentifiably U2 songs at their core. The usual melodic sense, and even with the window dressing there's still one eye on classic rock.

'Lemon' would not work any other way than how it is presented on Zooropa, and there's barely an element of classic rock in there. It's far more modern a construction than, say, something like 'So Cruel', which could have closed The Joshua Tree or something.

Replace the piano in "Lemon" with a guitar playing the same figure and it's almost "Last Night On Earth" with more falsetto

I would love to get my hands on the bordering-on-avant-garde-for-U2 album you all are talking about because it sounds a lot more interesting than Zooropa.

Unforgettable Fire is a lot more U2 gone avant-garde, as such. Zooropa is just a fun weird spare album.

that would be Passengers! probably best to forget Elvis Ate America, as you said. everything before and after is really something though. I was listening to Eno's The Shutov Assembly album the other day and it was eye-opening how much it resembled the passengers album in a lot of ways. Made me want to further explore Eno's early to mid nineties work, and probably more relevant to what showed up on that album than what U2 and Eno did with Zooropa.

Nerve Net!

nomar otm

I bought The Shutov Assembly and Arrested Development's debut at a Sound Warehouse in Broward in spring '93.

Guess which I sold to CD Warehouse fist.

'Night and Day' was on the 'Red Hot' compilation wasn't it? But I agree with you Alfred, that it is on the same sonical palette. Still, a Sinatra cover wasn't exactly the same as The Fly.

btw here's where I recommend Bill Flanagan's U2 At the End of the World again, one of my favorite biographies. It follwos the band from 1990-1994 as they record Achtung with the threat of breakup, tour the world, record Zooropa with Eno and the Edge fully in control of production, and watch Bosnia and Michael Jackson collapse.

^ cosign that, enjoyable read, like a really good travelogue Rolling Stone or Spin article made book length.

i prob said this upthread but i wish lcd soundsystem would cover "daddy's gonna pay for your crashed car"

You're alone, bro.

Couple of tracks on Zooropa sound like LCD Soundsystem already, well, apart from the vocals

Something to be said about Zooropa is that it's probably the swan song for Bono's voice. Up to that point I'd put him among that generation of great post-punk, post-Bowie and Ferry romantic vocalists from the 80s such as Midge Ure or Morten Harket, with considerable depth and range. From Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me and onwards his voice'd become increasingly thinner and weaker, to the point it's become nearly unlistenable to me now.

Malo Vox.