9 on the Hot 100, becoming the disc’s biggest hit. They mix up sex and religion even more effectively on “Mysterious Ways,” which reached No. It’s about German reunification, U2 overcoming internal tensions, and lovers saying nasty things to each other, depending on what interviews you read.Ī similar ambiguity shapes “Until the End of the World.” It’s apparently about Jesus and Judas, and yet the band hardly treats this booming rocker like a Bible story. And then there’s the centerpiece, “One,” an all-in monster ballad whose brilliance lies in its ability to mean many things. The groove doesn’t quite match the freaky dance-rock then emerging from Manchester’s “Madchester” scene, but this is hedonism U2-style.Ī true highlight of U2’s catalog is “Ultra Violet (Light My Way),” a sparkling lover’s plea that presents Bono as refreshingly fragile. The flamboyance and arrogance in the performance matches the sentiment. On the single “Even Better than the Real Thing,” Bono flips an old Coke slogan to praise artifice in a way that U2 circa Live Aid never would have. There are few absolute truths on Achtung Baby. On songs like “So Cruel” and the unhappy finale “Love Is Blindness,” U2 forget big issues and focus on the little wars lovers wage. It doesn’t hurt that Bono begins the album by professing, through a layer of vocal effects, “I’m ready for the laughing gas.” But in the absence of canyon-filling guitar chime and lyrics about mountains and fields, the music feels lighter. As Bono has said, the record is actually fairly dark, what with its songs about deteriorating relationships, some inspired by the Edge’s unraveling marriage. On a stage loaded with television screens, U2 riffed on media saturation and rock n’ roll excess, amping up the looseness and humor only hinted at on Achtung Baby.
U2 ACHTUNG BABY TV
The song “The Fly” birthed the character The Fly, who Bono played in black leather and wraparound shades throughout the 1992-93 Zoo TV Tour. “We shine like a burning star,” Bono sings in glorious falsetto, like there’s something noble, even beautiful, about man’s shortcomings. Then the chorus hits, and it’s classic U2 uplift. In the verses, Bono sings with atypical suspicion about friendship, honesty, and originality, while the Edge co-signs his cynicism with grimy riffage. A good example is lead single “The Fly,” one of the songs born in Berlin, where the band initiated sessions that ultimately wrapped in Dublin. Even so, the foursome still maintained many of their sonic hallmarks.
0 kommentar(er)
