If there is any critique of this CD, I guess it would be that each and every song is a veritable hit making them not stand out as unique works in and of themselves. The songs are so good it plays like a greatest hits album in fact. Unfortunately, this album marked U2's ungainly leap into further experimentation with the sub-standard "Zooropa" and "Pop" where Bono lost his sincerity for lyrics and the band seemingly lost their collective minds, but only for a little while as they returned somewhat to form with "All That You Can't Leave Behind (Bono's lyricism is still spotty in places)." One of the best album's of the 90's born of Berlin's Zoo Station and other urban scapes across the globe. This is U2's finest.


Achtung, World!   December 26, 2001
 30 out of 33 found this review helpful

If THE JOSHUA TREE was U2's answer to American music, then ACHTUNG BABY is their answer to their European cousins. Gone are the country'n'western influences of U2's previous two albums, replaced with the cool, sleek danceable rhythms of the Berlin dance clubs. Emotional and hip, sincere and sarcastic, ACHTUNG manages to combine wildly differing styles into one coherent work that ranks with the best albums ever recorded.

From the opening seconds of "Zoo Station", it's clear that this is a radically different U2. Not only is the music drastically changed from the twangy sounds of albums past, but the lyrics are becoming introspective again with a slight tendency for tongue-in-cheek humour at times. Despite the fast rhythms and danceable beat, this is a dark album, perhaps one of the darkest that the band has released. But it's emotion that's been wallpapered over with neon and silver-coloured material. It's angst and pain in a nice techno-flavoured sugar pill.

Again, U2 has created an album that is more than just a combination of great songs. ACHTUNG BABY flows extraordinarily well. Each track adds a lot to the whole while managing to retain individuality. The album is incredibly focused as well, with a great feeling of longing, regret and inaccessibility being maintained for the entirety. This focus is hard for other bands to do, yet something that U2 achieves with surprisingly regularity.

In addition to being an incredibly deep album, it's also an extremely fun one to listen to. The dance beats are amazingly infectious, and Edge's guitar playing has never been better. It's hard to point to any tracks that stand out, since they are all quite exceptional. This is one of the few albums that has no tracks that are just average.


U2 are the Lonely Hearts Club Band   November 2, 1999
 22 out of 26 found this review helpful

Just as Sgt. Pepper's was a culmination of all that had preceeded it in Pop music, Achtung Baby stands as a worthy follow up to Rock and Roll's original masterpiece. Like Pepper, AB sounds as fresh as when it was recorded. On a technical level this may be the best production ever done on an album, Eno forcing the band (against Lanois' wishes) to push the creative envelope, while Lanois makes sure Eno doesn't take our boys overboard (see "Passengers" album for example).

This is not the cut and paste sampling tricks of Beck/Dust Brothers, Fatboy Slim, or any computer trickery. This is Beatles-style instrument distortion, layering, texture forming. Eno's skill at atmposhere painting is perfect, never overdone as on "Unforgettable Fire".

Moreso than the Beatles ever did, U2 finally flex their musical muscles creating 12 songs that are not interchangeable, each a distinct and unique piece in the long album's journey into night.

Lyrically we are led from one piece of broken mirror to the next; only at the recording's end can we see the cracked reflection of love gone wrong that Bono has assembled for us.

AB has another leg up on Sgt. Pepper in its spirituality and rhythm, how U2 anticipate the electronic revolution in pop music, as well as hip-hop's saturation of the later 90's music scene. This does not show U2 as predicting the upcoming trends, but rather how they are artists connected to the vibe of the world itself, unconsciously picking up a wave, and riding it to their next destination. They are so far ahead of their time, and the mainstream, that they aren't even credited with their early forays into these genres. It is because the joining of these sounds to the band's own unique palette is too seamless to notice.

Not to slight the Beatles in any way, but Sgt. Peppers is a whole greater than the sum of its parts--not the band's best collection of individual songs. Imagine experiencing Pepper as being hit in the back of a head with a frying pan, whereas Achtung Baby is a collection of 12 separate painful pins sharply stuck all over your body: they each hurt equally, and in a different place, a different way.

Genius that will not be equalled until next spring, when U2 bless us again with another masterpiece.


U2's magnum opus   March 11, 2001
 14 out of 14 found this review helpful

In a word: staggering. I don't know if I've ever heard an album which can even come close to capturing the kaleidoscope of sheer emotion that floods from these twelve songs. Just as Alice in Chains dragged us to the pitch black depths of heroin-addiction with "Dirt", U2 does the same, only with lost love and heartbreak as the backdrop.

Amidst the gloomy themes of the album, rays of hope still shine through in the form of The Edge's signature effect-soaked licks and some serious head-bobbing rhythm from Clayton and Mullen. The great thing about this album is its accessibility: it literally has it all. Techno/hip-hop/rockers like "Mysterious Ways" and "Even Better Than the Real Thing", and the arena-friendly chorus of "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" will bring a smile to the face of mainstream (and hardcore) U2 fans, while deeper, more experimental fare such as the industrial-tinged "Zoo Station" and the indescribable guitar orgasm of "The Fly" will challenge the listener on their inaugural spins but eventually yield rich rewards. The heart and soul of the album, however, lies in three songs..."One", "Acrobat", and "Love is Blindness". Listening to these in this order under the right circumstances could change a life, rekindle a forgotten passion, or simply reduce the listener to a sobbing heap. They are THAT powerful.

The range of feeling captured in Bono's wailing vocals on "One" is absolutely incredible, especially in the surreal crys that end the song. "Acrobat" dabbles in electronic influences and uses thick sonic brushstrokes to paint a cavernous musical environment that is completely encompassing (and this is before Bono even utters a syllable). The album ends with one of the most bittersweetly-beautiful pieces of music I've ever heard in "Love is Blindness". From the almost gothically-eerie organ intro to the penetrating echoes of Adam Clayton's bassline, the song literally stabs at your soul. And the lyrics are poetic - for example: "Love is clockworks, and cold steel, fingers too numb too feel...squeeze the handle, blow out the candle, love is blindness." Words simply can't describe how perfectly this song captures the agony of loss. You have to hear it for yourself...and that goes for this entire album. Easily U2's best, if not the best of the entire 1990's.


An experience of love   April 26, 2000
 13 out of 13 found this review helpful

Achtung Baby is really one of those albums that you can just switch off all your other senses for - it has so much going for it musically, with consistently intriguing and moving guitar sounds, powerful bass and drums, and extraordinary vocals, not to mention some pretty good lyrics.

Whatever political aspirations U2 may have with their appeals to fans to support Greenpeace etc., this album is almost entirely devoted to love, and with several listenings, becomes a kind of litany of ballads recited by Bono to his Baby...I am not saying this album has any concept - it is a collection of fantastic independent tracks which really works - but this is an excellent album to listen to when you're feeling down, or soppy, or romantic. Aside from his voice, Bono's most endearing quality is the impression he conveys of true desperation - the climaxes his voice reaches in One or Love is Blindness are particularly moving.

This combination of great musical value with a deep-rooted romantic element really works for me, and clearly works for a lot of other people too - the album has a constantly fresh appeal, and when I look at the great works of the 90's, this sticks out as one of those that will still have appeal in ten, twenty and fifty years time.

One final thought - don't think this is solely a candlelight collection...Zoo Station opens the album brilliantly and unromantically, and The Fly is a chunky song that keeps the momentum of the album going through all the turgid descriptions of unrequited love...even with lyrics like, "a man will fall from the sheer face of love like a fly from a wall"...