Aug 28 AOTD: U2 - Achtung Baby

U2 - Achtung Baby

1991



Link to Listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lKPnKXZV-4o&index=1&list=PL8a8cutYP7fpX03Ur0pjUmZGOmONeIpS2

Bono and U2 were having a "Sunday morning come down" after the high of Joshua Tree and then the critical backlash that followed Rattle and Hum. They were somewhat lost for a musical direction, not wanting to just repeat themselves and sound like old U2 albums. So they pulled a Bowie and moved to Berlin, looking for inspiration from the cabaret, dark, and sexually mysterious days of the 30's while moving through a newly reunified city filled with hope.  It worked.

But the true marks of success on this album show that U2 is really a giant force made of so much more than just Bono. Take Brian Eno who returned for only about a week at a time, then disappeared for about a month. His only job, he claimed? To listen to what had been recorded since his last visit and make sure the songs "did not sound like U2." Daniel Lanois, who stayed on board constantly (along with Flood) made sure that Eno's commands for more innovation and industrialization were adhered to.

Bono and the band ate it up. Bono himself quit singing full-throated, aiming for those arena nose-bleed seats, and, instead, adopted a more restrained, lower-register-reaching, often hushed, breathy styling.  The Edge quit the trademark chiming and played around much more with his pedals and effects. The effect?  The album shimmers with electricity like no other U2 Album, while at the same time, the vocals and lyrics give it a much more introspective feel. The album also feels more propulsive with charging rhythms on tracks like Zoo Station, Even Better Than The Real Thing, The Fly and Ultraviolet (Light My Way).

As an album, it contains a perfect structure for what they were aiming for. Bono has famously said that "Achtung Baby is the sound of U2 chopping down the Josua Treed."  And he's right ... obliterating it with a chainsaw might be an even better description. All of the distortion in the guitars and Bono's voice in the intro of the opener Zoo Station is intended to make the listener believe they've got a broken product, or a mistaken album, anything but the next U2 Album.

Highlights for me:
- The Fly - with it's scaling, yowling guitars and throbbing drums - was the first single, intended to introduce the audience to all of the innovative, industrial sounds U2 was playing with. Since the first song I heard off Joshua Tree was With or Without You, this was bold move, one that left me floored.  I had no idea what I was listening to.  But I immediately liked it and now truly heard them as the best rock band around.  It just skimmed across the radio waves like a rocket reeling back to Earth from the farthest reaches of space.
- Even Better Than The Real Thing and Ultraviolet both have that same reverby space sound.
- One is still an enigma to me when I hear it today.  It seems like it should NOT work in the U2 canon (it does not have that diverse of a build, Bono does not do vocal gymnastics, it's not a driving charger), yet it's one of their most beautiful songs by far. I will say this: maybe Bono when he sings calmly, from hushed to strained, voice sometimes seeming to crack ... well a certain pathos of pain is revealed. Also, when we need to feel "carried," we are typically fallen, lost. But to carry each other (love and support each other) is a simple idea, much like the simplicity of Edge's guitar, which can gets more focus with Bono reigning it in.  Bono finally does unleash into the high register, but only for a moment at the very end.
- Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses - again, starting with distortion like a wind blowing in from outer space (I know ... a little repetitive with the space theme - but, seriously, listen to it and tell me if you don't agree!!) and then one of Bono's best vocal deliveries on the album, propped up by just the right amount of reverb, and not stretching too high, staying just below the falsetto. The guitar reflects like the broken glass on the beach that Bono sings of.  But Larry Mullen's kick drum is HEAVY and combined with Adam Clayton's bass sounds just like a horse galloping, hooves like hammers pounding the ground, a perfect foundation for the song. Also the mix is perfect, everything getting equal billing.

In the world of rock, a singer does not need to have perfect pitch.  It's the character in his or her voice that matters much more.  The same can be said of the instrumentation.  The styling and color of the sound matters a little more than perfect technique.  U2 has not had as much character across 12 songs since this album (though All That You Can't Leave Behind and the new release Songs of Experience come close).