Vorsprung durch Technik: U2 Zooropa poll

The Highwaymen is an album deserving rediscovery. Like a lot of eighties country it's gone down the memory hole.

i always thought 'high and dry' was sort of a ripoff of 'stay' w/the latter being much better.

Never thought of this before but yeah I can really hear it. I loved this album at the time, really wanted to see the tour but they played Roundhay Park (about ten minutes drive from our house) the same day we went away on our family holiday, was kind of gutted.

I've never really been much of a fan of U2, but there are one or two moments on this album I enjoy. Voted for the title track.

The drummer from my first band used to inflict this on us in the car.

I had completely forgotten about this album, but suddenly Bends era Radiohead makes a lot more sense. Even down to the inside cover art. That's just shocking.

This often seems to be the U2 album for people who hate U2.

Ha, it's easily my favourite. (I appreciate and respect the band but for the most part don't have very strong feelings for them, with a couple of exceptions.) My impulse is to pick "Lemon" but I should listen to the whole thing again. Listened to this so much in Grade 10.

Absolutely 'Stay (Faraway, So Close!)' by a country mile. You wouldn't have got Suede's 'The Wild Ones' or 'High And Dry' by the proto-Muse without it.

I largely hate U2 these days, but they were onto some good things at that point.

The Wanderer

This often seems to be the U2 album for people who hate U2.

It's their "Nebraska!" Oddly enough, I do know a few die-hard U2 fans who dismiss this disc as "too weird." They're stupid, because I'll forever take this over all the "too boring" that followed.

(It's a total aside, but yeah, of course Johnny Cash was always making records, some not bad, but he still had no cachet at all, inexplicably. I saw him tour behind "Unchained," and even then the crowd was mostly old guys with big grey beards. It took a while for even the comeback to connect with all but the cognoscenti)

Often this is my favorite U2 album, thanks to timing: summer '93 when I discovered Eno, Roxy, and Bowie.

I had gotten heavily into Roxy about a year before I heard this, and still see it as a sort of 90s Stranded. I remember it getting a fairly chilly reception on rock radio, though: they'd gone too far. One DJ angrily said, "Where's that cool strumming thing they always used to do?!"

love the title track here so much, including the ad-slogan lyrics. i like listening to this as the specifically post-91 end-of-history opening-of-europe album people usually say achtung baby is -- sensual but cold, adventurous but frightened, excited about new commercial opportunities going forward but already becoming numb. ("numb" is like if "fitter happier" actually functioned as a song.) plus this is a really quiet album mixwise; contenderizer's right about the space that u2 are still capable of but usually clutter up (this is also why i love the maligned "new york" off ATYCLB). and then lol johnny cash at the end doing his best to conjure some gravitas around bono's Serious Songwriter nuclear-prophet verse. and yeah like apparently half the thread this is basically the only u2 album i listen to. anyway my answer is probably the title track but you know what i'll put this on right now; i'm hungover.

IT'S COLD OUTSIDE / BUT BRIGHTLY LIT

most of the English reviews couldn't resist making analogies to the implosion of Yugoslavia (U2 themselves advanced the notion on tour).

My favorite U2 album, sure, although 'Unforgettable', 'Joshua' and 'Achtung' are right up there and close. A superb four album run (we'll forget about the other one that's mixed in there, although I do love a lot of that too)

But yeah, it's "Stay". Love the way the melody/Bono lifts up on the "like a car crash" line. Just a beautiful performance. probably his best like I think someone said upthread? Seeing them perform it the last couple years on the 360 tour really drove it home too.

also i 'get' that it's a more traditional 'guys playing instruments' song than the rest of this fantastic album, but i think it has more gravity becuz of that when you listen to the rec. the tone on that guitar line on the chorus sounds totally Bowie/Eno/Fripp Berlin tho

really the whole record is Bowie/Eno/Fripp Berlin, which is why it sounds so great

It's got to be Stay v Lemon but I like every track on this, especially Numb and Dirty Day - the only U2 album I can say that about.

I agree Stay is his best ever vocal performance and maybe his best lyric too.

Lemon. This is far and away their best album.

Once the encore began, Bono would return as a different alter ego—Mirror Ball Man in 1992, and MacPhisto in 1993. Performances of "Desire"—accompanied by images of Richard Nixon, Margaret Thatcher, Paul Gascoigne, and Jimmy Swaggart—were meant as a criticism of greed; cash rained the stage and Bono often portrayed Mirror Ball Man as an interpretation of the greedy preacher described in the song's lyrics. Bono often made a crank call from the stage as his persona of the time. Such calls included dialling a phone sex line, calling a taxi cab, ordering 10,000 pizzas (the Detroit pizza parlor delivered 100 pizzas during the show), or calling a local politician. Bono regularly called the White House in an attempt to contact President Bush. Though Bono never reached the President, Bush did acknowledge the calls during a press conference.

http://i.imgur.com/MWmSl.jpg

i fucking love this album.
no idea where to place my vote as the whole thing is just a stream of "lets just do it" madness.

Mirror Ball man >> McPhisto imo. it's weird how under-documented and barely remembered Winona Ryder's part in the early Zoo Tv era encores was. even google doesn't bring much up.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9xpWBasyoMs

1993 was so fucking awesome

ha.

me & gr8080 = two old f*ckers on porch knocking back a few tins reminiscing re the brilliance of trabants being used for the foundation of a light show.

voted Numb because its what i immediately think of when i think of this album and i was totally obsessed with it in 7th grade, but after listenibg to Stay(Farway So Close) for the first time in prob 10 years i wish i voted for that-- such a beautiful song!

voted "Stay" but I could vote for anything except "Dirty Day" & even that's a good song, if not a jam

read Flanigan this winter & listened to this album whilst walking from the East Side Gallery to Alexanderplatz; epic

did you like the book?

absolutely loved it. The band's confusion is convincing; maybe it's an artifact of following Eno but they're guided by basic intuitions, gestures, emotions, without much strategy, & so they're able to realize those intuitions in fascinating ways. plus I loved the decay as the book went on, ending up in brothels in Japan, drugs always around, no sleep. no wonder it all went pop!

It's been a while but other than Adam blowing a gig in Australia and the band's drinking habits were the drugs mentioned often?

the gigs in Japan seemed to lead to parties where drugs were around; Flanigan never says that the band indulged but it's a bit coy; & even if they didn't, getting involved in those scenes indicated something, maybe just prurience but even that's interesting enough

oh you're right: Flanagan flirts with conflict of interest a lot, so I don't doubt he kept the drugs under the doormat.

i may be misrembering this, and i can't find a link, but i seem to recall reading a rolling stone piece that came out (i think?) just in advance of zooropa. it described entering the band's studio hole-up as though it were some sort of subterranean drug den: dimly lit, reeking of weed and incense, booming with occult dance music. the band were characterized as louche and zonked, in love with "trash" and pop. seemed as though we were supposed to understand that it was gonna be their druggy experimental album.

voted 'stay' and while i don't exactly regret it, thinking i should have voted 'zooropa'

lol macphisto

Can you imagine being at a U2 show in 1993 and 100 pizzas show up

Does it strike anyone else as awkward or strange at all that these days Bino and Wedge seem to be more interested in making money (vis-a-vis Elevation Partners) than good music?

i was at a u2 show in 1993 and got no pizza alas

i caught two zoo tv shows, a friend was in their fan club so we got amazing seats. first was that spring at the omni, standard basketball arena, pixies opened and it was super apparent that band was gonna break up soon. we'd attempted stalking out their bus (ie we hung around their bus for fifteen minute or so) to no avail; attempting to stalk u2 never even occurred to us, like what were we gonna do - just hang out at the mlk center all day? second time was that fall in the georgia dome (first concert there) w/ the huge set, big audio dynamite II opened which we were kinda :/ about (were hoping for sugarcubes) but (as big a thrill as u2 for me) public enemy also opened, at that point they could do no wrong. our seats were eight rows back from the stage and we were by a pretty huge margin the biggest pe fans in the vicinity so when they went on my friend and i were able to rush the stage and flav and chuck spent pretty much the entire set performing directly to us, two teenagers who were shouting out every word to every song vs a crowd of skeptical yuppies - it was an easy choice. u2 were great also, afterwards i did a writeup for the high school paper, an attempt at recreating 'the kentucky derby is decadant and depraved' titled 'i'm ready for the laughing gas', i think fucking god that thing isn't on the internet and i never kept any copies of my high school paper.

standard basketball arena, pixies opened and it was super apparent that band was gonna break up soon

had this precise experience in chapel hill

jb I would love ... I mean I would LOVE .. to read that thing. You know you still have some sort of copy somewhere. Share it with me, I won't betray you (huge HST fan here, would love even a juvenile attempt, esp from YOU.) Had no idea PE *ever* opened for U2?? how did that fact escape me all these years, that is nuts.

First time I ever saw U2 was 2009 on 360 tour. crazy I know. saw it three times tho ... making up for lost time, I guess

I know I'm on the right board when so many other people pick this as a favourite U2 album!

yeah, I dunno, I feel self-conscious, that it is challopy to say so. but if it is not this one, then it is 'Achtung' or 'Unforgettable'. but at the end of the day it really really is this one

PE also did the Stop Sellafield gig with U2 in 1992. there was a VHS of it and everything

http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/01/ciu/a4/63/87e262e89da05d8221434110.L.jpg

Noel Gallagher's favourite *ever* gig he's said since.

i know i've said this before on this board but imo U2 disappeared mysteriously after recording Zooropa, popped in briefly to help Eno with Passengers, and then disappeared again. given the trajectory they were on i have to imagine they would have made some amazing records if only they'd stuck around...

the saddest truth bomb

It's significant that this is the quickest album they've made since the early days and that it followed a big gamble that paid off. Achtung Baby and Zoo TV were really tense and fraught and might have misfired but they did so well that it gave them the sense that they could do anything - you don't lead with Numb unless you're feeling pretty confident. But the failure of Pop put paid to that and ever since they've been hedging their bets and not wanting to risk another flop. The saddest thing about No Line, as Bono has acknowledged, is that it should have been a braver and more unapologetically leftfield record but they attempted to have it both ways with "big" singles that turned out to not be big at all. They can't get back to the headspace they were in when they made Zooropa, when it felt like they could do whatever they liked and momentum would carry them through.

i know i've said this before on this board but imo U2 disappeared mysteriously after recording Zooropa, popped in briefly to help Eno with Passengers, and then disappeared again. given the trajectory they were on i have to imagine they would have made some amazing records if only they'd stuck around...

according to Eno's diary they relaxed in the chateaux Bono and Edge bought in the south of France, drinking wine and hanging out with supermodels by the pool.

daddy's gonna pay for your crashed car

there are more songs from Achtung I love than on this album, but if I have to hear one of their albums front to back this is def my pick

I never saw a concert and didn't bother hearing "Pop" during my high school writing days, but I DID put Zooropa at #9 on the 25 best alternative albums of ALL TIME, between Black Love and The Modern Lovers:

"The classic band really got it right on this one: classic melodies, futuristic sounds and soul searching lyrics. What went wrong between this and 'Pop'?"

This album reminds me so much of my first Inter-rail trip in the summer of 93, despite the fact that I've never owned it or heard it in full. Seems like it was the soundtrack to many a backpacker

http://i.imgur.com/eap1P.jpg

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Yup, there's footage on Youtube of Mark Hosler confronting Downs about it - because they'd managed to figure out that the copy that made its way into the hands of U2's management was purchased at a store in Athens, Georgia. From what I can gather, he saw the record in the racks and got on the phone to U2's management as he was confused about the release, and then U2's management asked him to send a copy of the record. The rest is history!

I'm more bemused that he wouldn't have at least heard of Negativland after working a decade in college rock as such.

Well, yeah! I've often wondered what R.E.M.'s thoughts on the whole thing were... 'cuz Hosler is on record as saying he actually asked R.E.M. (prior to confronting Downs) whether anyone in the R.E.M. camp was responsible for forwarding the record on, but they were adamant nobody in the R.E.M. camp had anything to do with it.

Hahaha omg i guarantee that was at wuxtry - they had a huge negativland 'u2' poster on one of the front windows.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J2h1TOfeVFA

Just picked up the new vinyl reissue of this after reading a series of good notices on the pressing, and it sound pretty outstanding. It’s newly remastered!

They seem to be doing an extremely good job with these recent remasters, I actually picked up the one for HTDAAB and was pretty shocked at how much better the album sounded.

Didn't realize that the mixes of "Stay" and "The Wanderer" on the Faraway, So Close! soundtrack are different from the album versions – they're rougher, Eno's voice seems more prominent in "Stay".

I love that U2 took advantage of its imperial phase to do stuff like this album and Passengers. Speaks to their musical character, imo. As does "No Line on the Horizon" for the opposite: relocate to Morocco for a closer than usual collaboration with Eno and Lanois (first time they officially shared writing credits), and yet the results are pretty meh. And the band has been playing it safe and boring ever since.

nloth was an attempt at experimentation again but they clearly got scared about commercial prospects half way though recording and ended up with an even worse and less coherent album than they probably would have if they'd stuck to the original idea, and it still didn't have any his

i think U2 still has the ability to make an interesting and maybe even great experimental rock album, but whether or not they'll ever regain the courage to do so is another matter. considering the album sales of the last pair especially, and the fact that no matter what they'll always do well on tours, i think they should just say fuck it and try some weird shit. this will likely never happen, though. even though NLOTH is actually outstanding when it doesn't play to the fair-weather fans (on maybe half a dozen tracks). it's totally good for most of the rest of the time as well imo, albeit not very interesting.

In my humble opinion, they put the best song they've done in the last 30 years or even longer on a greatest hits album and nobody heard it. Window In the Skies should have been their biggest hit. I have no idea how everybody missed it.

i think "lemon" is my fav u2 song

― the raindrops and drop tops of lived, earned experience (BradNelson), Sunday, March 5, 2017 9:51 AM (one year ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

same

I totally missed Window in the Skies. Listening now, it's ... ok. A good Beatles-y pop song.

got the wanderer on repeat today. such a fantastic one-off that seems like it shouldn't work in theory, but it just does. anyone know where i can find similar post-apocalyptic synth country?

That's a tough one, since there are so many unique attributes that make that song great. There's of course Johnny Cash, who himself is kind of a fantastic one-off. There's the Eno-fied backing (Eno being another fantastic one-off), and then there's Bono/the song, both of which defer to Cash's Mt. Rushmore presence. The closest I can think right now is some of the solo Lanois stuff, like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrhIfbUsptw

Yeah sometimes I wish there were a full J. Cash album of songs like « the wanderer »...

xpost, thanks for the lanois rec. been meaning to check that out for a while. really nice ghostly omnichord.

i also just remembered eno's cover of ring of fire, which seems like the main precursor to the wanderer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0fJqPsMB-g8

Perhaps check out Daughn Gibson?

https://open.spotify.com/album/01pKh9HnyZQKwhJDMEBmvn?si=Utco6g0VRQ2p5J_6jQAEmQ