Vorsprung durch Technik: U2 Zooropa poll

20 years old today...

ive been listening to this a lot lately, i ignored it when it came out . it feels like the last great U2 album. theres no anthemic rockers, it just seems to glide all the way to the end with "the wanderer" (which is a really cool context to put JC into)

The Wanderer; the song i think should be played to people who think they tailed off after Achtung Baby.

the drum loops on daddy's gonna pay for your crashed car are so great

this is my favourite u2 album.

the drum loops on daddy's gonna pay for your crashed car are so great

yea thats incredible

The Edge Says U2’s Next LP Is Coming Together Quickly, Compares It To Zooropa
http://www.stereogum.com/1851251/the-edge-says-u2s-next-lp-is-coming-together-quickly-compares-it-to-zooropa/news/?

I am listening to this for the first time in over a decade (possibly 2) after seeing several people on Facebook and Twitter wax rhapsodic about it today and... idgi

My favourite U2 album, bar none!

yep

the first four songs sound like unfinished demos to me

u guys

i think

maybe

Dan is

NUMB?

:D

"Stay (Faraway, So Close)" is good, I'll grant that

wish the band that made this record still existed

― inste grammophon (rogermexico.), Wednesday, April 10, 2013 4:53 PM (three years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

god that is such a truthbomb

the first four songs sound like unfinished demos to me

― ornate orchestral arrangements (DJP), Tuesday, February 28, 2017 10:55 AM (twenty-one minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

wow wait til you get to the second side

green light
7-11

"Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car" – I wish more U2 songs sound like this.

The second side sounds like a hangover.

Zooropa is definitely frontloaded like pretty much every U2 album is, but the back half has grown on me quite a lot over the years.

I don't know, I guess it just feels to me like they took a bunch of Achtung, Baby demos and paired them with a bunch of Joshua Tree demos and then went on a pub crawl on the label's dime

have u heard the passengers record djp

I don't remember now. Probably? No memory of it if I did.

now that record is innocuous

am i the only person who loves it conditionally (the condition being "elvis in america" is improbably horrible)

"Your Blue Room" is lovely, the first half perfectly pleasant background music to play while reading Stendhal.

OH RIGHT I never listened to it after hearing "Elvis in America" because, well, why would I

Because Slug and Your Blue Room are on it

maybe they should have led with one of those then and hidden Elvis in America where it couldn't hurt anyone

U2 has a song called 'Slug'?

Oh, Passengers.

Is there a time for East 17?

the first four songs sound like unfinished demos to me

Even if this were the case, that in and of itself is appealing. This album is great, and I like the second half better than the first half. I mean, "Dirty Day" and "The First Time" are awesome, and for all their lame Rattle & Hum era pedantry, they recruited Johnny Cash for this before the Rick Rubin resurgence, which was pretty hip.

Still remarkable to me how many U2 fans I know that don't like it and dismiss it as some weird, inaccessible experiment. It's as strange a stance to me as people who truly bought into U2 as being somehow "ironic."

Demos interest me only in how they contrast with the final, polished songs that made the album (or the sketches of ideas that were abandoned). If I want to listen to half-finished, half-baked ideas, I have an entire folder full of abandoned GarageBand projects I can export to sound files and play to my heart's content.

I get that the loose, disconnected ramble is what you are all responding to with this album. That is precisely what is pushing me away from it. None of it speaks to me because none of it aside from "Stay" sounds or feels like a complete thought; I don't know exactly what the "more" I'm looking for is but it isn't present in the material as-presented on the album.

Yeah, 'Dirty Day' and 'The First Time' grew on me a hell of a lot. I don't think the record is inaccessible at all (of course) but I can definitely how people who love the U2 of The Joshua Tree or 'Beautiful Day' might find the record a little beyond their comfort zone.

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.

"Zooropa" and "Babyface" sound like demos? Wow. They sound complete to my ears (whether you like them is another point entirely).

I get that the loose, disconnected ramble is what you are all responding to with this album.

It's not, actually! I think the album is actually quite tight and well put together considering how quickly they made it. What I respond to is the way the album sounds... the guitar sounds, the synth sounds etc.

"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"

I think Pop sounds more undercooked than Zooropa, and they spent far more time on that!

I'm not a big fan of Pop either but that statement is crazy to me.

Yeah I think your opinions about Zooropa are RONG but at least I can tell you've listened to it

The First Time and Dirty Day are the only tracks that sound half baked to me. I've taken them off my Zooropa playlist and replaced them with Night and Day and Miss Sarajevo.

I guess I should mention in the name of transparency that somewhere in U section my CD collection are the singles for "Discotheque" and "Last Night on Earth"

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