Thread Where we Discuss How Classic the Zooropa Singles Are

(For my money, I consider the two songs that open that soundtrack - "The Ground Beneath Her Feet" and "Stateless" - to be the best things U2 have ever done. I'm not sure they qualify as U2, though, it's more like Bono+Daniel Lanois).

Zooropa, Some Days, Dirty Day, The First Time, The Wanderer... what's not to like?

"Stay (Faraway So Close)" is a great karaoke song, as I learned a couplf of weeks ago.

Zooropa, Some Days, Dirty Day, The First Time, The Wanderer...

Though this thread serves as a pleasant reminder to listen to the "Milllion Dollar Baby" soundtrack.

Yeah, it's called "Perfecto Remix" (if I'm not completely wrong, "Perfecto" = Oakenfold), and it has this sort of a progressive house feel to it. I heard it before I did the original, and because of that was a bit underwhelmed by the latter.

It's no "The Fly," either. Following Rattle & Hum, that was a pretty bracing dose of WTF?

"Numb" is just fantastic.

crrreeeeeeEEEEEEAAAAAAKKKKK CREAK

CRREEEEEEEAAAAaaaak creak

crrrrreeeeeEEEEEAAAAAAAAKKKKKK

CRRRRREEEEEEAAAaaaaaaakkkk

I vividly recall the first time I saw the video for "The Fly" and thought (back then) WTF, they turned into Depeche Mode !?!? I have since come to my senses.

A lot of people forget "The Fly" was the first single from "AB"!!!

Also, this is once again a good place to praise Bill Flannagan's "U2 at the End of the World" book, about the making of "Achtung Baby" and "Zooropa," and the tour in between. AFAIK all those events comprise the closest the band ever came to breaking up, as well as the only time U2 played a show as such without all four members (in Australia, when Adam was off drunk).

"Bad" is the perfect U2 karaoke song, I think.
My father fell asleep at the wheel and crashed his car into a truck at 2:30 in the morning while listening to the "I'm WIDE AWAAAAAAAKE!!!" part of that song.

Are you Satan?

the johnny cash song is stupid, which doesn't mean that i don't like johnny cash.

C/D: Bono's falsetto?

t/s edge's falsetto vs. bono's falsetto?

my favorite U2 period remains and I'm sure will always remain Achtung Baby to The Million Dollar Hotel, the latter of which features one of my favorite U2-related tunes, "Never Let Me Go", which I suppose isn't officially a U2 song (credited to Bono and the MDH Band), but it's lovely.

though a funny verifiable moment was when some guy came in and handed the haircutress a picture of johnny cash and said 'make my hair look like that' and my haircutress cracked up.

I think I could listen to "Lemon" more often than "Numb," but neither would make my U2 Top 40. They're interesting ideas, but "interesting ideas" =! "good songs."

The falsetto in "The Fly" = Bono's "gospel voice."

"Zooropa" is apparently in the set list now along with "Out Of Control," a Kraftwerk cover and some odd stuff that I would much rather have seen than that dismal show at the Rose Bowl.

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

I wonder if 'High & Dry' would sound the same without the existence of 'Stay'.

it interests me how this album is perceived vs. Pop, which gets kind of the flop/misstep stigma that it seems like Zooropa didn't only because it came so soon after AB and in the middle of its blockbuster supporting tour so there was not as much pressure to deliver. i mean, the first 2 singles are perhaps the most atypical/'weird' ones they've ever released and then the 3rd is much more accessible but feels kind of small and offbeat compared to their really big ballad hits.

they are touring still?

anyway this was the last time U2 were any good at all.

anyway this was the last time U2 were any good at all.

― akm, zaterdag 16 april 2011 18:52 (23 minutes ago) Bookmark

Love Zooropa, and it's the only U2 album I might play once or twice a year.

My favorite U2 album, by some distance.

What's interesting is I once had a friend who listed Pop as one of his favorite U2 albums, but absolutely hated Zooropa.

"Numb" was no single (just a video) and is also not at all classic. "Lemon" is better but "Stay (Faraway So Close)" is still the only great single from this album, which was too weird for its own good yet obviously at least much better than "Discotheque".

which gets kind of the flop/misstep stigma that it seems like Zooropa didn't

At the time I remember this record being received this way, though.

well yeah Zooropa definitely wasn't exactly celebrated upon its release, but Pop and its tour seemed to get a lot more backlash and negative press whereas Zooropa was still too much in the afterglow of AB's hugeness to feel like any kind of falloff in terms of the band's dominance

Britpop also caused a backclash for many "old" indie acts, and I guess U2 was also one of those. The Cure, for instance, took years to recover after Britpop. One would expect those obvious influences on Britpop to actually benefit from it, but instead they suddenly became the previous generation of guitar bands.

well, in the US nobody gave much of a shit about Britpop so the backlash against U2 circa Pop had more to do with general uncoolness and generation gaps and the perception that they were piggybacking on the electronica craze (even though they'd kinda been way ahead of the curve of any US bands jumping on that trend).

piggybacking on the electronica craze since 1983, those bastards!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j-2ctHGpJaE

Not to be pedantic, but Zooropa got enthusiastic reviews, and it made the P&J top ten. Even as boring a critic as Anthony DeCurtis acknowledged its distinct sonic qualities. The only clueless guy was our local critic, future Pulitzer winner Leonard Pitts, who, like, tried to sell his utter confusion at the HOLY SHIT THEY'RE USING SEQUENCERS as an entry point.

i really liked achtung baby and nobody was as surprised by that as i was. maybe i should check out zooropa cuz i don't remember it too well.

yeah i pointed this out on i think a P&J thread once, but U2 are such golden boys that the only times they've missed the top 10 in the last 25 years were Rattle & Hum, Pop, and No Line On The Horizon (i.e. the ones that were kind of fiascos) xpost

stay is the best u2 song by miles

I don't think they've even surpassed the "throwaways" on this record: "Babyface," "Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car."

Zooropa's been my fav U2 record since it came out but this feels like a minority view everywhere ime except ILM.

We've accused U2 of being gauche and stupid over the years, but to my ears they finally get it right: they were trend-hopping, but the album was sexier, moodier, and more mysterious than they ever were and would be again. I love Eno and the Edge's keyboard swells. I applaud the generous use of Bono's lower register. The lyrics are decent. They don't embarrass Johnny Cash.

I associate this with Keislowski's Three Colors trilogy, released around the same time; all that post-Cold War identity confusion.

i kinda respect their music even when i don't like it so much. if that makes sense. honestly, they are one of the last big bands left alive who know how to make records that sound good.

I associate this with Keislowski's Three Colors trilogy, released around the same time; all that post-Cold War identity confusion.

More than one review I read at the time cited "Bosnia" as a metonym for darkness and chaos.

Zooropa for me revealed Achtung, Baby to be a transitional record: this seemed to be what they were really aiming for. The missing link between Stranded and OK Computer.

"numb" is prolly my fave u2 song

I bet myself that I wrote something on this thread about "Lemon." I won.

U2 fascinates me as one of the few bands able to radically recreate itself every few years and emerge not just bigger than ever but equally influential on contemporaries. Like, early U2 spawned early U2 imitators. Then they went Eno and inspired a new wave of imitators influenced by that iteration. And then they went "Achtung, Baby!' and inspired yet another wave of imitators (Coldplay, maybe, but certainly Radiohead among them, the latter not coincidentally another band that has more or less followed U2's model of evolution without attrition). Even current U2 seems to be a new strain of standard bearer, albeit for MOR acts.

However, "Zooropa" curiously remains the one U2 album that I've heard U2 fanatics outright deride or dismiss. Personally, I love it, and listen to it as much as any U2. But I know lots more U2 fans that like "Pop" a lot and ignore "Zooropa" as too weird.

U2 fanatics hate Pop, actually. I think it's a pretty interesting album. Love The Playboy Mansion

xpost -- Gotta say that if I felt Radiohead were at all deeply inspired by U2 in their early nineties days then I probably wouldn't think much of their work now.

well, in the US nobody gave much of a shit about Britpop

The US had another underground rock scene that crossed over to the mainstream in the 90s, mind you....

Gotta say that if I felt Radiohead were at all deeply inspired by U2 in their early nineties days then I probably wouldn't think much of their work now.

There is quite a bit of mid-80s U2 in Radiohead's style though. At least their 90s style.

Radiohead is every bit as inspired by U2 as the band is by REM. Doesn't mean they always - or ever - sound just like them. Like, Radiohead has claimed "Vauxhall & I" was a major influence on "The Bends." I can hear a definite line connecting "Achtung" to "OK Computer."

My two faves by them are Unforgettable Fire and Zooropa.

X-Post. I don't hear much R.E.M. in the music of Radiohead though. Quite a bit of U2 and quite a bit of Jeff Buckley.

"The Unforgettable Fire" is underrated btw. Definitely a great album. Personally I like "Achtung Baby" too though. And actually most of their 2000s albums.

Setlist from Sau Paulo last week.

Intro
Even Better Than The Real Thing
Out Of Control
Get On Your Boots
Magnificent
Mysterious Ways
Elevation
Until The End Of The World
Bono speech
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
Pride (In The Name Of Love)
North Star
Beautiful Day / Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band (snippet) / Blackbird (snippet)
Miss Sarajevo
Zooropa
City Of Blinding Lights / Singing In The Rain (snippet)
Vertigo / Helter Skelter (snippet)
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight / Relax (snippet) / Two Tribes (snippet)
Sunday Bloody Sunday
Scarlet
Walk On / You'll Never Walk Alone (snippet)
Tutu speech
One
Amazing Grace (snippet) / Where The Streets Have No Name
Spaceship Intro
Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
With Or Without You
Moment of Surrender

Scarlet! I have no memory of what this song sounds like and I've heard October millions of times.

Tutu speech

followed by "Jesse Helms clip"

The David Morales mix of Lemon slays The Perfecto mix.
― Tannenbaum Schmidt (Nik), Sunday, July 10, 2005 11:05 AM (thirteen years ago)

this is accurate. really unbelievable remix.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9m_z188C8io

stay is the best u2 song by miles

― iatee, Saturday, April 16, 2011 9:05 PM (eight years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Lemon

such a good album. U2 are the prime example when I think about bands that hit a peak, then put out a bad album, and then never ever recovered (the bad album in this case being Pop).

I think it spooked them. If the "U2 at the End of the World" book is anything to go by (and I know we've discussed this), the band was nowhere near as financially successful or secure as one might have expected after "Achtung Baby" and the Zoo TV tour. And "Pop," an undercooked album backed by a half-baked stadium tour, made them pretty permanently risk averse. For a band as popular as U2 has long been I'd argue the group's career features far more risk-taking than people sometimes give them credit for, and that the band thrived on it creatively.

The band's early '90s financial insecurity came in large part because of the expensive Zoo TV shows. Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe many years ago also acknowledged that they weren't as rich as people expected, thanks to their lavish road spectacles.

Isn't it also the case though, that this happened not once but *twice* already before? Rattle And Hum was certainly a massive wobble just as they were becoming the biggest band in the world, but also the 2nd album (rushed, fussily-produced, half-arsed lyrically, terrible sleeve) is considered a classic bollock-drop in light of what happened after.

There's probably a New Jersey-esque word for an album by a big or biggish band which is poorly-received, threatens to derail them, only for the reaction to it then forcing them to Do Much Better with the next one.

Well, the second album was where 3/4 of the band were reportedly thinking about calling it a day. But also things moved much faster back then. Boy 1980, October 1981, War early 1983, Unforgettable Fire late 1984. They were taking longer between albums, but that's still a pretty fast turnaround, considering a hunk of time was spent touring as well. Rattle & Hum was sort of the first *indulgence* (and a massively successful one at that). The reason it was a wobble was not because it wasn't successful but because the band knew it sort of went a bit too far up its own butt. It was certainly the first time they conceded they Must Do Much Better with the next one. "Pop" was the next time. And now they just shrug and say, hey, good enough, let's focus on the stagecraft.