U2 - Achtung Baby
|
List Price: Our Price: $10.99 You Save: $2.99 (21%) Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for Achtung Baby
Free Music Review: One of the best of a bad decade
Hit: 5 Stars
I'm sure I'll get railed for suggesting the 90's were a bad decade for rock music. I'm equally sure that fans of 90's rock will get on me for suggesting a darling of the 80's, U2, had one of the decade's best performances. But sorry folks - it is what it IS!
The opening riffs of "Zoo Station" are still amazing to me - other rock artists dream of coming up with a song opening as cool as this one, rooted in a seemingly lost twang of guitar fuzz, then turning into an infectious dance beat and finally coming together in a great tin-tinged Bono vocal. What the song lacks in substance, is made up for in its' amazing style. Then when we get into the real songs - the dark edge of "Even Better Than The Real Thing", the heavy fuzz of the album version of "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" and the sharp heavy pop of "Mysterious Ways" - we can see how the band's style had evolved while the lyrical form and musical composition remained tight.
The showcase moment - which U2 itself didn't expect at all - is the simple, gospel-heavy "One", with it's simple call for unity. To this day, this song is the one (pardon the pun) that has given Bono his identity as he works for the eradication of worldwide poverty and disease. In a way, this song - and this entire album - feels like a tribute to John Lennon, with "One" as their version of "Imagine".
All in all - another defining moment for one of the 20th century's greatest musicians. It ranks a mere notch below "The Joshua Tree" - but it's still well up the ladder from the best work of U2's contemporaries.
Free Music Review: U2 experiments and rocks into great heights
Hit: 5 Stars
You know, there are a lot of people I know who dislike U2 and Bono, but the more I listen to "Achtung Baby," the more I wonder how that's even possible. Seriously. They did a post-punk band in their first three albums, the next two (plus the half-studio "Rattle") showing them in an anthemic stadium rock sort band, and here's the one where they seem to be having a lot of fun. In my opinion, '90's U2 is vastly underappreciated, both by the band and its fans. However, this is easily the greatest of the three released in that decade (and I'm a big "Pop" fan, mind you).
But these songs are timeless, inventive, and just wow-inducing. Not a single bad song in this bunch of twelve songs. It's most known possibly for the classic ballad "One," a sort of sad track but also a very moving one. There is a passion in there that makes it timeless.
"Zoo Station," "The Fly," and "Mysterious Ways" are some of U2's heaviest songs, and they are so in an industrial way. It's got electronics but isn't quite techno in either case. It's almost got a dark sound, something I wouldn't have expected out of U2's earlier output. Even after hearing "MW" several times, I am still amazed at its sonic genius, from that opening Edge riff which is hard to imitate.
Then the last three tracks are all incredible, too. "Ultraviolet" is such a melodious and touching track, while "Love Is Blindess" is a perfect way to end the album, a great chillout track, and "Acrobat" is another one of U2's greatest songs.
U2 were a lot of things on here -- edgy, inventive, yet simple enough to connect with the masses. While Nirvana may have turned the world to alternative rock with their album in the same year, U2 were showing its next evolution. Recommended to everyone who's willing to listen to some U2. All 12 songs are great.
Free Music Review: I'm gonna get hammered for this...
Hit: 4 Stars
...but "Achtung Baby" is not my favorite U2 album. Tons of critics and a huge chunk of the rest of the world claim it is their masterpiece and some rhapsodize about it like it's the second coming of "Sgt. Pepper's" and "London Calling," but I just can't agree with them. In the U2 canon, I have to place this below much of their earlier work, music that's often dismissed today by eggheads as "flag-waving anthem rock."
Well, pardon me if I like melodies.
U2 is my favorite band. I've been a fan since the release of "War." I own all their studio albums (save "Zooropa") and a few of their DVDs. I try to receive each project with an open mind and ears, and I've read plenty of material by the band on where this one was coming from and what they were shooting for. I appreciate (and own) techno and dance. Disco-funk (which is what "Mysterious Ways" is, folks) I can deconstruct. But beyond a handful of great songs, this album I just can't connect to musically or lyrically like most of the rest of their catalog. Compared to most bands' stuff, this is magnificent. But on the U2 scale it's only very good.
Free Music Review: My musical revolution
Hit: 5 Stars
Perhaps I'm just nostalgic, but the first time I heard this album on tape. I stole it from my sister and played it on my tiny cassette player. Despite the crappy audio quality and tiny speakers, this album sounded like it was blasting through my ears. I was taking in every word of Bono's alter ego, Fly over Even Better Than the Real Thing, feeling the subtle blast of the Edge's guitar riffs, and the pounding rhythms of Adam and Larry's percussion on every inch of song.
This was the day that I loved music. From that day forward, I would listen and obsess over all genres. This is the beginning of my musical journey. This is my white album...
Free Music Review: The best of U2???
Hit: 5 Stars
This may be sacrilege to some, but I think this is a better album than "The Joshua Tree". I should qualify that statement by saying that this record has a more driving sound. It's more wreckless - sort of a traditional U2 meets David Bowie and Trent Reznor. And I like that. "The Joshua Tree" was a bit more tamed, nonetheless emotional, though. After reading U2: At the End of the World, I understand the music on this CD more. Perhaps, that is why I find this to be a better album. The band put it together in the midst of turmoil and struggle and really thought the music was good, but not thier best. I disagree. It just goes to show, that some of our best work is produced out of the chaos around us...and hopefully, when the chaos subsides, we recognize that. "Achtung Baby" is truly a 5-star work.