U2 - Zooropa
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Free Music Notes for Zooropa
Free Music Review: A classic U2 record that should not be ignored
Hit: 5 Stars
I'll be the first to say that U2 did experiment here, and this is very different from records like, say 'The Joshua Tree' or 'The Unforgettable Fire.' But hey, it's still a great U2 record.
Many fans of 1980s U2 disliked this record, and I never (and still to this day) don't understand why. It's got great songs. 'Numb' features The Edge on vocals, with Bono and his great high falsetto singing background vocals, and a good quiet song in 'The First Time.'
The intro to 'Zooropa' is great. It features great piano parts from The Edge, as well as some experimental synthesizer sounds.
The legendary country music hero Johnny Cash stops by to sing lead on 'The Wanderer,' a great classic country music song that's well worth checking out if you're a Johnny Cash and/or U2 completist.
Overall, it's a great record that should not be condemned. It's a masterpiece. A great addition to anyone's U2 collection.
Highly recommended. ENJOY!!!
Free Music Review: The Dark Side Of U2 Meets Brian Eno
Hit: 5 Stars
Zooropa can easily be seen as a natural progression in the band's musical evolution as rockers, social commentators and human beings, when examined through a religious and prog-rock grid.
actually, the heavily synthesized sound of this album is entirely appropriate because of its predominating subject matter, the alienation of modern man as a result of gross consumerism, technological dependence and moral declination.
there is also an interesting, yet subtle tension throughout many of the songs, a cry for both a natural balance in the world (and the self) and supernatural intervention; both of which have been upset or largely ignored on the surface.
musically, Zooropa offers many traditional blues-influenced ballads with the band's usual instrumentation while Brian Eno assists with a heavily syhthesized-yet-innovative sound that often chills and refuses to soothe.
the cd book inside is heavily colored and assaults the viewer with disturbing images distorted by a computer-imaging software program, and easily supports the theme of the overarching theme of the album.
one of my favorite U2 albums, this is a must-have album for fans of U2 and Brian Eno, but they may not know it yet...
Free Music Review: ahead of its time
Hit: 5 Stars
I hated this album after it first came out. Little did I know that it would be U2's last great album and now I think it is a haunting, dark creation. Free Music Review: for the ages
Hit: 5 Stars
I listened to this album for the first time in about 10 years today. I hear it in a way that I never use to hear it. Before I perceived it as kind of a candy coated Achtung Baby redux, but I think there is something here. The sounds used are odd and innovative for U2. The lyrics--somedays are better than others, crashed car, dirty day, he turns his money into light to look for her, days run away like horses over the hill, numb, because when he hurts you you feel alive, wandering...bleak stuff, a real thread of alienation, looking for warmth and soul. I think Bono's lyrics on this are far ahead of the lyrics, for instance, on Joshua Tree, which is generally acknowledged as their masterpiece. I suspect that Zooropa might be the one that stands out for the ages. Free Music Review: Pop Art Installation Music
Hit: 3 Stars
Lest time causes us to forget, ZOOROPA was as anticipated an album as Nirvana's IN UTERO in the pre-Woodstock '94 environment. And that is because U2's ACHTUNG BABY was the only album of 1991 to rival NEVERMIND in terms of creative response and chart overthrow. Of course, it was not considered a surprise that U2 dominated the charts in 1991-92. Only that the material they threw out there was so different, and that it was an example of an '80s band being accepted by the alternative/indie crowd, post-"Smells Like Teen Spirit."
What followed was U2's pop-art installation tour, known as ZOO TV, where thousands of televisions, German Trabants, Lou Reed projection, belly dancers and shiny Elvis suits were all thrown into the mix to create a multimedia spectacle, every bit as nuanced as it was satirical. The tour hosted a bevy of cool alternative era opening acts, such as the Pixies, Primus and Disposable Heroes of Hipophrisy. And in lieu of the tour's success, as well as five ACHTUNG BABY hit singles, ZOOROPA landed in 1993 after radio had already been barraged with the sounds of their launch single "Numb."
"Numb" caused serious debate amongst fans and aficianados, for, well, basically sounding like your favorite stadium rock band was loaded into a computer and someone hit the "random" button. And while the rest of the album never quite went as far into the post-rock genre as "Numb," I fondly remember co-ed pool parties and smoke-out sessions with this album all summer long. When IN UTERO hit a year later, we sat much more mezmorized to the universal message of "Rape Me," knowing full-well where things stood. But ZOOROPA was a sign of the times too, and induced many good conversations about our consumer culture and how far a rock band should take things, experimentally. My answer was, as it is now, farther.
I also had high-hopes for U2's follow-up album, POP (1997), as I enjoyed enormously their Passengers project from 1995. However, nothing on POP (sans "Mofo") lived up to sonic tone-poems like "Lemon," "Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car" or ZOOROPA's title track. Also of note is the lead vocal appearance by Johnny Cash on closing track, "The Wanderer." I honestly can't remember if Cash's AMERICAN RECORDINGS album (with producer Rick Rubin) came first, but it was a sign that the darker elements of American country music were connecting with the alternative generation (Jayhawks, Wilco), as happened with the Baby Boomers previously (e.g. Gram Parsons, Poco, Byrds). How much U2 had to do with the cultural divide between conservative-mainstream country and the burgeoning alt-country movement is hard to say. I only remember many U2 fans feeling confused by "The Wanderer."
After ACHTUNG BABY, ZOOROPA and POP, U2 retreated to a tried-but-true angle they'd aspired to in the late '80s, abandoning existential satire for sincerity. Maybe they just got older. Maybe the pressure mounted. Or maybe that's where they felt most comfortable. But while ZOOROPA didn't have the songwriting chops that graced ACHTUNG BABY, and while it wasn't as evenly listenable as the Passengers album... I still find ZOOROPA taking me back to those teenage days when rock was on its last leg, and yet none of my friends had given up hope.