Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

[historyman]

As Bono famously described the sound of Achtung Baby when it was unleashed on a bemused record buying public 20 years ago.

It wasn't actually released until mid November 1991 but there's already been a lot of hype about the anniversary and of course there'll be the usual plethora of anniversary related products.

I know there isn't a lot of love for U2 on OTF - understandably so - but Achtung Baby was a very significant album, imo, because the world's biggest band at that time seismically shifted direction and produced a record that was impossible to ignore in Ireland. The sound of it was everywhere, at least in my experience.

I think too that Achtung Baby mirrored (or perhaps influenced) the changes that were beginning to take place in the ROI generally in the early '90s. There was a perceptible move away from the drearyness of the '80s and an embracing of the possiblities that the '90s could bring.

So is Achtung Baby any good? Well I only like three of its songs: Zoo Station, So Cruel, and Trying To Throw Your Arms Around The World. I can't stomach the rest of it, and it's still a rubbish name for an album.

Any thoughts?

[Purves Grundy]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

Achtung Baby and Zooropa are the only two U2 albums I can bear to listen to. I detest everything else they have ever done. Joyless, bombastic wankers.

[Sits]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

What a funny case U2 are. The below is my purely personal perspective and opinion of course.

Unforgettable Fire and the Joshua Tree were the last vinyl I bought - at the same time when the latter came out. I'd had the first three on tape and thought they were the dog's bollocks.

They lost some momentum and went a bit too self-important with Rattle & Hum - the first album where they really started annoying me. When Achtung Baby came out it seemed as though they had realised that the earnestness-ometer was cranking up a bit high. The album starts brilliantly, with energy and a new freshness. The opening track and the up-tempo hits off AB are probably the U2 songs I would most happily put on now - especially The Fly and Mysterious Ways. But at 55 mins it's just way too long and I think songs like So Cruel and Trying to Throw Your Arms Around the World spoil the feel of the rawer tracks.

I think the peaks of AB were their peak overall and it's been downhill since. The last album I bought was All That You Can't Leave Behind and it bored me.

Actually, I don't imagine many would agree with me, but I'm starting to think U2 are/were a singles band, not an album band.

[evilC]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

I liked 'Zooropa'. I liked 'The Joshua Tree' too. But, then I was a lot younger, only really had access to the mainstream, and in that context they were each albums that were 'changes' for the band.

However, the bombast was a worry even then and makes them really awkward to listen to now. But those two albums had some good tunes and that's my main criteria when listening to pop, so I still like them.

[George]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

I can only sit through a handful of their songs these days, and Stay (Faraway, So Close) is probably the only one I will enjoy at that.

[Sean of the Shed]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

evilC wrote:

I liked 'Zooropa'. I liked 'The Joshua Tree' too.

But which was better?
There's only one way to find out...

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

I fucking love U2.

I love them because , not despite that, they are so pretentious and up themselves.

I love the fact that Viz refers to Bono as the "taxophobic twat" and constantly reminds everyone that he had his hat - his fucking hat - flown half-way the world on a private jet once because he'd forgotten it.

[G-Man]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

NEXT WEEK: Rogin on why loves Sting not despite but because tantric icon is a cunt.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

Oh no, I fucking hate Sting.

[Incandenza]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

historyman wrote:

As Bono famously described the sound of Achtung Baby when it was unleashed on a bemused record buying public 20 years ago.

It wasn't actually released until mid November 1991 but there's already been a lot of hype about the anniversary and of course there'll be the usual plethora of anniversary related products.

This makes me glad to live in America. Actually, Achtung Baby was huge here, but I can't imagine that people will try to make a big deal about it being 20 years old.

[Outside Agent]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

Achtung Baby is a fucking great album. U2's best by some distance. It's probably grown on me even more over the years as it's such a not-U2 recording.

Even though it wasn't released til late 1991, I'm quite certain a few of it's tracks had already been released as singles before then - One, (Even Better Than) The Real Thing - as in my mind I date the album as 1992 but remember the songs from earlier in 1991.

Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses is my favourite track, but overall the album is a great collection of hits.

[AFC42]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

U2 were/are always a singles band.

The test of an album band is a sequence of albums with no bad tracks. U2 have never managed this.

Sitting in the car trying to forward wind past the bad tracks of an expensive, but cheaply made tape is why people think it's ok to download music without paying for it now.

[evilC]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

Sean of the Shed wrote:

evilC wrote:

I liked 'Zooropa'. I liked 'The Joshua Tree' too.

But which was better?
There's only one way to find out...

Oh bugger!

I actually meant 'Achtung Baby', not 'Zooropa'. I just went to see them on the 'Zooropa' tour (with Utah Saints and Stereo MCs in support) which is why my brain sometimes prioritises that album title.

Sorry for the added consternation, folks!

[A Doctor Speaks]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

Thought 'The Joshua Tree' was a great album of its type.

Though do admit it's a few years since I last listened to it in its entirety.

[Benjm]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

Readers who find it difficult to visualise a large block of wood crashing to the floor may find this link helpful.

[WOM]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

AFC42 wrote:

U2 were/are always a singles band.

True. Since I was married in '99, I haven't been able to stand any of their output.

[historyman]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

Outside Agent wrote:

Even though it wasn't released til late 1991, I'm quite certain a few of it's tracks had already been released as singles before then - One, (Even Better Than) The Real Thing - as in my mind I date the album as 1992 but remember the songs from earlier in 1991.

The Fly was released about a month before the album came out - October 1991. 'One' would've been a less riskier option, but then it wouldn't have showcased the new direction that the band were taking.

The Fly is a pub quiz question made in heaven - it was the single that finally ended Bryan Adams' run of 16 weeks at number 1 with 'Everything I Do...'

[Gerontophile]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

AFC42 wrote:

U2 were/are always a singles band.

The test of an album band is a sequence of albums with no bad tracks. U2 have never managed this.

Sitting in the car trying to forward wind past the bad tracks of an expensive, but cheaply made tape is why people think it's ok to download music without paying for it now.

I disagree (with your former ideas).

'Boy', 'October' and 'The Unforgettable Fire' all work when played start to finish. In the first two, they work even when on 'shuffle'.

'Joshua Tree' is fine as an album, and 'The Fly' is very different and good, for them.

I still like U2 a lot. I used to love them a lot, but I dont always go out of my way to listen to them when I have music on (that isnt radio).

Maybe I have 'done' them, I dunno. I want them playing at my funeral (although, not personally, as that might involve a god being involved), because they were the background to a huge part of my life, and in a good way.

I doubt that anyone will give a toss about the 20th anniversary, really. Unless they break up on that day. Which, you know, may well be a good thing... I have enough memories of all the good things.

Seen them live on numerous occasions, and only once saw an iffy show: Glasgow Barrowlands (which is/was low-ceilinged, and was too fucking loud. And Bobo had nowhere to go 'up' to... and it was about that time. However, the guy with the cap, playing the piano, almost made up for it. It was also the show (in my mind) that Adam Clayton could play the bass without looking at his fingers.)

[Mumpo]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

Arse. Login timed out, post lost. Summary: Achtung Baby/Zooropa era U2 bearable, rest unlistenable. Mysterious Ways the best 'baggy' song ever recorded.

[E10 Rifle]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

Achtung Baby sounded like U2's attempt to move with the musical times, and as such I found it pretty unconvincing. Their strengths were big-chorded standing-pretentiously-outside-castles music. Which is why the one track on Achtung that harks back to that period, One, is easily its best.

I've got a proper soft spot for 1980-87 U2. It all went wrong once Bono Vox started jamming with BB King and the likes and properly thinking he was Jesus, the taxophobic bell-end*.

*One of many choice and brilliant descriptive terms used about the pint-sized pop twat in the latest Viz

[historyman]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

Gerontophile wrote:

Maybe I have 'done' them, I dunno. I want them playing at my funeral (although, not personally, as that might involve a god being involved)

Isn't that part of the problem why U2 have had a more mixed reception in the UK than in the US?

It's been argued that the overtly spiritual nature of a sizeable chunk of their back catalogue grates more with British audiences who tend to be more agnostic than US audiences when it comes to profession of faith and belief in a personal God.

Which is, presumably, another reason why Achtung Baby was such a departure from what had gone before.

[historyman]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

I should add that Ireland would come into the US sphere of influence when it comes to singing about your faith (or maybe that should be the other way around).

So I don't recall there being any issue of the spirituality of their lyrics over here.

[Spearmint Rhino]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

"The Unforgettable Fire" (the song) is a magical bit of 80s transcendence, right up there with Associates', The Blue Nile's or Simple Minds' best stuff. "One" is a genuinely great song, and I do like that line from "So Cruel": "I gave you everything you ever wanted/It wasn't what you wanted".

And we'd probably look back more fondly on early stuff like "New Year's Day" if Bono hadn't turned into such a monumental bell-end.

By the way, looking at their singles discography, who knew that "In God's Country" was released as a single? Didn't even make the Top 40.

Also, they've apparently had loads of Top 5 hits (and even No.1s) this century that I honestly couldn't pick out of a police line-up.

[wingco]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

Yes, like SR, I think they have a handful of towering moments very early on. I personally was a big fan of "I Will Follow". Indeed, if absolutely everything by U2 leaves you utterly cold, then there's something wrong with you. Much of that's to do with The Edge rather than Bono - even on their last, awful album, there was one track on which they pulled out that particular stop, that uplifting, adrenaline thing.

That said, there's something even wronger with you if you can take U2 for any sustained length of time or over the course of an album (even a greatest hits comp). If you're still punching the air by the time of "Two Hearts Beat As One" then I reckon you've gotta pause and take a long, hard, upward look at your fist, and then yourself in the mirror.

Achtung Baby did seem to be a tacit acknowledgement that they'd embarrassed yourelf a bit with Rattle And Hum and needed to upgrade, get with the times. But checking out big bands trying to play catch-up has always been very low on my list of priorities.

The one U2 album I can listen to all the way through is the one they did with Eno as a colloborator rather than just producers - the Passengers album, from which "Miss Sarajevo" was taken. That was rather good, I thought.

[E10 Rifle]

Four Men Chopping Down The Joshua Tree

Yeah, it was. And yeah, I Will Follow would slot seamlessly into any collection of choice turn-of-that-decade post-punk. And what SR said about The Unforgettable Fire - a great song.

It's obvious that so much of the derision U2 face is down to Bono being such a cock.