 3. U2, Achtung Baby
(1991)
An amazing album. After the success of
their huge 1980s blockbusters, The Unforgettable Fire (1984) and The Joshua
Tree (1987), it was hard to imagine where U2 could go next. Rattle and Hum
(1988) was something of a pretentious disappointment, and it looked for a few years like
U2 might fade into the past as another eighties rock band that didn't make the transition
to the nineties. Then came Achtung Baby.
It's not especially accessible on the first
listen, particularly if you're expecting something like The Joshua Tree, but Achtung
Baby is one of those albums that just gets better and better the more you listen to
it. So many of the songs are standouts that it's almost impossible to choose
favorites, but I'd have to include "One," "Mysterious Ways," "So
Cruel" and "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?" Throughout, the songs
are driven by incredible guitars and drums, providing a perfect backdrop for Bono's voice,
which growls and soars and just sounds sexier than I've heard it before or since.
This album stands for me as the pinnacle of U2's
career so far, unmatched by the confusion of Zooropa (1993) or the pretension of Pop
(1997). But the fact that U2 could rethink themselves and drop their inhibitions at
the start of the 1990s to make an album this good, this different, makes me think they
could do it again. I'm looking forward to it. |
