Island 10347
Producer: Daniel Lanois with Brian Eno
Track listing: Zoo Station / Even Better Than the Real Thing / One / Until the End of the World / Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses / So Cruel / The Fly / Mysterious Ways / Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World / Ultra Violet (Light My Way] / Acrobat / Love Is Blindless
December 7, 1991
1 week
Following the incredible commercial success of The Joshua Tree and the critical lashing they received for Rattle and Hum, U2 decided to return to their alternative-rock roots for their first album of the ’90s.
While U2 had devoted much of their previous two albums to exploring Americana, Achtung Baby, which took its name from a line in the Mel Brooks’s film The Producers, would be decidedly different. “We wanted a more European kind of location and sound,” says bassist Adam Clayton. “It wasn’t so much a record about America. We were aware that people maybe wouldn’t get off on that as much, but that was where we were coming from.”
U2 opted to record most of Achtung Baby in Berlin, where David Bowie had collaborated with Brian Eno in the mid-’70s. And just as Bowie had emerged from Berlin with a more electronic-oriented sound, so did U2. In the album’s opening track, for instance, Bono’s vocals were distorted to the point that they were barely recognizable. “I always liked it when we got back to the loud, noisy rock ‘n’ roll,” says Clayton. “And, that was the kind of record we needed to make.”
Although U2’s direction on Achtung Baby may have seemed to some like a radical departure, Clayton says that there were clues to the new direction on Rattle and Hum. “We wanted to strengthen the traditional songwriting base of the band, but at the other end of the scale, we started getting into remixing using more electronics as a foundation with songs like ‘God Part II.'”
Also affecting the album was an air of uncertainty in the lives of the members of U2, as guitarist the Edge was going through a painful divorce while the album was being written. “I don’t think it was a good time for anyone necessarily,” says Clayton. “Part of the reason for going to Berlin was to try to separate ourselves from that domestic environment. We needed to focus on redefining what the band was doing away from all the distractions.”
Yet Berlin, during the German reunification, was not a comfortable place. “Berlin had always had this great underground art scene and it had always been an open city, but when the wall came down, it was a very confusing time there,” says Clayton. “There weren’t massive celebrations, it was just a time of real uncertainty.”
Adding to confusion, the band’s early demos for the album, recorded in Dublin, were stolen and released on a bootleg before the real album was completed. “At the time it made us feel very paranoid, but now it’s real flattering for an artist’s unfinished work to be released.”
While much of Achtung Baby featured electronic effects, there were still hints of the old U2 in material such as the heartfelt ballad “One.” Says Clayton, “We did want to do something that in some way was relevant to a world that was living with AIDS,” says Clayton. “We didn’t want to tap into a highly emotional subject in an emotional way, we just wanted to connect with people.”
Bono, meanwhile, who had been criticized for taking himself too seriously, began to reveal new personae, such as “The Fly.” Says Clayton, “With a career like we’ve had, it is very hard to sustain familiar involvement if they become too familiar with just one character.”
Achtung Baby debuted at Number One, becoming the first U2 album to enter at the top, but it stayed at the summit for only a week, the shortest span of any of U2’s previous chart-toppers. Nonetheless, its success proved that U2 had successfully redefined themselves for a new decade.
THE TOP FIVE
Week of December 7, 1991
1. Achtung Baby, U2
2. Ropin’ the Wind, Garth Brooks
3. Too Legit to Quit, Hammer
4. Nevermind, Nirvana
5. Time, Love and Tenderness, Michael Bolton