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With "Original Soundtracks 1", the U2, accompanied by a spaceship called Brian Eno, literally take flight towards unknown sounds and dimensions. Space expands and takes on a thousand shapes and colors. Everything is unpredictable, and the rarefied, chiaroscuro-filled atmosphere makes this the most mysterious and intriguing album of the entire U2 production even more fascinating. In fact, this is the only TRUE U2+Eno album. It is no coincidence that a special name is created for the new supergroup, which is called, appropriately, Passengers.
"Original Soundtracks 1" is an absolutely unknown album, often even among the band's own fans. At first glance, it could be comfortably cataloged as the work in which the U2's experimentalism, which began with "Achtung Baby" and continued in '93 with the splendid "Zooropa", reached its absolute peak, ultimately completing the change of course begun in 1991. In reality, the album is completely out of any canon that U2 had accustomed us to in the past years (whether "Achtung Baby"'s revolution is considered or not), and it ends up completely detaching from the orbits around which every previous album had rotated.
"Original Soundtracks" is characterized by an explicitly electronic accent, this time truly protagonist, no longer in the background, with strong and absolutely non-random references to ambient atmospheres. It is not U2, it is not the same band, or at least it seems so. It is no accident that the songs within the album were originally conceived to become soundtracks for some films, but for one reason or another, almost all remained there, with the authors working on them as if writing for imaginary films. Among these, special mention must be made of "Your Blue Room", a nocturnal pearl of extraordinary beauty, unexpectedly revisited, among other things, during the last tour (though with doubtful results).
But how would it have gone if instead of "Passengers," U2 had been written on the cover? Would it have had greater visibility? Or did U2 fear christening an album that would have further led them to be unrecognized by the same market they had dominated for years? And furthermore, who can really say where U2's work ends and Brian Eno's begins within each single album produced for the Irish band since 1984? Since "The Unforgettable Fire" times, they are practically a group of six (with Dani Lanois). The only certain thing is that here Eno finally has free reign, and it shows. A perfect production cared for in every little detail makes the work a unique, great, inseparable, and untouchable flow; unthinkable to skip even a minimal track, at the risk of interrupting the beautiful ethereal, almost psychedelic, and at times even schizophrenic mood that the album creates.
Among these "passengers," there is also the collaboration of the late Luciano Pavarotti, protagonist of a beautiful duet with Bono in "Miss Sarajevo". In short: passengers, actors of a moment, of a transient moment between departure and arrival, and then who knows. Let's hope that one day or another they decide to come back around here.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
03 Your Blue Room (05:27)
It's time to go again
To your blue room
Got some questions to ask of you
In your blue room
The air is clean
Your skin is clear
I've had enough of hangin' round here
It's a different kind of conversation
Your blue room
Saw me calling love, somewhere deep inside
Saw me calling you, somewhere I can hide
And time is a string of pearls
Your blue room
See the future just hanging there
Your blue room
And you crave
A new perspective
Looking down on my objectives
New instructions
Whatever their directions
Your blue room
Saw me calling love
(Bongolese)
Saw me calling
(Bongolese)
It's alright
Your blue room
One day I'll be back
Your blue room
Yeah, I hope I remember where it's at
Your blue room
See me slide
Won't you take me back there
So much fun to me
(Adam)
Zooming in
Zooming out
Nothing I can do about
A lens to see it all up close
Magnifying what everybody knows
Never in conflict
Never alone
No car alarm
No cellular phone
04 Always Forever Now (06:23)
Always
Always
Always forever now
Always
Always
Always forever now
Always forever
Always forever now
Always forever
Always forever now
Always forever now
Always forever now
Always forever now
Always forever
Always forever now
Always always
Always forever now
Always forever now
Always always
Always forever now
Always forever now
Always always
07 Miss Sarajevo (05:40)
Is there a time for keeping a distance
A time to turn your eyes away
Is there a time for keeping your head down
For getting on with your day
Is there a time for kohl and lipstick
A time for cutting hair
Is there a time for high street shopping
To find the right dress to wear
Here she comes
Heads turn around
Here she comes
To take her crown
Is there a time to walk for cover
A time for kiss and tell
Is there a time for different colors
Different names you find it hard to spell
Is there a time for first communion
A time for east 17
Is there a time to turn the mecca
Is there a time to be a beauty queen
Here she comes
Beauty plays the clown
Here she comes
Surreal in her crown
[Pavarotti]
Dici che il fiume
trova la via al mare
E come il fiume
giungerai a me
Oltre i confini
e le terre assetate
Dici che come fiume
come fiume
L'amore giunger
L'amore
E non so pi pregare
E nell'amore non so pi sperare
E quell'amore non so pi aspettare
[English translation:]
You say that the river
finds the way to the sea
And as the river
you'll come to me
Beyond the borders
and the thirsty lands
You say that as river
As river
Love will come
Love
And I cannot pray anymore
And I cannot hope in love anymore
And I cannot wait for love anymore
[Bono]
Is there a time for tying ribbons
A time for Christmas trees
Is there a time for laying tables
When the night is set to freeze
11 Elvis Ate America (03:00)
Elvis, white trash
Elvis the Memphis flash
Elvis didn't smoke hash
Woulda been a sissy without Johnny Cash
Elvis didn't dodge the draft
Elvis had his own aircraft
Elvis having a laugh
On Lisa Marie in a colour photograph
Elvis under the hood
Elvis with Cadillac blood
Elvis, darling bud
Flowered and returned to the Mississippi mud
Elvis ain't gonna rot
Elvis in a Memphis plot
Elvis, he didn't hear the shot
Dr. King died just across the lot from
Elvis, vanilla ice cream
Elvis, girls of fourteen
Elvis, the Memphis spleen
Shooting TVs, reading Corinthians thirteen
Elvis with God on his knees
Elvis owned three TVs
Here come the killer bees
Head full of honey potato chips and cheese
Elvis, the bumper stickers
Elvis, the white knickers
Elvis, the white nigger
Ate a king burger and just kept getting bigger
Elvis sang to win
Elvis, the battle hymn
Elvis, the battle to be slim
Elvis ate America before America ate him
Elvis
Elvis stamps
Elvis necromance
Elvis fans
Elvis psychophants
Elvis the public enemy
Elvis don't mean shit to Chuck D.
Elvis changed the center of gravity
Made it slippy
Elvis, Hitler
Elvis, Nixon
Elvis, Christ
Elvis, Mishima
Elvis, Markus
Elvis, Jackson
Elvis the pelvis
Elvis the psalmist
Elvis the genius
Elvis, generous
Elvis, forgive us
Elvis, pray for us
Elvis Aaron
Elvis Presley
Elvis
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Other reviews
By Hetzer
U2 decide not to be U2: in 1995 they enter the studio expanding the group with Brian Eno and Howie B., and experiment with ambient and electronic sounds.
"Miss Sarajevo" is actually a sycophantic charity stew typical of Bono and his billionaire friends from the 'happy world club'.
