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Rating: Despite the criticism that “Rattle & Hum” received, the album was a great commercial success and was carried around on a small tour between September 1989 and January 1990. On December 31, 1989, at the New Year's concert held by U2 at Point Depot (Dublin), Bono concluded by saying: “This is the end of something for U2”. The crowd applauded enthusiastically. No one suspected the turmoil that was disturbing him and The Edge, namely what future their music could have after the climax of “The Joshua Tree” and the excellent confirmation of “Rattle & Hum”.
We don't know when the recordings for the new album began. We know, however, that Bono and Edge had decided to change direction, not to continue with the simple and minimal style of “The Joshua Tree” and “Rattle & Hum”, and not even to return to the refined ambient music that made “The Unforgettable Fire” great. They decided to change again and try to make their mark even in electronic music. Drummer Larry Mullen did not agree; bassist Adam Clayton remained perplexed.
Bono and Edge continued on their own, leaving the two legendary bandmates with their doubts. On May 9, 1990, the two, alone in the guitarist's house in Melbeach, off the coast of Dublin, recorded “Sick Puppy” (a rough version of what would become “Mysterious Ways”). But nothing really definitive came out.
Then a traumatic event took place, which would become the concept that inspired “Achtung Baby”: the end of the marriage between Edge and his wife, Aislinn O'Sullivan. For the Irish, marriage is a sacred thing, and the divorce was a severe blow for all the band members. As Bono said: “We and our wives have known each other since we were kids. Edge's divorce destroyed us all”.
Then someone had the idea of leaving Dublin, to find inspiration (and peace) far from home. They decided to go to Berlin, where U2 believed they would be infected by the enthusiasm of the Germans for the fall of the wall that had occurred a year before. But upon getting off the plane, instead of enthusiasm, they found a group of nostalgic communists from former East Germany protesting against the unification of the two Germanys... We are in October 1990.
The four and their staff found themselves together at Hansa Studios, the same studios where, at the end of the 70s, David Bowie, already considered finished, had found artistic resurrection.
U2 began working on a song Bono had written in 1988 on the piano for Nina Simone. Then he decided to keep it, but it wasn't published on “Rattle & Hum” because “it wasn't U2 enough”. At Hansa Studios, he took it out of the drawer and Edge, to distract his mind from his marital failure, decided to work on it. He grabbed the guitar and began to develop an idea he had in his mind. Bono remembers: “At that moment, he poured all his pain, all his anger for his finished marriage. He wasn't crying with his eyes, but he was crying with the guitar. At the end of the solo, you can hear a guitar string break, and a second string immediately after”.
U2 also worked on “Even Better than the Real Thing”, another of the outtakes from “Rattle & Hum”. But they made no real progress in either of the two songs, so the morale was terrible after the first week, steeped in palpable tension among the band members. As Bono said: “I was about to break up the group and send everyone home”.
Then, on the morning of October 11, 1990, while working together on “Sick Puppy”, 21 minutes into the jam session, Edge invented a bridge (which was never developed); immediately after he sketched another one. Then everything stopped. Edge picked up the acoustic guitar and producer Daniel Lanois told him to play the second bridge. Everyone was impressed. The melody of “One” was born. Mullen recalls: “Everything was going wrong. Then, suddenly, we received this gift”.
From that moment, the recordings took off. They were one step away from a breakup, and “One” restored the spiritual unity that makes the group's existence possible. Mullen and Clayton put aside their doubtful backward thoughts and got into the project like in the old days.
In Berlin, U2 sketched out “Until the End of the World”, which, with great effort, was completed in Ireland in 1991 and represents one of the peaks of the album with its characteristic intro with the congas (an idea from Daniel Lanois), its memorable riff (idea from Bono), and the wonderful “sweeping” guitar sound (idea from sound engineer Mike “Flood” Ellis). The lyrics talk about love again in dark terms, telling the story of Judas' betrayal from Judas' perspective, recalling first the Last Supper and then the kiss in Gethsemane.
“Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” is a song that (strangely) U2 has never particularly loved, perhaps because it is the least electronic song on the album, and musically it is not linked to the rest of the album. In any case, the song has a splendid melody. The lyrics speak again of love disappointments, although in a non-extreme way. It's about a girl who uses another and then abandons him: “You're an accident waiting to happen. You're a piece of glass left there on the beach”.
“So Cruel” is the piano ballad of the album. The piece is developed on 5 piano notes to which the excellent bass work by Clayton, the viola and violin, and the guitar in the last part are added. The lyrics are direct and are, although written by Bono, the sad, fragile, and mean confession of Edge towards his ex-wife: “I disappeared into you, you disappeared from me. I gave you everything you've always wanted. It wasn't what you wanted. The men who love you, you hate them to the max. They pass through you like a ghost. They look for you, but your spirit is in the air. His lips say one thing, his movements another. ”
“The Fly” enters the scene (the fly) which, during the Achtung Baby support tour, the Zoo Tour (1992-93), will become a real character, a sort of “summa” of all rockstar attitudes (dark glasses, black suit, caustic jokes, and ostentatious ignorance and arrogance). Musically, the song is one of Edge's masterpieces with its long psychedelic delay solo (2:10 – 3:15), probably representing his maximum effectistic result. With the exception of One, The Fly is the best lyric of the record, with Bono, behind paradoxical and ridiculous expressions, speaking about everything: the possible breakup of U2, the rock stars (“It's no secret that the stars are falling from the sky”); dark moments (“They say the sun is sometimes eclipsed by the moon”); cynical irony matured after the terrible criticism received from the press (“It's no secret that a liar won't believe anyone else. It's no secret that conscience is sometimes a plague. It's no secret that ambition bites the nails of success. Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief. Everyone kills their inspiration then sings about their pain”); up to the chorus with its desperate vision of love (“A man will crawl on love's face like a fly on the wall”), perhaps to mean that, sometimes, love makes you crawl like a fly on a wall, but the fate of a fly on a wall is always to be squashed. According to Bono, “This song describes the feelings of a man who has lived through hell and now decides to tell his experience to others”. To create a kind of paradox, U2 added a gospel choir during the chorus. According to the singer: “This song, more than any other, marks the greatest departure from our clean late '80s sound. This song is us getting down from the Joshua tree”.
“Mysterious Ways” is another break with their past with the use of a particular distortion pedal (technically called “Korg A3”) that transformed the song into a kind of hard-funky. The lyrics are a moment of idealism after the cynicism of the previous piece, with verses that idolize the female figure. Considering the rest of the album, it's not a stretch to think that it is pure irony.
We return to the desperation of love in “Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World” which tells the story of a drunk who can't find his way home and who, after some surreal expressions, curses women, who are the true reason for his unhappiness and his night spent drinking: “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a bicycle” (an expression coined by the feminists of the '70s who said they could do without men).
More desperation in “Ultraviolet” that starts with its abstract organ, with Bono throwing himself to the ground with his Leopardi-like pessimism from the first verses: “I can't always be strong and love won't last”, before passing the ball to Edge's two guitars, one on one box and one on the other, backing Bono in a song with verses that describe a man trying to convince his partner not to leave him. It would have been the perfect introduction to “So Cruel”, which instead describes the state of mind of a person now abandoned.
“Acrobat” is a less fragile but stronger and heartfelt variant of “Ultraviolet”: a man who strongly urges his partner not to let go and not to give up, to “..not let the bastards grind you down”. Although never played live, it remains – rightly – one of the most loved songs by Bono and Edge, for its magnificent (and virile) verses and for its strange time signature (a 6/8 instead of a 4/4) and the beautiful support work of the guitar.
Back in Dublin, in 1991, U2 worked very hard to complete all the songs. Brian Eno decided to be present only occasionally, so as not to disturb the band and to have the necessary detachment to judge the songs once back in the studio.
In Dublin, Edge struggled a lot to complete “Even Better than the Real Thing”. The idea came when he managed to find a particular pedal in a store (a “DigiTech Whammy”) that allowed him to get the "liquid" sound effects that make the track memorable. The lyrics are an ironic vision of the society beginning to shape in the early '90s, a society that, instead of seeking truth, art, beauty, etc., prefers to seek immediate gratification.
They also completed “Love is Blindness”, adding the magnificent melancholic organ that acts as an intro, the beautiful percussion (which is nothing more than the sampling of the drums from I Still Haven't Found... slowed down) and Bono's terrible symbolist lyrics, comparing failed love (inspired by Edge's) to images of terrorism: “In a parked car, in a crowded street, you see your love utterly real. Love is a ticking mechanism. A little death without mourning. No calls and no warning”. Love can explode (that is, end) at any moment, like a car stuffed with explosives that explodes suddenly in the street when you don't expect it, leaving you injured on the ground. At 3:00 Edge's show begins, lasting until the end, supported by Bono's “Tu-tu-tu” closing the album magnificently. Perhaps the best finale in a U2 album.
But, above all, U2 completed “One”, and they worked on it until the night before the end of the album's recordings. Initially, it was overproduced, and this did not please Brian Eno, who, as soon as he listened to it, said that its emotional strength had been buried in overproduction. The producer made him add the beautiful final solo by Edge (from 3:48) to put a bit of vinegar in the oil and thus prevent the song from being “too optimistic.” In any case, compared to the desperate pessimism that envelops the entire record, “One” is a hopeful song, always tempered by a great deal of realism.
Beyond the musical considerations, “One” remains, without a doubt, U2's greatest melodic masterpiece and one of the deepest love songs ever written. The lyrics, perhaps the greatest ever written by Bono, “came from Heaven” (as he himself recounted), and narrate the story of two lovers reconciling. Love makes two people one, but you must never forget that personal differences will always remain, and you must fight every day so that personal differences do not turn into prides and egos: “We are one thing, but we are not the same. We must support each other.” In reality, Bono said he had written the lyrics in Berlin, not thinking of the love between two people, but thinking of the band, of that moment of division that he and his three companions were experiencing, to encourage them to return to being one thing: “A bittersweet song about this division and this unity among us.”
To show the great departure from their '80s albums, U2 decided to insert “Zoo Station” as the intro, a song with industrial sounds based on complex distorted guitars (with keyboard-like sounds) and other complex effects, with Bono singing: “I'm ready for what is to come,” almost preparing the listener for what will follow, which, however, will be much less extreme than the opening song.
Only one thing was missing: the title. All the songs talk about how difficult it is to love. Given the theme addressed, a good title could have been “The Dark (Side of) Love”... Jokes aside, they could have chosen a serious and committed title like the titles of their previous albums. Instead, to mock the critics who had unjustly insulted them after the release of “Rattle & Hum”, they decided to stick two words together. We leave Bono with the rest of the story: “The title is a big scam. It means absolutely nothing. This is our most serious and saddest album, with the most ridiculous title. They're just two words that sound good if pronounced together. We wanted to see what the critics would invent to explain their profound meanings, perhaps inventing some extraordinary enlightenment of ours. And in fact, their superanalyses were not long in coming. We have been four miserable bastards...”.
(Many of the reported information is taken from the splendid “From the Sky Down”, the 2011 BBC documentary to celebrate the 20th anniversary of "Achtung Baby").
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Zoo Station (04:36)
I'm ready
I'm ready for laughing gas
I'm ready
Ready for what's next
Ready to duck
Ready to dive
Ready to say
I'm glad to be alive
I'm ready
I'm ready for the push
In the cool of the night
In the warmth of the breeze
I'll be crawling around
On my hands and knees
She's just down the line ... Zoo Station
Got to make it on time ... Zoo Station.
I'm ready
Ready for the gridlock
I'm ready
To take it to the street
Ready for the shuffle
Ready for the deal
Ready to let go
Of the steering wheel
I'm ready
Ready for the crush
Alright, alright, alright, alright, alright
It's alright ... it's alright ... it's alright ... it's alright
Hey baby ... hey baby ... hey baby ... hey baby ...
It's alright
It's alright
Time is a train
Makes the future the past
Leaves you standing in the station
Your face pressed up against the glass
I'm just down the line from your love ... Zoo Station
I'm under the sign of your love ... Zoo Station
I'm gonna be there ... Zoo Station
Tracing the line ... Zoo Station
I'm gonna make it on time ... make it on time ... Zoo Station
Just two stops down the line ... Zoo Station
Just a stop down the line ... Zoo Station
02 Even Better Than the Real Thing (03:41)
Give me one more chance, and you'll be satisfied.
Give me two more chances, you won't be denied.
Well my heart is where it's always been
My head is somewhere in between
Give me one more chance, let me be your lover tonight.
(Check it out)
You're the real thing
Yeah the real thing
You're the real thing
Even better than the real thing.
Give me one last chance, and I'm gonna make you sing
Give me half a chance to ride on the waves that you bring
You're honey child to a swarm of bees
Gonna blow right through ya like a breeze
Give me one last dance, we'll slide down the surface of things
You're the real thing
Yeah the real thing
You're the real thing
Even better than the real thing.
We're free to fly the crimson sky
The sun won't melt our wings tonight.
Oh now, oh yeah, here she comes
Take me higher, take me higher
You take me higher, you take me higher.
You're the real thing
Yeah, you're the real thing.
You're the real thing
Even better than the real thing.
Even better than the real thing.
Even better than the real thing.
03 One (04:36)
Is it getting better?
Or do you feel the same?
Will it make it easier on you, now
You got someone to blame
You say one love, one life
When it's one need, in the night
One love, we get to share it
It leaves you, baby, if you don't care for it
Did I disappoint you?
Or leave a bad taste in your mouth?
You act like you never had love
And you want me to go without
Well, it's too late, tonight
To drag the past out into the light
We're one, but we're not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other
One...
Have you come here for forgiveness
Have you come to raise the dead
Have you come here to play Jesus
To the lepers in your head
Did I ask too much, more than a lot
You gave me nothing, now it's all I got
We're one, but we're not the same
Well, we hurt each other
Then we do it again.
You say love is a temple, love a higher law
Love is a temple, love the higher law
You ask me to enter, but then you make me crawl
And I can't be holding on, to what you got
When all you got is hurt
One love, one blood
One life, you got to do what you should
One life with each other: sisters, brothers
One life, but we're not the same
We get to carry each other, carry each other.
One (lone)
One...
Make in it, make in it, higher...
04 Until the End of the World (04:38)
Haven't seen you in quite a while
I was down the hold just passing time
Last time we met was a low-lit room
We were as close together as a bride and groom
We ate the food, we drank the wine
Everybody having a good time
Except you
You were talking about the end of the world
I took the money
I spiked your drink
You miss too much these days if you stop to think
You lead me on with those innocent eyes
You know I love the element of surprise
In the garden I was playing the tart
I kissed your lips and broke your heart
You...you were acting like it was
The end of the world
(Love...love...)
In my dream I was drowning my sorrows
But my sorrows, they learned to swim
Surrounding me, going down on me
Spilling over the brim
Waves of regret and waves of joy
I reached out for the one I tried to destroy
You...you said you'd wait
'til the end of the world
05 Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses (05:16)
You're dangerous, 'cos you're honest.
You're dangerous, you don't know what you want.
Well you left my heart empty as a vacant lot
For any spirit to haunt.
You're an accident waiting to happen
You're a piece of glass left there on a beach.
Well you tell me things
I know you're not supposed to
Then you leave me just out of reach.
Who's gonna ride your wild horses?
Who's gonna drown in your blue sea?
Who's gonna ride your wild horses?
Who's gonna fall at the foot of thee?
Well you stole it 'cos I needed the cash
And you killed it 'cos I needed revenge.
Well you lied to me 'cos I asked you to.
Baby, can we still be friends?
Who's gonna ride your wild horses?
Who's gonna drown in your blue sea?
Who's gonna ride your wild horses?
Who's gonna fall at the foot of thee?
Ah, the deeper I spin
Ah, the hunter will sin for your ivory skin.
Took a drive in the dirty rain
To a place where the wind calls your name
Under the trees, the river laughing at you and me.
Hallelujah! Heaven's white rose
The doors you open I just can't close.
Don't turn around, don't turn around again.
Don't turn around your gypsy heart.
Don't turn around, don't turn around again.
Don't turn around, and don't look back.
Come on now love, don't you look back.
Who's gonna ride your wild horses?
Who's gonna drown in your blue sea?
Who's gonna taste your saltwater kisses?
Who's gonna take the place of me?
Who's gonna ride your wild horses?
Who's gonna tame the heart of thee?
06 So Cruel (05:49)
We crossed the line
Who pushed who over?
It doesn't matter to you
It matters to me
We're cut adrift
But still floating
I'm only hanging on
To watch you go down ... my love
I disappeared in you
You disappeared from me
I gave you everything you ever wanted
It wasn't what you wanted
The men who love you, you hate the most
They pass right through you like a ghost
They look for you, but your spirit is in the air
Baby, you're nowhere
Oh love
You say in love there are no rules
Oh love
Sweet-heart
You're so cruel
Desperation is a tender trap
It gets you every time
You put your lips to her lips
To stop the lie
Her skin is pale like God's only dove
Screams like an angel for your love
Then she makes you watch her from above
And you need her like a drug
Oh love
You say in love there are no rules
Oh love
Sweet-heart
You're so cruel
She wears my love like a see-through dress
Her lips say one thing
Her movements something else
Oh love, like a screaming flower
Love
Dying every hour
And you don't know if it's fear or desire
Danger the drug that takes you higher?
Head of heaven
Fingers in the mire
Her heart is racing, you can't keep up
The night is bleeding like a cut
Between the horses of love and lust we are trampled
Underfoot
Oh love
You say in love there are no rules
Oh love
Sweet-heart
You're so cruel
Oh love
To stay with you I'd be a fool
Oh... sweetheart
You're so cruel
07 The Fly (04:29)
It's no secret that the stars are falling from the sky
It's no secret that our world is in darkness tonight
They say the sun is sometimes
Eclipsed by a moon
You know I don't see you
When she walks in the room
It's no secret that a friend is someone who lets you help
It's no secret that a liar won't believe anyone else
They say a secret is something
You tell one other person
So I'm telling you
Child
That, love, we shine like a burning star
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love
We're falling from the sky tonight
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love
A man will beg
A man will crawl
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love
On the sheer face of love
Like a fly from a wall
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love
It's no secret at all
No secret that a conscience can sometimes be a pest
No secret ambition bites the nails of success
Every artist is a cannibal
Every poet is a thief
All kill their inspiration
And sing about their grief
Oh love
Love, we shine like a burning star
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love
We're falling from the sky tonight
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love
A man will beg
A man will crawl
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love
On the sheer face of love
Like a fly from a wall
Love, love, love, love, love, love, love, love
It's no secret at all
Love, we shine like a burning star
We’re falling from the sky tonight
A man will beg
A man will crawl
On the sheer face of love
Like a fly from a wall
It's no secret at all
It's no secret that the stars are falling from the sky
The universe exploded 'cause of one man's lie
Check, I gotta go
Yeah, I'm running outta change
There's a lot of things
If I could, I'd rearrange
08 Mysterious Ways (04:03)
Johnny, take a walk with your sister the moon
Let her pale light in, to fill up your room.
You've been living underground, eating from a can
You've been running away from what you don't understand.
She's slippy, you're sliding down.
She'll be there when you hit the ground.
It's alright, it's alright, it's alright.
She moves in mysterious ways.
It's alright, it's alright, it's alright.
She moves in mysterious ways, oh.
Johnny, take a dive with your sister in the rain
Let her talk about the things you can't explain.
To touch is to heal, to hurt is to steal.
If you want to kiss the sky, better learn how to kneel
On your knees, boy!
She's the wave, she turns the tide
She sees the man inside the child.
It's alright, it's alright, it's alright.
She moves in mysterious ways.
It's alright, it's alright, it's alright.
She moves in mysterious ways, yeah, oh, ah.
Lift my days, light up my nights, oh.
One day you'll look back, and you'll see
Where you were held now by this love.
While you could stand there,
You could move on this moment
Follow this feeling.
It's alright, it's alright, it's alright.
She moves in mysterious ways.
It's alright, it's alright, it's alright.
She moves in mysterious ways.
Move you, spirits move you
Move, spirits 'its move you, oh yeah.
Does it move you?
She moves with it.
Lift my days, and light up my nights, oh.
11 Acrobat (04:30)
Don't believe what you hear
Don't believe what you see
If you just close your eyes
You can feel the enemy
When I first met you girl
You had fire in your soul
What happened your face
Of melting in snow?
Now it looks like this!
And you can swallow
Or you can spit
You can throw it up
Or choke on it
And you can dream
So dream out loud
You know that your time is coming 'round ...
So don't let the bastards grind you down
No, nothing makes sense
Nothing seems to fit
I know you'd hit out
If you only knew who to hit
And I'd join the movement
If there was one I could believe in
Yeah I'd break bread and wine
If there was a church I could receive in
'Cos I need it now
To take a cup
To fill it up
To drink it slow
I can't let you go
I must be an acrobat
To talk like this
And act like that
And you can dream
So dream out loud
And don't let the bastards grind you down
Oh, it hurts baby
(What are we going to do now it's all been said)
(No new ideas in the house and every book has been read)
And I must be
An acrobat
To talk like this
And act like that
And you can dream
So dream out loud
And you can find
Your own way out
You can build
And I can will
And you can call
I can't wait until
You can stash
And you can seize
In dreams begin
Responsibilities
And I can love
And I can love
And I know that the tide is turning 'round ...
So don't let the bastards grind you down
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Other reviews
By giov
Perhaps it remains the last U2 album to have a soul: not too caught up in market rules, the grandeur of tours, and the lack of ideas that is noticeable lately in some of their latest works.
Recorded between Berlin and Dublin, precisely to capture the emotions that a people were experiencing after the fall of a cursed wall.
By pinkoSpallino
A much more important album, with electronic sounds that join the classic rock sounds in songs like 'Mysterious Ways'.
U2 remains the most important rock band in the world, and they prove it in 'One', the most beautiful ballad of all time.
By Alevox
Like an electric shock. The U2 of "The Joshua Tree" are abruptly awakened by the infernal sound of a fly in the head.
U2 change their skin. They shake off the heavy role of rock prophets to project themselves into a colder and more disillusioned dimension.
By iuppiter2
Like a powerful wave, maturity overwhelms the Dublin band, creating an incredible work with an impeccable sequence of twelve tracks.
The twelve tracks are images, meanings, twelve stars all shining with their own light.
By deckard2019
Bono Vox, the leader of the Dublin band, states at a concert held in their homeland, 'We won’t see each other for a while, we need to go and dream it all up again.'
The album requires several listens before it is fully assimilated and subsequently declared as an absolute masterpiece.
