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Rating: I have never used the word "masterpiece" for any U2 album. This is because, beyond the care and skill with which each one has been crafted, they are works that draw heavily from the past and offer little innovation. The musicians who make up the group, Paul "Bono Vox" Hewson on vocals, Dave "The Edge" Evans on guitar, Adam Clayton on bass, and Larry Mullen on drums, have a relatively marginal role in the success of their albums when compared to that of the more significant role played by the producers who, throughout their career, have participated in the making of their albums: the ambient electronic wizard Brian Eno, their first producer Steve Lillywhite, responsible for the psychedelic reminiscences of "Boy" and "October", the pyrotechnic Howie B and Flood, creators of the colorful and sizzling sounds of the controversial "Pop". To varying degrees, each of them has shaped the sound of U2 according to their own sensibilities while the group, in all cases, has limited itself to composing and playing its own material. Therefore, it can be deduced that we are faced with a production effort, more than a composition effort, and this transforms the group into a classic pop band that pays a lot of attention to the packaging without caring much about the content it protects, which is why it seems really excessive and misplaced to label any of their albums as a "masterpiece", and "Zooropa" is no exception.
I apologize to the readers, but I considered this introduction a dutiful act. I simply wanted to clarify my position regarding the group and its actual validity as a "masterpiece-producing" group, which as I have already pointed out is practically non-existent. This is to say that "Zooropa" has all the faults attributed to it, but at the same time to affirm that, with all the controversies it has brought along, it remains for me one of the best albums by the Irish band. Not recognizing a "golden period" for U2, I don't mind making a comparison between the U2 of "The Joshua Tree" and those of "Zooropa", for which I can appreciate this album based on what it actually has to offer, without suffering too much for what, according to many fans, "has been lost".
"Zooropa" is an album of multiple influences. The distorted and sometimes almost industrial noise that permeated the tracks of "Achtung Baby" has almost entirely disappeared here, replaced by Brian Eno's ambient-psychedelic textures, capable of giving the album a nocturnal and often melancholic tone, colored with delicate shades between blue and black, just to play with the mental associations that this album develops. The psychedelia of the softer and more graceful Pink Floyd, the rhythmic charge of the Talking Heads, the band's own musical past are all blended here to obtain a decidedly captivating and well-achieved mix of sounds and moods: thus we go from the ambient-pop laden with effects and bizarre sounds of the title track (with a long and claustrophobic introduction of piano and electronics) to the dance-industrial ambitions of "Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car", in which the influence of the aforementioned Talking Heads is very strong, to reach the dark and tormented beauty of "Dirty Day" (in my opinion, unfairly underestimated) and the electro-piano ballad "The First Time", one of the peaks of the entire album. I am not convinced, however, by the sentimental ballad "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)", which I find too insistent in its desire to replicate "One". The psychedelic disco-funky of "Lemon" is also successful, with The Edge’s guitar electronically transformed into an organ, and slightly less but still suggestive is the concluding "The Wanderer", a bizarre number of country deviated by electronic sounds sung by the late Johnny Cash.
Not a masterpiece, I repeat. In the case of U2, in my opinion, such a word is absolutely to be avoided. Nonetheless, an album that does not disappoint, and that offers some interesting new nuances. I do not dare ask more from the band, which in the past did not offer anything other than this, good music with excellent sounds painted by illustrious producers. I am happy to know how to be content.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
01 Zooropa (06:31)
Zooropa... Vorsprung durch Technik
Zooropa... be all that you can be
Be a winner
Eat to get slimmer
Zooropa... a bluer kind of white
Zooropa... it could be yours tonight
We're mild and green
And squeaky clean
Zooropa... better by design
Zooropa... fly the friendly skies
Through appliance of science
We've got that ring of confidence...
And I have no compass
And I have no map
And I have no reasons
No reasons to get back
And I have no religion
And I don't know what's what
And I don't know the limit
The limit of what we've got
Zooropa... Don't worry baby, it'll be alright
Zooropa... You got the right shoes
Zooropa... To get you through the night
Zooropa... It's cold outside, but brightly lit
Zooropa... Skip the subway
Zooropa... Let's go to the overground
Get your head out of the mud baby
Put flowers in the mud baby
Overground
No particular place names
No particular song
I've been hiding
What am I hiding from?
Zooropa... Don't worry baby, it's gonna be alright
Zooropa... Uncertainty... can be a guiding light
Zooropa... I hear voices, ridiculous voices
Zooropa... In the slipstream
Zooropa... Let's go, let's go... overground
Zooropa... Take your head out of the mud baby
She's gonna dream up
The world she wants to live in
She's gonna dream out loud
02 Babyface (04:01)
Catching your bright blue eyes in the freeze frame
I've seen them so many times
I feel like I must be your best friend.
You're looking fine, so fine
Dressed up like a lovely day.
Babyface, Babyface
Slow down child, let me untie your lace.
Babyface, Babyface
Cover girl with natural grace.
How could beauty be so kind
To an ordinary guy?
Comin' home late at night to turn you on
Checkin' out every frame,
I've got slow motion on my side.
Turnin' around and around
With the sound and colour under my control
Round and around, goin' down,
Dressed up like a lovely day.
Babyface, Babyface
Slow down child, let me untie your lace
Babyface, Babyface
Tinfoil hair all tied up in lace
Babyface, Babyface
Bitter-sweet girl, won't you give me a taste
How could beauty be so kind
To an ordinary guy?
Babyface, Babyface
Slow down child, let me untie your lace.
Babyface, Babyface
Open that door, let me unpack my case.
Babyface, Babyface
You're everywhere, child, you're all over the place.
Babyface, Babyface
You're comin' to me from outer space.
How could beauty be so kind
To an ordinary guy?
03 Numb (04:20)
Don't move
Don't talk out of time
Don't think
Don't worry
Everything's just fine
Just fine
Don't grab
Don't clutch
Don't hope for too much
Don't breathe
Don't achieve
Or grieve without leave
Don't check
Just balance on the fence
Don't answer
Don't ask
Don't try and make sense
Don't whisper
Don't talk
Don't run if you can walk
Don't cheat, compete
Don't miss the one beat
Don't travel by train
Don't eat
Don't spill
Don't piss in the drain
Don't make a will
Don't fill out any forms
Don't compensate
Don't cower
Don't crawl
Don't come around late
Don't hover at the gate
Don't take it on board
Don't fall on your sword
Just play another chord
If you feel you're getting bored
I feel numb
I feel numb
Too much is not enough
I feel numb
Don't change your brand Gimme what you got
Don't listen to the band
Don't gape Gimme what I don't get
Don't ape
Don't change your shape Gimme some more
Have another grape
Too much is not enough
I feel numb
I feel numb
Gimme some more
A piece of me, baby
I feel numb
Don't plead
Don't bridle
Don't shackle
Don't grind Gimme some more
Don't curve
Don't swerve I feel numb
Lie, die, serve Gimme some more
Don't theorize, realise, polarise I feel numb
Chance, dance,dismiss, apologise Gimme what you got
Gimme what I don't get
Gimme what you got
Too much is not enough
Don't spy I feel numb
Don't lie
Don't try
Imply
Detain
Explain
Start again I feel numb
I feel numb
Don't triumph
Don't coax
Don't cling
Don't hoax
Don't freak
Peak
Don't leak
Don't speak I feel numb
I feel numb
Don't project
Don't connect
Protect
Don't expect
Suggest
I feel numb
Don't project
Don't connect
Protect
Don't expect
Suggest
I feel numb
Don't struggle
Don't jerk
Don't collar
Don't work
Don't wish
Don't fish
Don't teach
Don't reach
I feel numb
Don't borrow Too much is not enough
Don't break I feel numb
Don't fence
Don't steal
Don't pass
Don't press
try
Don't feel
Gimme some more
Don't touch I feel numb
Don't dive
Don't suffer
Don't rhyme
Don't fantasize
Don't rise
Don't lie
I feel numb
Don't project
Don't connect
Protect I feel numb
Don't expect
Suggest
Don't project
Don't connect
Protect I feel numb
Don't expect
Suggest
04 Lemon (06:58)
Lemon, see-through in the sunlight.
She wore lemon, see-through in the daylight.
She's gonna make you cry, she's gonna make you whisper and moan.
When you're dry she draws water from a stone.
I feel like I'm slowly, slowly, slowly slippin' under.
I feel like I'm holding on to nothing.
She wore lemon to colour in the cold grey night.
She had heaven and she held on so tight.
A man makes a picture, a moving picture
through the light projected, he can see himself up close.
A man captures colour, a man likes to stare.
He turns his money into light to look for her.
And I feel like I'm drifting, drifting, drifting from the shore.
And I feel like I'm swimming out to her.
Midnight is where the day begins.
Midnight is where the day begins.
Lemon, see-through in the sunlight.
A man builds a city, with banks and cathedrals.
A man melts the sand so he can see the world outside.
A man makes a car, and builds a road to run (them) on.
A man dreams of leaving, but he always stays behind.
You’re gonna meet her there
She’s your destination
You gotta get to her
She’s imagination
And these are the days when our work has come asunder.
And these are the days when we look for something other.
Midnight is where the day begins.
Midnight is where the day begins.
Midnight is where the day begins.
Midnight is where the day begins.
A man makes a picture, a moving picture;
Through light projected, he can see himself up close.
A man captures colour, a man likes to stare.
He turns his money into light to look for her.
Gotta meet her there
She’s your destination
There’s no sleeping there
She’s imagination
She is the dreamer, she's imagination.
Through the light projected, he can see himself up close.
05 Stay (Faraway, So Close!) (04:58)
Green light, 7-Eleven
You stop in for a pack of cigarettes
You don't smoke, don't even want to
Hey now, check your change
Dressed up like a car crash
The wheels are turning but you're upside down
You say when he hits you you don't mind
Because when he hurts you you feel alive
Oh now, is that what it is
Red light, grey morning
You stumble out of a hole in the ground
A vampire or a victim
It depends on who's around
You used to stay up to watch the adverts
You could lip-synch to the talk shows
And if you look, you look through me
And when you talk it's not to me
And when I touch you, you don't feel a thing
If I could stay, then the night would give you up
Stay, and the day would keep its trust
Stay, and the night would be enough
Faraway, so close up with the static and the radio
With satellite television you can go anywhere
Miami, New Orleans, London, Belfast and Berlin
And if you listen I can't call
And if you jump, you just might fall
And if you shout, I'll only hear you
If I could stay then the night would give you up
Stay then the day would keep its trust
Stay with the demons you drowned
Stay with the spirit I found
Stay and the night would be enough
Three o'clock in the morning
It's quiet and there's no one around
Just the bang and the clatter as an angel runs to ground
Just the bang and the clatter as an angel hits the ground
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Other reviews
By Jy
NUMB is indeed the sonic manifesto of the band’s new direction.
‘Stay’ is the song where electronics take a back seat for once, in favor of a superb performance by the entire band.
By hypnosphere boy
It seems the meaning of the entire work is concentrated in the apocalyptic presage version of 'Zooropa.'
Zooropa offers a portrait of the world as elusive, dreamlike, poetic, and realistically complex.
By Rax
"'Zooropa' is a series of songs of an idea dressed in elegant electronics."
"Pass marks for the production and the decency of the songs. U2 never engaged in the bravado that fills REM albums."
