For a moment, I am no longer a high school graduate with an Associate's Degree working towards a Bachelor's. I am not fumbling back and forth between my job and my iPod. I am still living with my mom and I am a Sophomore in high school. I have next to no friends and most of the friends I have are not people (hint: They're albums). I am going through arguably the worst relationship of my life. Oh, yeah. And I was OBSESSED with U2.
As a sophomore, I made a list of my favourite artists, and though I do not remember all of them, I do remember that the top four were The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, The Velvet Underground, and U2, respectively. U2 was at fucking four, at the time. Here in 2015, I would probably put them in my top 50. Maybe. It is not impossible. However, at the time, U2 was my world. I lived and breathed U2. If you took me to a dark alley and told me to whisper my darkest secret, it would have been that U2 was actually my favourite band. I could listen to War when I was ticked off and then Joshua Tree or Zooropa to calm down. And even though all three of those albums have surely dropped out of my top 100 by now, there is one that I do not expect will ever fall even out of my top 50 and that is Achtung Baby.
Naturally, it was a sort of nostalgic happening (yes, that is an Unforgettable Fire joke) when I went and picked up a copy of The Unforgettable Fire today. I have never listened to it, actually. The only four that I have ever really eaten up are the four aforementioned. So, I popped in Achtung Baby.
Here is the thing about this album that I love. This album has the freshness of a debut with the expertise of an oldtimer. And that is because that is exactly what it is. U2 entirely deconstructed and rebuilt their sound for this album and produced what is, in my opinion, the only front-to-back great U2 album. Where Joshua Tree, War, and Zooropa all feel basically front-heavy, there is no such awkwardness to Achtung Baby. Every song on the album brings something new to the table and, despite a feeling of cohesion and unity, it is an eclectic record. With the post-punk, rough-around-The-Edge quality guitar work and the smooth arena rock that they had come to master on their previous albums married with their new found electronic harshness, the album comes off as a forceful and stunning statement. Even today, two years after my U2 obsession, I can rock out to this album like I am hearing it for the first time. This album--not Joshua Tree--is their apotheosis.
Withstood The Test Of Time: The whole album, but mostly "Zoo Station," "The Fly," "Mysterious Ways," and"Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World."
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