U2 - Achtung Baby
At the beginning of "The Joshua Tree", an organ slowly mounts a clarion call that woke a generation and inspired millions. With the words, "I wanna run", U2 had sounded the cry from what sounded like the great wide-open as the desert sun burned warm on their skin.
At the opening of "Achtung Baby", percussion rattles and the drums stammer and convulse. All the while, the guitar lashes out from the darkness. Larry Mullen, Jr. trades his signature military tap for a distorted industrial "thwack". Bono has never been more emotionally laid bare as he is on this album. The Edge's guitar pulses and stabs, while Adam Clayton's bass flutters and undulates underneath the music like a menacing tide. It was a clear signal to all concerned that U2 traded in their love of American music for something darker, postmodern and more European.
The band had crossed into the 90's sounding more vibrant and alive than they did when they broke through in the 80's. After the colossal success of "The Joshua Tree", U2 had positioned themselves as the most popular band in the world. They were so far out in front of everyone else, you didn't even think about second place.
There was U2...and everyone else.
"Achtung Baby" came on the heels of a period of intense reinvention. It also marked a period that almost caused its members to part company. Recorded at Hansa Studios in Germany, all accounts have the band struggling through tumultuous artistic and personal differences before agreeing to return to Dublin to finish the album.
From that period of struggle, U2 crafted an album of thundering dance beats and mammoth guitar lines that set loose the constraints of conventional song structure and allowed U2 the freedom to expose a palpable sense of emotional imbalance and tortured love. Because of this, U2 took leave of their political message and chose, instead, to deal with the personal-trials that accompany love, lust and betrayal. Unlike previous efforts, "Achtung Baby" abandoned production that made U2's songs sound as if they were recorded under endless skies of bright sun. Instead, the songs found on "Achtung Baby" capture the stale feeling of a self-imposed claustrophobia. The people that inhabit these songs walk through a neon-lit netherworld devoid of romance and idealism. These are replaced with desperate loneliness and feverish longing.
There are many highlights on this album, but the one that sticks out is "Until The End Of The World." The song could be about the most famous of betrayals - Judas Iscariot and Jesus Christ. Or, it could be about the break-up of The Edge's marrige. Either way, the lyrics are simple, personal and devastating. When Bono moans, "In the garden, I was playing the tart. I kissed your lips and broke your heart", the betrayal is crushing. When the song closes, the line "You...you said you'd wait until the end of the world", is washed away by the sound of the band exploding in full-force. Other songs are overloaded with sexual imagery that is equal parts disturbing and disquieting. "Love Is Blindness" ends the album with an emotional surrender as Bono whispers, "Take the money....honey....blindness."
At the core of "Achtung Baby" is the anthemic and powerful "One". Rumor has it that the song was the first one the band nurtured to completion during the recording sessions. The simplistic nature of the song allows it to be the album's quietest moment. It is also the the most powerful and direct song on the album. "We are one, but we're not the same", declares Bono. In an album full of songs about love, this is perhaps the most ambitious as the band sets about the task of writing a song dealing with the complexities of man's inability to reconcile the things that divide us from our fellow man. Love is the the only true law and U2 contends that it is imperative to our survival that we surrender to it unconditionally.
This album succeeds because the narrative of the songs and the story arc they create mesh seamlessly. The album also marks a transition that saw the band go from young men who were sure they could solve the world's problems to men who seemed doubtful and uneasy about solving their own personal issues.
"Achtung Baby" is one of the few albums I have ever heard that reveals something new about itself with each spin.
It is arguably U2's finest hour and it is definitely an album you should own.
U2 will release "No Line On The Horizon" on March 3, 2009.
They will also make television history by appearing on The Late Show With David Letterman from Monday 3/2/09 thru Friday 3/6/09.
Further listening: "Boy", "War", "The Unforgettable Fire", "The Joshua Tree", "All That You Can't Leave Behind", "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb"
1 comment:
Fully agree with you. As great as Rattle and Him is - Achtung Baby is what every U2 album prior to it was leading to. It's one of my all-time favorite albums.
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