"Have you come here to play Jesus/to the lepers in your head?"
The 90's have come and gone and few albums (my blog is named for one of them) from the decade will have as lasting an impact on music or on the band that created it as Achtung Baby. U2 created their third flawless album in 1991. Every song on this album is perfection, when taken as a part of the whole. The album ebbs and flows and is a truly complete package, almost a rock-opera in and of itself ala The Wall or Tommy. While some songs might not stand up if taken by themselves, as a cohesive unit, few albums have done what AB has. Four U2 albums occupy slots in my top-ten albums of all-time, and this is the fourth of them (JT, War, ATYCLB).
Any discussions of the album have to begin and end with, as Jerm said, the song that saved U2. The single greatest U2 song ever is "One". It is one of the five greatest rock and roll songs of all-time, period (another list, another time). It was this album, and more importantly this song that turned me from a U2 interested supporter to a U2 fan. I was 13 when this album came out and spending alot of time with my high-school leader Mark Ford. I had been around Joshua Tree since junior high, with all of our youth leaders being U2 fans. This was when my fandom truly became my own.
Among the songs that probably wouldn't hold up on their own without the album are Zoo station, SO cruel, acrobat and Ultra violet, although I love that song. Every other song is a masterpiece as U2 has gotten to the point where every member of the band plays a key role in every song. Whether or not it was so in studio, this album comes across as the most effortless to date, smooth and easy even amid a complete change in direction for the band.
Top songs to hold onto:
1. One
2. Mysterious Ways
3. Until the End of the World
4. The Fly
5. Love is Blindness
6. Who's gunna ride your wild horses
7. Tryin' to throw your arms around the world
8. Even better than the real thing
9. Ultra Violet
Jerm's Take
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