In the annuals of music history, there have been many albums that have withstood the test of time. The White Album. Thriller. Hotel California. Kind of Blue. These albums carry a sound that permeates the air the stereo breathes, and another one of these kinds of albums will be celebrating its tenth birthday in the fall. That album is none other than U2's 1991 masterpiece, Achtung Baby.

Recorded in Dublin and Berlin, produced by longtime U2-collaborator Daniel Lanois and mixed by Flood, the album still sounds way ahead of its time. If this album had been released in 2001, it would still climb the charts the way it did when it was released ten years ago. The songs still grace modern radio, the all-too-familiar "One" being a song that has been covered by the likes of R.E.M. and Johnny Cash. KMFDM has done an impressive remix of "Mysterious Ways" that really cranks.

The album opens with the concert-favorite "Zoo Station", a song that jumps up and down like a heart monitor. Upon a first listen to this song, you're likely to find your head jerking back and forth, and the amounts of images generated by Bono's severely intelligent lyrics will be staggering: "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." The song is followed by "Even Better Than The Real Thing", opening with a whammy bar that stays in your head for hours.

The third track, "One", is considered by many to be their best song. The radiant Adam Clayton bass line accompanies Larry Mullen, Jr.'s delicate drums and a dew-soft lead guitar a la The Edge. Bono accompanies with his rhythm guitar and echoes into music history, "We got to/Carry each other/Carry each other/One." The band has maintained that the song is about the hardships they have endured in their time as a recording group, but the song has been open to interpretation as a twisted love song (remember "With or Without You" from the equally powerful 1987 release The Joshua Tree) and a song where a father accepts his gay son, in addition to other ideas.

"Until the End of the World" is a song you've heard before, but you just don't know it. The song has been featured in the film of the same name, and was recently used to promote the Russell Crowe-Meg Ryan film Proof of Life. The song carries deep theological meaning and throws the listener for a loop after three or four times, making one wonder which point of view the narrator's is. "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" may be my personal favorite love song, speaking of the future, and "So Cruel" ranks as one of the best break-up songs of all time.

While Rattle and Hum's "Desire" and the 1998 single/1987 B- side "Sweetest Thing" may hold insight into life in general, no U2 song holds more ironic truisms and downright castor oil as "The Fly". "Mysterious Ways", in my opinion, is the weakest song on the album, but still contains smart lyrics and one heck of a guitar solo, an entity U2 fans know is a rarity. The Edge maintains that he is not a guitarist who lends himself to massive solos. The next track, "Trying To Throw Your Arms Around The World" lends itself to American rhythm and blues which has fascinated the band since at least the mid-eighties.

"Ultraviolet (Light My Way)" carries with it another element of American culture. The line "There is a silence that comes to your house/where no one can sleep/I guess that's the price of love/I know it's not cheap" paraphrases the poetry of the famous writer Raymond Carver. The Edge's guitar on this song is the "light bulb" in the darkness that this song generates. "Acrobat" is a song almost anyone can relate to when casually listened to, generating images of a man who doesn't quite know what's going on. Then again, there's always more to any song written by any group than what meets the eye.

The last track, "Love is Blindness," exhibits Clayton's thick bass compounded with Bono's longing voice. The ZooTV tour, which was in fact dominated by Achtung Baby when the new album at the time was Zooropa, closed each show with this track, with Bono dressed as Mr. MacPhisto, and often bringing a member of the audience up on stage to dance with him. Indeed this is an honor anyone should be honored to receive.

If there are two U2 albums anyone needs, they are this one and Joshua Tree. The rest of their work is phenomenal as well, but the other albums don't quite carry the critical weight Achtung does.

Name: Jeff
Comments:
The ZooTV shows actually closed out with a short cover "Can't Help Falling In Love With You." Whoopsie.