U2 – Achtung Baby
U2 have become a bloated band of old rich dudes. I think they can largely blame themselves for their current irrelevance. However, I do believe people still look back on The Joshua Tree with the reverence it deserves. The rest of the catalog however, people have pushed it into the dustbin. I think The Joshua Tree is a masterpiece, but I also think Achtung Baby is a masterpiece as well. One that paved the way for a lot of music that is out there today, but I think it happened subtly and people don’t recognize it’s there.
I’m listening to it now in my Shure open back mixing headphones and it sounds amazing. I’m hearing so much detail I never heard before on car stereos or cheap headphones. When your studio team is Steve Lillywhite, Flood, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, it’s going to sound fantastic. These four men have touched more amazing records in the last forty years than just about anyone, save perhaps Andy Wallace and the Lord-Algae brothers.
Songwriting & Recording
U2 were one of the biggest bands in the world at the time, if not the biggest. But they were completely unsure of how to proceed. Larry Mullen, Jr. is quoted as saying, “We were the biggest, but not the best.” Their goal with their next record was to not sound like U2. Personally, this is one of the most admirable positions they’ve ever taken creatively. This took a lot of guts both creatively and financially. When you’re that big there’s a lot of people depending on you to make money. You could fail miserably. See Pop and that album that was downloaded on every iPhone.
They credit the American folk music they studied for the previous few years for informing them musically and lyrically, but they intentionally wanted to move in a new direction. With Madchester booming in England and dance music taking over the night clubs in Europe, they were unsure how to step into their new work while still being them. Brian Eno functioned as a harsh critic, Daniel Lanois pushed their performances while Flood captured everything to tape.
Berlin
U2 began at Hansa Studios in Berlin. This was a former SS Ballroom, just a few hundred feet from the Berlin Wall. Long used as a place for artists to push boundaries, it’s list of artists and recordings before U2 is impressive: Low and Heroes (David Bowie), Iggy Pop, Tangerine Dream, early Depeche Mode, Killing Joke, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, and the Pixies. Interestingly enough, and Wikipedia doesn’t say why, but after U2 in 1991, there are no listed recordings until 2008’s A Hundred Million Suns by Snow Patrol.
The story of the creative discord in the band at this time is well known. Bono and the Edge wanted to move in a more dance/industrial direction and Larry and Adam wanted to go more rock and roll. This led to personal conflicts as well. Their desire to pursue creative growth, almost at all costs, is admirable to me. Thankfully, they had Brian Eno to glue the parts back together. Brian assured them that they were pushing new sonic territories while not abandoning the more traditional pop song structures that got them where they were. Every successful artist has done this. Trent Reznor also comes to mind. He took abrasive, noisy industrial music and put it to traditional song structures and approachable lyrics and not only was he wildly successful, but he pushed popular music forward at the same time. It was in Berlin that things started coming together for U2 and the outcome of all of this turmoil was the first song to emerge, “One”, which they all agreed was great and that song put the gas back in their creative tanks.
Dublin
After Berlin, they went home to Ireland where they worked in three separate studios before the album was finished: Elsinore, STS and Windmill Lane. They were more relaxed when they got back home, in spite of the drama of the leaked tapes from Hansa that famously happened. They were energized and focused on working hard, sometimes to a fault. In 1991, they were restrained by the technology of the time, being limited to 24 tracks of recording. Since they were wanting to record everything they tried, in order to construct, deconstruct and reconstruct songs, this posed a challenge to their engineering team. They eventually developed a process using multiple recorders and DAT machines to double the amount of tracks the band could use, but that was not the engineers only challenge. While there was separation of amps, there was still a significant amount of audio bleed and an excessive number of overdubs to sort through.
When they were finished recording, they once again had a mess, and once again, Brian Eno saved the day, both personally and musically. He had the band take a two-week vacation to distance themselves from their work a bit. Then each producer’s individual mixes were handed over to Steve Lillywhite for the final mix before the Edge took the tapes to Los Angeles for mastering.
The Songs
I’m going to break down three tracks in order to explore the changes that U2 made on this record.
Zoo Station – Right off the bat, when listening to this record you know this is not the same U2. The groove doesn’t change much, similar to dance music, where there are less dynamic changes than in pop music, the beat just keeps on. The dynamics are subtle, but they’re there, in the melodic changes and the lyrical content and vocal delivery. Bono is singing, seemingly through a megaphone, that he’s “ready”. For what? Everything. He’s determined, perhaps even excited, but he realizes the future may not all warm and fuzzy. While there is technically a chorus, with a change in melody and lyrics, it’s really the non-verbal vocal melody that is the hook here. Gone, at the first track, are the anthemic, sing-a-longs of stadiums past. Gone are the political, theological or social messaging. This is personal.
Until the End of the World – Here Bono places himself in the shoes of Judas Iscariot. Moving past the obvious theological mistakes he makes, it is an interesting sketch on the subject of betrayal. Particularly in verse three when he says his “sorrows they’d learn to swim” and “I reached out for the one I tried to destroy”. So often, we humans, seek comfort from those whom we harm. Especially the bad guys. The wife beater who wants his wife to comfort him when something happens to him. The priest who molests a boy, only to ask him for a donation to the church twenty years later. Narcissism is pervasive in our culture at all levels. Socially, the intro sets the tone very well and there’s a sense of uncertainty throughout. The swirling guitars and bouncing bass lines that lay the foundation for Bono’s simply delivered story make it easy for you to feel the anxiety of waiting for damnation.
The Fly – Lyrically, a lot of this song can be taken two ways, both theologically and personally. The last verse pushes it more into personal territory, but, to be fair, the personal is always in light of the context of the theological. This is both a song about a break-up, about the temptations a man fails to avoid and his regret, (whether sincere or not) and a song about the separation from God that sin causes. The first two verses are a list of things that are “no secret”, but then he says he’s heard the definition of a secret is something you only tell one other person, and he’s telling you. However, what he’s telling you, is no secret. He wants you to feel like he’s telling you a secret. This is similar to what the serpent said in the garden. It’s the oldest, and really, the only, lie ever told. What sin promises is a god-like experience, but what sin delivers is actually nothing more than counterfeit glory. This leaves you with a feeling of emptiness, a lack of satisfaction and a wake of pain behind you as you plow through others in search of your own glory. Verse three is one of my favorite verses in all of pop music for what he says,
It’s no secret that a conscience can sometimes be a pest
It’s no secret ambition bites the nails of success
Every artist is a cannibal, every poet is a thief
All kill their inspiration and sing about the grief
Musically, from the opening guitar riff, and the simple beat underneath it, it seduces you in with it’s darkness. Bono’s vocal delivery perfectly fits the tone, desperate and breathy. When the chorus kicks in, the Edge’s high vocals present the angelic illusion that Bono’s vocals betray. The contrast between what one desires, what one thinks might be promised to them and what one actually experience is crystal clear. Even the guitar solo, as melodic as it is, is wrapped in delay, wah and (knowing the Edge) who knows what else, but just as a few notes sound sweet, it will make a hard-left turn and start to make you feel uncomfortable.
In Summary
Where U2’s previous records had delivered a metric ton of hope, it’s a little harder to find underneath the human reality of Achtung Baby. Personally, I’m not one who always needs to know the ending. Sometimes a snapshot is enough to give you hours of contemplation. Often in life, and I can say this from personal experience, you can’t think about the destination at the moment because you don’t know whether to turn left or right at the intersection. U2 were definitely at an intersection in 1991. Creatively, professionally, personally, there were many complex and complicated relationships in their lives. It was probably difficult for them to be the merchants of hope that people were making them out to be. While not every artistic leap is successful, I always admire those who attempt the jump and I always applaud when they land it. U2 landed it in style here.
JC
While most of this came from memory, having read dozens of things in the past that I don’t recall to credit, I do have to credit a few sources that served as reminders and gap-fillers.
Actung Baby, the album that changed us – Remy
The Genius of… Achtung Baby by U2 – Michael Leonard
Wikipedia
Lyrical Context in U2’s Achtung Baby: To What Extent Did Lyrical Context – Romance, Technology and Nightlife Themes – Influence U2’s Achtung Baby? – Jakub Fiala, May 2012