release date: Jul. 5, 1993
format: digital
[album rate: 2,5 / 5] [2,55]
producer: Flood (Mark Ellis), Brian Eno, The Edge
label: Island Records - nationality: Ireland
Track highlights: 4. "Lemon" - 5. "Stay (Faraway, So Close)" (4,5 / 5)
8th studio album by U2, who holds on to Eno but still has made changes in the production team for the follow-up to their acclaimed '91 album. Where Achtung Baby introduced a new sound, they seem eager to take the next step from that by utilising programming as a main tool as contrary to the classic rock instrumentation of Rattle and Hum (1988). Stylistically, it may not be far from the '91 release but musically it shows a band trapped in its own success, and what seems defining for this album is that they apparently have lost control of musical direction.
At the time of the release, I rated this their worst album ever. Little did I know that the band could do even worse later on. They really try to make the right follow-up but also succeed far from it. The distance from great to really poor is noticeable on the album. The only really great track is "Stay (Faraway, So Close)" (from Wim Wenders homonymous movie) but together with the fine "Lemon" these two compositions drown in a collection of strange and / or poorly written and arranged tracks. From here on, the band initiate a rather negative tradition, which means that every new album comes with only one or two (at maximum: 3) great tracks. The rest of the songs are somehow fillers and / or detachments, or maybe they think they found that 'golden recipe': 'we make one fine single and release it with a bunch of unfinished outtakes and we have a new album'.
[ allmusic.com, Rolling Stone, Q Magazine 4 / 5 stars ]
