U2 -- Zooropa

8/10

On 1993's Zooropa, U2 were Radiohead before Radiohead. Hold on, let me google that to make sure I'm not off base. ****Hang on...**** okay, apparently, I am not the only person to feel this way.
U2 drastically altered their sound, but not necessarily their spirit or musical core, with 1991's Achtung Baby, which took influences from early 90's European club music. The tour for that album was apparently an insanely surreal head-space for the band, and they decided to try to communicate those feelings with new music. That music evolved into Zoorapa, released less than two years after Achtung Baby, the kind of quick turnaround the band haven't even sniffed at since. The result is by far the band's most experimental album, diving deeper into the rabbithole of not only more electronically-tinged music, but turn-of-the-century alienation. Sounds like Radiohead.
Indeed, before Radiohead recorded OK Computer or Kid A, Zooropa's opening title track began with a two-minute collage of advertisements, leading up to frontman, Bono, singing, "Be a winner/eat to get slimmer," about as Radiohead a line as you can get. 

For as prophetic as Radiohead have seemed, track two, "Babyface," seems to accurately prophesy the 21st Century's narcissistic social media fetish. The dark spoken word of track three, "Numb," with guitarist, The Edge, mumblingly commanding an enormous list of "don't"'s is a dead-ringer for both Radiohead's "Fitter Happier" and "Pull/Pulk Revolving Doors." Likewise, the shimmery, alien "Lemon," with Bono singing in a disarming falsetto, could have filled in on any Radiohead album between 1997-2003. Then "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)," an absolutely killer U2 song comes in to remind the listener that this is U2, possibly the greatest band to have ever existed, and instead of all this weird experimental stuff, they could just combine their four powers together to create great songs that sound like U2. 

Then, "Some Days Are Better Than Others" comes in with a bass intro that makes you swear you are listening to Radiohead's "Packt Like Sardines in a Crushd Tin Box." The thing is this: nobody can do Radiohead's experimental rock sound like Radiohead. I gave the albums I referenced by them, OK Computer, Kid A, and Amnesiac, all 10/10's when I reviewed them. Zooropa, while quite good for what it is, might presage that sound and vibe, but Radiohead perfected it.
Zooropa is an extremely ambitious album. It does a great job of creating a cohesive mood, exploring the ways technology and modern society seems to cut mankind off from humanity. It contains two legitimately great songs in the aforementioned "Stay..." as well as "The First Time," a quiet slow-burn take on the Prodigal Son parable, where the Son doesn't come home. It ends with a major statement, as Bono hands the microphone and his lyric sheet to Johnny Cash, who wanders across a post-apocalyptic landscape, in search of meaning, until a warning alarm heralds the end of the album. 

Zooropa is really quite good...but it isn't U2 at their best. The songwriting here is often more interesting than it is memorable. As a result, over these 51 minutes, it doesn't always seem like these four players are able to showcase their best work. Zooropa is an important album, though, and a bridge to a late 90's U2 that would stray even farther from what one would have previously thought of as U2. And...

P.S.: I also feel like this is by far U2's saddest album. A lot of that has to do with the themes of alienation, as well as the coldness of the music. However, these lyrics overall make me wonder about Bono's own emotional state at the time.
All the talk about staring at a screen and looking at one's reflection.
Singing about someone who refuses to leave their abusive lover.
Or...I'll just quote these lyrics from "The First Time"

"My father is a rich man, he wears a rich man's cloak
He gave me the keys to his kingdom (coming)
Gave me a cup of gold

He said "I have many mansions
And there are many rooms to see."
But I left by the back door
And I threw away the key"

I mean damn.


1993 Island
1. Zooropa 6:31
2. Babyface 4:01
3. Numb 4:20
4. Lemon 6:58
5. Stay (Faraway, So Close!) 4:58
6. Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car 5:20
7. Some Days Are Better Than Others 4:17
8. The First Time 3:45
9. Dirty Day 5:24
10. The Wanderer (starring Johnny Cash) 5:41