[albummaster]

Today's album of the day

Achtung Baby by U2 (View album | Buy this album)

Year: 1991.
Country:
Overall rank: 72
Average rating: 81/100 (from 1226 votes).

Thumbnail. Click to enlarge.

Tracks:
1. Zoo Station
2. Even Better Than The Real Thing
3. One
4. Until The End Of The World
5. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
6. So Cruel
7. The Fly
8. Mysterious Ways
9. Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World
10. Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
11. Acrobat
12. Love Is Blindness

About album of the day: The BestEverAlbums.com album of the day is the album appearing most prominently in member charts in the previous 24 hours. If an album, or artist, has previously been selected within a x day period, the next highest album is picked instead (and so on) to ensure a bit of variety. A full history of album of the day can be viewed here.

[Applerill]

"One" still makes me tear up sometimes

[F1Aaron]

The ZOO TV tour that followed this album must have been amazing to watch

[CoreyBairre]

U2's last great album. The final triumphant cheer of a band on top of the world right before they took on too much of the weight of it.

[RoundTheBend]

It's "the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree" - something I thought I heard Bono say once.

I have huge respect for any band which can morph its sound like they did and do it as well as they did.

What it shows is that they are artists first, not craftsmen... What I mean by that is that it almost don't matter the medium, they can be artists regardless of the equation.

While the album maybe has some aged sound to it, some of it is very much still a cutting sound. That intro of Edge's guitar is still riveting. The end of Until the End of the World still blows my mind. Who's gonna ride your wild horses... ahaha reminds me of to many relations. And the baseline of Mysterious Ways was something totally new for them... something almost sexy (like white guy sexy).

I don't think this was the end for them... I don't even think Pop was the end for them (yes the end for some of their purist 80s fans who either didn't get or their schtick on making fun of big rock stars/pop music... or maybe simply didn't think the transition into a new sound actually worked for them).

I think this band died when they did HTDMAAB... a few decent hits, but the album blows. Then again, the tour just after that album was the highest attended tour of all time... maybe going down hill isn't quite the right analogy. But to say the quality of musicianship and heart has gone down hill continually probably isn't too far from the truth. Then again, most people didn't care for the Stones' new stuff after 1980... ok I'm rambling.

[LordMark]

I know I'm in the minority, but I prefer this album over The Joshua Tree. I think it's much more consistent. It doesn't go downhill after track 3, and its "lesser" tracks aren't as forgettable. And while 1991 saw the release of a much better shoegaze album (MBV's Loveless), I still appreciate the shoegaze influences on tracks like "Zoo Station" and "The Fly", the latter of which features some of my favourite guitar work from The Edge. It's rare indeed for any band to sound this fresh on their seventh studio album.

[Onater]

[boyd94]

Like someone said above, their last great album. It's so weird to see a band be so self-aware and then relax into that very ironic parody of themselves for the rest of their career.

[Graeme2]

Bono can get right on your tits but this is definitely a very good record. Their last good album by a mile, in fact I'd say their only other studio record I rate as highly is War. Cant really be arsed with any other, though Boy is alright. Always really liked the last 3 tracks on this. Might have to put this on, it's been a while.

[Puncture Repair]

Not nearly as bad as some people make out, but I'm always stunned just how high the album tends to rank.

I feel like it has maybe four good songs, and the rest is fluff.

'One' is gorgeous, it's kind of a shame it was written by Bono.