"Zooropa" - U2

U2's 1993 album Zooropa sees the band delve even further into electronic music and further away from the anthemic stadium sound found on albums such as The Joshua Tree. In this regard it goes even away from The Joshua Tree than its predecessor, the much acclaimed Achtung Baby. The first side of the album (bear with me, I heard this album for many years in cassette format) is the more electronic side while the second side is more melodic and a bit more traditionally U2. It was too bad that their next album (Pop) focused even more on the electronic side of things. "Babyface" about internet ogling is a very prescient track, though the lyrics would not surprise in this day and age.

The songs are a very disparate bunch. The heartbreakingly tender song "The First Time" is one of Bono's most intimate, perhaps even autobiographical songs and is one of the strongest songs on the album. "Babyface" about internet ogling is a very prescient track, though the lyrics would not surprise in this day and age. The final track is interesting. It is "The Wanderer" and features Johnny Cash on lead vocals. Musically it is a return to the more electronic sounds of the first side and lyrically it is about a future dystopia. It's somehow jarring to me to hear Johnny Cash on a U2 album, but I think it works, and the final track is a good place to put it.

This is by no means my favourite U2 album and it does not contain any big hits..... but it it still a worthwhile and consistent album and definitely worth checking out if you want to delve a little deeper into U2's catalog.

Euro-doodlings?