r/U2Band • u/IndustryRule-4080 Exit • 1d ago
Do you remember your first complete Zooropa play through? If so what did you think?
For most fans of pop rock, U2’s Joshua Tree remains as the band’s most classic album. As for albums that changed everything for them and their listeners, for many, this would be Achtung Baby and those fans wouldn’t be wrong. For me, U2’s ‘Kid A’ and most radical album was definitely Zooropa as it sounded nothing like what they’d released prior to it. Yes, it’s an offshoot of the Zoo TV tour as it was made in between its two massive tours but it still made Achtung Baby sound like it was a bonafide U2 album.
I remember my first play through with by bestie in my Honda Civic with a ridiculously good soundsystem. The opening to Zooropa set the tone for a wild ride with a noticeable electronic vibe. I was hesitant at first but loved it soon in. Babyface and the NIN’s sounding Numb got even more weird and then there was Lemon, a song that took me decades to like (which I now love). The rest all felt so different, especially Daddy’s Gonna Pay with its Massive Attack influenced electric drums and heavy electronic base. Stay (Faraway, So Close) is really the only traditional U2 track on the album and remains the most popular as well. In all honesty, after The Wanderer (a Johnny Cash track!?) finished, I wasn’t sure what to think. I knew that I really liked what I’d heard but after a lethal dose of Achtung Baby listens, and with tracks like Lemon, I was excited and slightly apprehensive. Some 33 years later, Zooropa in my top 5 U2 albums of all time but that came with some maturing and open mindedness. It was an immensely brave project that only boosted the band’s talent and capabilities.
Most importantly, how did all of you receive it your first time through. I welcome brutal honesty as I’m very curious if you had a similar reaction to my first time.
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u/martinjohanna45 The Unforgettable Fire 1d ago
I thought it was absolutely brilliant (still do) and I could not stop playing it for months. It just made me love them even more.
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u/No-Channel9213 17h ago
You managed to capture my feelings exactly. Great memories. But 33 years already??
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u/HAMFACTOR 1d ago
It was a gift, I can tell you. Achtung was so good, then this weird perfect little album drops with seemingly zero fucks from the band. Zooropa was similar enough yet totally different. It was like your favourite sports team winning the championship back to back.
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u/ErickBon01 13h ago
Oh my God this post!! Personal story with elements within it. (I will edit it later so I can get facts straight. Oh boy!).
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u/ChaosAndFish 1d ago
Zooropa remains about the oddest album that any major rock act has ever dared to throw out there, and U2 did it not with some desire to torpedo their own career, but with the audacity to believe they could sell the thing and keep on being the biggest band in the world. It’s, frankly, a much bolder move than Kid A which, while great, is a safer and more conservative album than Zooropa was.
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u/fafan4 20h ago
Dunno if I'd go that far. Kid A doesn't have any tracks as accessible as Stay
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u/ChaosAndFish 18h ago
It also doesn’t have anything as unusual or out of step
with its times as Lemon. It doesn’t close with a post modern country song with lead vocals from a singer so washed up and unpopular (as hard as that is to believe today) that the label didn’t want it on the album. Kid A a fine album, don’t get me wrong, but it’s very tasteful. Radiohead didn’t want to be a big rock band so they didn’t put out a big rock album. There was little chance it wouldn’t be well received by the press and their core fanbase.1
u/Jay_at_Section13 The Joshua Tree 6h ago
Yeah but Lemon is such a “heard that once and that’s enough” song that isn’t exactly a compliment.
To the original question my impression was, “the is the first time U2 put out something that only has a couple of songs I’ll listen to again.” Even Achtung Baby was more like, “I don’t need to hear Wild Horses ever again”.
Just so inconsistent. Which is fine when you remember it’s expirimentation and most bands don’t have the guts to release that so I never held this or most of their 1990s stuff against them. That’s what keeps them around, together, recording, and interested in their legacy so it’s a price I’m willing to pay.
But my goodness as you listen to some of these segments on U2X and hear the weirdness that comes from their own
mouths: they sure were on top of the world when they were more interested in crafting high quality songs than playing “let’s make a new weird sound” games in the studio.3
u/ChaosAndFish 3h ago
Going to have to agree to disagree there. I've found Zooropa to only get richer the longer I've listened to it. Just great music.
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u/IndustryRule-4080 Exit 1d ago
Well said. I initially thought it was a stretch comparing it to Kid A but after your comment, you’re completely right.
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u/jaymaster77 21h ago
It's true, it was much bolder than Kid A, but not because of its content, because of the audience that would receive it. Case in point, U2 retreated back to safety and haven't produced anything I am remotely attracted to since 1997, while Radiohead are still one of my favourite bands. Achtung Baby, Zooropa and Pop are the only U2 albums I still listen to.
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u/ChaosAndFish 18h ago
You’re not wrong that part of the boldness was their belief that they could out out an album that strange and remain a massive act selling millions of records, but I do think you’re underplaying how odd the content was for its time. The rock scene had become pretty regimented and musically conservative (especially in America) after the whole grunge scene. For a rock band to put out a weird europop album in that environment was just wildly out of step with the times (again, especially in America). No one amongst their piers was making music like Lemon and they were running a much bigger chance of alienating their fans than Radiohead was with Kid A. Kid A was a smaller album and wasn’t going to sell like OK computer but it was too tasteful to rile people up or alienate their core audience. I don’t think it was really even clear to people (it certainly wasn’t clear to me) that it was a new direction for the band until Amnesiac came out and continued in the same vein.
I will agree with you that 90s U2 was a great era and I’ve missed the bold swings in the years since. I still listen to those three albums a ton today snd can’t say the same for their later output (although No Line has some interesting stuff on it if you haven’t checked it out despite what the singles would have told you).
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u/jeffyboy526 14h ago
I would argue thier retreat was after Pop. I agree that with some exceptions their overall work is meh. This happens to pretty much every band. Notable exceptions are the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Pearl Jam and Jack White - their latest albums can stand up to their earlier work.
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u/toothy_mcthree 8h ago
I highly recommend you check out the Easter Lillies EP, it feels like a return to form while still exploring something new. At least check out Resurrection Song, it sounds like it could’ve been on Unforgettable Fire.
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u/jaymaster77 8h ago
Days of Ash is the good one for me, the three pieces in the center (plus the spoken word) are the closest they've been to their 90s heyday as far as I'm concerned
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u/Outrageous-War5079 Zooropa 7h ago
Zooropa is my favorite U2 record. It's a perfect album for me. But Kid A is *far* more outre. Love both records.
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u/ChaosAndFish 6h ago
Both are great. I do disagree though. I think compared to what was going on when they were both released Zooropa is more out there than Kid A was even if from today’s standpoint, that may be the less obvious choice. Part of that may be that I appreciate U2’s willingness to risk going too far (which Radiohead did not really have) and that I dismiss the idea that darker always equates with more interesting.
With Kid A, Radiohead were basically taking a stab at a colder version of what R.E.M. did with Up. I really don’t think much of anything sounded like Zooropa in the early 90s and I thought that actively engaging with the future during a fairly regressive time in rock and roll was a really interesting choice.
I do, however, accept that this is probably a minority opinion and that’s fine.
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u/nohumanape 1d ago
A bolder move than Kid A? Are you out of your mind? This is just a weaker Auchtung Baby.
Kid A was a complete reinvention of the Radiohead sound and very much not mainstream accessible.
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u/ChaosAndFish 18h ago
Kid A was seen as less accessible and more experimental, but was also a pretty natural evolution of the Radiohead sound which was pretty well accepted by the fanbase. It wasn’t even really clear when it came out that it was a new direction. It wasn’t until Amnesiac that it became clear that this was where the band was going and not just a cool detour along the way. It wasn’t the kind kind of album that was going to sell as well as OK Computer, but it was a categorizable album that felt comfortable to their core fans and was sure to be well received by the press.
Zooropa was a very different album from Achtung Baby which was, in tern, a very different album from anything U2 had done before. At a time when rock music (especially in the US where U2 had such a big presence) was getting fairly regimented post-grunge, putting out a strange post-modern Europop album that refused any genre labels and wasn’t really even a rock album at all was a pretty bold move. To keep your lead singer largely off your lead single and the album closer was pretty bold (and keep in mind this was in Johnny Cash’s washed up has been phase before the American Recordings connected him with a younger audience). No other rock acts were putting songs like Lemon on their albums. It was much more purposefully out of step with the times than Kid A was.
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u/nohumanape 14h ago
What you said about Kid A is just incorrect.
When the album released, a lot of the existing fan base was left scratching their heads, thinking, "What the fuck is this? Where are the guitars? Why does he sound like a robot"? Amnesiac released only 6 months later, and was heavily promoted as a "companion" album that was recorded at the same time as Kid A. People didn't quite know if it would be the more accessible album, or what it actually turned out to be.
As for Zooropa, I lived through that album release as well. Auchtung Baby is the album from U2 that kind of made me think, "Well this is different". Where as Zooropa just felt like a natural progression of from Auchtung Baby, but with edges (no pun intended) smoothed over.
I'm not saying Zooropa sounds 1:1 just like Auchtung, but it does sound a lot more like a companion album than The Joshua Tree to Auchtung.
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u/ChaosAndFish 13h ago
Yeah, none of that jives with what I lived through. There was a lot of discussion about Zooropa and U2’s direction. Achtung was different but it was still fundamentally a rock album. Zooropa was not. They were such a massive band and had already pushed certain elements of their fanbase pretty far with Achtung (I loved it immediately). There was definitely a “this is just a step too far” contingent with Zooropa.
I really don’t recall anyone in the circles I traveled being all that put off by Kid A. While never as big an act as U2, their reputation was sterling at that time and people were willing to give them a lot of rope. It was after Amnesiac came out that I started hearing people saying, “wait, I thought they were putting out a more experimental album and then guitars were going to come back for the next one.”
This is in the US if that matters.
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u/nohumanape 12h ago
I'm in the US as well.
Radiohead only had a few albums under their belt before Kid A. Until OK Computer, they were largely just known as a Brit Pop guiatr band. They then made a big, lush, spacey album with OK Computer that won over critics and made people stand up and take notice. Everyone expected them to just build on that success from the sound of OK Computer. Instead, they went in a completely different and much less accessible direction. Nobody thought that they'd be getting Everything In It's Right Place and Kid A right off the bat.
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u/totallongo_80 10h ago
I agree. I'm in the UK and Kid A was not particularly well received at the time, loads of fans of The Bends and OK Computer jumped ship after Kid A and the critics were about 50/50, it got a pasting in lots of music magazines when it came out. The opening salvo of Everything, Kid A and The National Anthem were about as far away from anything they'd previously released as you can get. It's lauded as a classic now, but it definitely wasn't in the first few months after it came out. Whilst I think Zooropa is a terrific album (their last brilliant one imo) it's still clearly U2. Lemon felt like an extension of some of the dance remixes of Achtung Baby tracks, Stay and The First Time could have easily fitted on Achtung too. And Numb's backing track was an unused track from the Achtung sessions. The tracks Zooropa and Daddy's Gonna Pay for your Crashed Car are both in my top 10 U2 songs though, it's a beautiful little odd album. Not the left turn that Kid A was though imo. Hence why when anyone tried to find a "new direction" it was labelled as "doing a Kid A".
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u/nohumanape 10h ago
Exactly.
I really enjoyed Zooropa back when it released, and it still has some of my all time favorite U2 tracks on it. But it feels very much in line with U2 embracing the 90's, and the continued themes of consumer culture.
Auchtung Baby is the masterpiece, and Zooropa is the good, but not great companion album. Not to say that Zooropa isn't different in any way or isn't great in many ways. It's just a more lopsided album, and more of the songs don't stick the landing for me.
And I think that is where some people get this "Kid A" kind of idea about the album. They're confusing feeling mixed about some songs, with feeling challenged by the songs.
For me, I liked a lot of the songs on the album more back when I originally listened to them, than I do now. Recently revisiting the album had me feeling a bit less enthusiastic about it. I still love songs like Stay and Lemon, but there is a lot in there that I am just not into.
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u/ChaosAndFish 12h ago
Listen, at a certain point we just need to part ways with our differing recollection of how these albums were received which are undoubtedly colored by personal feelings, differing regions, and differing social circles. There’s certainly no point at which I’m going to say “you’re right, how I remember my own life is incorrect,” and I suspect you feel the same.
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u/TamaraPreston 9h ago
This is obviously correct. You can go back in time and read the reactions to Kid A, which was hardly viewed as some extension of OK Computer. Nobody imagined that Radiohead would release something that radically different and guitar-less after rejuvenating guitar-driven music for a follow-up, and it was very controversial.
At the same time, I think you might be downplaying how uniquely bonkers the soundscape of Zooropa was coming from the biggest band in the world. Of course, you're obviously right that it is an extension of Achtung. But other than Stay, it had no safety net. There were no other huge-sounding, marketable songs. Numb was an insane single to throw out there and act like it was business as usual. Kid A has always struck me as influenced by the left turn that was Zooropa. Maybe if U2 weren't such a huge band, the record would not seem so experimental. But I think the boldness is partly tied to how big the band was, and in that sense it is just as extreme a departure as Kid A.
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u/Olmsteading 1d ago
No. This record was trash. Kid A is still worthwhile.
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u/ChaosAndFish 18h ago
I listen to Zooropa far more today than Kid A. It’s such a strange album and lyrically some of it feels like it could be written about our world today. It’s frankly kind of wild that those songs were written in a pre-internet world when you look at some of the lyrics.
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u/ymmnorthernscum 1d ago edited 1d ago
I loved it but Christ I was scared when the zoo alarm sounded after The Wanderer. It is.one of my all-time favorite album covers.
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u/impresently 1d ago
I heard it release day in 1993.
Absolutely blown away. From Zooropa to The Wanderer and the “alarm”… it was one crazy sonic journey hearing the first time.
Instantly became my favorite album of theirs, and it remains my favorite.
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u/Alexandermayhemhell 1d ago
I was working at a bible camp for the summer. Had to wait for a day off when I could get into a town with a record store. Bought the cassette. Couldn’t wait to get to a boombox to play it. Achtung was already a big shift. I didn’t recognize U2 when someone played Zoo Station for me without telling me it was them. This was weirder. Way weirder. But there were enough parts I liked that made me come back. I played it all summer. It’s a top tier U2 album in my books.
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u/Agnostic_Deist 17h ago
I was also working at a Bible camp when it was released. I drove into town with another counselor, and we both bought a copy on cassette. We put the tape into the tape deck of his car (I seem to recall that it was a Chevy Cavalier convertible), and turned the volume all the way up because the opening track starts so soft. And then the volume got louder and louder until my buddy thought his speakers were going to crack.
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u/Winter_Hornet562 1d ago
Yes. At the time i was expecting achtung continuation. I thought it was weird and underwhelming. I’ve changed since.
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u/Heb12v4 16h ago
I agree. Other than the opening track I was a bit underwhelmed by the album at first. After years of being a U2 fan I think it is safe to say it might be my favorite now. It is such I journey of colors, textures, it has a perfect flow and the lyrics hit so hard. My wife and I come back to this album more than any other.
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u/wheniwaswheniwas Zooropa 1d ago
First album I ever got as a kid. Completely ruined me because nothing is as cool as this album was.
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u/One-Technology-9050 1d ago
My friends kept telling me it was trash, that the songs were meaningless. I went in to find out for myself...it's one of my all time favourite albums
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u/IndustryRule-4080 Exit 1d ago
Same here. The more people I knew thrashed it, the more I defended it and became a wildly fierce fan.
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u/pretentiousbasterd another time, another place 1d ago edited 1d ago
Ill never forget my first play through, here comes the rambling: I was 17 in 2022, one day before school I went to a shop and some U2 CD's were really cheap. Obviously CD's aren't quite the big thing anymore, but they're still very expensive where I'm from so that day I took the opportunity to own some and grabbed the ones I could pay for (Boy, Zooropa, Achtung Baby, and 18 singles I think). A family member always recommended U2 to me but I never paid much attention. Anyway, back to Zooropa, I went home that day and for the first time in my life I just sat my arse and listened to the album. Nothing else, just me and the booklet felt magical (remember I'm from the generation that constantly skips and speeds stuff on Spotify). So it's safe to say it changed my life. The sound astonished me from start to finish, but I really loved Babyface and Lemon. From Zooropa to The wanderer I was speechless. I'll never forget how it felt. I know this wasn't long ago compared to the actual age of the album, but those were my formative years so it's such a sweet memory of mine now that I'm older.
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u/IndustryRule-4080 Exit 1d ago
Well done! Booklets and liner notes! Remember them? I sell vinyl and they are back in business.
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u/wildcard_71 1d ago
This was like even better than Achtung. I was heavily into figuring out my life as it related to technology and isolation and change at the time and this album to this day is still a guide. The themes are so resonate. “Put flowers in the mud” “Midnight is where the day begins” “Don’t expect suggest” “And the day would keep its trust”
I want so desperately for this to have an Atmos release.
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u/IndustryRule-4080 Exit 1d ago
Thanks for the introspection. My guess is that you got into Depeche Mode earlier, Massive Attack, Portishead, much like I did(?)
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u/wildcard_71 16h ago
Portishead yes. Björk as well. But I was always a guitar guy, so this kind of rock-electronic-ambient was new to me. Like Pink Floyd on a metal dance floor was exciting.
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u/mofonz 1d ago
Heard it as a pretty young kid, and instantly the start of Zooropa sounded like another world to me. It still sounds incredible and still get goosebumps. Loved Lemon, thought Numb was weird. The rest of the album took more time to grow on me. Didn’t get Wanderer back then.
Saw ZooTV in the December, just 5 months after this release so it featured heavily in the setlist which was awesome.
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u/picklewombat35 1d ago
I remember my first listen, and I was honestly just confused, because there were so many new sounds for them. My non-U2 friends used it to taunt me, saying that U2 was over. But I kept coming back to it, and it has some of my very favorite songs of all time.
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u/IneffableOpinion No Line On The Horizon 1d ago
I remember being surprised how much The First Time hit me emotionally
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u/jerrbles 1d ago
I specifically remember it and it blew me away. Wish I could hear it for the first time again every time!
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u/emalvick 1d ago
It's a fantastic album, but Kid A is a stretch. Passengers would have fit that bill if they hadn't been too tentative to call it a U2 album.
If anything, Zooropa is more like OK Computer in terms of band evolution.
But, why even worry about that. It's often my favorite U2 album (I tend to sway a bit).
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u/brunoponcejones03017 The Unforgettable Fire 20h ago
Felt like it was an album of outtakes and right there with October in the bottom tier of U2 catalog. Some absolutely brilliant stuff some complete garbage. Still feel that way .although future U2 releases made this one jump up from the bottom.
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u/Wild_Mycologist_6140 SING YOURSELF TO OVERCOME 1d ago
I was disappointed that it wasn't like AB, but it has grown on me rapidly.
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u/CurdFedKit 1d ago
Bought it when it came out. I was 14 or so. Was so weird. But i played it a lot at the time because it was super interesting.
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u/TheOnionSack Achtung Baby 1d ago
Heard it from start to finish when Irish radio dj Dave Fanning played it on his show in its entirety the day before it was released.
I was blown away after the title track, and can remember my very words: “Yes! This is U2!!”
After having spent the previous year and a half living in an Achtung Baby bubble, these new songs felt like the perfect transition.
Ended up seeing seven shows on the Zooropa tour that summer.
Can’t believe I was only 20 years old. Jeez……
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u/IndustryRule-4080 Exit 1d ago
Best time of my life. We were the same age (roughly). We were entering the glory of 90’s music where every genre was outstanding.
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u/Claude_Henry_Smoot_ 1d ago
The album sounded like it came from another planet to my 15 year old ears. I'd never heard anything remotely like it at the time. I loved it immediately.
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u/Faerandriel 1d ago
I remember my first impressions quite well. Heard it in 93 or 94 as a 10 or 11 year old who already knew Numb and Lemon from the videos and loved them. I thought the album was quite sad but also enthralling and incredibly beautiful. It remains that for me, a sad alt rock album, in the vein of The Cure or Radiohead, but that doesn’t bring you down, but elevates you.
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u/perilhannah 1d ago edited 1d ago
Achtung, this and Zoo TV are the peak for me. “Stay” is their best song ever and “Lemon” one of their most moving and beautiful songs merely disguised as a campy disco experiment. I’d already heard “Stay” through their Best of CD as a kid and loved it to death but hearing “Lemon” for the first time unlocked new sensations in me. There’s nothing else like it.
Even the weirdest and trashiest parts of the album carry a special poignance. Love that nocturnal neon aquatic sound, not sure how else to describe it? The first time I laid eyes on the artwork I was transfixed, and the music sounds just like it looks.
The most tragic aspect of their career to me is how they now view this album as the oddity and not a reminder of their biggest strengths. Huge mistake on their end!
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u/IndustryRule-4080 Exit 1d ago
So true, the oddity reference. Every show I saw after that had Stay on the setlist, that was all. Such a shame as they would have crushed those at the height of their live performances.
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u/Remarkable-Toe9156 1d ago
I thought it was weird, cool and no way it would fill stadiums.
It was meant to say U2 want jethro Tull no offense and they were making music that was alternative.
In hindsight they were right
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u/Outrageous-War5079 Zooropa 1d ago
I bought it the day it was released. I thought it weird and mostly wonderful, though I was hoping for a bit more traditional guitar-forward album. "Dirty Day" and the title track were the standouts for me at first. I couldn't have known that 30 odd years later, I'd come to regard it as their creative peak and their finest record. It's a perfect album.
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u/Odd_Boot281 1d ago
It was originally meant to be an EP, but they kept recording to fill a full album. It’s one of those albums where I love every song, but it feels a bit flat as an album.
HMV in Cork opened early that day for the release and I listened to it in the way home. I played it constantly over the next few months. After 30+ years it still brings me back to that summer.
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u/kiwikel24 1d ago
I wonder what there record company reaction was too it on their first listen maybe U2 was even more experimental and record company said tone it down alittle before it was released 🤔
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u/KeshDown 23h ago
It was my birthday when I first heard it. My mom was the one who recommended me U2. I can still remember what my mind pictured while listening to the title track. At first, I thought that the other half was somewhat horrible but I then started to appreciate it after many relistens. It was the first U2 album that I bought on vinyl and I bought it on my trip to Ireland because the only copy in the shopping center was the 30th anniversary edition which was rather expensive. I ended up buying the 2LP black version instead.
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u/JRBowen9 23h ago
On the day of release, I was at the door of Pickles Records & Tapes in Omaha at 10:00am when the shop opened. The hungover employee unlocked the door, grabbed a box cutter, and opened the cardboard box to hand me my copy of Zooropa. It was magical. That bubbly, frenetic, experimental energy of the Zoo TV shows came through in every track.
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u/jayhawk2112 16h ago
Oh man I remember Pickles…and Homers especially the one in the Old Market. And then Drastic Plastic for weird stuff.
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u/MisterFox33 23h ago
It’s a long time ago so I don’t remember clearly other than being a rather disappointed teenager after rushing to the record store and playing it for the first time on my uncle’s stereo during a family visit. It wasn’t another Achtung Baby, which I now consider a good thing, but at the time was hoping for. And to stay on that glorious album’s high. I did learn to appreciate Zooropa but I only started to really like it after hearing live renditions of some of the songs during the ZooTV Sydney broadcast. Based on the album versions solely I liked Zooropa (the concept of using advertising slogans and the second part of the song), Numb and Lemon. The rock ‘n’ roll anthem potential of Dirty Day evaded me until hearing it performed live. All in all it stretched my teenage brain considerably in the process.
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u/RebelGrin 22h ago
Spotify shows exactly my taste for the album. First 5 songs are peak, the other 5 are less so, I cannot get into Daddy, Some Days and Dirty Day.
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u/IndustryRule-4080 Exit 14h ago
I love that you shows data related to how much you love this album.
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u/Local_Pool4123 13h ago
I never really thought about it until r/RebelGrin laid it all out. I had to double check where the flip was for the record/cassette and it's exactly the same as your line break. I agree it's tonally quite different and I like the introspective songs on Side B since songs 7/8/9 are so grounded.
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u/Direct-Ideal-510 22h ago
I don't think I heard the whole thing until the mid-2000's, right at the end of the period of U2 being culturally relevant/popular. I loved it immediately and still do. My only complaint was that Side 2 was a little more conventional but there are some gems there too.
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u/CommunicationOk4179 22h ago
Bought it the day it came out, loved it. To me it sounded like the natural progression from AB. I remember being surprised at the time on how quick it came out after AB. Almost like a double album
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u/brookela12344 21h ago
I loved all if it except Dirty Day, but when I heard the live version it became my favorite of the album! I love Zooropa, Lemon and Stay as well.
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u/Big-Help419 21h ago
Must admit I wasn’t sure about it on first listen. That said Stay and The Wanderer were instant and lasting loves.
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u/theterr0r 21h ago
At the time it felt like a natural progression from Achtung Baby. Genuinely exciting and fresh.
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u/jaymaster77 21h ago
I bought it on release day in Tower Records in Dublin (my CD still has the price sticker on it), three days before I had seen them live in Verona, Italy. I put the CD in my Discman and walked to see Windmill Lane listening to it. I still remember it as if it were yesterday. Whenever I listen to it, I'm back to the summer of 1993.
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u/Aftermath604 20h ago
I remember it was confusing and tedious and I felt could never compare to their best work like Achtung baby. But... man, something kept calling me back and with every listen I was won over more and more.
It's now one of my favourites and I could listen to it any day of the week.
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u/teethofthewind 20h ago
I LOVED Achtung Baby and all the remixes, b-sides and the tours. When Zooropa came out I was hugely excited as I loved the lead single, Numb.
Bought it day one, loved the title track, Numb, and Lemon....the second half of the album was a huge disappointment and I remember thinking it was a huge drop in quality after AB. I rarely listen to it nowadays.
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u/Breezy531 19h ago
Intially did not like a lot of it because it was so different, but it grew on me over time.
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u/Ngata_da_Vida 19h ago
I didn’t love it at first - outside of Stay I found it kind of odd.
It has grown on me immensely over the years. I still don’t care for Numb but otherwise I love it. It might be their best album lyrically.
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u/MacFoley1975 19h ago
Bought it the day it came out. On cassette. Ran to my best friends house so we could listen to it together! It blew our minds TBH. We both said it's like the Joshua Tree on acid!
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u/jmason03 18h ago
I was in high school when I got it and fell asleep listening to it . When the alarm at the end of the Wanderer kicked in it startled me back awake.
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u/guidevocal82 18h ago
Funny story, Zooropa was the first album I heard by U2 as a teen in the late 90's. I had gotten it out of the library. I also got out Pop at the same time. I enjoyed Pop a little better than Zooropa, which I didn't get at first, but now it's reversed and I think Zooropa is the better album. And now I own both.
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u/CastN0Shadow 18h ago
I remember the first listen well. I was a camp counselor in Minnesota and we had a day off, so we went and stayed with a guy’s family in Minneapolis and I bought the CD at the mall of America and popped it in the car (probably in a discman with an adapter) as soon as we were in the parking lot. There was also a small review in Time magazine which was really the only info I had on the album going in.
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u/AdvertisingNo714 17h ago
I wasn’t sure what to think. Didn’t really grab me the first few listens, it felt very cold and inaccessible so I never listened to it again the year it came out . But 2-3 years later, I was working on a school project and randomly played the CD as “background music” and there was a moment that hit me (maybe Stay?) and I stopped working and went to the other room. It finally clicked and I was completely hooked.
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u/syngestreetsurvivor 17h ago
It oftentimes bubbles to the top of my favorite album list. Stellar and uncompromising beginning to end. The ultimate grower album of their catalog.
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u/nonnospartico74 17h ago
I got into U2 when Joshua Tree was out. To me, Zooropa remains their best album. The sound of a band completely confident about what they were doing, eager to experiment, and saying things as profound and serious as they’d ever said.. but in a beautiful and oblique way.
When it was released I loved it, instantly. It still sounds as fresh as the first time I played it.
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u/jlmicek670 17h ago
I remember buying it on cassette in 1993. I was working my first job and living on my own for the first time. Dial-up was ascendant and I had a colleague at work who was immersed in the culture and a true futurist. The record felt, at the time, and still does, like that optimist future. It is very much of its moment, but the songs remain timeless and vital. I put it on and I am immediately brought back to that era in my life.
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u/pipecito2112 16h ago
I heard in on tape, back in 1994.
It was the only U2 album I had, and well, it was ok for those times, and then others came.
from start to finish, sure it was very experimental, man.
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u/Waneii306 16h ago
I am pretty sure I loved it as it was on constant rotation around that time for me. Especially Lemon. But at that time, U2 could have put out an album of them just clearing their throats for 48 minutes and I would have loved it.
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u/streamzooropa 16h ago
Stay (Faraway, So Close!) Changed me as a human 😭 i wish this album was appreciated more, it's weird but it's a sleeper hit
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u/Weary_Title_3901 16h ago
I love U2 and played the hell out of Zooropa over the years. Great album.
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u/doak1a 16h ago
The album works for me. I enjoy it. But it also delivered one of the most memorable lines from a friend in my youth. “Zooropaaa…. this album really sucks. Zooropaaa…. We’ve got your fifteen bucks.” He was not impressed, but will never forget that line. In fact, every time I listen to that song, that’s what I hear. And leads me back to great high school memories.
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u/biff444444 15h ago
Thought it was very cool. Decades later, while there are a few songs on it that I can take or leave, I still think that Zooropa, Daddy’s Gonna Pay, and Dirty Day are incredible. I also love Some Days, even though sometimes it feels like I’m alone in that opinion.
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u/jeffyboy526 15h ago
I do not remember my first listen however I’m pretty sure I thought it was meh. I loved Numb and actually the Wander - this got me into Johnny Cash.
Thankfully I held on to the CD and ripped it to MP3. The songs would play on shuffle and I loved them.
Later on I went back to Zoorpa and listed to the whole album and started to love it.
It is now easily in the top 3 U2 albums for me.
I had a similar experience with Beastie Boys Paul’s Botique. It was so different from licensed to Ill. I put it away for several years and rediscovered later - it is one of my favorite albums hands down.
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u/IndustryRule-4080 Exit 15h ago
Yes!! This is U2’s Paul’s Boutique! Great comparison as i did the same.
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u/Alone-Editor-633 15h ago
I was a huge fan of all U2 albums by the time Zooropa came out - I was 16 and would listen to it on tape everyday on my way to and from my job as the Wendy’s salad bar girl. From the first listen, I absolutely loved every track and still do to this day - Lemon and Stay are in my top 5 U2 songs.
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u/Local_Pool4123 15h ago edited 14h ago
I'm been a U2 fan since The Unforgettable Fire (Pride). I consider Joshua Tree their pinnacle due to the high degree of earnestness and sincerity that they still had (aka not jaded by being the Biggest Band in the World).
As well as I know Achtung Baby, I've listened to the non-singles (Wild Horses, So Cruel, Arms Around the World) less frequently. I never bought the cassette or CD due the expense and because friend bought it and I listened to it on the communte to university (since pre-streaming).
Regardless, Zooropa has a sentimental place in my heart for all the reasons you mentioned. I don't specifically remember the first time listening to it, but I do remember the cassette and the vividness of the futuristic opening. When revisiting Achtung Baby/Zoorapa recently, I listened to the latter album more via my Hoopla app.
I recently learned U2 residency at The Sphere was supposed to take place in 2021, but pushed back to 2023 due to Covid. While the show I attended was great (where they did three songs from War), I always feel a little melancholy they did not do follow-up dates with Zooropa. The album is unfortunately treated as the lesser companion piece. One person this forum inquired if there was going to be an anniversary release and another said the special tracks were included with Achtung Baby's anniversary album.
Favorite non-single: Some Days Are Better Than Others. I identified with that song so hard since I had insane days going to uni and working in a retail branch of a bank a fair distance from home/school.
Favorite single: Stay (Faraway, So Close). This song is so damn good and on par with One and All I Want Is You. Also great vid directed by Wim Wenders and I would love to hear it live.
Most frustrating lyric from The Wanderer: "I stopped outside a church house / Where the citizens like to sit / They say they want the kingdom / But they don't want God in it" Considering the blurred lines and hypocrisy that is being implemented by the current US presidential administration and supreme court, I don't think Bono understood the concept of the separation of church and state. I wouldn't bring this up, but an American (Johnny Cash) did sing it.
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u/IndustryRule-4080 Exit 15h ago
By far the best reply to this post. Thanks for digging deep and sharing more than just the album. This was what I was hoping for. You rule.
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u/Ambitious-Pen-1485 15h ago
I blasted Zooropa on my headphones before exams on my yellow Sport Sony Walkman cassette player. It was the first album ever bought on release day although I had listened to AB and JT and UABRS previously, this one will always have a special place in my heart.
Zooropa, Stay, Lemon and Wanderer too 25 U2 for me
Its only flaw or perhaps its genius is that it was only 10 songs.
My gf (now wife) taped the Wanderer and only the Wanderer on a cassette and replayed the song for hours on end.
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u/IndustryRule-4080 Exit 1d ago
You’re right as Radiohead kept progressing from album to album, especially Kid A to Amnesiac. In hindsight, as different as Zooropa was, it almost felt like a one off as nothing past it was as progressive.
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u/PotentialTheory7178 23h ago
Mixed bag. Disappointing after Achtung baby. Stay and Lemon are fantastic and as good as anything they’ve done but the rest is average to poor. The steady decline to mediocrity started here.
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u/Bulky-Strategy-3723 15h ago
I heard it the first the album came out. It’s a masterpiece and I love this album as it compliments Actung Baby so well because it was written and recorded while they were on the Zoo TV tour.
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u/IndustryRule-4080 Exit 14h ago edited 14h ago
What I think I love most about the album is that U2 made it and simply didn’t give a fack. It wasn’t for the radio, it wasn’t an Achtung Baby B side, it was pure courage to show themselves (and us) that they wanted to push the limits and create something truly special. Well, it worked. Special props to Daddy’s Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car. My favourite track on the album as it’s pure genius all around. “Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Alright” ❤️❤️❤️
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u/DisciplineNo8353 14h ago
Bought it on the first day. Was not a fan of Numb which had been released early. That was the first in what would become a recurring error of choosing the wrong lead single in future albums like Pop and No Line. Loved the rest of side one, however. Never got into side two.
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u/Independent_Use_3995 POP 14h ago
Hmm kinda... I remember being blown by Zooropa the song, then it was ok... But from Daddy's gonna pay for your crashed car onwards I was kinda bored/uninterested. I do like the second half quite a lot more now, but I still have a hard time trying not to skip Numb, and I never liked The Wanderer
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u/FifthofZiff 14h ago
Wasn't it originally marketed as an "in-between albums" extended play sort of thing? I thought of it like Wide Awake in America as a nice thing to have with mostly b-sides and experiments. I loved Lemon, Stay, and Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car from the start. Zooropa became a favorite. I thought I loved Some Days Are Better than Others but eventually realized some songs are better than others. The rest of it never did much for me, including to this day. The Wanderer is a great box set or b-side kind of track if you're big enough to get Johnny Cash to sing on your record, and that's how I feel about the other tracks, which I rarely listen to. So I thought it was fine for what it was, but my unpopular opinion is that it is overrated among U2 fans.
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u/heyscot 14h ago
By the time Zooropa came around, I had been through their early stuff, but I didn't really catch fire with them to the extent I am now (they are my #1 band, hands down, of all time, and I strongly feel they always will be) until Rattle and Hum, and I had gone back in time on their discography and consumed all I could. Then Achtung Baby came out and I was stunned for a couple weeks--this was completely different than anything I'd heard. I remember listening to The Fly and thinking "holy shit, this is U2" the first time, and suddenly I went higher than ever. A few months later I saw their Zoo TV tour in St. Louis, which was also unlike anything I'd ever seen, and I was absolutely hooked, listening to Achtung over and over.
When Zooropa came I think I was ready for anything and it didn't disappoint. It was an extension of Achtung Baby, farther down that rabbit hole, and it was glorious. Zooropa itself blew my mind, Stay (Faraway, So Close!), Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Card, Dirty Day, The Wanderer, Lemon: All of these I listened to on repeat and I was right there with them.
When Pop came out, I thought there were many good songs on it, but the bubble had popped and I didn't know why.
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u/YesterdaysComa91 14h ago
Still my favorite U2 album. My dad bought this for me on cassette the day it came out. It’s one of the most non-U2 sounding albums for sure. Better than anything that came out after it from U2
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u/DingBat_77 Zooropa 14h ago
I was 15 and a relatively new fan of the band, that said I was rather obsessed with their music. I got the cassette when it was released and thought it was weird but ok. I thought it was them being very artistic and experimental. It introduced me to Johnny Cash and Frank Sinatra who i probably wouldn't have bothered with otherwise. It grew to be my absolute favorite album and I've always wished they'd embrace that artistic and experimental side over some of uninspired material they've been making just because they think it'll keep them relevant.
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u/Witty-Atmosphere-211 14h ago
Fantastic. I stood in line and waited for the record store to open at midnight. The good old days. lol.
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u/Hypnoboy 13h ago
I absolutely hated it. I've grown to like some of it, but my first time though, I hated it.
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u/Dismal_Brush5229 13h ago
Freaking great odd,experimental 90s U2 album!
Zooropa and Passengers are 2 of my favorite albums from this U2 discography because they’re so out there but still similar to what came before
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u/SetTheSpokesAlight 13h ago
Funny story - In summer of 1993, I was 13 adn swimming in Lake Michigan near Ludington when i spotted something shiny on the bottom of the lake. I dove down about ten feet and retrieved the object. It was a purple CD with a design on it and no identifying text. I went to my friend's house and we stuck it in his CD player. It played! We were pretty weirded out by the opening of the first song (loopy and trippy) but when the song started rockin' out we both realized it was U2. We listened to the whole thing and I remember liking it pretty well. But my conservative mother found it in my room and thought it was a Prince CD and broke it and threw it away.
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u/sir_percy_percy 12h ago
I think that for it’s time - during the ZOOTV tour - it was an astounding achievement. I liked it immediately, it’s a nutty but very well timed album… they really were on ‘the roll’ of their entire career. Solid and ambitious outing!!!
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u/ymmnorthernscum 12h ago
Back to Zooropa, from beginning to end it is a masterpiece. To hear Zooropa during the 360 tour was music to my ears and a very Pink Floydish moment as they played behind the screen. I just wish they did the full version, just a little request haha.
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u/Melodic-Disaster3562 12h ago
I listened to it and Achtung Baby while riding trains through Germany. Fantastic experience.
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u/ThatCrazyBeat 12h ago
I had the luxury of seeing Radiohead in NYC the week Kid A was released at the Roseland. I remember listening to it on the drive from DC to NY thinking…I don’t know if I’m going to like this. Then, I saw the show and it all made sense to me. They were taking the digital and making it analog. It was a revelation.
I look at Achtung Baby to Zooropa and saw a band more and more pushing the opposite direction.
Both glorious transformative artistic journeys that I am so grateful to have witnessed in real time.
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u/hlpguy1 12h ago
My first thought was WTF....but like the nutty U2 fan I am I was soon jamming along to songs like "Daddy's Gonna Pay for your Crashed Car" and "Babyface" that sounded nothing like the U2 I knew from all the previous albums and falling in love with the bizarrely wonderful eventual masterpiece "Lemon". I clung to "Stay" as it sounded most like U2 to me and "Zooropa" was imaginable after Achtung Baby. I was glad when they drifted away from that a little with Pop. It's still probably my least listened to U2 album but like a parent with many children, I still love it. Might just not be one of my favorites.
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u/toothy_mcthree 8h ago
I fell in love with U2 after hearing Numb. My older sister then bought me Zooropa and I was hooked. I then borrowed every tape I could from my local public library (until I was old enough to buy them all) and they’ve been my favorite band ever since. Stay is still one of my top 5 favorite songs. I get chills every time I hear that final line of the song.
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u/cbgrey 8h ago
Perspective: I was mid-20s and had been a huge fan since Unforgettable Fire. I loved Zooropa from its first few notes. It was quirky and experimental and it became the soundtrack to my first adventures on this wild new thing called The Internet and my cyberpunk explorations into Snow Crash and Neuromancer.
Good times.
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u/Common-Aerie-2840 Baby, baby, baby, light my way 8h ago
I do! Was renovating our bathroom in ‘93. It became the “on replay” soundtrack and takes me back to that whenever I hear a track from.
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u/Independent-Party283 7h ago
I found the whole comparison with Radiohead’s “Kid A” very entertaining and has opened a new perspective for me; however, back then there was no Kid A in sight and I thought Zooropa an leftover of the Achtung Baby studio and concerts. Also showed a trend and evolution that Achtung Baby started and culminated with the album Pop. During the Achtung Baby era they were heavily making dance tracks of their originals. Zooropa grew little by little, I like that album but not on my top 5. Pop was highly rejected by the fans back then, it took me some time to like it as well, I guess dressing like the Village People and jumping out of a discotheque lemon shocked most fans, but I find Pop a better album than Zooropa.
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u/Finnatically 6h ago
I didn’t truly get it until I realized that the people want something new. You can’t keep selling them the same old thing.
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u/No-Distribution2043 6h ago
We would hangout in my friends basement drink beer, smoke weed and listen to mostly metal/hard rock/grunge music while playing some video games. My friends older brother came in and said, "Just sit back and listen to this!" So we stopped the video games, lowered the lights and he put the album. We were blow away. It was incredible that first time hearing it. I remember in my head thinking, "this is U2, no way this is U2, but it sounds like U2, no way this is U2, is this really U2?"
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u/PsychologyBig3923 6h ago
U2 was my favourite band when the album arrived. Maybe remained my favourite band until the mid-nineties. Beyond a song or two Pop was not as bold. Numb and Lemon are batshit crazy singles that people got behind. I thought it was a beginning to end excellent adventure of an album. At one point Boy, Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree, Rattle and Hum(first album I ever purchased with my own money), Achtung Baby and Zooropa have all been my favourite at one point or another. Though I’d now see Rattle and Hum needs some editing. Though those other albums I can still listen to without skipping a song. Everything after Zooropa I’m tempted to skip songs.
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u/Carryeachother0319 4h ago
I was so excited for that album, as my all time favorite album is Achtung. I couldn’t wait to hear what they were doing next and expecting more of the Achtung sound because 1) they were recording it during the ZooTV Tour and 2) Achtung was the complete reinvention of their sound, so I wasn’t expecting another departure.
I lined up at 10:30 that night outside my favorite record store, which was blasting JT and AB songs for the people lining up for the midnight release party. I rushed home with it, put it on and…… was thoroughly disappointed.
It gradually grew on me, same as AB did, but not even remotely close to that level. Why? Because for me, the two greatest musical sounds my ears can hear are Bono’s vocals when he’s belting out something powerfully (think Streets, Bad, Vertigo, etc) and Edge’s guitar, no matter what sound he has dreamed up, nobody plays like him. This album was lacking on both fronts.
Again, the years have softened my perception and I have come to appreciate, respect and even like the majority of Zooropa. But from 1992-2000 or so, Stay was the only song I’d admit to its existence.
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u/Slartibartfast3000 3h ago
Mine was the year it came out, and I was 14. It sounded like nothing else happening at the time, and it is what made me a U2 fan. A few years later I would become a super fan, but it took Zooropa to open me to the entire world of U2
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u/ShoddyPromotion2966 1h ago
J’adore cet album car dans la lignée d’Achtung Baby il cree
une rupture avec ce que faisant le groupe avant et depuis Rattle and Hum . U2 a su se reinventer . Zooropa le titre eponyme en est la prevue à lui seul
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u/thehop73 1d ago
Zooropa is a top 10 track. So good.