Achtung Baby 20th Anniversary Editions
The sound of four men chopping down the joshua tree - over then discs!
Colm O Hare, 28 Oct 2011
Quite possibly the most ambitious and certainly the most comprehensive reissue project ever for a stand-alone album, the 20th anniversary remastered edition of Achtung Baby comes in no less than five different physical versions – from the basic album, as it was originally released, to multi-disc sets containing a raft of b-sides, bonus tracks, re-mixes, outtakes and “other stuff” including a full album of demo and early versions of the final 1991 track-listing. Put it another way: depending on your budget and your appetite for the extras, you can either opt for a no frills, one-disc version of U2’s seventh studio album or a 10-disc Uber Deluxe Edition that certainly doesn’t come cheap. Not counting the DVD material bundled with several of the packages on offer (spread over four discs) this amounts to no less than 86 different versions of the songs from U2’s most creative period!
Where to start? The basic 12-tracker may be enough for the casual fan or those wanting a better quality version of the original. More than any other U2 album before or since, Acthung Baby has stood the test of time, its futuristic, clubby rhythms and post-modern industrial textures, not to mention great songs, ensuring its longevity. This is an album without a sell-by date if ever there was one. Beginning with ‘The Fly’ (in retrospect, the least obvious choice for the lead single) The Joshua Tree spawned four other hits in the impeccable shapes of ‘Mysterious Ways’, ‘One’, ‘Even Better Than The Real Thing’ and ‘Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses’. Also worth revisiting are the “deeper” cuts such as ‘Zoo Station’, ‘Love is Blindness’ and ‘Trying To Throw Your Arms Around The World’. Soundwise it’s a clear improvement over the earlier version. Though the album was well recorded, produced, engineered and mastered at the time, the re-master is punchier, with an extended dynamic range and a wider soundstage.
However, most fans will want to investigate at least some of the bonus material and there are reasonably priced versions such as the 2CD Deluxe edition, which includes additional b-sides and bonus tracks like ‘Mysterious Ways (Pefecto Remix)’, ‘The Lounge Fly Mix’ and the band’s versions of Lou Reed’s ‘Satellite of Love’, Creedence Clearwater Revival’s ‘Fortunate Son’ and the Stones’ ‘Paint It Black’.
Photo Galleries For This Artist
©Hot Press 2011. Why be a member? | Terms of Service | Privacy Policy