Achtung Baby

Achtung Baby is the seventh studio album by irish rock band U2, released on 19 November 1991. The album arrived nearly two years after lead vocalist Bono announced the band would have to “go away and dream it all up again”, following the mixed response to 1988’s Rattle And Hum. While recording Achtung Baby, there was a rift between band members over the direction of the band’s sound. Tensions almost prompted U2 to break-up until the band rallied around the writing of the album’s hit One.

The album marks a dramatic change in the band’s image and sound, with the band being heavily influenced by alternative rock and electronic music. Their music also features more detailed production, more guitar effects, and darker, more personal lyrical content. The results were considerably more adventurous than their previous efforts, yet Achtung Baby was very commercially and critically successful, winning a Grammy Award and having sold approximately 18 million copies worldwide. In 2003, the album was ranked number 62 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.

The band embarked on the elaborately-staged, multimedia-intensive Zoo TV Tour to support the album.

History
Achtung Baby was a departure for the band. Bono has often described the album as “the sound of four men trying to chop down The Joshua Tree”. U2 sampled techniques and sounds from other musical genres previously unused by the band, including dance, house and electronica, whilst maintaining their original feel of rock and roll.