10 Amazing Rock Songs Not Sung By The Lead Singer

You have to commend U2 for being one of the few gigantic acts from the '80s who managed to keep their dignity intact in the next decade. Although there was a lot of over the top sounds on Achtung Baby, you could tell that Bono and the boys were going in different directions and trying to warp their sound with dance textures and electronic elements. If it worked once though, they may as well double down on it on their next album.

While Zooropa is definitely a step down in terms of songwriting, there are a lot of moments where you can hear U2 trying to figure out what the next version of the band is going to be, like when they let the Edge sing most of the vocals on Numb. I say 'sing' very loosely here though, since Edge basically just speaks his way through most of this song and almost sounds robotic as he keeps going on.

Granted, Bono does end up filling in some melody lines in the background vocals, but the majority of this song is carried by The Edge sounding extremely bored over a beat. What's crazier is how much it actually works, sounding borderline industrial and evoking a feeling like everything is falling apart around him. If you're talking about how superficial the fame has gotten though, you'd probably feel a bit numb as well.