44. Achtung Baby - U2 1991
After a decade of being seen as stony faced and overly serious, the Irish superstars decided it was time to overhaul the way they were perceived. Image, packaging, live shows and their music were all meticulously scrutinized and given a shot in the arm. Taking influences from Alternative Rock, Industrial, and Dance music, 'Achtung Baby' was as dark as anything they had put their name to before, but much more introspective and a lot less politically heavy. The new approach nearly split the band up, with Bono, the Edge and producer, Brian Eno on one side with rhythm section Adam Clayton, Larry Mullen Jr and co producer, Daniel Lanois on the other. The singer and guitarist wanted to explore new avenues, incorporating new sounds, whereas Clayton and Mullen, wanted to stay in familiar territory. It took Lanois and Eno to convince the band that their ideas weren't that far apart. The band set up camp in a Berlin to begin recording, but instead of being inspired by a post-cold war Germany, they found it gloomy and depressing so they re-located to Dublin and that's where the recording sessions began in earnest. The resulting release, was a triumph. It was undeniably U2, but they had injected new textures and ideas into already great songs. Songs like the fragile, 'One', rawkus rocker 'Until The End of the World' and the brooding, electronically-tinged 'The Fly' are just three of the incredible tracks that showed new sides to a band that were often seen as self righteous and self-important. The resulting world tour, dubbed 'The Zoo TV tour, was brilliantly overblown and highly visual with multiple screens and stage props, heralding in the digital age with Bono flicking between random TV channels and even making phone calls to television evangelists, sex chat lines and on several occasions, the White House, in attempts to talk to George Bush. This was all done live on stage in front of thousands. The band all donned leather, sunglasses and typical Rock-star attire in an attempt to be self-deprecating and give the world what they always wanted the band to be, which was larger than life characters, seemingly untouchable. No-one really knew if the band were poking fun at themselves, their audience or indeed, both. Whatever their agenda, the world took notice.