Track Listing

1. Zooropa
2. Babyface
3. Numb
4. Lemon
5. Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
6. Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car
7. Some Days Are Better Than Others
8. First Time
9. Dirty Day
10. Wanderer

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1926 in Music
• Released on: 1993-07-06
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Album Details
Same as USA Version.

Amazon.com
Following the band's Zoo TV tour, which took aim at consumerism and media overload, U2 brought those themes and the complex, futuristic sound of its preceding album, Achtung Baby, to their somewhat illogical conclusion on Zooropa, the group's most chaotic, cutting-edge work. The monotone techno-rap "Numb" leads the way, while "Lemon" offers reminders of David Bowie's Berlin trilogy of more than a decade before. Best of all is "The Wanderer," featuring a guest vocal by country-music icon Johnny Cash. His bottomless baritone sounds bizarre over burbling synthesizers, but Bono's trenchant lyric about a postapocalyptic seeker of sensation and experience before he repents nails Cash's legend at least as well as he ever has himself. --Daniel Durchholz

Customer Reviews

U2 Goes Experimental
Give U2 credit for not settling into a comfortable groove after the massive success of "Ach-Tung Baby," and just releasing more albums in that same mold. On "Zooropa," Bono and the boys decided to experiment with their sound and take it in unusual new directions. And while it doesn't always work, enough of it does to excuse them for not producing another single as catchy as "Mysterious Ways."

The album is best characterized by "Numb," in which seldom-heard-from guitarist The Edge mumbles the barely sensical spoken word lyrics over a gorgeous synthesizer background. Other oddities include the slowly building opening title track, the strange vocals on "Daddy's Going to Pay for Your Crashed Car," and the Johnny Cash collaboration "The Wanderer," with some bizarre apocalyptic imagery that closes things on an appropriate note. Even the more conventional songs, like "Babyface," "Stay," have an otherwordly quality about them.

Overall, "Zooropa" is not the place for casual fans to start their U2 collection. Nevertheless, it is a worthwhile challenge for the already commited.

Ahead of its time?
U2 leaped well ahead of their fan base with this experimental record that is a way out there vision of the world and society.

Numb was a hit, and is perhaps the most bizarre and yet hypnotic U2 song ever. Lemon sounds like a lemon tastes. I can't explain it if you haven't heard it. Zooropa and Babyface also have that futuristic quality about them, with lots of Bono singing in a high-pitched tone.

My favorite song on the album, actually, even though it doesn't really fit here, is The Wanderer, with Johnny Cash. I simply couldn't get enough of that track when I bought this.

Basically, this is a good album with several intriguing songs and certainly is a must for fans tracking the evolution of the band. But it doesn't have the emotional gut resonance for me that some of U2's most inspiring work does.

Enjoy!

Bluer Shade Of White
Zooropa was originally supposed an EP to coincide with the last leg of their Zoo TV Tour. The band found that they had a slew of material and decided to release a full album. Zooropa continues where Acthung Baby left off and takes them further into the postmodern sounds of that release. The songs are all extended numbers including "Stay (Faraway, So Close)" which became the title of a movie, the pseudo-disco of "Lemon" which finds Bono singing in a falsetto, "Numb" which is a hypnotic chant with The Edge handling vocal duties and the title track which is an airy number that throws out slogan after slogan and is the spirit behind the whole Zoo TV ideal. "Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car" is a collage of music and noises while "Somedays Are Better Than Others" is the most "traditional" sounding song on the album. The album closes with one of the most bizarre musical pairings in history. Johnny Cash sings lead vocals on the post-apocalyptic "The Wanderer". Not that it is crazy that Johnny Cash would perform with U2, but you would expect it on a song in the style of The Joshua Tree or Rattle & Hum. On "The Wanderer", the band utilizing a heavy synth sound and Mr. Cash's deep voice swims along the cracks and pops of the track. It is a truly inspired song and makes Zooropa a truly special effort and asks the question, how many artists could come up with an album this impressive when it was looking to just fill some time in the studio in between tour dates.