This week marks the 30th anniversary of Achtung Baby, U2’s landmark LP and the Irish quartet are marking the moment with vinyl reissues of the album (due 11.19) and a 50-track digital box set (due 12.03), featuring 22 never before digitally released songs.
The Bono-fronted band have re-teamed up with Thierry Noir, the Berlin-based French artist who created the act’s iconic Trabant cars on the 1992 Zoo TV tour, for a new art installation at Hansa Studios in Kreuzberg, Germany to include a newly pained Trabant car and a mural they created on a section of the Berlin Wall.
Commemorating the milestone, the band’s SiriusXM channel U2 X-Radio will feature a month-long Achtung Baby celebration complete with new U2-member interviews along with co-producer Daniel Lanois, engineer Flood, and photographer Anton Corbijn.
In a 2011 interview with Rolling Stone, the Edge (born David Howell Evans) reflected on how innovative acts like My Bloody Valentine, Nine Inch Nails, the Stone Roses, and Einstürzende Neubauten inspired U2 to move away from their past music as they worked on the ‘Achtung Baby’ LP. “I always remember the intense embarrassment when I happened to be in a club and a generous-spirited DJ would put on one of our tunes from the War album.” “It was so evident we had never been thinking about how it would go down in clubs. So we just wanted to stretch ourselves in the area of rhythm and backbeat and groove,” stated the Edge.
Looking toward the future, U2 is currently working on their follow-up album to 2017’s Songs of Experience, and most recently they released “Your Song Saved My Life” from the soundtrack to Sing 2, their first new song in three years. In the movie (due out 12.22,) Bono provides the voice of a reclusive rock & roll-singing lion named Clay Calloway. The movie comes out Dec. 22.
Achtung Baby 30th Anniversary Edition Tracklist
Component 1 – Achtung Baby (2018 remaster, not currently available digitally)
Zoo Station
Even Better Than The Real Thing
One
Until The End Of The World
Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
So Cruel
The Fly
Mysterious Ways
Tryin’ To Throw Your Arms Around The World
Ultra Violet (Light My Way)
Acrobat
Love Is Blindness
Component 2 – Uber Remixes (New remaster)
Night and Day (Steel String Remix)
Real Thing (Perfecto Mix)
Mysterious Ways (Solar Plexus Extended Club Mix)
Lemon (Perfecto Mix)
Can’t Help Falling in Love (Triple Peaks Remix)
Lady with the Spinning Head (Extended Dance remix)
Real Thing (V16 Exit Wound Remix)
Mysterious Ways (Ultimatum Mix)
The Lounge Fly Mix
Mysterious Ways (The Perfecto Remix)
One (Apollo 440 Remix)
Component 3 – Unter Remixes (New remaster)
Mysterious Ways (Tabla Motown Remix)
Mysterious Ways (Apollo 440 Magic Hour Remix)
Can’t Help Falling in Love (Mystery Train Dub)
One (Apollo 440 Ambient Mix)
Lemon (Momo’s Reprise)
Salomé (Zooromancer Remix)
Even Better Than The Real Thing (Trance Mix)
Numb (Gimme Some More Dignity Mix)
Mysterious Ways (Solar Plexus Magic Hour Remix)
Numb (The Soul Assassins Mix)
Even Better Than The Real Thing (Apollo 440 Stealth Sonic Remix)
Component 4 – B-Sides And Other Stuff (New remaster)
Lady With The Spinning Head (UV1)
Blow Your House Down
Salomé
Even Better Than The Real Thing (Single Version)
Satellite Of Love
Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses (Temple Bar Remix)
Heaven And Hell
Oh Berlin
Near The Island (Instrumental)
Down All The Days
Paint It Black
Fortunate Son
Alex Descends Into Hell For A Bottle Of Milk / Korova 1
Where Did It All Go Wrong?
Everybody Loves A Winner
Even Better Than The Real Thing (Fish Out Of Water Remix)
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Author: Al Denté
Photo: Paul Jones