Zooropa

iTunes Review

With Achtung Baby!, U2 redefined itself for the onset of the ‘90s. Zooropa, initially intended as a quick EP to kick off the European leg of the group’s Zoo TV tour, expanded with a rush of inspiration into a heady full-length album that features several of U2’s most inspired and intriguing moments. Cut with an ear towards breaking through the band’s power trio limits, Zooropa relies less on the patented chiming guitars of Dave “The Edge” Evans and submerges itself in paranoiac disco grooves, atmospheric electronic urges, and emotional climaxes where Bono sounds both exultant and suspicious of his jolly good fortune. “I feel like I’m holding onto nothing,” he sings on the heart-thumping “Lemon” and it’s unsure whether “nothing” denotes a new freedom (the music certainly celebrates) or means, literally, nothing. “Numb” swirls with a torrent of lyrics from The Edge while Bono cruises into a falsetto. Country legend Johnny Cash ushers in the spooky “The Wanderer” where the end of the world sounds nearly at hand as Cash sounds suspiciously as if he’s singing an odd variation on Leonard Cohen’s “Suzanne.”