Zooropa
Zooropa is the eighth studio album by Irish rock band U2. Produced by Flood, Brian Eno, and the Edge, it was released on 5 July 1993 on Island Records. Inspired by the band's experiences on the Zoo TV Tour, Zooropa expanded on many of the tour's themes of technology and media oversaturation. The record was a continuation of the group's experimentation with alternative rock, electronic dance music, and electronic sound effects that began with their previous album, Achtung Baby, in 1991.
This article is about the album. For the title track of this album, see Zooropa (song). For U2's 1993 European tour of the same name, see Zoo TV Tour.Zooropa
5 July 1993
February–May 1993[a]
- The Factory (Dublin)
- Windmill Lane (Dublin)
- Westland (Dublin)
51:15
U2 began writing and recording Zooropa in Dublin in February 1993, during a six-month break between legs of the Zoo TV Tour. The record was originally intended as an EP to promote the "Zooropa" leg of the tour that was to begin in May 1993, but during the sessions, the group decided to extend the record to a full-length album.[1] Pressed for time, U2 wrote and recorded at a rapid pace, with songs originating from many sources, including leftover material from the Achtung Baby sessions. The album was not completed in time for the tour's resumption, forcing the band to travel between Dublin and their tour destinations in May to complete mixing and recording.
Zooropa received generally favourable reviews from critics. Despite none of its three singles—"Numb", "Lemon", and "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)"—being hits consistently across regions, the record sold well upon release, charting in the top ten of 26 countries. The album's charting duration and lifetime sales of 7 million copies, however, were less than those of Achtung Baby. In 1994, Zooropa won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album. Although the record was a success and music journalists view it as one of the group's most creative works, the band regard it with mixed feelings.
Composition[edit]
Music[edit]
With an even more "European" musical aesthetic than Achtung Baby, Zooropa is a further departure from the group's "rootsy" sound of the late 1980s. Much like how the group embraced technology for the Zoo TV Tour, they utilized technology as a musical resource to a greater extent on Zooropa. The record exhibits additional influences from alternative rock, electronic dance music, and industrial music—it is more synthesised than U2's past work, featuring various sound effects, audio loops, and use of synthesisers.[30][31] In addition to the Edge playing synthesiser, Brian Eno received credit for the instrument on six tracks.[32]
The Edge's guitar playing on Zooropa marks a further shift away from his trademark style, highlighted by a heavier reliance on guitar effects[31] and the songs' reduced emphasis on his guitar parts.[33] The danceable "Lemon", called a "space-age German disco" by Stephen Thomas Erlewine,[34] features a gated guitar part.[35] The distorted "Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car" was described by Bono as "industrial blues".[28] The instrumentation of the closing song, "The Wanderer", consists primarily of a synthesised bassline and was described by the group as resembling the "ultimate Holiday Inn band from hell". The song was sequenced as the final track because U2 wanted to end the album on a "musical joke".[36]
Similar to how the Zoo TV Tour display screens sampled video footage from television programming, a number of songs from Zooropa sample audio. The introduction to the title track, "Zooropa", contains a noisy collage of indecipherable human voices from radio signals—credited to the "advertising world"[32]—played over sustained synthesiser chords.[37] The industrial-influenced "Numb" features a noisy backdrop of sampled, rhythmic noises, including "arcade sounds", a Walkman rewinding, and a Hitler Youth boy banging a bass drum in the 1935 propaganda film Triumph of the Will.[28] "Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car" begins with a snippet of fanfare from Lenin's Favourite Songs and samples MC 900 Ft. Jesus' song "The City Sleeps".[32][38]
The vocals on Zooropa are a further departure from U2's previous style. As Jon Pareles described, Bono "underplays his lung power" throughout the record, in contrast to his impassioned, belting vocals from past work.[30] Additionally, in songs such as "Lemon" and "Numb", Bono sings in an operatic falsetto he calls the "Fat Lady" voice.[35][39] Two tracks feature other people on lead vocals: for "Numb", the Edge provides lead vocals in the form of a droning, monotonous list of "don't" commands;[1] for "The Wanderer", country musician Johnny Cash sings lead vocals, juxtaposing the electronic nature of the song with his haggard voice.[36]
Packaging and title[edit]
The sleeve was designed by Works Associates of Dublin under the direction of Steve Averill,[32] who had created the majority of U2's album covers. Brian Williams was the graphic designer and created the digital images and layout. Inspired by the Zoo TV Tour's "highly charged electronic TV images in all of their saturated colours and fizz", Works Associates conceived a "kind of electronic flag" for Zooropa.[46] The cover features a sketch of the circle of stars from the Flag of Europe with an "astrobaby" drawing in the center.[47][48] The illustration, created by Shaughn McGrath,[32] was an alteration of the "graffiti babyface" by Charlie Whisker that was originally on the face of the Achtung Baby compact disc/vinyl record.[47] The cover's drawing was meant to represent an urban legend of a Soviet cosmonaut supposedly left floating in orbit for weeks after the collapse of the Soviet Union.[49] In the background is a montage of blurred images, similar to the arrangement of images on Achtung Baby's sleeve.[46][50] The images include shots of a woman's face and mouth, as well as photographs of European leaders, including Vladimir Lenin, Benito Mussolini, and Nicolae Ceauşescu.[50] These images are obscured by distorted purple text comprising the names of songs planned for the record that were provided to Works Associates during the sleeve design process.[46] However, the album's track listing was eventually changed and the titles of several songs withheld from the album were accidentally left in the cover image; the songs include "Wake Up Dead Man", "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me", and "If You Wear That Velvet Dress".[46] Author Višnja Cogan described this text as giving the impression of a "torn veil".[50]
Zooropa was named for the "Zooropa" leg of the Zoo TV Tour, which began in May 1993 while the band completed the record. The name is a portmanteau of "zoo" (from Zoo TV Tour and "Zoo Station") and "Europa". During the album's production, one of the proposed titles was Squeaky.[28]
Commercial performance[edit]
The album performed well commercially, debuting at number one in the United States,[89] United Kingdom,[90] Canada,[91] Australia,[58] New Zealand,[69] France,[92] Germany,[93] Austria,[94] Sweden,[95] and Switzerland.[96] It also reached number one in the Netherlands,[97] Italy, Japan, Norway,[98] Denmark, Ireland, and Iceland.[99] In the US, the album spent its first two weeks on the Billboard 200 at the top spot, staying in the top 10 for seven weeks.[89] In its first week on sale, Zooropa sold 377,000 copies in the US, the group's best debut in the country to that point.[100] The album reached the top 10 in 26 countries.[101]
Despite reaching impressive peak positions, Zooropa had a shorter stay on the music charts than Achtung Baby did. In total, Zooropa spent 40 weeks on the Billboard 200,[102] 61 fewer weeks than Achtung Baby.[103] Zooropa spent 34 weeks on the UK Albums Chart, nine of which were in the top ten,[104] but it charted in the UK for 59 fewer weeks than Achtung Baby.[105]
According to Nielsen Soundscan, Zooropa sold 1.8 million copies in the US in 1993, the 22nd-highest total in the country that year,[106] and by February 1997 sales in the US had reached 2.1 million copies.[107] The album has been certified 2× Platinum in the US by the Recording Industry Association of America,[108] 3× Platinum in Australia,[109] Platinum in the UK,[110] and 4× Platinum in both New Zealand[111] and Canada.[112] To date, it has sold more than 7 million copies.[113]
Notes
Adapted from the liner notes.[32]
U2
Additional musicians
Production