Never was a big U2 fan. I think I felt that they took themselve too seriously, Bono was an extremely pretentious singer and the bass and drum parts were so rudimentary they were just plain boring and didn't add enough of a counter melody. Also, and here was the big problem for me at the time, they were too popular. A lot of the bands that I struggled with had one song or album that made everything work for me. Like no matter what I did and listened to from the band, I just couldn't understand what was so great about them. Until I really absorbed one particular song, then all of a sudden the whole thing makes sense. Achtung Baby was that for me. Specifically, Mysterious Ways. I always liked this guitar part. Frankly, I always liked The Edge as a guitar player, it was just the rest of the band that I didn't like. But all the while, I did like that song. When I started this list thing, I really sat down and gave this whole album a fair shake. It was amazing! I could believe it. Song after song, the album doesn't let up. Well maybe falls off greatness a bit towards the end. But for the most part very solid all the way through. I started listening to other albums and found that everything that came out after this I liked. That's not true. I didn't have Zooropa or Pop yet, and those are not very strong albums, but the rest of them were great. It seemed that Bono lost a lot of the pretentiousness out of his voice and was singing from a more personal place. I even went back and listened to the earlier material and found that I liked that OK too. But I digress. Back to the album at hand. There are sounds that happen here that you simply can't find anywhere else. The album brings you to a different place. The band certainly has other great albums, but for me this is the best. And I think the best thing that they can get out of thier sound. This takes it as far as it can go without going over the edge.
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