U2: Bono (vocals, guitar); The Edge (guitar, piano, synthesizer, background vocals); Adam Clayton (bass); Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums, percussion, background vocals).
Additional personnel: Johnny Cash (vocals); Brian Eno (keyboards, synthesizer); Des Broadbery, Flood (programming).
Engineers include: Robbie Adams, Daniel Lanois, Flood.
Recorded at The Factory, Windmill Lane Studios and Westland Studios, Dublin, Ireland in spring 1993.
ZOOROPA won the 1994 Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album.
The bright, digital-looking album artwork alone hints at U2's intentions on ZOOROPA--to take the group's electronica-laced approach on ACHTUNG BABY to the next level. While ambient-music pioneer Brian Eno had a strong presence on the former album, here he's practically a fifth member, contributing synthesizers and keyboards to most of the disc's 10 tracks.
Fans looking for vestiges of the old, JOSHUA TREE-era U2 are essentially left empty-handed, though the gorgeously spare and melancholy "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" does touch on their earnest earlier sound. ZOOROPA truly gets going with the fascinatingly droning "Numb," which features the Edge on lead vocals and stands as the most adventurous single that the Irish quartet has ever released. From here the album hits a stride, careening through the giddy Euro-disco of "Lemon," the aforementioned "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)," the heavily percussive "Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car," and the funky, chiming "Some Days Are Better Than Others." Wrapping up the quirkiest outing in U2's discography is an appropriately strange, yet inspired song--"The Wanderer," where Kraftwerk-like synths and dreamy backing vocals support the unmistakable voice of the legendary Johnny Cash. Although, ZOOROPA is often overlooked, it's an ambitious record that marks a crucial point in U2's evolution.
What the critics say...
Rolling Stone (8/5/93, p.63) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...startling....a daring, imaginative coda to ACHTUNG BABY....it works brilliantly..."
Spin (9/93, p.116) - Highly Recommended - "...U2 is bidding to up the ante on its new freedom....ZOOROPA indicates U2 might be worthy of whatever absurd mutations the '90s throw our way..."
Entertainment Weekly (12/31/93, p.115) - Ranked #1 in Entertainment Weekly's list of 'The Best & Worst Records Of 1993' - "...[U2's] attempt to make sense of their place in pop and the world at large is downright heroic...."
Entertainment Weekly (7/9/93, p.46) - "...a harried, spontaneous-sounding, and ultimately exhilarating album on which the world's greatest arena guitar band rarely sounds like itself...For an album that wasn't meant to be an album, it's quite an album..." - Rating: A
Q (1/94, p.86) - Included in Q's list of 'The 50 Best Albums Of 1993' - "...U2's most adventurous outing yet...."
Q (8/93, p.99) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...here is U2, the foremost rock 'n' roll band on the planet, seeing if rock can be fashioned from sonic technology....ZOOROPA refines the first steps in this attempt that ACHTUNG BABY took....the results transcend the merely experimental..."
Q (8/94, p.115) - 4 Stars - Excellent - "...It's stronger than its parent ACHTUNG BABY..."
Melody Maker (7/3/93, p.28) - "...after a decade of intermittently looking and sounding crap they've got both the image and the music right...."
Musician (9/93, p.76) - "...by no means a stopgap project, ZOOROPA ranks among the band's best work to date..."
Village Voice (3/1/94, p.5) - Ranked #9 in the Village Voice's 1993 Pazz & Jop Critics Poll.
NME (Magazine) (7/3/93, p.32) - 6 - Good.
