Arriving a couple of years after the band had vowed to go away and 'dream it all up again', Achtung Baby was a promise kept and the record was widely seen as a sonic and visual reinvention.
As Miriam Jonker posted on our earlier story, 'I loved this album from day one and it is still the album I listen to the most. Excellent capture of the zeitgeist at the time and a great reinvention of U2….'
Or as pawel_peczak added, 'No one has ever recorded anything like Achtung Baby before, after and ever after. It's a masterpiece. Reflects the whole generation. It's Yellow Submarine of the 1990's. Its new Europe, unified. It's personal story of love and divorce, love hurts, love loves ....so emotional. It changed my entire life forever...'
But let's imagine you're making your own playlist of the band's finest songs and you can only choose THREE songs from any one album… what are the three songs from Achtung Baby that you could not live without?
Vote for those three in our poll… then tell us why in the comments below.
Achtung Baby
1. Zoo Station 2. Even Better Than The Real Thing 3. One 4. Until The End Of The World 5. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses 6. So Cruel 7. The Fly 8. Mysterious Ways 9. Tryin' To Throw Your Arms Around The World 10. Ultra Violet (Light My Way) 11. Acrobat 12. Love Is Blindness
I love them all, of course, but, Achtung Baby is The One for me, it is absolute perfection, and it's difficult to choose one from the other, these three tracks, tho, especially Wild Horses, have such a personal meaning for me that I really can't even express myself.
Lizzy365
04 January, 2022
Lizzy365!
I love all your music. Happy New Year
garyquintana
03 January, 2022
Gary Quintana
Zoo Station. The total explosion of the unexpected. One. They made 3 songs from this. Ultraviolet light my way. Just kicks arse!
Nate Dogg
03 January, 2022
Top 3
One, The Fly, and Until the End of the World
JeffSounds
03 January, 2022
Still My Favorite U2 Album...
I remember this album absolutely blowing my mind hearing it for the first time back in high school in '91...and then being even more blown away upon seeing them live at Dodgers Stadium on Halloween night during the Zoo TV tour.
In my opinion U2 is the only band since The Beatles to successfully change everything about their sound and style while still holding onto their cultural and commercial standing and it all started with the release of this album.
It's still my go-to not only as an incredible artistic statement from a legendary band but also a defining sonic icon of the era.
This is my generation's Sgt. Pepper's Loney Heart's Club Band.
DOPAturin
03 January, 2022
Until The End Of The World, Ultraviolet,
Hard to choose! Full Album has been following me for 25 years, it has deep scars, from Berlin To Turin and all over the world! I then gave it to a woman who I considered my life partner, but things did not go as I expected.
I'll buy it back and it will be a fresh start! Acthtung baby ... it's time to bring back home.
cparris
02 January, 2022
A masterpiece
Top three are;
Ultraviolet (2nd all time favorite US song)
The Fly (Boston 2001 DVD version)
Zoo station
Saying that all tracks are such killers, this is my go to album and rarely a few days passed without me listening to this.
I think Achtung Baby is better than The Joshua Tree.
jkrroemer
02 January, 2022
Achtung Baby
Without doubt One; Even Better Than The Real Thing; Ultra Violet
thierrybrand
01 January, 2022
My choice
1. ONE
2. ULTRAVIOLET
3.ACROBAT
lorenzo_pia
01 January, 2022
One, Even better, and Wild Horses
One: es una canción espectacular
Even better: rápida y vibrante.
Wild horses: preciosa letra
Fansincebirth
01 January, 2022
Hard to choose but here goes
One - need I say more?
Who’s Gonna Ride - the breakdown section in this song is perfection.
Acrobat - this is one of those songs that saved my life as I’ve struggled with faith and church throughout my life. Grateful for it every time I listen to it.
merchanzuleta
01 January, 2022
Ok! I’ll try
I love the entire album as a unitary master piece. I suggest humbly that the next tour includes the complete Achtung Baby song by song with some songs from Zooropa, other songs from a new album and the classic tour’s songs
peto39
01 January, 2022
The Best U2 Album - Ultra Violet, Wild H
I love Ultra Violet, Wild Horses and Zoo Station.
However, how can you only list three songs when you have One, Acrobat. The Fly, UTEOTW, So Cruel. Love is Blindness.
The best U2 album ever.
Isaiah
31 December, 2021
# U2 Achtung Baby Songs I cannot live ou
Well, Goodness grashess, This is going to be nearly impossible. For Me
1. Oh Berlin
2. Ultravoiet
3. Until the end of the world.
But honestly Achtung Baby is amazing I remember when it came out, When I waited in line outside Hastings until midnight to get a copy, getting all of their singles, seeing them 3x on ZOOTV and Outside Broadcast, and winning my first CD on the Radio (Achtung Baby) For not being able to be stumped on U2 Trivia. That part was easy as Id been a fan since 1986/1987
Holly_fan_since_81
31 December, 2021
They're ALL great!
If I had to pick, I would choose:
One
Mysterious Ways
Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
lassche
31 December, 2021
U2&WE? AMOR MUNDI:
New Year’s Eve:
It’s 1990, forget the past, We? gonna celebrate the future with the streets of no name!
It was a tough year for the hole world. I lost a few lovers and friends, the most died after the Covid-virus.
And still the virus is every where.
I hope U2 can come to celebrate my 50 years on this planet.
218 days to go to U2&WE? At Airport Twente!
Stay Save and don’t forget the Vertigo Hunter is an Dutch man.
Love and light my way to VertiGo. .. … 14:40.
Detlev Lassche
Miss You Sugar.
Donna Babineau
30 December, 2021
Depends what decade you are feeling at t
Hard to chose, so I went back to the early 90s in my head and decided if I was 30 years younger these 3 songs would top the list.
Even Better Than the Real Thing- commercialism at is best, married for 6 years with 2 kids, wondering if I made the right choices (I did)
Until the End of the World- Lots of questions to answer with the lyrics, made me think!
Mysterious Ways- An ode to women, poetic, I could feel it walking into a room and on the dance floor
betobono1980
29 December, 2021
It’s very simple
My Three favorite songs of Achtung Baby are One, Ultraviolet (Light My way) and The Fly because they continue to be the soundtrack of my life, since I heard them at the famous radio station "Rock101" in Mexico City, they made me fall in love immediately and after my Uncle Fernando (rip) me I will give the vinyl on my 12th birthday in 1992 they have been my favorites (difficult decision) and the album itself has changed and has saved my life ALWAYS, thanks guys
boxcollector
29 December, 2021
The best u2 album
For some odd reason the song that sticks out in my mind is the fly. The other 2 I had to think about and acrobat is a great song witch was surprisingly not played live by the band until 2017 .and the lat song that I picked was one surprisingly also the most popular song from the album
fuisce
29 December, 2021
Zoo TV Tour
Just going through the list of songs brings me back to when U2 played Páirc Ui Chaoímh , Cork In August 1993. One of the most fantastic concerts that I was ever at.
Lizzy365
29 December, 2021
Can't choose
I feel all your music to the very core of me. It feels like you are singing just for me. My daddy always said I lived in a zoo. God bless you all! Happy New Year!! Hope I got to see y'all in 2022!!! I❤️U2
amaurihtdaab
29 December, 2021
Difficult choice, but challenge accepted
One: We always hear that One is a song about separation. Bono says people are dying to touch her at their weddings. But I only understood One's lyrics when I went through a end of relationship. I was at a U2 cover band concert, and it was still very recent end of relationship, it wasn't easy to remember everything that happened, the person, and as the lyrics progressed it made more sense that we were one but we weren't the same, maybe it was just hard to accept that.
I've been a U2 fan for 15 years, and only after 15 years I understood the lyrics of this song as it really is, strong, true, but one of the most beautiful songs on the planet.
The Fly: Captures the '90s at its core, The Fly mocking everyone and everything, a man who came to get attention in any way he needed. The music is a new distortion, a bit crazy, it's strange at first, the lyrics the purest truth about the world.
It was one of the songs I loved right away when I first heard it on the Vertigo 2006 tour.
Ultraviolet: Baby, baby, baby... what music, uhaallllll, is the height of babies.
What is Adam's bass, Edge's guitar, Larry's drums, and Bono's voice in this song, it's the perfect fit.
I was crazy wanting to hear it live for the band, until in 2009 they played it on the 360° tour and it became even more beautiful.
It's a song about looking for the right path, the right person to enlighten us.
SARDE
28 December, 2021
Only Three?
The album is all killer and no filler. To pick only three songs would be impossible. Any three songs from this album are my favourite three songs. If they released only three songs and those were the only ones we ever knew of I would liked them to have been One, Acrobat and Love Is Blindness. Because we are aware of all the songs in this collection only three can never be.
fabien_pichler
28 December, 2021
My 3 best songs
I love singing this 3 songs in public. My fellows And I are a french tribute Band «U24U » from South of France
And I’ve got Bono’s sunglasses for the fly So it's really fun to look like a fly !!!
And the 2 others are So magnificent
Wardje13
28 December, 2021
I couldn’t choose
I really couldn’t choose…. ‘One’ must be in, the line ‘And a woman needs a man, Like a fish needs a bicycle’ from throw your arms around the World I’ll never forget and the end off an unforgettable show -goosebumps- from ‘Love is Blindness’….
uphoric
27 December, 2021
How to choose from best album ever?
Even better, One & So cruel. My sincere apologies to the 9 other gems. I hope they all get the credit they deserve on the Achtung Baby 30th anniversary tour in 2022. Make.It.Happen!
seresere
27 December, 2021
Except One
Needless to say it's very hard to choose only three but... Acrobat, Ultra Violet (Light My Way) and Until The End Of The World.
kerrydixon
27 December, 2021
A change in direction
U2 always pushing the boundaries , for me One, ultraviolet, acrobat . Keep evolving , keep relevant, and keep the light shining in a troubled world !