The greatest U2 album, according to Joe Perry
To some, U2 might prove divisive, but it says a lot that most musicians fall on the side of fandom. Perhaps that is because they can put aside what irks most of the punters, and focus solely on the music. In some ways, stripping everything aside is exactly what defines Joe Perry’s – the legendary guitarist behind Aerosmith – favourite album by the Irish band.
When speaking about their seventh studio album, Achtung Baby, which was produced by the dream team of Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno back in 1991, Perry proclaimed to Best Life: “The songs are really simple, the lyrics feel heartfelt, and the production is amazing. It’s a pretty experimental record, but as a musician you can tell all those songs would still work if it was just The Edge and Bono simply playing, even with all the studio production stripped off.”
Considering that the studio work involved two of the finest producers in history, who have worked with the likes of David Bowie and Bob Dylan respectively, that’s quite some praise. In Perry’s view, these titans were merely decorating a mansion, the core work had already been done in the barebones songwriting department—a department which has often been dubbed as irrefutably great by U2’s fellow musicians.
Discussing the formation of the record, one often marked as their turning point towards a more opulent approach, The Edge commented to Billboard: “We started to become caricatures on that basis, like the Joshua Tree period had way over exaggerated this sense of earnestness and responsibility.”
The guitarist continued: “We just had to own up and say, ‘Actually… we’re very silly, we’re not those characters.'” So, fearing that public perception was painting them as pretentious, they decided to return to old school rock while ploughing forth with studio experimentation, creating a compelling juxtaposition that sent songs like ‘One’ flying through the charts.
“Achtung Baby was that antidote for us as much as for music fans to that overly sanctimonious, pious and earnest sort of image that had grown up around us,” the Edge continued. “We needed to flesh out the truth about who we were and give ourselves the freedom then to be in both. Because that was the thing we loved about Bob Marley. He was able to, without any issues, blend the spiritual into the political and sexual. To him, these weren’t different baskets. These were all part of who he was.”
For Perry, this sense of freedom brought out the best in their songwriting as great hooks ruled the roost and the rest was left up to the maestros in true U2 progressive style. Still, I’m not too sure they convinced the world that they were “very silly” guys.
