Twenty Years Later, Its Achtung Baby All Over Again - Page 3

But the most interesting parts of the film come while watching the creative process behind the making of Achtung Baby itself. It's fascinating to watch how a half-baked song idea (with the working title of "Sick Puppy" no less) evolves into "Mysterious Ways." Or how a fragmented chord sequence from Edge is transformed into the genesis of "One," once Bono adds the melody line, seemingly as an afterthought.

Hopefully, this film will eventually be released as a standalone DVD of its own. But in the meantime — and if you can't afford the price tag of the box — it's playing on Showtime all this month.

The other likely draw for fans on the boxed set will be the "baby versions" of the Achtung Baby songs, which make up the sixth "kindergarten" disc. These are mostly bare bones demos, that often feature only Bono and Edge doing very rough takes of the songs on one or two tracks.

Beyond that, the boxed sets mostly suffer from a case of too much repetition. The inclusion of the Achtung Baby companion album Zooropa is certainly a nice touch. But the numerous remixes of songs like "Even Better Than The Real Thing" and "Mysterious Ways" will already be familiar to most of U2's hardcore fan base. To those hearing them for the first time, these dancefloor mixes offer little more than a quick lesson in the sort of nineties DJ cliches that U2 later employed to mixed effect themselves on the Pop album.

For the best of these remixes, you'll do far better (and cheaper) with the two-disc deluxe version (the "Fish Out Of Water" remix of "Even Better Than The Real Thing" is especially good). You'll also get great Achtung-era outtakes like "Blow Your House Down," and choice covers of Lou Reed's "Satellite Of Love," John Fogerty's "Fortunate Son," and the Stones' "Paint It Black."

Twenty years later, it's Achtung Baby all over again. Sunglasses not required.

Article Author: Glen Boyd

You'll find Blogcritics music editor Glen Boyd sharing his Thoughtmares on his personal blog The Rockologist. Glen is also the author of Neil Young FAQ, published in May 2012 by Backbeat Books/Hal Leonard Publishing.

Visit Glen Boyd's author page — Glen Boyd's Blog