Maps of Music

Zooropa (1993)

Where the lyrics of Zooropa take you, and where it was really made.

Planned as a four-song EP to promote a tour leg, Zooropa grew into a full album and was finished while the band flew between Dublin and tour dates.

Key places

Where the rough demos began (1993)

Recording site The Factory — The band entered The Factory in Dublin in February 1993 to begin composing rough demos for what became Zooropa. The sessions started here before the project grew into a full album. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Zooropa: eighth studio album by the Irish rock band U2
• Produced by Flood, Brian Eno, and the Edge
• Released 5 July 1993 on Island Records
• Inspired by the Zoo TV Tour and expands on its themes of technology and media oversaturation
• Continues the experiments with alternative rock, electronic dance music, and electronic sound effects begun on Achtung Baby (1991)

Background

• Band regained critical favour with Achtung Baby and the 1992 Zoo TV Tour
• Zoo TV was an elaborate multimedia event that satirised television and viewers' overstimulation
• The band sold 2.9 million concert tickets in 1992, and Achtung Baby reached 10 million copies sold
• North American leg ended 25 November 1992, leaving a six-month break before Europe resumed in May 1993
• Bono and the Edge wanted to record new material rather than rest
• The Edge also wanted to distract himself after separating from his wife during the Achtung Baby sessions in 1991

Recording

• Writing and recording began in Dublin in February 1993, during the break between tour legs
• Originally intended as an EP to promote the Zooropa leg of the tour
• During the sessions the group decided to extend it to a full-length album
• Flood and Eno produced; Daniel Lanois was busy promoting his solo album and was unavailable
• The album was not finished by the time touring resumed, so mixing and recording continued in May while flying between Dublin and tour destinations
• Recording concluded on 14 May 1993

Cover

• Sleeve designed by Works Associates of Dublin under the direction of Steve Averill
• Cover shows a sketch of the circle of stars from the Flag of Europe with an 'astrobaby' drawing in the centre

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• U2 are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1976 by teenage pupils of Mount Temple Comprehensive School.
• Members: Bono (lead vocals), the Edge (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Adam Clayton (bass), Larry Mullen Jr. (drums).
• The band was first named Feedback, then The Hype, and in March 1978 took the name U2.
• They won the Pop Group '78 talent contest in Limerick and signed with Island Records in 1980.

Career

• Debut album Boy (1980); War (1983) was their first UK number-one album.
• The Joshua Tree (1987) made them international stars and was their greatest critical and commercial success, selling about 25 million copies.
• The band reinvented their sound in the 1990s with Achtung Baby (1991) and the Zoo TV Tour.
• Their 2009–2011 360° Tour held records for the highest-grossing concert tour until 2019.
• In 2023 they released Songs of Surrender and began the U2:UV Achtung Baby Live residency at Sphere in Las Vegas.
• Estimated record sales: about 170 million worldwide; 22 Grammy Awards; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees (2005).

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Zooropa received generally favourable reviews from critics
• Rolling Stone (Anthony DeCurtis): four-star review calling it a bold, imaginative coda to Achtung Baby, with a compelling unifying mood
• Spin: positive review describing a band shedding its skin and trying on different selves, with praise for the cohesion of the members' playing
• The New York Times (Jon Pareles): praised the group for transforming itself into a raucous, playful band
• Entertainment Weekly (David Browne): graded the album A, calling it harried, spontaneous-sounding, and ultimately exhilarating
• Los Angeles Times (Robert Hilburn): gave the record a maximum four stars
• The Boston Globe (Jim Sullivan): called it a creative stretch that kept the band's recognisable sound
• Q (Paul Du Noyer): four of five stars, finding the album rootless, loose, and restless
• The Orlando Sentinel: three of five stars, noting the rhythm tracks were less than propulsive
• The New Zealand Herald: more critical, saying the album started as an EP and just got longer but not necessarily better
• Irish Independent (George Byrne): critical, describing the songs as knocked up in double-quick time

Reappraisal

• AllMusic (Stephen Thomas Erlewine): retrospective four-star review, saying most of the record is far more daring than its predecessor
• Rob Harvilla (2013) called it the album that almost killed U2's career and read it as a portent of later missteps
• Bono later called it a work of genius at the time, but said the band's pop discipline had not matched its experimentation
• The Edge said he never thought of it as more than an interlude, though a great one, and called it by far the band's most interesting
• Steven Hyden (Uproxx, 2023): argued the album was even more relevant in 2023 than at release

Records

• Debuted at number one in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France, Germany, Austria, Sweden, and Switzerland
• Also reached number one in the Netherlands, Italy, Japan, Norway, Denmark, Ireland, and Iceland
• Reached the top 10 in 26 countries
• First week US sales of 377,000 copies, the group's best US debut to that point
• Sold 1.8 million copies in the US in 1993 according to Nielsen Soundscan
• Certified 2x platinum in the US, 3x platinum in Australia, platinum in the UK, and 4x platinum in New Zealand and Canada
• Lifetime sales of more than 7 million copies
• Won the Grammy Award for Best Alternative Music Album in 1994
• Finished 9th on The Village Voice's 1993 Pazz & Jop critics' poll

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• Zooropa's name combines 'zoo', from Zoo TV Tour and Zoo Station, with 'Europa'
• The 'Numb' single was released in June 1993 only on VHS as a video single, with the music video directed by Kevin Godley
• The cover's purple text accidentally includes the titles of songs that were dropped from the album
• Johnny Cash recorded lead vocals for 'The Wanderer' during a visit to Dublin
• Flood left about a week before mixing finished, because he had prior obligations to produce Nine Inch Nails in Los Angeles

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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