U2: Zooropa (2LP) [ISLAND]

Why you'll love it

This 2018 remaster puts Zooropa on a 180g 2LP set and adds "Lemon (The Perfecto Mix)" and "Numb (Gimme Some More Dignity Mix)," with a download code. The album won the Grammy for Best Alternative Music Album and has sold 7 million copies.

This edition

• 2LP set
• 180g vinyl
• Remastered
• Two bonus remixes
• Custom inner sleeves
• Download card included
• Pressed in Germany

About the album

Most bands spend a break between tour legs asleep. U2 spent theirs making a record. Zooropa started life in Dublin in February 1993 as an EP to promote the next stretch of the Zoo TV Tour, then kept growing until it was a full album, finished at such a pace that the band were flying between Dublin and tour stops in May to complete the mixes.

Brian Eno, Flood and The Edge produced it, pushing further into the electronic and dance textures of Achtung Baby. "Numb" is The Edge deadpanning a list of instructions over a clattering loop, "Lemon" sends Bono up into a falsetto over a disco pulse, and "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)" is one of their loveliest ballads, written for Wim Wenders' film. "Babyface" and "Some Days Are Better Than Others" keep the mood playful, and Johnny Cash takes the lead vocal on the closing "The Wanderer."

It charted in the top ten in 26 countries, and music writers now rank it among the band's most creative work. Not bad for a record that set out to be an EP; some of us take longer to write a shopping list.

Also at Kops: more U2 on vinyl · browse Rock

Tracklist

Listen

On Island (cat# U292018), a reissue of the 1993 album.