Achtung Baby [Super Deluxe]
by U2
  • Record Label: Island
  • Release Date: Nov 1, 2011
User Score
8.7

Universal acclaim- based on 128 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 114 out of 128
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 128
  3. Negative: 12 out of 128
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  1. AudioGunblast
    Nov 30, 2013
    5
    What a bore. I can't think of anything, besides the shoegaze influence that The Edge brought in here, that can justify the claim that U2 made a huge comeback in quality with this. Even with the one strength this LP had, there was already a way better shoegaze album released in the same year, from the same country My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless".

    I imagine that Rattle and Hum wasn't    What a bore. I can't think of anything, besides the shoegaze influence that The Edge brought in here, that can justify the claim that U2 made a huge comeback in quality with this. Even with the one strength this LP had, there was already a way better shoegaze album released in the same year, from the same country My Bloody Valentine's "Loveless".

    I imagine that Rattle and Hum wasn't gold, but this can't possibly be that much better. Half the tracks on here are just a bore to me. There's little to no variation within the album, and only a few tracks I really enjoyed. It's all painfully slow, with The Edge and Adam Clayton spinning up a few cool concoctions only to have Bono bring them down with his surprisingly poor singing voice (he sounded awesome on The Joshua Tree!).

    The tracks that I did like unfortunately did not contribute to my enjoyment of the album, the reason being that they sound so helplessly out of place. "One" doesn't have the guitar work or the compositions of the other tracks. I would enjoy some variation within this album especially considering how bland it is, but when this is pretty much the ONLY track that stands out, it seems like it belongs on a different record.

    I'm sorry, I can't like this at all. I feel a strong 4 to a light 5 on this. Even their later efforts, like All That You Can't Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, did a better job at making good music than this dead-as-a-rock excuse for a comeback album.

    STANDOUT TRACKS: ONE, WHO'S GONNA RIDE YOUR WILD HORSES, FLY    … Expand

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
93

Universal acclaim - based on 17 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 16 out of 17
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 17
  3. Negative: 1 out of 17
  1. Q Magazine
    Dec 15, 2011
    100
    This reissue underlines how much Achtung Baby's high-wire triumph owed to an era in flux and it's as excessive as it needs to be. [Dec. 2011 p. 138]
  2. Austin Chronicle
    Dec 8, 2011
    20
    An alternate and/or nascent mix of Achtung Baby not only doesn't add to the dialog, it perhaps subtracts from it.
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  3. Blurt Magazine
    Nov 18, 2011
    100
    Since that time in 1991, U2 has had other weighty tracks, sensualist personal soliloquies and dense production - but nothing better than this truly real thing.
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