re: 90's U2 - Achtung Baby, Zooropa and Pop

Achtung Baby was their take on welcoming former soviet block nations after the wall opened to the world, especially East Germany. The title says it all. U2 ended up writing/recording in Berlin for a new fresh reset from the American folksy blues of Joshua Tree/Rattle Hum.

That electro pop sounds was pretty fresh and big at the time in Germany. Electronic music in a whole was gaining in popularity and it continued through the 90's. The Edge was starting to listen to it and make no mistake about it, the album was engineered by Flood even though he was more in a producer role. He's had a massive influence on being an engineer/producer in that sound(NIN, Depeche Mode, Nitzer Ebb, Ministry). I would say he was a big influence on it.

Lanois and Eno may have producing credits but I think even they took a step back and let the band experiment away from previous albums. Each song off Achtung baby was mixed by Eno, Lanois, Flood, and a former U2 producer. The band ended up selecting their favorite versions to put on the album.

Achtung is great and Zooropa is OK. Pop, I'm not sure what happened with that. It's ok I suppose. I only say that because it's Chicken's favorite U2 album.