Achtung Baby

(1991)

Never before or since had U2 balanced pop instincts and experimentalism quite so masterfully. Exiled in Berlin, tensions between the band boiled during sessions before a back to basics approach for their universal hymn One saw a breakthrough before they returned to Dublin united. Elsewhere, they reinvent; going industrial on opener Zoo Station, while the Edge sidesteps the usual ambient delay-heavy sounds for something dirtier as the band wallows in the baggy grooves of The Fly (with a standout solo), Even Better Than The Real Thing and get funky in the wah of Mysterious Ways. It ends in darkness; the guitarist wrenching pitch black discordance in the jagged solos of Love Is Blindness. A victory through struggle then, and their last truly classic album. Download: Even Better Than The Real Thing