#46 Achtung Baby by U2

The 100 Greatest Albums of All Time

2025 Album Rank

46

2011 Album Rank

29

Total Points

1233

Year Released

1991

Billboard 200 Chart Peak

1

Weeks at #1

1

RIAA Sales Certification

8,000,000 (Multi Platinum)

Buy Album

Apple Music Amazon

Achtung Baby Album Details

Released in November 1991, Achtung Baby marked a dramatic reinvention for U2 both sonically and stylistically. Departing from the earnest, anthemic rock of the '80s, the album embraced a darker, more experimental sound infused with industrial textures, electronic beats, and layers of distortion. Recorded largely in Berlin's Hansa Studios amidst personal and creative tensions, Achtung Baby is a bold, postmodern pivot that redefined the band in the wake of the Cold War and in the dawn of a new cultural era.

The album features some of U2's most iconic tracks, including "One", "Mysterious Ways", and "The Fly". Lyrically, it explores themes of fragmentation, love, betrayal, and spiritual confusion all wrapped in irony and edge. It was a response to the shifting landscape of the early '90s, with U2 consciously deconstructing their previous image to create something more raw, playful, and self-aware. Achtung Baby is often hailed as U2's greatest artistic achievement and a defining album of the alternative rock era.

Other albums by U2 on the chart: The Joshua Tree.

Interesting Facts about Achtung Baby

• The album was primarily recorded at Hansa Studios in Berlin, near the former Berlin Wall, with additional sessions in Dublin and elsewhere.
• Achtung Baby marked a deliberate shift in U2's sound, incorporating industrial rock, dance rhythms, and electronic influences, inspired by bands like Depeche Mode and Nine Inch Nails.
• The making of the album was nearly derailed by internal tensions, and the band came close to breaking up until they wrote "One", which rekindled their creative spark.
• Bono described the album as "the sound of four men chopping down The Joshua Tree."
• The album's ironic tone and flashy visuals kicked off U2's Zoo TV era, where the band embraced media overload, satire, and spectacle.
• "One"" became one of U2's most beloved and covered songs, and despite its melancholy feel, was not intended as a love song, it's more about unity and conflict.
• The title Achtung Baby was taken from a line in Mel Brooks' The Producers and plays into the album's playful and postmodern aesthetic.
• Guitarist The Edge's use of distortion, delay, and slide guitar gave the album its unique sonic identity, vastly different from his previous shimmering, clean tones.
• The cover art is a grid of 16 photos, reflecting the album's fragmented themes and cosmopolitan feel. It was shot by longtime collaborator Anton Corbijn.
• Achtung Baby won the Grammy for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group.

Achtung Baby Tracklist

1. Zoo Station
2. Even Better Than the Real Thing - Reached #32 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
3. One - Reached #10 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
4. Until the End of the World
5. Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses - Reached #35 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
6. So Cruel
7. The Fly
8. Mysterious Ways - Reached #9 on Billboard's Hot 100 chart
9. Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World
10. Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
11. Acrobat
12. Love is Blindness

One Music Video

• Next Album: #45 Kid A by Radiohead
• Previous Album: #47 Bridge Over Troubled Water by Simon and Garfunkel