TAPE Me Back To The Future — MADE For Tape # 9: U2, “ Zooropa” (1993)

An occasional series here that celebrates the cassette-tape format in all its glory. Wobbles

U2, Zooropa (1993)

At some point you buy your last U2 cassette. For me, that was Zooropa. The first cassette tape I ever bought with my own money was The Joshua Tree. I then asked for the early albums for Christmas one year, and got Boy, October, and War. I picked off the others, and was part of the hardcore by the time Rattle & Hum was released (which is why I made excuses for it at the time).

Achtung Baby, of course. And then Zooropa. I remember driving in after school one day to buy it. People were talking about that weird single Numb, sung by The Edge. I liked it. And the Johnny Cash song to finish. I liked that too. I pretty much fell in love with Zooropa from first listen. It was just different enough, quirky, yet it retained the charms of U2 — Larry’s precise, brilliant drumming, the hooks and melodies. And some heartbreakers, like Stay (Faraway So Close). To me the magic was in the album tracks (like Babyface) as much as it was ever in the big songs (like Lemon, well named if you ask me). And I adore the opening, title track. What a scene setter.

Anyway, it wasn’t just that I fell out of love with U2, it was also that I fell out of love with cassettes, finally catching on to CDs. I did buy Pop but did not like it. I did buy the “comeback” albums from the early 2000s and thought they were okay. I did get offended, like everyone, when Bono and Steve Jobs hacked my phone — more for the lame music than the hack. And then I fell back in love with U2 only recently. And now, I can listen to some of their stuff — but I could always listen to The Unforgettable Fire and Zooropa. I couldn’t always listen to The Joshua Tree).

So, yeah, Zooropa always felt like a cassette tape to me — and I don’t even remember how I ended up with it again on tape, a donation from someone. But as soon as I saw it I got weirdly emotional. And I’ve listened to it more than any other cassette tape in my newly reinstated collection, so far.

The album really makes sense to me as a tape. I did once own it on CD (and have recently been gifted it on CD again). I never owned it on vinyl, nor thought to — in other cases I have owned U2 albums on all three formats at various times.

Something about Zooropa’s part Euro-trash, part sophistication makes it this amazing relic of the cassette age to me. I even like Lemon a whole lot more than I used to — Bono’s falsetto can give me the shits after a while, impressive though it is/was, but the musical backing in that song is actually kinda sublime.

Anyway, cassette tape nostalgia is bonkers. I won’t even try to deny that, I’m up at night watching DJ sets on cassette tape, and following the Cassette Culture Subreddit. I’m thinking, now, of where to store my tapes, as they grow beyond my initial plans. I have a brand new Walkman, and I take a selection of tapes to work with me most days to ‘work through’. Jesus.

I guess what I’m saying is, most people slowly become what they hate.

Whereas I’m drifting back to what I absolutely love. And I love that for me.

Zooropa feels like an album perfect for such a journey, both so overtly of its time and hovering, shimmering, hanging there in some time and space all its own.