Published on November 18, 1991, by the record label Island Records, it was ranked 62nd by Rolling Stone magazine among the 500 greatest albums of all time, according to Rolling Stone.
On the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the album's release, a special edition was produced.
Considered by many as the absolute masterpiece of the Irish band (alongside only "The Joshua Tree"), Achtung Baby is the first of the albums that would lead U2 to a radical change in their musical genre. Always faithful to their political and social commitment, this time, after the break following the LoveTown Tour, the group decided to shake up their approach to making music.
The album was recorded between Dublin and the Hansa Ton Studios in Berlin, famous for previously hosting the recording sessions of some of David Bowie's celebrated albums.
The German influence, significantly more European than the previous "Rattle and Hum," can be felt in numerous songs and is also visible in one of the three videos for "One."
The sounds are decidedly different from the past, with electronic elements making their first entry into U2's sound. However, the most prominent element is The Edge's guitar, never before so sharp and evocative.
The first single released, "The Fly," caught fans of U2 from the 1980s off guard.
The singles from this album became incredibly popular and are considered some of the finest pieces ever played by U2:

One
One of the most famous songs by the Irish band was born during a period of intense tension within the group. When U2 started working on Achtung Baby, they were actually divided into two factions: on one side, Bono and The Edge, pushing for more modern sounds like dance rock, alternative rock, electronic, and noise rock; on the other side, Larry Mullen Jr, Adam Clayton, and producer Daniel Lanois, determined to stick to the classic U2 sound.
Indeed, since this album was intended to mark the beginning of a new era for U2, the conservatism of three-fifths of the group exacerbated the disagreements and nervousness within the band, to the point where they were even on the brink of breaking up.
It was Brian Eno's arrival in Berlin that helped calm the waters.
The non-musician, upon hearing the demos created up to that point, was very pleased with what the band was producing despite the disagreements. Eno made it clear to U2 that they could comfortably explore new musical territories while still remaining U2. It was during this time that one day, while Edge was experimenting with some bridges for "Mysterious Ways," a melodic line emerged that quickly became "One".
The lyrics of the song have often been misunderstood. Many people indeed consider it a love song. However, as Bono and Edge have stated multiple times, it's a song about diversity and separation: the division of a country, Germany, into West and East for forty years; the separation between the guitarist and his first wife; the separation between a person with HIV and their father.



The Fly
The first single from the album is perhaps the one that best represents it. Using a famous phrase from Bono, if Achtung Baby is the sound of four men knocking down The Joshua Tree, "The Fly" is the chainsaw they use to do it.
For the first time, The Edge's guitar is gritty and metallic (and the solo is perhaps his best on record); Bono's vocals are low and once again distorted by electronics; Adam Clayton's bass hits deep; Larry Mullen Jr's drums take on a tribal quality.
Bono, this time, dresses up (for the first time) as the devil: the lyrics are a call from the underworld, in which Lucifer tells a child the secrets of life (a friend is someone who helps you, ambition bites the nails of success, conscience can sometimes be a plague, etc...), with an ironic ending in which he realizes he's run out of cents to call and announces that "there are a lot of things, if I could, I'd put in place."



Mysterious Ways
Originally, it was "Sick Puppy," of which only the bass part by Adam Clayton remains. The song stands out for its sound, a mix of dance and funk. As for the lyrics, Bono was inspired by Oscar Wilde's drama "Salome" (a b-side from that period has this name, obviously with the same theme). Not by chance, during live performances on the ZooTv Tour, a belly dancer joined the band.
The role was exchanged between two dancers, and the second one (the girl featured in the video "ZooTv: Live from Sydney") would later become The Edge's second wife.


"As it was inevitable, the songwriting began to reflect what was happening in my life because my creative instincts were completely conditioned by it," he recounted. "But I believe Bono's contribution was also influenced." This is why Achtung Baby is such a torn, painful, and bleeding album. Bono is awaiting the birth of his second daughter, Eve. The words of "Zoo Station," "I'm ready, I'm ready for the push," speak to this.


When, on that November 18th 30 years ago, we put the Achtung Baby album on the turntable or the CD into the player, we all had the same feeling.
Whether it was a broken record or a broken stereo, when Zoo Station, the opening track of U2's historic 1991 album, played, it was an unheard-of uproar, and Bono's voice was disturbed and distant. That song was supposed to sound just like that. That album was meant to be "The sound of four men knocking down The Joshua Tree.".
So Bono described Achtung Baby. U2 had to forget the global success of that album and move beyond, erase their serious, black-and-white image. Zoo Station seems just like that: The Edge's guitar sounds like a chainsaw wanting to bring down that tree in the Mojave Desert and everything it represented for the band.
And that metallic drumming feels like "the sound of a band falling apart," as The Edge put it. "We wanted the first reaction of anyone putting on the record to be 'this record is broken, this can't be the new U2 record, there's a mistake.'" Remember the bassist, Adam Clayton.