Zooropa is almost perverse in the way it subverts every expectation we've ever had of U2. The world's most serious rock band releases an album of advertising parodies, Prince imitations, girl group tributes, taunts of rich girls and straightforward love songs. The album opens with the title tune, a vision of a near-future Europe that finds its common culture in advertising slogans and synth programs. As Bob Dylan once did with "Like a Rolling Stone", U2 takes aim on "Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car" at a spoiled rich girl who discovers her life of privilege has sapped all her strength. Bono's vocal has a Dylanesque sneer, but the Edge's guitar and Mullen's percussion create the sounds of a snarled traffic jam and Clayton's in-your-face bass line throbs like a migraine headache. By contrast, "The First Time" is the most genuinely romantic track U2 has ever recorded. The most surprising and most pleasurable tracks on the album, though, are a pair of R&B infatuation numbers, "Babyface" and "Lemon". Nothing better serves overextended rock stars than a return to the music's origins at the sock hop. The results aren't always fully satisfying, but they do reveal an unglimpsed, unexpected side to one of the world's most celebrated, most ambitious pop acts. --Geoffrey Himes
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