Autumn of 1993 and U2 seemed to be at weird crossroad. Achtung Baby! was successful, but the recording sessions took a big toll on the band, something that became regular on them, as seen on POP.

Although I knew U2 due to them being ubiquitous in the 80s, I never owned an album of theirs. That changed one day when my dad was on a CD shopping binge, saw me looking at Zooropa’s front artwork and yanked the album from my hands, placing it in his basket. He blamed me for the CD deluge, even if only one of the 20+ CDs bought that day was mine.

Zooropa is such a rewarding listen. It’s U2 embracing an ambient electronica/rock mixture that worked perfectly for that small slice of time. Smashing Pumpkins would do the same for their gloomy and morose Adore (another gem).

Although it wasn’t a single, the opening track is perfect. A cacophony of ads, a droning synth (a tricked used on The Joshua Tree too!) and an explosive third section with Edge’s guitar work reminding you it still is U2.

I used a few tracks from Zooropa for mixtapes. Probably weirded out a few people out there, to be frank. I also used Zooropa as background music while writing, and I’m sure one of the first short stories I wrote drew heavily on Zooropa’s ambiance.

I’ll probably have to own up to my own story with Stay (faraway, so close!) one day…

-Sam J. Valdés López