The Fly

When Bono announced that "we have to go away and dream it all up again" at the end of the Lovetown tour in 1989, no one, not even U2's most diehard disciples, could anticipate the direction that the Irish rock veterans would take for their next album. When the obliquely titled 'Achtung Baby' finally dropped in late 1991, following a protracted, torturous period of recording and re-recording, it came as a bit of a shock to longtime fans who were expecting a rehash of 'The Joshua Tree'. Gone were the wide-screen, arena-sized sensibilities and earnest lyrics of yore, and in came a potent mixture of hip-hop rhythms, industrial tonalities and angular guitar textures that signalled a brand new aesthetic for the band. The adventurous spirit of 'Achtung Baby' is most aptly capture in its first single, the heavyweight yet flighty dance-rock hybrid 'The Fly', which boasted one of The Edge's most accomplished guitar solos, and is perfectly complemented by a suitably edgy, psychedelic video in which Bono unveiled his sinister Fly persona for the first time.