'' is a
1995 album recorded by
U2 and
Brian Eno (see
1995 In Music ). It is a collection of songs written for mostly imaginary movies. Because it is highly experimental —bespeaking the increasing influence of Brian Eno on the band —the record company was reluctant to release it as a U2 album, so the pseudonym Passengers was devised instead.
There is a lot of argument between U2 fans as to whether this is considered a U2 album or not.
Because of the "difficult" nature of the music (the album's sound is fairly similar to that of
Radiohead 's post-''
OK Computer '' albums) and the decision to release it under another name, the album is easily the least known and worst selling in the U2 catalogue. Further, critical reaction from the press, the fans, and even the band members, has been mixed. Drummer
Larry Mullen, Jr. is noted for his disgust of the album: "There's a thin line between interesting music and self-indulgence. We crossed it on the Passengers record."
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About half of the album is instrumental, and the vocal tracks generally stray from the clear hooks and melodies that usually define U2's work. Of these, the delicate "Miss Sarajevo", featuring
Italian Tenor Luciano Pavarotti on vocals, is considered the most memorable. Reflecting on the album in
1997 , Mullen stated, "It hasn't grown on me. However, 'Miss Sarajevo' is a classic."
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One of the tracks, ''Your Blue Room'', features Adam Clayton reciting the final verse.
The album alleges to be a collection of songs written for movies. The booklet contains detailed descriptions of each film for each song, even though many of them are not real (although some, such as ''
Ghost In The Shell '' and ''
Miss Sarajevo '', are).
For example, for "Slug", from the fictional movie of the same name, the description provided is:
:Von Heineken's third feature, ''Slug'' is an extension of the gritty, photo-realistic style he developed in ''Alcatura'' (
1984 ) and ''Breaking Glass'' (
1986 ). Deiter, a young car mechanic (Karl Popper) unable to attract the attention of the cashier Nela (Catarena Hofennes) arranges an eloborate hold-up at which he will play the hero by seeing off the 'gangsters' and thus saving Nela. Things start to go badly wrong when the robbers realise that the till is really full of cash, abandon their agreement with Deiter and try to escape with the money, whereupon the escapade developes into a confused shootout during which Nela shoots a security guard in the foot and is subsequently arrested. Racked by guilt for having implicated her, Deiter sets out to secure her release by fair means or foul, seducing the Chief Warden of the woman's prison (Jutta Minnit) in the process.
These descriptions includes many
Pseudonyms and
In-joke s. In this description, "Peter Von Heineken" is a play on "
Paul McGuinness ", the name of U2's manager, and "
Karl Popper " is the name of a philosopher.
The movie descriptions are credited to "Ben O'Rian and C.S.J. Bofop". "Ben O'Rian" is an
Anagram for "Brian Eno", and "C.S.J. Bofop" is also "Brian Eno" with each letter of the alphabet shifted forward once.
The concept can be seen as something of a successor to Eno's ''
Music For Films '' album (
1978 ).
"
Miss Sarajevo " is based on a real film, a
Documentary by
Bill Carter . It chronicles a
Beauty Pageant held in the midst of war-torn
Yugoslavia . From the album's liner notes:
:Bill Carter's award-winning documentary ''Miss Sarajevo'' chronicles one of the more bizarre events of the war in former Yugoslavia--when several artists mounted an elaborate beauty contest under mortar fire. The camera follows the organizers through the tunnels and cellars of the city, giving a unique insight into life during a modern war, where civilians are the targets. The film captures the dark humour of the besieged Sarajevans, their stubborn refusal to be demoralised, and suggests that surrealism and dadaism are the appropriate responses to fanaticism.
Carter traveled to
Sarajevo in the
Winter of
1993 to offer
Humanitarian aid and quickly found himself in the heart of the conflict. He lived for six months in a burnt out office building, subsisting on baby food and whatever water he could find in the rivers and sewers and delivering food and medicine to those in need.
He originally contacted U2 while they were on their
Zoo TV Tour . Feeling that the western media was ignoring the human aspect of the war, Carter wanted to show audiences the real people involved. The band arranged for several satellite link-ups where Carter gave the locals—who had been cut off from communication with the rest of
Europe for about a year and a half at this point—an opportunity to be heard before stadiums of thousands. Carter:
:"The idea was simple, instead of doing what the news does, which is entertain you, I wanted to do something that the news rarely does, make a person care about the issue...I wanted young people in Europe to see the people in the war, I didn't want them see politicians or religious leaders or military spokesmen."
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The link-ups were brief and unedited.
He had his camera sent to him from his home in
California so he could film the documentary (which was produced by Bono) with the same goal of exposing people to the individuals living through the war. "The war is just a backdrop, it could be any war, the point is the vitality of the human spirit to survive,
{Link without Title} laugh, to love, and to move on, that is something we will be addressing always."
The song protests the war in
Bosnia , criticizing the international community for its inability to stop the war or help those affected by it. It was the only single released from the album. Its video combines clips from Bill Carter's documentary--which contains some striking imagery, such as a shot of the contestants holding up a banner with the words "DON'T LET THEM KILL US"
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In addition to that performance, the song was played once on U2's
Popmart Tour in 1997, at the band's Sarajevo show (with Brian Eno). The real Miss Sarajevo--the winner of the original pageant--was in attendance. The song has since been played a number of times on the band's 2005
Vertigo Tour .
The "Miss Sarajevo" music video (with director's commentary) and a brief documentary about U2's Sarajevo concert are available on the
DVD edition of ''
The Best Of 1990-2000 ''.
#"United Colours" – 5:31
#"Slug" – 4:41
#"
Your Blue Room " – 5:28
#"Always Forever Now" – 6:24
#"A Different Kind of Blue" – 2:02
#"Beach Sequence" – 3:25
#"
Miss Sarajevo " – 5:41
#"Ito Okashi" – 3:25
#"One Minute Warning" – 4:40
#"Corpse (These Chains are Way Too Long)" – 3:35
#"Elvis Ate America" – 2:59
#"Plot 180" – 3:41
#"Theme from ''The Swan''" – 3:24
#"Theme from ''Let's Go Native''" – 3:07
All songs written by Passengers.
Produced by Brian Eno.
"Miss Sarajevo" was released as a single. It appears on U2's ''
The Best Of 1990-2000 '' compilation.
"Your Blue Room" was released as a promotional single. It was later released as the
B-side of "
Staring At The Sun " in
1997 and appears on the extended version of ''The Best of 1990-2000'' as well.
The Japanese edition includes "Bottoms (Watashitachi No Ookina Yume)" (4:11), a B-side to the "Miss Sarajevo" single, as a bonus track. It is an instrumental version of the U2 song "Zoo Station", which appears on
1991 's ''
Achtung Baby ''. The Japanese would be rendered into English as "Our big dream."
The track "Always Forever Now" appeared briefly in the film ''
Heat '', but managed to make its way onto the Heat soundtrack, which also includes other tracks by Brian Eno.
- Brian Eno --strategies, sequencers, synthesizer, treatments, mixing, chorus voices, vocal on "A Different Kind of Blue"
- Bono --vocals, guitar, piano on "Beach Sequence"
- Adam Clayton --bass, narration on "Your Blue Room"
- The Edge --guitars, chorus voices, vocal on "Corpse," organ on "Your Blue Room"
- Larry Mullen, Jr. --drums, percussion, rhythm sequence on "One Minute Warning," rhythm synthesizer on "United Colours"
- Luciano Pavarotti --tenor voice on "Miss Sarajevo"
- Holi--vocals
- Howie B --mixing, treatments, scratching, call vocal and rhythm track on "Elvis Ate America"
- Craig Armstrong --string arrangement on "Miss Sarajevo"
- Paul Barrett --string arrangement on "Always Forever Now"
- Des Broadbery --sequencer on "Always Forever Now"
- David Herbert --saxophone on "United Colours" and "Corpse"
- Holger Zschnderlein --additional synthesizer on "One Minute Warning".
- Chuck D --backing vocals on "Elvis Ate America".
