U2 to drop uber-deluxe 20th anniversary edition of Achtung Baby

[ANF]

U2 will mark the 20th anniversary of Achtung Baby with a massive 6CD/4DVD box set featuring remastered editions of the 1991 album and its 1993 follow-up Zooropa, five 7-inch singles, “re-workings of previously unheard material,” the “ZOO TV: Live From Sydney” concert film, a new documentary and a pair of Bono’s “Fly” sunglasses.

The Irish megaband today announced the 20 Years of Achtung Baby project, which will be released Oct. 31 in five different formats and will include “some previously unreleased songs” and the new documentary “From the Sky Down,” directed by Oscar-winner Davis Guggenheim (“An Inconvenient Truth”), who previously worked with The Edge in “It Might Get Loud.”

Rumored for some time, the expanded Achtung Baby reissue was confirmed in June when U2 manager Paul McGuinness told Rolling Stone, “There will be multiple formats. If you pile a lot of extra material and packaging and design work into a super-duper box set, there are people who will pay quite a lot for it, so you can budget it at a very high level and pump up the value.”

He wasn’t kidding. Although the group didn’t reveal tracklists, it detailed the five formats:



1.) Uber Deluxe Edition

Limited, numbered set in a magnetic puzzled-tiled box
6 CDs, including Achtung Baby, Zooropa, B-sides and “re-workings of previously unheard material recorded during the Achtung Baby sessions”
4DVDs, including the previously released “ZOO TV: Live From Sydney,” the new “From the Sky Down” doc, all of the Achtung Baby videos and “bonus material”
5 clear 7-inch vinyl singles in their original vinyl sleeve (although the titles aren’t specified, they’re presumably “The Fly,” “Mysterious Ways,” “One,” “Even Better Than the Real Thing” and “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses”)
16 art prints taken from the original album sleeve
84-page hardback book
1 copy of Propaganda fan-club magazine
4 badges
1 sticker sheet
1 pair of Bono’s trademark “The Fly” sunglasses


2.) Super Deluxe Edition

6 CDs, including Achtung Baby, Zooropa, B-sides and “re-workings of previously unheard material recorded during the Achtung Baby sessions”
4DVDs, including the previously released “ZOO TV: Live From Sydney,” the new “From the Sky Down” doc, all of the Achtung Baby videos and “bonus material”
92-page hardback book
16 art prints in a wallet


3.) Vinyl Box Set

4LPs, including two pressed on translucent blue vinyl containing remixes and B-sides
16-page booklet


4.) Deluxe Edition

2CD set featuring the original album plus B-sides and “rarities”


5.) Standard CD

1CD edition featuring just the original album

 

[ANF]

I like the concepts of these sets. They do a good job encapsulating the era of the album they represent.

However, I HATE the price tags they charge. They are way too expensive and I think that is a bad idea considering 1. the music industry is in the toilet because people find music to be overpriced, and some $150-200 box set doesn't help and 2. America is still in a recession. $50, hell even $75 IMO comes off reasonable for these types of sets, but $100-200 is way too much and is price overkill. Someone actually did the math with the Exile set. You could get the "Stones In Exile" DVD, the 2-disc remaster of Exile and the vinyl set packaged in there for about $55-60 total depending on the seller... yet the box set is $150, so you're paying nearly $100 just for some postcards and a book. Epic fail on the record companies behalfs. Making these affordable would make them sell more of these.

 

[LG]

I wasn't a big fan of Achtung Baby or Zooropa when they came out, I certainly won't be interested in an Overblown Overpriced deluxe collectors edition designed to put yet more millions in their collective pockets.

Same as the Quadrophenia box set that's coming out, the only good thing I saw was a vinyl edition, for older material the vinyl sounds better than the remastered CD's generally speaking. I wonder if U2 is offering the vinyl records on their own?...that would be nice.