Creativity and commerce have always had a touchy relationship. During the frustratingly infrequent occasions when they do get along, everything seems to make a little more sense. But there are only a handful of times when the biggest musical act in the world is functioning at the peak of its artistic powers: The Beatles did it in the mid-’60s, Stevie Wonder in the ’70s, and Beyoncé in the last few years.
U2 managed it in the early ’90s, and the Irish quartet’s case is a strange one. By the end of the ’80s, Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. had already experienced massive success and backlash, with 1987’s The Joshua Tree delivering them to every radio dial in the universe and 1988’s bloated Rattle and Hum exposing the limitations of their ambition. Perhaps as a form of self-preservation, they abandoned their ongoing fascination with America for an unorthodox next move: descending into the after-hours discothèques of post-Berlin-Wall Europe and embracing rock-star decadence. New double-vinyl reissues of 1991’s Achtung Baby and 1993’s Zooropa sum up this fruitful, eccentric period; they’re accompanied by a 1998 greatest-hits collection, The Best of 1980-1990, which puts a cap on the era that led up to it.