You know you’re getting old when the anthems of your own youth are now packaged as special 20th anniversary editions.

Can you believe the seminal (well, quasi-seminal as this was their sophomore effort) Nevermind by Nirvana is now twenty years old? It’s hard to believe this one band changed rock as we know it. The other album that came out the same year was U2’s Achtung Baby. I actually remembered when their first promo vid for The Fly came out and I was virtually going doubleyew tee eff seeing a glitzy version of Bono in his err… lalat sunnies. What ever happened to the dressed down, American-sounding, Sun Studios-recording band that wowed us on Rattle and Hum? You may well be forgiven to think if they followed The Edge’s “It’s a musical journey” statement from said film a bit too far.

But slag their appearance I may, I can’t really fault Achtung Baby much as there aren’t many records in my collection where every single track is a winner. I remembered Nik H buying the CD when we were moving up in the world up Jesmond way. It was three years since they released Rattle and Hum (I was in Enniskillen then) and the only new-ish stuff I heard in between were the New Year’s Eve show at the Point Depot on 31.12.89 which Nik H had recorded from BBC Radio 1 on cassette tape. The fuzzed guitar intro on Zoo Station aptly set the scene for what was to come next track-wise. From the raqs sharqi-esque EBTTRT to the bog standard slow rocker One, we could tell this was a successful reinvention of the band. Bono would still spout political vitriol in their live shows but the band had began to show the shift to an alternative (in the literal sense as opposed to the genre that came from Seattle) sounding U2 – are you surprised of the electronica-laden Zooropa and more so, Pop? By the time Achtung was out, U2’s TV-centric/trabant-filled gigs were so theatrical you’d think they were doing a West End musical. In a good way.

The 20th anniversary record will be released in various guise and forms but one thing I missed was the docufilm From The Sky Down which was shown on the Beeb earlier this month. Serves me right for not watching real telly these days. Tak pe, muat turun ada (a Blu-Ray release is in the works, I hear). Another interesting release is the free CD that came with this month’s Q comprising Achtung Baby in full, covered by the likes of NIN and Garbage (they’re still around, huh). My favourite track is The Killers’ version of ULTRAviolet. I thought it was just ace.

Will I get the Über Deluxe Box Set? Nah, I have the same songs from my CD I bought years ago. Besides, I am saving to buy another deluxe edition release from this band called Metallica who recently collaborated with the Poet of New York City which is about some German play… kidding! Kidding! Heh.