I'm sitting in the office where I used to work, helping the girl who took my position with some reports. We get to talking about U2, and she says she really loves the band but has never given them serious listens. She has, however, become extremely familiar with The Joshua Tree.
So I ask if she's heard Achtung Baby, and she says no - she combs over the track list on Spotify and knows Mysterious Ways and One, but doesn't recognize anything else. She comments, "Zoo Station? That doesn't sound like a song U2 would write."
I tell her to turn her speakers on, and I say the following:
"Imagine its 1991. The last U2 album you bought, The Joshua Tree, made you fall in love with the band. You listen to Streets, WOWY, and ISHF on repeat. This is a band you adore because of that sound. There's no internet, and you don't listen to much radio. But you see they have a new release, and you stop in a record store and pick it up. On your walk home you're humming I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, and when you walk in the door, you drop the disc in. And this is what you hear."
I double-click Zoo Station.
She immediately looks confused. She squints, and as Larry comes in and the mix is settling itself out in the beginning of the song, she does something that I have always somewhat imagined every U2 fan doing in 1991.
She starts banging on the sides of the speakers as if they were broken.
My jaw dropped. I put my hand out, blocking the speakers, and said, "They're fine. This is how it sounds."
She was captivated.
Can you believe that though? Someone who had never heard AB before started the album and immediately thought something was wrong with her speakers. That is just glorious to me.
Well, send those demos my way some time and I'll listen to them
I have been playing quite a lot of music lately, but unfortunately not making any of my own really. Don't know why, maybe not just really feeling it. Maybe because school kills creativity a bit sometimes? I don't know, hope I'll get into it again.
Had a biology exam today, think it went pretty well. I've started to feel lately that I think I want to become a medical doctor.
The closest you'll ever be to someone listening to AB with fresh ears and mind. It's amazing 
