So it's been a little over a year since my original review of the digital download files (WAV) of the Zooropa 25th anniversary remaster. I've updated some of my equipment since then, and wanted to go back and see if that would impact any of my original opinions.
THEN:
- DAC
Dragonfly Black/Upsampling 24-bit @ 96 kHz
NOW:
- DAC
FiiO K3/Upsampling 32-bit @ 384 kHz
Generally speaking, upsampling at an even higher bit-rate and frequency, and perhaps with more distance for comparison to the original recording, revealed improvements to a few of the songs that I did not appreciate at the time of my original review.
That said...
- The only remastered songs that, IMHO, sound improved are …Crashed Car, Some Days…, and Dirty Day.
- Everything I wrote about side A (tracks 1-5) still holds up
One discovery I made in my research is the inconsistency between the mastering for U2 songs on soundtracks in comparison to the original recordings
- 1995 CD single from of "Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me" from the Batman Forever soundtrack
- 1993 CD soundtrack for "Faraway, So Close"
The FSC soundtrack contains different versions of Stay and The Wanderer. Stay has an extended middle eight section, and the intro features a looped beat and different guitar line vs the sparse original. The Wanderer has an extra verse and chorus, but is otherwise the same as the album version. HMTMKMKM is a Zooropa outtake, and there's no indication that U2 ever actually went in and added anything new for the version they ultimately released.
However, when you rip these songs from CD, any sound utility will reveal that they are noticeably louder than the songs on the original Zooropa recording. The Wanderer is especially better sounding (Adam's baseline has distinctly more presence with the louder volume), and with some easy editing, you can easily match it to the original album arrangement.
The main point I'm trying to make is that for whatever reasons, these particular U2 songs were mastered at a louder volume for their soundtracks at the time,
and are at least as loud as the 2018 remasters. The Wanderer from the FSC soundtrack, IMHO, sounds better than both the 2018 remaster of the original album version AND the original 1993 mix (sound quality-wise; i prefer the original album edit).
The volume level of HMTMKMKM from the CD single perfectly illustrates how good major-label mastering from that era still holds up (in this case, from a 1995 Warner Brothers soundtrack album).
In general, I guess what is disappointing to me—someone who prefers 90s-era U2—is that all of this seems on par with the band's efforts to dismiss that era in general. I loved their funky and dance-oriented pivot, including the improved bottom end sound of the rhythm section that came with it. The sterilization of Pop via the Best of remixes (anyone who prefers those versions to the originals either never got the 90s and/or prefers 00s-era U2), and the sparse appearance of songs from Zooropa and Pop in 21st century setlists, is a sad reflection of their most vital period. Back then, they relegated their Rattle and Hum songs to the light-hearted, acoustic portions of their set against the backdrop of their cutting edge new material. The reverse now seems to be true: U2 has been promoting R&H-era bombast for the last 20 years and barely hinting that they actually did become alternative in the 90s.
