Passengers: Original Soundtracks 1 [Soundtrack]

Passengers | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (November 7, 1995)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Soundtrack
• Label: Island
• ASIN: B000001E8S
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Music
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #15,425 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #70 in Music > Dance & DJ > Ambient

Track Listings

1. United Colours

2. Slug

3. Your Blue Room

4. Always Forever Now

5. A Different Kind Of Blue

6. Beach Sequence

7. Miss Sarajevo

8. Ito Okashi

9. One Minute Warning

10. Corpse (These Chains Are Way Too Long)

11. Elvis Ate America

12. Plot 180

13. Theme From The Swan

14. Theme From Let's Go Native

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

U2 should be celebrated for doing what so few major rock bands have managed: They broke the chains of their own stardom. For a while it looked like they'd carry the "monsters of rock" banner into institutionalized and calcified dotage like the Who and Pink Floyd before them. But with 1991's Achtung Baby--and even more so on '93's Zooropa--U2 made clear they'd not become so alienated from artistic motivation that they believed more in their own importance than in their continued ability to create. Thus they stopped waving flags and learned to laugh at their fame. The change, in effect, released U2 from its own image and allowed the band more creative elbowroom than ever before. Only in this context could U2 now allow their producer Brian Eno to assume virtual membership in the band, adopt the pseudonym Passengers, and immerse themselves in the anonymity of film music.

With Original Soundtracks 1, a collection of 14 compositions for imagined movies (and one performance piece), U2 accentuate the visual sense. Eno, who's done this sort of thing for decades, plays a defining role. Tracks like "United Colours" and "One Minute Warning," with their electronic pulsations and organic atmospherics, clearly fall onto his ambient/techno terrain. Even tracks more recognizably the band's are enriched by collaboration: The hilarious "Elvis Ate America" is even more absurd with Howie B's scratching and vocal calls, and the touching "Miss Sarajevo" is made infinitely more profound by Luciano Pavarotti's tenor. Passengers is more likely an inspired tangent than an indication of U2's direction, but it adds to the band's impressive--and constantly progressive--body of work. --Roni Sarig

Product Description

14 tracks with Brian Eno + Pavarotti etc.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing is what it is July 29, 2005

By M. Pierce

Format:Audio CD

I've owned this album for over 8 years and I continually come back to it as my favorite U2 album. I find the individual songs and the album as a complete experience grow on me with each listening. When I first listened to it I enjoyed a few songs but now I can appreciate the entire album.

I enjoy all of U2's other albums but this one really moves me more than any of the others. Its music is more cerebral and experimental than the rest. Want to hear Brian Eno singing, Bono playing the piano, Edge singing and playing the organ, and Adam Clayton narrating? Then you want this album. I can understand not issuing this album as a "U2" album. If they had released it just like an ordinary album then many U2 fans would have been angry/confused by what they heard.

I like to think of U2 as an artistic band, especially as a counter balance to their popular face. I'm sure Eno had a strong influence over this album but I'm also confident that U2's members contributed a great deal of material. This album combined with the DVD "Classic Albums - U2: The Joshua Tree" gives you a very different picture of U2 than might come across while listening to their pop corpus. More than any of their B-Sides, this album is major departure from what one would expect from U2.

All that said, many people that like U2 would probably dislike this album, however if you own all their other albums you should really add this one to your collection.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Great ambient music...for films that don't exist September 3, 2004

By Daniel A. Marsh

Format:Audio CD

In the mid 1990s, U2 took time out of A) saving the world and B) revamping their image by creating "Original Soundtracks 1" with longtime producer Brian Eno. This is NOT a U2 album and should not be considered a starting point for anyone new to the U2 library. That said, the Passengers sideline project was an interesting diversion from the ZooTV tour, and is an interesting extension of what the band had accomplished with "Achtung, Baby" and "Zooropa."

Here is an album that's almost like electronic jazz, perfect for a quiet Friday night with a glass of wine and no lights on. The tracks were fashioned around scenes for movies that do not exist, truly one of the more original album concepts of the last ten years.

You can hear Edge's guitar throughout "OS1," as well as Bono's voice, Larry's drums and Adam's guitar. But these elements are in the service of something distinctly different, the sounds of a futuristic city coming to life in a gently erotic sort of way. If that sounds esoteric and a little weird, well, that's "OS1."

The best track is without a doubt "Always Forever Now," which builds incessantly around a throbbing bassline, propelled forward into the night by Larry's amazing drumwork. This is a beautiful song, the lyrics consisting only of Bono's spoken word mantra.

"Miss Sarajevo" is also on the album, but it's eclipsed by the sci-fi erotica of "Your Blue Room," the strangely aquatic "Slug," Bono's piano figure on "Beach Sequence," Edge's ghostly vocals on "Corpse," and Eno's bizzare electronic vocals on "A Different Kind of Blue." The strangest song, without doubt, is "Elvis Ate America," a rap spoken by Bono that picks up where "Elvis Presley and America" left off on The Unforgettable Song (and surpasses it).

"OS1" isn't for everyone. It took me about 10 years to get used to it, because even though the gang from U2 are front and center, this ain't U2 music. Still, if you're willing to let go of your expectations and accept this as cinematic mood music, you'll have a good time. A very good time.

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Not U2, good techno, but not U2. June 26, 2002

By Brian

Format:Audio CD

My favorite band in the world is U2. That said, this album is not a U2 album. It is a Brian Eno album, with help from many other musicians including Luciano Pavoratti (though I do admit most of the assistance comes from Bono, Edge, Larry, and Adam). It's a good, strong techno album,easy to relax to. However, it is not the long lost step between ZOOROPA and POP. It is the opposite of the 3 U2 1990's albums. Instead of Eno assisting U2, they assist his vision. It's all techno here folks, no memorable pop songs that you'll be hummin to yourself on the way back from lunch. However, if you want to see what U2 are capable of when they relinquish control and serve another creative light, go ahead. Anyone looking for the next "One" "Lemon" or "Gone" or "Discotheque" or should stay far away from Passengers. We can only hope Larry Mullen comes around to this album in a couple years so we can see a Passengers 2.