After Rattle and Hum, U2 went away to 'dream it all up again.' Achtung Baby was widely regarded as a sonic and visual reinvention of the band: a step too far in some territories. Strong images and concepts aired with this new U2 mood.

Achtung Baby was the first album by a major act to be released in two eco-friendly packages - the jewel box (without the long box attachment) and the cardboard Digi-Trak. The Digi-Trak featured long-box sizes cardboard, which, once its shrink-wrap and two plastic struts are removed, folds around the CD. In Germany, Universal released a 2-CD box set with a copy of both Achtung Baby and Zooropa.

Produced by Daniel Lanois with Brian Eno mainly at Hansa Ton Studios, Berlin, Dog Town, S.T.S., and Windmill Lane, Dublin. Engineered and Mixed by Flood with Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses and Even Better Than The Real Thing mixed by Steve Lillywhite