![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Chris-Cornell-Musician-Far-Out-Magazine-F-1140x855.jpg\")
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(Credits: Far Out \/ TIDAL)<\/p>\n
Soundgarden<\/a> and U2 are not bands that tend to come up organically in the same conversation, even if the subject is \u201cheavy-rotation rock radio in the early \u201890s.\u201d It\u2019s a well-trod factoid, for example, that Soundgarden\u2019s 1991 breakout album Badmotorfinger was released within weeks of Pearl Jam\u2019s Ten and Nirvana\u2019s Nevermind. <\/p>\n The simultaneous arrival of U2\u2019s mid-career curveball, Achtung Baby (November 1991), might not feel a part of that same cultural through-line, but MTV viewers of that era will recall that the hits from that album\u2014\u2019Mysterious Ways\u2019, \u2018Even Better Than the Real Thing\u2019, and \u2018One\u2019\u2014were in the zeitgeist every bit as much as \u2018Smells Like Teen Spirit\u2019 and \u2018Jeremy\u2019. Achtung wasn\u2019t just a huge, chart-topping success for Bono & Co., it was seen as a daring step forward for the band as they entered their early 30s, and it had them at least occasionally categorised into the \u201calt-rock\u201d scene of the moment\u2014giving them rare crossover appeal between the aging 1980s arena rock crowd and the youngsters who heard \u2018Mysterious Ways\u2019 as a funky Irish cousin to the sort of stuff the Red Hot Chili Peppers were putting out.<\/p>\n In 2011, late Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell briefly discussed this often overlooked piece of the 1991 puzzle in a chat with the Canadian newspaper The Globe and Mail. <\/p>\n \u201cI think [Achtung Baby] is probably one of their more controversial and pivotal albums,\u201d he said when asked about the U2 album, which had just marked its 20th anniversary with the release of a documentary film, From the Sky Down. \u201cIt\u2019s also probably one of the most personal and personally challenging<\/a> ones that they\u2019ve done. That\u2019s just my interpretation without getting any information from anyone other than what\u2019s been out there. And that\u2019s worthy of putting together [in documentary form] and talking about.\u201d<\/p>\n Despite appearances in the early \u201990s, there wasn\u2019t really a generational divide between Soundgarden and U2; Cornell (born 1964) was only four years younger than Bono (1960). Even the geographical divide, while literally covering about 7,000 kilometres between Seattle and Dublin, doesn\u2019t feel as significant when you consider that both bands were coming from hilly, rain-soaked coastal towns and following the path carved by their local underdog punk scenes.\u00a0<\/p>\n