Album Reviews

One of the more under-the-radar releases that I didn’t see or hear many people talking about pre-Record Store Day 2025 (which occurred last Saturday, April 12, 2025) is the 30th anniversary 180g 2LP vinyl reissue of Passengers’ Original Soundtracks 1, a 1995 collaboration between U2 and their then-producer Brian Eno. Previously available on CD, via Island — though there is a quite pricey European 1LP vinyl edition from back in the day (along with a relatively scarce U.S. LP release) — a good 21st century vinyl update for this underappreciated gem, via Island/Universal Music Recordings, was long overdue.

Thus, I’m excited to report that the transformation of Original Soundtracks 1 from a single CD to a double-LP, audiophile-worthy listening experience is nothing short of revelatory. Before I get into the new 2LP set’s nitty-gritty nuances, let’s try to unpack the underlying DNA of this fine release.

First, from the official press release, we learn some basic background worth revisiting: “Original Soundtracks 1, the studio album by Brian Eno and U2, was released in November 1995 under the artist pseudonym Passengers. The experimental recording process resulted in a collection of 14 songs, written mostly for imaginary films — hence the album title — with the exception of “Ghost in the Shell,” “Beyond the Clouds,” and the hit single “Miss Sarajevo,” featuring Luciano Pavarotti. Other highlights include guest appearances from musician and producer Howie B and Japanese artist Holi, as well as the bonus track “Bottoms (Watashitachi No Ookina Yume),” which previously featured on the original Japanese version of the album. This special double-vinyl 30th anniversary edition, pressed on recycled black vinyl, is now fully remastered for the first time.”

Since that above background paragraph doesn’t really tell us a great deal about the making of the album itself, we need to dig a little deeper to connect some dots and make semi-educated DNA guesses along the way. For example, from the album’s 2025 credits that appear on one side of the inner sleeve that houses LP2, we know that all tracks were remastered by Scott Sedillo at Bernie Grundman Mastering in Hollywood, California, and that said remastering was, quote, “directed by” U2 guitarist The Edge.

Reading between the buttons of the original liner notes (which are reproduced on one side of LP1’s inner sleeve), certain language there indicates that if Original Soundtracks 1 wasn’t recorded entirely, natively in the digital realm, it was likely produced in the non-analog domain, as we see credits listed for “Digital Editing” by Stewart Whitmore beneath the original mastering credit for Arnie Acosta. Meanwhile, a broader “Editing” credit (which could be analog, we admit, but gut instinct leads us to think otherwise) goes to Brian Eno and Rob Kirwan. Lots of puzzle pieces to consider here, of course — but, that said, it’s probably fair to guess that Original Soundtracks 1 was crafted in some hybrid of digital and analog technologies. (More on all that in a moment.)

Original Soundtracks 1 comes housed in a single-pocket style cover, but the album’s producers have created neat, custom inner sleeves with fun, new (to me, at least), grainy, sepia-toned black-and-white images of all four members of U2 dressed up as, we assume, a restaurant’s cook-staff, with Brian Eno all dolled up in a white tux and bowtie — perhaps serving as the maître d’ of the whole affair. These photos did not appear in the original CD booklet or (as far as I can tell, from online sources) the rare 1995 LP editions.

And yes, the original 58-minute album was crammed on to a single LP back then, so the expansion of Original Soundtracks 1 to a 2LP format no doubt gives the music much more room to breathe on vinyl. This new 2LP set was manufactured in Germany, likely at Optimal. Pressed on black recycled vinyl (we assume, technically, meaning that it’s likely “BioVinyl”), my copy of Original Soundtracks 1 is dark, well-centered, and very quiet, so there are no problems on that front.

However, I did find a little bit of white dust on the edge of each Original Soundtracks 1 LP, but that was likely because the albums had shifted during shipping, and unfortunately ripped through the dull-gloss-paper inner sleeves. To that, it would have been nice if the production team had instead housed the discs in sturdier, plastic-lined audiophile-grade inners — but at the end of the day, this was not a major issue. (AP editor Mike Mettler tells me he found only one paper-dust speck on LP1, Side A, and two of them on LP2, Side D, but proper cleaning prior to his playing each side alleviated any potential playback issues.)

Incidentally, Original Soundtracks 1 was capped as a limited edition of 3,500 for Record Store Day 2025, but it has also been designated as an “RSD First” release, which typically means that eventually it will see more widespread distribution (though we currently have no idea when that will be). And while the rare original 1LP editions range in price on Discogs at the time of this posting from about $130 to (yikes!) $2,500, you can find a handful of online flippers selling the new 2025 RSD 2LP reissue for under $100. I suspect there are still copies out there at your favorite indie record stores for much less than that, so, to borrow a phrase from the Grateful Dead’s “Shakedown Street,” you just gotta poke around! (Mettler adds that, if you go to Townsend Music right here, you can order your copy of Original Soundtracks 1 right now for $59.)

Looking at the original album credits (which I admittedly never spent much time exploring in the past), I find that the creation of Original Soundtracks 1 seems to have taken a significant production team worthy of an independent film to make — which actually ties in with the imaginary film concept behind this recording, when you stop to think about it.

This distribution of powers (if you will) listed herein is not entirely surprising, given that U2 was still in full superstar flower at that time of the original release, transitioning between July 1993’s Grammy Award-winning Zooropa and March 1997’s perhaps artistically disappointing but ultimately platinum-selling Pop. The band was very much at a creative crossroads (part of the impetus for this project, actually, from what I have read about its genesis online) while still being massively popular, recording and planning mega-tours and such. It is fair to consider that U2 probably had to delegate a great deal of responsibilities to make the Passengers sideproject come to fruition.

Grammy-winning engineer Danton Supple is credited for handling much of the main album, but special guest engineers are also showcased on select tracks, such as Howie B on “Elvis Ate America” (LP2, Side C, Track 4). The “Zoo Station Remix” of “Bottoms (Watashitachi No Ookina Yume),” is credited to producer Flood — and this previously Japan-only bonus track now appears on LP2, Side D, Track 4 of this new RSD vinyl edition. Each of these producer credits list assistants, studio crews, post-production staff, etc. Original Soundtracks 1 was clearly quite a full-bore production, when you step back to look at all that went into its making.

For an album that, on the surface, initially might have felt frivolous for these once-upon-a-time new-wave post-punk alt-rock stars from Dublin, Ireland, it’s clear that much love and care went into this album’s making, and now we can hear all of its nuances on this new 2LP reissue. No matter what you may have thought of it at the time of its initial 1995 release, Original Soundtracks 1 is not a throwaway.

As far as specific favorite tracks go, it’s hard to just list a few standouts, because overall, the whole album feels richer, more in-depth, and ultimately a better listening experience. For one thing, the big hit single off the album, “Miss Sarajevo” (LP1, Side B, Track 4), is a standout, as the featured guest vocals by opera legend Luciano Pavarotti sound more natural.

Actually, the vocals all throughout these 2LPs sound more realistic here than on the CD, which, in general, always felt a bit one-dimensional to me, to the point where the album never fully engaged me. Don’t get me wrong — I liked Original Soundtracks 1 just fine, but after a while, I just put the CD away, and rarely went back to it. On this new 2LP remaster, however, I feel like I’m hearing the songs for the first time, and now proactively want to spend more time immersing myself in this Passengers music on vinyl.

I love how Bono’s voice emerges out of the drum-machine cha-cha rhythms on “Slug” and the ethereal soundscapes of “Your Blue Room” (LP1, Side A, Tracks 2 and 3, respectively), reminding me a bit of parts of Eno’s own brilliant November 1975 LP on Island, Another Green World — which, I might add, happens to be my favorite Eno album, featuring such great tracks like “The Big Ship” and “St. Elmo’s Fire,” among others — and those haunting falsettos set against drummer Larry Mullen Jr.’s beautiful snare-drum brush work is just wonderful.

The track many of us haven’t heard before — the aforementioned “Bottoms (Watashitachi No Ookina Yume) (Zoo Station Remix)” (LP2, Side D, Track 4) — feels like an outtake from the Zooropa / Achtung Baby universe, and it is a nice upbeat way to end the album, even if it perhaps feels a tad out of place.

If you are like me and haven’t thought about Passengers and Original Soundtracks 1 in a long time, now might be the time to revisit this fine “new” album. Hearing it on vinyl for the first time, the music opens up in a fresh manner, compared to the relatively sterile sound of the original 1995-era CD. I love having this music spread out across four album sides, which allows us to better appreciate the song sequencing without it all getting lost as a mushy, hour-long digital playlist. Stopping to flip each side gave my brain a chance to take it all in, and better appreciate what I just heard.

Sonics-wise, there is no contest compared to the CD — the new vinyl edition of Original Soundtracks 1 sounds bold, round, and punchy, with loads of low-end, subsonic-style dance-beat vibes percolating beneath without sounding tubby-thumpy flaccid. Yet it’s not all boombox-car low-end here, as there is lots of nice midrange and high-end sparkle. As to the Ratings, we give the Music a very solid 9, as Original Soundtracks 1 is a good listen, start to finish. And for Sound, we give it a 9 as well, which leaves us room for further reconsideration/elevation should we someday get to hear, say, a multidisc 45rpm uber-audiophile edition at some point in the future.

In closing, I’ll summarize that this new 180g 2LP vinyl reissue is like hearing Passengers and their Original Soundtracks 1 anew for the first time. If you love Brian Eno and U2’s work together, you probably need this one in your vinyl collection, ASAP.

Author bio: Mark Smotroff is an avid vinyl collector who has also worked in marketing communications for decades. He has reviewed music for AudiophileReview.com, among others, and you can see more of his impressive C.V. at LinkedIn.

PASSENGERS
ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACKS 1
180g 2LP (Island/Universal Music Recordings)
RSD First / limited edition of 3,500

LP1, Side A
1. United Colours
2. Slug
3. Your Blue Room

LP1, Side B
1. Always Forever Now
2. A Different Kind Of Blue
3. Beach Sequence
4. Miss Sarajevo

LP2, Side C
1. Ito Okashi
2. One Minute Warning
3. Corpse (These Chains Are Way Too Long)
4. Elvis Ate America

LP2, Side D
1. Plot 180
2. Theme From The Swan
3. Theme From Let’s Go Native
4. Bottoms (Watashitachi No Ookina Yume) (Zoo Station Remix)