U2's POP

I think it's unfairly maligned. Not excellent, but quite great in parts.

Their last good album was Zooropa.

The remixes on the Best Of bothered me too - it's like they're trying to forget that period existed. That said, I still wouldn't call Pop a good album. Awful second half, only a couple really good songs on the first half.

I agree that "Pop" is deeply flawed... too much of it is caught between stools... not that many good songs really. At least their last album was sure over what it wanted to be: i.e. a more retrogade pop-rock style, which worked nicely in many places.

It's a problem for "Pop" that it actually isn't pop in general. Too many average songs, some in a rock vein ("Last Night on Earth"; really boring), some leftovers of their early 90s style (the passable "Playboy Mansion"). "Mofo" is the most radically 'dance' and it's okay. As is "Please", unremarkable but decent U2 'political number'. "If God Will Send His Angels"; tuneful, but contrived... "If You Wear That Velvet Dress" is just a bit muffled, though one of the more interesting efforts.
"Discotheque", "Gone" (fine guitars) and "Mofo" are really the best songs. Quite an average album overall; the follow-up was more assured and focused. It shows that they miss Eno's production and guiding hand...

I actually hope the new one combines the tunes of ATYCLB with their (for me) most enjoyable and inventive records, "Passengers" and "Zooropa". "Miss Sarajevo" is beautifully conceived. "The First Time", "Numb", "Lemon", "Your Blue Room", "Beach Sequence"... their most ambient sort of music, Eno et al.

I quite like "Gone" and "Discotheque", but the album sounds largely unfinnished to my ears.

Pop has some great songs and consistently interesting textures. It did have a certain reach-exceeds-their-grasp quality, but remains exponentially more interesting than ATYCLB, easily the worst LP in their catalog. And yes those remixes are crap.

My guess: it simply comes down to who's mixing the albums.

Unforgettable FireLanois & Eno produced and mixed
Joshua Tree Lanois & Eno produced and mixed, with 4 tracks mixed by Steve Lillywhite. engineered by Flood
Achtung Baby Lanois & Eno produced, mixing by Lanois, Flood, sometimes Eno, sometimes the Edge, and again Steve Lillywhite did a couple tracks with Robbie Adams.
Zooropa Produced by Flood, Brian Eno and The Edge, Engineered and Mixed by Flood and Robbie Adams
Popproduced by : Flood, additional production by : Howie B, Steve Osborne, recorded by : Mark "Spike" Stent, Howie B and Alan Moulder, mixed : Mark "Spike" Stent, Howie B and Steve Osborne
ATYCLB Produced by: Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. Additional production: Steve Lillywhite, Mike Hedges, Richard Stannard and Julian Gallagher, Engineered by: Richard Rainey. Assisted by: Chris Heaney, Mixed by: Richard Rainey, Tim Palmer, Mike Hedges, Richard Stannard and Julian Gallagher, Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Steve Fitzmaurice. Note that only Lanois, Eno, & Lillywhite ever mixed for them before.
shitty new best-of mixes mixed by Mike Hedges and Carl Glanville.
Let's check out their credits
Richard Rainy:celtic-newagepop group Clannad and Italian pop star Zucherro
Tim Palmer: Faith Hill, Goldfinger, Reel Big Fish, Big Country, MXPX
Mike Hedges: The Cure, Manic Street Preachers, Siouxie & the Banshees
Carl Glanville: Counting Crows, Jesse Malin, Vanessa Williams, Shudder to Think
Stannard & Gallagher: Spice Girls, Charlotte Church, Kylie Minogue, Gabrielle
Steve Fitzmaurice: Seal, Craig David, Geri Halliwell

Now, not to say that these people aren't talented but they seem oddly matched with U2, especially when Eno & Lanois do such brilliant work on their own. I suspect I would like it more if outside mixers hadn't been brought in. Fuckin Interscope!

Pop might have benefited from Eno/Lanois' perspective, they're gifted at balancing ambition with subtlety. But at least they were experimenting! ATYCLB is a bland pop album of bland pop mixes.

My hope is that U2 will let themselves be weird and innovative and playful again. Remember how weird "with or without you" sounded the first time you heard it? Remeber how unprecedented ZOO TV was? German cars hanging from the ceiling? They've gone sickeningly lowest-common-denominator (not to be confused with populist).

I still think "Last Night On Earth" rocks. "Staring At The Sun," on the other hand, was possibly the first U2 single that I remember really hating, back in the day.

I like it.

i like much of it - the geetaw on 'Mofo' stirs me so

i like it pretty much, i looove "gone"

As much as it pains me to do so, I must agree with cinniblount in professing loooove for "Gone".

Patchy, but considerably better than the awful "Rattle And Hum". "Staring At The Sun" and "If God Will Send His Angels" are both among their best, and were both kind of pointing forwards towards ATYCLB, which is the best U2 album ever.

I like Pop a lot, but more for its individual songs than as an album. I'm a big fan of "Do You Feel Loved," "If God Will Send His Angels," "Miami," "Playboy Mansion," "Gone," and "Wake Up Dead Man." I like the other songs too, but there's things about them that kind of bug me. "Please" is a million times better live. "Discotheque" and "Staring At The Sun" sounded much better on the Elevation tour, the both of them stripped down considerably, and sometimes played as a medley.

It's just not the most complete record, but it's not bad at all. It's just difficult and it doesn't know what it wants to be. I appreciate that U2 were trying hard to make something special, but it just didn't work out that time. All That You Can't Leave Behind is a lesser record, but it feels more inspired. I think they had a lot more fun with that record.

Many of you have given some interesting insights and opinions on "Pop". I share many of them. Mainly, I feel it is
unfairly maligned by "fans" and in turn (at least I believe,unfortunately) by the band. That is lamentable considering it was the end of an era, the Greatest Era, for U2. Though now it seems as if they are determined to forget the 90's ever happened.

My favorite U2 Albums: 1)Zooropa
2)Achtung Baby/The Joshua Tree
3)Pop/Rattle And Hum

I also very much
enjoyed the
"Passengers" album.

The first three songs ("Discotheque ["irony" and all]," "Do You Feel Loved" and "Mofo") are marvelous, the rest ranges from okay to cack.

"Discotheque" is like the worst song they've ever done! I think the rest of the album's pretty good, and I don't even _like_ U2.

I love Pop, it's the only U2 record I listen to from beginning to end these days. Discotheque I can pass on -- but I actually like the unfinished quality of the album, which gives it its charm, I say (e.g., the bad mixing on "Last Night on Earth," the slightly off-key vocal performances like on "Staring at the Sun," and so on). And from the videos I've seen the Popmart tour was spectacular. U2's pompous ambition always plays better when it's pushed to the limit of what they can execute, and worst when it's aiming at something comfortable and easy to achieve. Pop is definitely at their limit and almost winsome to me -- which is why, say, "Mofo" is so much better than "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own," or why "If God Will Send His Angels" is so much better than "Peace On Earth."

In other words, the outsized ambition is somehow perfectly balanced with the flawed execution to create awesomeness.

the album has what i think are their best lyrics, which some might say isn't saying much at all.

I think it's the last album of Bono's questioning before he drowned in the sorrowful stench of his own self importance and became a messiah for those post-pop/sept11 who dislike being encumbered by doubt, contradiction, impotence and the other elements that made Achtung and Zooropa great, and Pop and Rattle something more than crowd pleasing gestures at the superbowl and papal blowjobs for the cameras.

"Last Night On Earth" is still awesome.

listening to u2 is like eating a poopy popsicle

I still maintain that if Pop had been released a year earlier it's critical reputation would be several hundred percent better.

see also: Love And Rockets' Hot Trip To Heaven