I found this article on POP. Looking back, was it actually all that bad an album? I'm going to listen to it again this week and report back with my thoughts. It's funny, some albums I loved at the time I now listen to again and I'm totally underwhelmed. Others I wasn't too keen on at the time are now amongst my favourites.

 

 

From

http://newsroom.mtv.com/2010/03/04/u2-pop/

 

 

 

So anyway, here's the article on POP.

 

 

U2 are a profoundly polarizing band. They are simultaneously easy to love (they make wonderfully glorious rock anthems, put on ridiculously great concerts and have been consistently good for 30 years) and extremely difficult to love (they're constantly experimenting and circling back, and Bono's politics sometimes eclipse everything else about the band).

 

Musically speaking, the band was probably at its most polarizing on this day in 1997, when they released Pop. After dropping the watershed album Achtung Baby in the beginning of the '90s and embarking on a game-changing worldwide stadium tour, the group spent the next few years experimenting with just about everything. The odd, electronic Zooropa set the table (as did the truly odd Original Soundtracks, the album credited to the Passengers that was actually just a U2 record), but Pop was an entirely different reality for the group. With dance music making a bid to take over the airwaves and influencing rock artists left and right (even the Rolling Stones were sampling), U2 decided to go all the way with Pop.

 

The album's first single, "Discotheque," set the tone. It was essentially a club song based around a thumping disco beat that featured shimmery guitars and keyboards and nary a mention of a blue collar uprising. Instead, the group decided to party. Was it ironic? Perhaps. Probably. Actually, nobody was entirely sure. The rest of the album stretched even deeper into the dance music abyss (especially the house-influenced "Mofo" and the beat-mining "Miami").

 

Pop became one of the most-debated albums of 1997 and holds an odd place in the band's history (as in, they tend not to bring it up). Still, there were tremendous songs lurking under all that electronic slop — like the effervescent "Staring at the Sun."

Discotheque :dance:

 

 

Do You Feel Loved

 

 

Staring at the Sun :wub:

 

 

A bad album? Far from it - it was in parts prouduced poorly but it is still a very strong record. All the songs bar two (Miami, Playboy Mansion) are all either really good or great tunes imo. It's my least fave out of the 90's experimental trio but I definatlu don't think it is their worst album - if you go onto U2 fansites - it is highly praised and many fans favourite album. The reviews were initially very good but over the years it has been remembered negetivley, similar to 'Be Here Now' by Oasis, although Pop is a superior album imo - both had huge initial success both critically and commerically (BHN was the fastest seller in the UK of all time, and Pop went to #1 in 35 countries).

 

I've always liked the bands idea of re-recording the tracks again, as when performed live they tend to sound much much better - especially the wonderful 'Wake Up Dead Man' and 'Gone' :wub: - and both Discotheque and Staring At The Sun are among my favourite U2 singles ever :wub:

So did you listen back yet Jups? Verdict? :smoke:

I love the first half :unsure:

It's funny, some albums I loved at the time I now listen to again and I'm totally underwhelmed. Others I wasn't too keen on at the time are now amongst my favourites.

 

I know exactly what you mean, it's even worse when you listen to music you absolutely loved as a kid and then you go on a nostalgia trip and listen to stuff from then and realise how awfully bad it really was!! So painful, some things are best left in the past and I have to say for me personally the POP album is one of those things!

Oh I dunno. I still love David Cassidy. :P