U2

Pop

The last in U2's Zooro-trilogy

Review Score:

(10/10)
After exploring the roots of American rock and roll in late 1980s, U2 turned their ears to emerging music trends from Europe--trip hop, industrial, and techno/rave. The band then successfully assimilated those elements in its Euro-trilogy or Zooro-trilogy--Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and POP. It is in POP, where U2 perfected the European sound. (AB is a dark synthesis of the old U2 sound and the new. Zooropa is plagued with some weak songwriting.)

12 songs gel into a song cycle. It has some of band's best rockers, shockers("Mofo") and ballads. Lyrically, the song cycle searches for love, desire and faith in postmodern "desert of real" (to borrow a phrase from "The Matrix"). POP redeems these deep human values from our excess consumerism.

As the old saying goes, one's strength is also his weakness. POP's futuristic sound and overt pop culture references proved to be its undoing. The album did not do well commercially because American audience had too conservative a taste. Local radio stations fed them on a strict diet of classic rock of Beatles, Stones, Eagles, Zeppelins. "DiscothÃ¨que" would not get airplay along side of, say, "Hotel California." This is also the reason that U2's follow-up album, "All that you can't leave behind," sold better. ATYCLB is retro, 60s rock at its finest.

So go ahead and give POP a try if you feel adventurous(or simply tired of what your local DJs have been feeding you all those years). You may be pleasantly surprised.

More Reviews: