U2

Pop

POP more now than HTDAAB and ATYCLB

Review Score:

(8/10)
If any album was to fizz, it must be HTDAAB and not Pop. Pop and all the 90s albums are not only experimental, but innovative while still pure U2 rock and roll.
It's unfortunate that the band that examines fame and rockstardom so much was the same band to cave into the demands and likes of Grammys and critics to make safe and LAME ATYCLB and further it with HTDAAB. Although Pop was dubbed as being a techno album, it was not. It was however, the best band in the world exploring the sounds of electronic music and mixing it with rock and roll- successfully. U2 sounds more true to form with Pop than with HTDAAB and more natural than ATYCLB.

Agreeably, as U2 have dubbed it themselves- the unfunished album- Pop seems just shy as being an album as 'complete' as the masterful Achtung Baby. Pop does, however, tell us that U2, at the time, evolved way past The Joshua Tree days. Pop blows up at you with attitude and musical skill that puts JT to shame technically. Pop resinates with funk and power, and it amazes at the ability for a rock and roll band to play these 'techno' songs with only four guys as evident with the Pop Mart tour.

The 90s were:

Achtung Baby, the best album that reinvented the biggest band in the world
Zooropa, the album/experiment that wasnt supposed to an album
Passengers, the album/collaboration that U2 were afraid to put their name on
Pop, the album that wasn't finished
The Best of 1990-2000, the songs that were safe

Evident with the 1990s Best of CD, where the songs from Pop were different mixes than from the album, shows that the 90s were one amazinf remix. Its a shame that they included the songs from ATYCLB (2000) on this CD, because they dont reflect the sound of U2 in 90s at all. But no matter, Pop still seems like true to form U2 and an album I blasted from my stereo from 1997 and continue to do so. I wish I could say the same about HTDAAB.

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