What is it about "Pop"

I think that many of my readers, er, friends, know that I'm kind of a pretty big U2 fan, like BIGGGG FANNN!!! I like U2 better then Star Wars.

So like in the Year of 1997, U2, after triumphantly taking over the world with Achtung Baby!, decided to do something way different, the decided to update their sound, which for them wasn't all that different, I meant they did that when they made "The Joshua Tree" or when they made "Achtung Baby" and then their experimental album that had The Edge rapping, you know "Zooropa."

What they did was put out an album that they had no idea if it was even good, or as their drummer Larry Mullen, keeps saying "was not done." (He really needs to stop rambling on about finishing it.") They put out an album that had NO SAFE songs on it, nothing anthemic, radio friendly, MTV friendly, nada. Now, maybe this was out of hubris. They had just become the biggest thing since sliced bread, would call the UN during concerts, Bono wasn't even sure if he was Bono anymore, or the Fly, or McPhisto, and The Edge had their last big hit, but damn it was a great music video. And if it wasn't hubris, it was U2, it was just a bunch of guys trying not to do what they had done before, so they jumped onto Electronica, made that they new idea to wrap their minds around with an album that was most definetely not U2 ish. Oh and they named it "Pop."

So what does Pop have going against it. Why is it that people are always like, blag, "Pop"? Well, hmmm... maybe it was Discoteque, sigh.......... Oh Discoteque, so much fun.... so stupid. The music video... even stupider... like really stupid. (some people liked it.) Like, if they had released a better more U2 esque single first, maybe that would've made starting the album off with Discoteque more forgivable. And there are quite a few great songs on this album.

Well, okay Will, what is so great about this album --- Well it was the last U2 album that I felt was completely solid through and through. Look, "All That you Can't Leave Behind," I'm just not that thrilled with. I love Beautiful Day. I really like Stuck in A Moment. Elevation annoys me. I like the sentiment of Kite more then the actual song and Walk On, well it tried too hard, and then there is the rest of the CD which is better as background music. Then there is "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb." I think its a better album then "All That you Can't Leave Behind," and yes I still like Vertigo, yes it's stupid, but it's Stupid AWESOME!!! And yes I think the second half of the album gets a little not so great, but I really think it would have been better if it had been Sequenced better. So for number 2.

"POP" is almost perfectly sequenced. It just flows really well. They had that going. That was their thing, and I think the unequality of the music on their last two CD'S, (Great songs, not so great songs, whoa WTF is Bono thinking songs, all mixed together) has really weakened their sequencing. But "POP" is strong.

Which is why it's so great. It's STRONG! It's way deeper then Discoteque made it look. It's like BONO got all fucked and saw that the world was all fucked up and then was like DUDE, (as in Jesus) WTF? And he made a whole CD. The songs fluctuate between messages of personal & worldly. Most of it diseased. Self Corruption. World Corruption. And then IT ENDS WITH BONO PLEADING (PLEASE) AND BEGGING JESUS TO COME BACK AND DO SOMETHING (WAKE UP DEAD MAN.) And they called this "POP".

So yeah, this is U2's WTF? album. But it's important. It's a statement. It's cohesive, strange, wonderful, powerful, and filled with wonky U2 experiments. It's well written, well performed (even if they don't like it, or were actually able to perform the songs live in their disastrous POP-MART tour) meaningful, and great to sing along to. It was challenging for them to make, and it should have been, because their last two albums seem like they were U2 on auto-pilot, which is still pretty damn good, but what made up for the albums, were their awesome tours.

So "POP" it's good. It's 12 years later good. And we'll see what U2 can still do in 2 months, when "No Line on the Horizon" drops.