Review Summary: Bursts out of the gate with some great tracks, loses steam, gets increasingly erratic, and stumbles over the finish line, but still contains some great U2 material.
10 years after its release, "Pop" continues to be one of the most divisive albums U2 has ever released. It is also the album U2 v3.0 have spent the entire millennium trying to live down, and hoping people would forget. Their embarrassment with the album (admittedly, the album was released unfinished), and this led to the poor, U2-by-numbers of "ATYCLB", but that is for another time.
So, is the dismissal warranted, or are the U2 fans simply scared of the big bad techno beats? Actually, it's just a red herring: the only songs that use the techno influences blatantly are the opening triptych. Not coincidentally, these are three of the best tracks on the album. "Discothèque" is one of the catchiest U2 songs ever made, filled with funky dance rhythms, relentless guitar hooks courtesy of the Edge and deceptively simple lyrics (unlike, say, "Elevation"). Its unabashed frivolity lives up to the album's promise of entertaining music, and as a bonus, it's one of the best techno-rock songs ever made in the late 90s.
The momentum and energy the first song builds is sustained by the second track, "Do You Feel Loved" (reportedly inspired by an obscure Naked Funk song, "Alien Groove Sensation"), a hypnotically repetitive mid-tempo song driven by a throbbing bass line. The song boasts a suitably claustrophobic production, which only accentuates the impact of Bono's rather excited lyrics. As a side note, this song is more funk-oriented than the previous, ignoring the relentless synthesized hook.
"Mofo" is a real surprise, but it does come with a bit of baggage, mostly in the form of the lyrics. This is one negative aspect I'd like to mention: the text and the music don't match up, and leave a bit of a sour note. The arrangement itself is great, playing like a bastard child of the
Chemical Brothers and
Prodigy: futuristic, reckless, relying entirely on distorted beats and a repetitive hook, plus some ear candy here and there which prevents the song from wearing out its welcome despite the near-6 minute length. The song itself is so good that its Achilles' heel become even more grating. I'm speaking about how Bono keeps wailing on the track about how his mother's death affected him. Seriously, pussifying a song this charged and aggressive is one real misstep that I can't overlook. Damn you, Bono. I hope I'll find an instrumental version someday...
So, it's three almost great songs (groan-inducing lyrics from "Mofo" aside) and then the album suddenly calms down with a case of bad sequencing. "If God Will Send His Angels" is another almost-blunder. While it boasts some reasonably good and thought-provoking lyrics, the song comes off as... well, tossed-off, not to mention handicapped by its overblown production and prolonged running time (it should have been cut around the 3-minute mark). IGWSHA also marks another negative part of the album that will get increasingly obvious throughout its running time: simplistic and repetitive drumming.
"Staring at the Sun" picks up things again after IGWSHA came off lacking. It may have a slightly flamboyant arrangement, but it actually clicks and comes off better. Next to "Gone", this has the most radically experimental guitar tracks on "Pop", which succeed in conveying the angsty, accusatory mood. "Staring" manages to bring up the album's overall critical theme towards modern culture and society quite nicely, indicting human indifference and escapism from global problems and issues. From here, the album only gets more cynical and sardonic (for lack of a better word).
It is a known fact that "Pop" was released unfinished as a result of the upcoming PopMart tour, and "Last Night on Earth" has the misfortune of being the most obvious example. It attempts to become another arena-sized U2 rock song, and sadly falls short, despite its indelible guitar hooks and the "explosive" (metaphorically) chorus. Once again, I have to complain about the piss take on the drums, which are consistently drowned out by the guitars and vocals. As a result, the song loses the "anchor" it requires, so to speak. This is one song that desperately needs to be re-recorded, because it has potential.
"Gone" is another toss-off, and a weird one too, driven by a high-pitched yowling guitar melody and dealing with the emotional conflicts that result from superstar celebrity status. Thankfully the lyrics aren't as painfully out-of-place as "Mofo", but they're filled with all sorts of clichés and don't come across very well. And, to the annoyance of everybody reading this, again I bring up the absolute sh
ittiness of the drums. What? Did everybody suddenly forget how to properly record drums? Did Larry get lazy? Jeez.
Okay, I'd like to apologize about the rant in the last sentence. Anyway, "Gone" is the turning point in the record: from now on 'till the finish line, it will get more jaded, more depressing, and increasingly hit-and-miss. (I'm starting to think the album's title was meant to be ironic...)
"Miami" is for all intents and purposes, the worst song on the album. Actually, it's less song, more boring stream-of-consciousness rant. I am convinced that this song resulted from the lads listening to Tricky whilst high. In fairness, it does have a wonderfully creepy atmosphere, but it's sunken by two basic faults:
1. the lyrics.
2. the song doesn't go anywhere, and runs out of steam halfway in.
But, lo, "The Playboy Mansion" comes next. It's an improvement over "Miami"'s yawn-inducing repetition, with a huge leap in the quality of the lyrics (even if they get a bit too obvious at times). I suppose the title is again supposed to be ironic considering the stingy porno-funk licks in the beginning of the track. So, overall, the song is quite... okay. There's not a lot more I can say about it, except that it manages to basically encapsulate "Pop"'s entire outlook.
"If You Wear That Velvet Dress" rivals "Do You Feel Loved" in terms of sheer sensuality, and easily earns the position of "best ballad/slow track on the album". It has a dreamy quality provided by the combination of ambient pads + simple but effective acoustic guitar hook, later culminating in an ambient guitar solo by the Edge. The track gets everything right, manages not to sink into needless bombast (like IGWSHA) and successfully sustains itself without dragging. Actually, I kind of wonder why it hasn't made its way onto any of those tacky compilation albums so far. It would work perfectly.
"Please" falters where its predecessor succeeded, coming off as limp, wearisome and intolerably dull. Its shuffley beats and "ominous" melodies make the lyrics look laughable. Sorry, but when you make "Sunday Bloody Sunday", your songs relating to the political situation of Northern Ireland are held up to a higher standard. "Please" does not rise to that standard (and
that's an understatement).
And then, after getting nearly lulled to sleep, "Wake Up Dead Man" arrives like a jolt, finishing the album on a good note. The beginning (with reversed samples and some ethnic singing floating under the Edge banging out chords on his acoustic) manages to capture a feeling of confused anxiety sustained throughout. Whereas previous religiously-oriented U2 songs left a bad taste in my mouth, this one succeeds by injecting a good dose of skepticism (
"Jesus, I'm waiting here, boss/I know you're looking out for us/But maybe your hands aren't free"), the song ending up as more of a meditation (or a lament) on the state of the world today. Bono's stark, desperate delivery and defeated tone here only serves to accentuate the song's cynical pessimism (
"I'm alone in this world/And a fucked-up world it is too"). The rest of the band joins in later, and some distorted guitar feedback is added in the background (a nice touch to emphasize the haunting hopelessness). At the end, the song simply dies out. A spine-chilling way to end the album.
In conclusion, what to say? "Pop" basically bursts out of the gate with some great tracks, loses steam, gets increasingly erratic, and stumbles over the finish line. Or to put it another way, it starts off all brisk and dynamic and manages to finish as a horrible bummer. Irrespective of the outright clunkers (tracks 4, 8, 9, 11), it is a great album, even if it sometimes can't overcome its problems (production faults, excessive repetition, bad lyrics, lazy drumming, weaker material).
So, I would recommend this album to anybody, it's still a better release than All That You Can't Leave Behind.
