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Pop (album)
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Pop is the ninth studio album by Irish rock band U2, released in March 1997. It is notable for combining elements of popular techno, dance, and electronica influences with traditional alternative rock. Although an early commercial success at the time of its release — it reached number one in 32 countries, including the UK and the US — its lifetime sales are among the lowest in U2's catalogue, and critical reaction was mixed.
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Pop is the ninth studio album by Irish rock band U2, released in March 1997. It is notable for combining elements of popular techno, dance, and electronica influences with traditional alternative rock. Although an early commercial success at the time of its release — it reached number one in 32 countries, including the UK and the US — its lifetime sales are among the lowest in U2's catalogue, and critical reaction was mixed. Pop was not as successful as the band's two previous experimentations, and it was only certified RIAA platinum once, the first time since the band's album October. With the supporting tour, the elaborately-staged PopMart Tour booked ahead of time while U2 was in the studio, the band rushed to finish much of Pop in time for its release date. Since the album's release, many of its songs have been rerecorded and remixed.
History and composition
For Pop, U2 continued the sonic experimentation it explored with Achtung Baby and Zooropa. Pop prominently features tape loops, programming, rhythm sequencing, and sampling, along with heavy, funky dance rhythms. Guitarist The Edge described the album as "about as far away from U2 as it is possible to be". The album is much more dark and experimental than, as the title would imply, light and mainstream.
Commencing in early 1996, the recording of the album was fraught with difficulty, one of the main problems being the time constraint placed upon them by their impending PopMart Tour. The album was originally scheduled to be released in November 1996, but did not end up hitting shelves until March 1997. This significantly cut into the band's rehearsal time for the upcoming tour that they had scheduled in advance, which impacted the quality of the band's initial performances on tour. The band has admitted they were hurried into completing the album and say that a number of tracks on the album were not finished as well as they would have liked. The vocals to "Last Night on Earth", for example, were reportedly recorded at the mixing desk the day the album was to be sent for pressing.
Upon its release, the album debuted at #1 in 35 countries, and drew mainly positive reviews; Rolling Stone stated that U2 had "defied the odds and made some of the greatest music of their lives." Others felt that the album was a major disappointment, and it was commercially disappointing by U2 standards.
Following the PopMart Tour, the band expressed their dissatisfaction with the final product. Between the album's various singles and the band's The Best of 1990–2000 compilation (and disregarding dance remixes and the like), the band has re-recorded, remixed, and rearranged "Discothèque", "If God Will Send His Angels", "Staring at the Sun", "Last Night on Earth", "Gone", and "Please".
Pop has some of the band's most jaded and desolate lyrics, such as the political "Please" and the haunting "Wake Up Dead Man". Bono has described the album as starting at a party and ending at a funeral, and indeed, the mood gets very bleak after the first couple of songs. Every song has its own unique noises and nuances, like the watery guitar of "Staring at the Sun", the siren wailing of "Gone", or the gritty drumtrack of "Miami". Despite its rough production, it is an immensely textured record sonically. It spans various styles as well, such as the beat-driven trance of "Do You Feel Loved", the techno of "Mofo", and the loungy balladeering of "If You Wear That Velvet Dress".
The band took a considerably more conservative, stripped down approach with Pops follow-up, All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000), along with the Elevation Tour that supported it, and the few songs from Pop that did sometimes end up in Elevation setlists ("Discothèque", "Gone", "Please", "Staring at the Sun", and "Wake Up Dead Man") were presented in relatively bare-bones versions. On the more recent Vertigo Tour, songs from Pop were even more rarely played; "Discothèque" was played twice at the beginning of the third leg, and Bono also occasionally sang snippets of "Please" during "Bullet the Blue Sky". "If You Wear That Velvet Dress" was snippeted at the end of "All I Want Is You" at the 2005 Gothenburg show, leading into "City of Blinding Lights."
In 2005, Q magazine included the song "Miami" in a list of "Ten Terrible Records by Great Artists".
Track listing
The Japanese edition includes "Holy Joe" (Guilty mix) 5:08, a B-side to the "Discothèque" single, as a bonus track. The Malaysian edition has a censored version of "Wake Up Dead Man", omitting the word "fucked (up)" from the song, a rare instance of the band using profanity in their music.
Chart positions and sales
| Country | Peak position | Certification | Sales |
|---|
| Australia | 1 | Platinum | 70,000+ | | Austria | 1 | Platinum | 30,000+ | | Brazil | | Gold | 50,000+ | | Canada | | 3x Platinum | 300,000+ | | Finland | 1 | Gold | 32,952+ | | France | 1 | Platinum | 300,000+ | | Germany | | Gold | 100,000+ | | Netherlands | 1 | Gold | 40,000+ | | Norway | 1 | Platinum | 40,000+ | | Poland | | Gold | 20,000+ | | Switzerland | 1 | Platinum | 50,000+ | | United Kingdom | 1 | Platinum | 300,000+ | | United States | 1 | Platinum | 1,000,000+ | |
Singles
"Discothèque", "Staring at the Sun", "Last Night on Earth", "Please", "If God Will Send His Angels", and "Mofo" were released as singles internationally (the most singles the band has ever released from a single album).
The album's first single, "Discothèque", was a huge dance and airplay success in the U.S. and UK. It also reached number one in the singles charts of most of European countries including the United Kingdom, where it was their third number one single after 1988's "Desire" and 1991's "The Fly".
In the United States, "Discothèque" is notable for being U2's only single since 1991 to crack the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 (peaking at #10). The stronger CD single sales (which were still counted in 1997) combined with initial solid radio air time allowed the song to become a hit. However, after the appeal of "new U2 music" wore off, many casual and even die-hard fans were a bit disappointed in the song. Additionally, the song's dance elements and more humorous video (featuring U2 in a discotheque and even imitating the Village People) limited its appeal. This started a backlash against U2 and Pop, limiting sales, as many fans felt that U2 had gone a bit too far over-the-top in the self-mocking and "ironic" imagery. The follow-up single "Staring at the Sun" became a Top 40 success in the U.S., but to a lesser extent, peaking at #26 on the Billboard Hot 100. "Last Night on Earth" did not crack the top 40, peaking at #57. Later singles did not reach the Top 100.
The Please: Popheart Live EP, featuring four live tracks from the PopMart Tour, was also released in most regions. In the United States, the four live tracks were instead released on the "Please" single, along with the single version of "Please," itself.
Personnel
- Bono – lead vocals, additional guitar
- The Edge – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
- Adam Clayton – bass guitar
- Larry Mullen, Jr. – drums, percussion, programming
- Flood – production, keyboards
- Steve Osborne – production, keyboards, engineering, mixing
- Ben Hillier – programming
- Howie B – production, turntables, keyboards, engineering, mixing
- Marius De Vries – keyboards
- Mark "Spike" Stent - engineering, mixing
- Alan Moulder - engineering
- Howie Weinberg - mastering
- Deborah Mannis-Gardner - sample clearance
- Stephane Sédnaoui, Anja Grabert - photography
- Nellee Hooper - photography
See also
External links
- at U2 Wanderer, comprehensive details on various editions, cover scans, lyrics, and more
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