Overall, I would have to say that 1997’s Pop is probably the most underrated album U2 ever released. A lot of people have simply dismissed it as the band’s low point of the band’s nineties musical experimentation (remember when Bono declared at the end of ‘89 that U2 would be a different band in the 90s), and herald 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind as a godsend because of its more stripped down and raw rock and roll feel. The electronic feel of this album isn’t even as bad as some of the places they went on Achtung Baby or the whole Zooropa album. It’s too bad that so many people just gloss it over, because it’s actually a decent album with good songwriting, decent musical structure, and some honestly touching ballads and haunting down-tempo songs. It’s one of those albums that you have to listen to several times to really appreciate.
Of course, the Popmart tour in support of the album probably didn’t help perception of the album at all. I don’t think people in 1997 were ready for a giant oversized lemon that the band would come out of, or for those weird muscle body shirts that Bono was favoring in those days. Live and learn ten years later, I suppose.
I’d still take the sound and style of the Vertigo Tour over Popmart any day, though. I guess no one will ever appreciate this period of the band’s history by any stretch. Such is life.
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