Pop album - what went wrong..?

[corianderstem]

That's glorious.

 

[Gonna Run 2 U]

I'm surprised no one has asked which "what went wrong album" is better - Pop vs October

 

[loudreamer]

I'm surprised no one has asked which "what went wrong album" is better - Pop vs October

In my opinion, it's truly a shame that the band thinks so low of October and Pop.
I understand that for the band it must be really hard to appreciate an album when it didn't achieve what they set out to do or it didn't reach their standards. I so get that.
But even then...those albums are standouts in their catalog.
Pop is f brilliant, from the songs themselves to the sounds and influences they worked with. They were a band with full conviction, having fun and taking it to the next level, and the music shows.
And with October, I heard it a couple of months ago after more than..maybe 15 years of not even hearing a single song from it, and it blew me away. I now hear it from beggining to end almost every day and I almost can't believe how good it is. I would even say that October is superior than War.

 

[gvox]

That's glorious.

I thought so too. The movement especially. Almost want to make it part of my signature

 

[mikal]

Record sales post 1999 are like looking at baseball during the steroids era. The numbers are out of wack

I don't look at album sales anything past the "high speed dubbing" era.

 

[Hollow Island]

The UK seemed to like POP.. Three Top 10s, another "straight in at #1" first single and even the fifth single made it to #12.... I bought both Discothèque singles from the local Our Price Music [ah!] having only heard/seen part of the song on a TOTP preview, good times, daft video... Regarding the reception back home, it's interesting comparing the UK Top 40 positions to the Billboard 100. Sales vs. Airplay?

Discothèque #1 [US #10]
Staring At The Sun #3 [US #26]
Last Night On Earth #10 [US #57]
Please #7 [US #--]
If God Will Send His Angels #12 [US #--]

It's interesting that the Pop singles did better in the US than the singles from ATYCLB or HTAAB.

Beautiful Day - 21
Stuck - 52
Elevation -
Walk On -

Vertigo - 31
All Beacuse of You -
Sometimes...- 97
COBL -
Original - 23

 

[popacrobat]

I think it's a little misleading. Didn't Discotheque have a pretty short self life, but Beautiful Day and Vertigo stuck around for awhile?

 

[MrPryck2U]

I think it's a little misleading. Didn't Discotheque have a pretty short self life, but Beautiful Day and Vertigo stuck around for awhile?

MTV/VH-1/MuchMusic were playing it lot until Staring at the Sun was released. Alt. Rock stations were playing it a decent amount. At least here in the NYC area.


Radio stations still play BD a decent amount with Vertigo a distant second.

 

[Cancer45]

I just went to wikipedia and look up the charts more specially the US for u2, I think they should worry about the modern rock and alternative rock charts instead top 40. Because that is where they have more success.

 

[Reggie Thee Dog]

By 2000 the Music Charts had begun to change, and also around 2000 the record companies begun scaling back on CD single release. HTDAAB did not include any CD singles in the US (I don't believe), nor did NLOTH.

The Pop singles climbed higher based on sales and radio play. ATYCLB and every album since relies on radio spins and downloads...and c'mon A LOT of listeners now illegally download singles/albums...(and ATYCLB fell right smack in the middle of the Napster era).

So the chart comparisons are a little skewed...

 

[Achtung Ya'll]

POP was the last big drum beat of a band with a fire in their gut. Nothing to apologize for. Nothing feel sorry about.

Sometimes when I'm mad at the fact that they won't produce anything like that again (they just aren't at that space in their lives anymore), I just have to remind myself that we're lucky to have had it in the first place!

 

[Claudio Dirani]

Well, I love when those things happen to me.

I used to loathe every bit of the album but a few tracks.
Yeah, by the time of its release, I didn't bother buying it.
But...all of sudden, I started reading more about the album's making of, going through the remixes...the whole thing came together.
And after watching them live in 1998, I was already enamoured by the whole thing. It was so intense that I couldn't believe the band had overlooked it.
I don't think it's an unfinished album at all.
I only think they could have mixed it better, but that's another story.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

I just went to wikipedia and look up the charts more specially the US for u2, I think they should worry about the modern rock and alternative rock charts instead top 40. Because that is where they have more success.

U2 doesn't fit the Alternative or Rock radio formats anymore. Both here in the United States play really shitty music. U2's too old to cater to the Alternative radio crowd and not loud/screamy enough for the shitty Rock format.

"Vertigo" did get play on both, however, and U2 will get played by Alternative/Rock stations in the North East along with a few other areas, but for the most part, their best success has been on Triple A radio, a sort of Alternative Rock format for the 40-plus crowd.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

It's interesting that the Pop singles did better in the US than the singles from ATYCLB or HTAAB.

Beautiful Day - 21
Stuck - 52
Elevation -
Walk On -

Vertigo - 31
All Because of You -
Sometimes...- 97
COBL -
Original - 23

Sort of true. CD singles were still big sellers in the 90s for fanatics looking to pick up some rare tracks, hence why the Pop singles managed to climb up the charts despite not having as much consistent radio play (my local rock station played Discotheque like once).

Also, "Vertigo" was at least a top five hit. Billboard changed the charts during that song's run to include paid downloads and the song shot back into the Top 40 despite it having its radio/download peak at least a month earlier. No doubt in my mind that the single would've been a Top 5 success (and possibly even a #1 hit) had the rules been tweaked a couple months earlier.

 

[cdo478]

Actually, I don't understand all the negativity towards POP. IMHO, it has the best first 7 song combination of any album ever (With the exception of Who's Next, of course). It's definitely my favorite U2 album. If they used Holy Joe and 2 Shots of Happy, 1 Shot of Sad instead of Miami and The Playboy Mansion, the album would rank right up there with Quadrophenia and ZOSO. Is that a blasphemous statement?

 

[The_acrobat]

I would even say that October is superior than War.

You just hit on a topic that I've been thinking for the past few years now. War is, to me, a very uneven album that hasn't stood the test of time. Obviously SBS, NYD and 40 are timeless U2 classics. But you also have songs like The Refugee and Red Light, which even Lillywhite admitted were "filler".

October, meanwhile, has no real highlights or lowlights. It seems to be a full body of work, a snapshot into the life of a young band who were unsure of where to go next. The songs of Boy had been written at various points in the years leading up to the album's release, whereas October was pretty much created in the summer of 1981.

 

[loudreamer]

You just hit on a topic that I've been thinking for the past few years now. War is, to me, a very uneven album that hasn't stood the test of time. Obviously SBS, NYD and 40 are timeless U2 classics. But you also have songs like The Refugee and Red Light, which even Lillywhite admitted were "filler".

October, meanwhile, has no real highlights or lowlights. It seems to be a full body of work, a snapshot into the life of a young band who were unsure of where to go next. The songs of Boy had been written at various points in the years leading up to the album's release, whereas October was pretty much created in the summer of 1981.

Very good points. WAR has some classic and epic songs but also the only 2 songs in their whole career that, for me, are unlistenable: red light and the refugee.
But I can listen to OCTOBER from beggining to end and as you said, it has no lowlights. And it definitely takes you to a place no other U2 album goes. For me it's definitely a rare gem.

 

[mikal]

What makes War for me are Drowning Man, Like A Song, and Surrender. I will agree that October is underrated though. I always enjoy listening to that album.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using U2 Interference mobile app

 

[loudreamer]

What makes War for me are Drowning Man, Like A Song, and Surrender. I will agree that October is underrated though. I always enjoy listening to that album.

Sent from my Nexus 5 using U2 Interference mobile app

Oh yes. Yes yes.
Drowning Man and Like A Song are not only my favorites from WAR, they are among my favorites songs from U2 ever.
The outro of Like A Song is f brilliant.

 

[ChargedVT]

One of the problems with POP is the shoddy production. If you run the songs through the AUDACITY program it shows that there is clipping all through the songs! I would upload an image but can't for some reason.

 

[Yahweh]

I think Pop is an under rated album, however like the above post states it suffered from bad production (although I can say this about many other U2 albums including the Joshua Tree).

I think it has aged well for those that have given it a chance. It came out before its time - or maybe after its time because I think at the time it came out people were already seeing U2 as being over the hill, and this was just before they were "legends" which ATYCLB seemed to cement for a lot of people.

 

[MrPryck2U]

I think it has aged well for those that have given it a chance. It came out before its time - or maybe after its time because I think at the time it came out people were already seeing U2 as being over the hill, and this was just before they were "legends" which ATYCLB seemed to cement for a lot of people.

I agree with the first part of your statement. But, not the part of them being over the hill. They were 35/36 years old and still in their musical prime. I think that if they released the album in May of 1996 and released Mofo instead of Discoteque, Pop would have been more successful. In 96, Techno was hot in the US/World and U2 were influenced by that genre at the time. Release the album during the best time of the year and let the kiddies enjoy U2 all Spring/Summer long. Disco probably could have been the 4th single or something and by then the Village People gag probably would have been funnier. But alas, that never happened.

 

[BigMacPhisto]

It's interesting that the Pop singles did better in the US than the singles from ATYCLB or HTAAB.

Beautiful Day - 21
Stuck - 52
Elevation -
Walk On -

Vertigo - 31
All Because of You -
Sometimes...- 97
COBL -
Original - 23

Just noticed the 23 for "Original of the Species"...that song didn't chart.

Also, some of these charted in the #125-#101 positions on Billboard (a.k.a. "Bubbling Under Singles")...I know All Because Of You certainly did and probably Elevation/Walk On as well, but I don't have the numbers in front of me. If we count those songs as minor hits, then they had four hits, three hits and two hits from the last three albums in succession. As I had predicted earlier, it wouldn't surprise me if only the first single managed to break the Top 100 this time around.

"Magnificent" deserves some special praise for making The Hot 100 though. It literally did it before receiving any radio play which means a lot of people on iTunes liked the preview enough to buy the entire track.

 

[Aardvark747]

I think that if they released the album in May of 1996 and released Mofo instead of Discoteque, Pop would have been more successful. QUOTE]

This.

 

[allbecauseofu2]

I think 97 was the best year. Chemical brothers and the prodigy had their one big year in the states.

 

[allbecauseofu2]

Best year to release pop that is

 

[gokartmozart]

What makes War good for me is the rawness of the tunes,U2's Let it Be ?

 

[gareth brown]

If they used Holy Joe and 2 Shots of Happy, 1 Shot of Sad instead of Miami and The Playboy Mansion, the album would rank right up there with Quadrophenia and ZOSO. Is that a blasphemous statement?

no, but calling Led Zeppelin IV "Zoso" is

 

[doctorwho]

Sort of true. CD singles were still big sellers in the 90s for fanatics looking to pick up some rare tracks, hence why the Pop singles managed to climb up the charts despite not having as much consistent radio play (my local rock station played Discotheque like once).

Also, "Vertigo" was at least a top five hit. Billboard changed the charts during that song's run to include paid downloads and the song shot back into the Top 40 despite it having its radio/download peak at least a month earlier. No doubt in my mind that the single would've been a Top 5 success (and possibly even a #1 hit) had the rules been tweaked a couple months earlier.

Billboard is constantly changing the rules for their Hot 100 chart. It becomes difficult to compare eras as a result. At one point, jukebox play was used to chart singles! As times changed, it shifted to sales, then to radio only, now downloads. But everything you wrote above about "Vertigo" was true. U2 would have definitely had another top 10 hit in the U.S. (if not Top 5 or higher) had the rules been a tad different just a few months earlier.

 

[Aygo]

It came out before its time

I think that "Do You Feel Loved" or "Gone", if released these days, would be bigger hits (and have critical praise) than any on NLOTH singles.