Pop is the template for all of U2's post-Achtung Baby schlock. Not that Achtung Baby was all that great, either, and god knows what the fuck was up with Zooropa. Pop, though? Blech.
How does a band go from being relevant and interesting to completely obnoxious as thoroughly as U2 did? These guys were on top of the world in 1985. By 1992 or so they were absolute wankers, and with the release of Pop they'd become complete and total narcissistic assholes. How does that happen?
I absolutely loathe Pop. The band is trying to have it both ways on these songs. They want to be taken seriously one moment, the next they're begging off and just making pop music, often within the same song. It comes off as flippant and arrogant. I find myself getting tense and frustrated listening to this album. It's not real. It's not fun. It's not passionate or articulate. It's commercial schlock. It's product. It's a way to make a lot of money.
I suppose I take it all a little too personally. I liked the band quite a lot in the early eighties. They seemed to stand for something. I guess I feel jilted in the way a lot of kids in the sixties felt when Dylan went through his first of many transformations. The big difference was that Dylan always fought the moniker of being spokesman or an icon for any for any given cause while U2 fostered it. I suppose to me Pop represents U2's ultimate fuck you to anyone who took them seriously in the early days.
Well, fuck U2.