10 Years in POP - 03.03.1997-03.03.2007

[phillyfan26]

If they re-record Pop with the way they played each song live on Popmart, that would be a good album.

Exceptions: Staring at the Sun (full band is better, but lacked power at Vegas), Wake Up Dead Man (full band is fantastic)

And then they would use the "alternate version" of Playboy Mansion that Bono alludes to in U2 by U2 (without the pop culture references, much different lyrically).

 

[Utoo]

The whole Pop experience is kind of one of regret for me....

When Pop came out, my brother and I used to split getting U2 albums---he'd get one, then I'd get the next, etc. He got Pop. Neither one of us really liked it when it came out. I was a fan of Staring At The Sun, which was just about the only song the local rock station (93.3 WMMR, baby!) would play from the album. My brother and I were both budding audiophiles, but neither of us at the time were really into heavy stuff. Plus, we had grown up through the 80s and 90s with a U2 that was much more positive. Even Achtung and Zooropa seemed so much lighter to us than Pop. The heaviness, plus the fact that a few songs were sprinkled with techno sounds--which I loathed--kept Pop's playtime on our cd players pretty low.

The other regret is that Pop and PopMart came about at a time in my teenage years where even just a few bucks seemed so expensive to me. I mean, I was 17, yet my brother and I took turns buying cd's! (Of course, then they were like $18 apiece in the 90s...). I remember hearing on MMR that tickets for PopMart could be had for $40 or $50 and thinking that that was ridiculous, even for a band I liked as much as U2. If only my 17-year-old self could see how much I've put into U2 now....

It's funny. Now, the thing I like about Pop is its heaviness--the very thing that first kept me away from it. It's still nowhere near my favorite album, but I can finally see the greatness in some of its songs and appreciate the album for what it is.

As for missing the show.... While I wish I could have attended a ZooTV show (it's probably the first tour I would truly remember and appreciate, as I was around 12 at the time), I don't recall paying much attention to the tours at the time. But PopMart---I actually, potentially, had the chance to go to it! And it's not like I was dirt-poor....I'd had a paper route that gave me more than enough money to buy my first car, etc.... Oh, well...everyone needs to make a few mistakes in their lives...

 

[U2Man]

this was my most anticipated u2 album ever. the discotheque single warned me that this might not be as good as i hoped. i listened a lot to it anyway, though. then i bought the album at the day of the release - they were playing it really loud at the same time at the store (do you feel loved). i went home, listened quickly to all the tracks, found the awesome ones: do you feel loved, staring at the sun, gone, please, if you wear that velvet dress and wake up dead man. the rest of the album was a disappointment.