Pop is seriously good shit.

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MOFO is the most beautiful word in the U2 dictionary... and the most kick ass, too...

women should fall on your feet just by saying it :wink:
 
phillyfan26 said:
Popmart > Pop

They figured them out later. On the album? They screwed it up.

quoted simply to save myself time because I basically agree with that but not entirely!
[edit - scratch that i've not saved myself any time at all since I've gone and written a mini essay below...:eyebrow: ]

I don't know what it is about Pop, when I hear the name I always think "no." as if the mere thought of listening to the album is repulsive but when I listen to it it's always sounds great and I love it even though it's clearly not "done"!
I loved it when I first bought it and listened to it lots despite not completely enjoying some songs I'd already heard live versions of. A majority of the songs definitely sounded outstanding live compared to the studio versions, especially "Last Night On Earth" from Mexico City.

But for some reason I ended up resenting the album because of how it sounded compared to what the songs became live and I'm guilty of just mouthing off needlessly about it.

It's just quite a sad thing that some of U2's greatest songs ended up the way they did, the album deserves a hell of a lot better. In the past I'd always get easily bugged when I read all the posts here saying it's their best album and anyone who disagrees is a liar.

I wouldn't go as far to say it's their best album, but on the other hand anyone who says it's a crap album can't be WRONG exactly as it's all a matter of opinion but I personally believe [despite all the things I've said in the past] that song-wise it's definitely right up there with the best of them it's just the way it was haphazardly done and wrapped up to meet deadlines! :( The album that could have been would have been nothing short of amazing had they just stuck with it, I'm trying to imagine a re-working of Mofo to how it sounded live!

First time I heard that song was on the Mexico City video and I was absolutely blown away from when that synth-line started to when Edge lets out that fantastic 'squeal' on his guitar and beyond! By this point the only U2 i owned was The Joshua Tree and The Best of 80-90 so this completely 'Alien' music [by U2 standards] was a real kick in the nuts to hear at 12-13 years old!

I'm digressing here, but in short - COBL04, as usual you are right! I love when you get a new U2 album and create a thread as you sort of remind me of my enthusiasm for getting more and more U2 when there was still songs by them I hadn't heard!!

Still love Pop, was a moron for criticising it and welcome any improvements, remixing they may do in the future to get the amazing sounds they were making as Popmart got properly underway!
 
Pop is love. :heart:

Discotheque - 4.5/5
Do You Feel Loved? - 5/5
Mofo - 4.5/5
IGWSHA - 4.5/5
Staring At The Sun - 4/5
Last Night On Earth - 5/5
Gone - 4.5/5
Miami - 3/5
The Playboy Mansion - 4.5/5
IYWTVD - 4.5/5
Please - 4/5
Wake Up Dead Man - 5/5
 
Me Loves me some PoP!!!

Discotheque - 5.5 Not a great U2 song.
Do You Feel Loved? - 8.5
Mofo - 9.5
IGWSHA - 7.5 Seems unfinished
Staring At The Sun - 7.5 OK song
Last Night On Earth - 9
Gone - 10
Miami - 7
The Playboy Mansion - 7.5
IYWTVD - 7.5
Please - 9
Wake Up Dead Man - 9
 
Said it before, will keep on saying it. Pop is their last ROCK album, their last album which wasn't paint-by-numbers.

Larry and Adam went away after Zoo and took music lessons, and it showed. They had some new tricks and wanted to show them off. Edge didn't give a crap about sounding like Edge and just created. Bono's lyrics were some of his best ever. Angst seems to bring out the best in him. Raw, incomplete, but from the heart and soul and all the better for it. Everything has been a wee bit sterile since then. Squeaky clean and polished for the casual visitor who might drop by.

Patchy at times, miami es[rcially really came alive live, if there was ever a case for debugging a song live before committing to tape, that's the one.

It's no AB or JT, but its the bes tof the 2nd tier.

Was watching the Floyd Classic Albums thing the other day for Dark Side, one of the things they attribute to the success of many of the songs was that they had played them live for some time and already worked out the kinks. Would be nice if U2 had the cojones ot do that, but I don't see it happening, might not be perfect you know.........
 
Discotheque - 10
Do You Feel Loved - 9
Mofo - 9
If God Will Send His Angels - 8
Staring At the Sun - 6
Last Night on Earth - 8
Gone - 9
Miami - 5
The Playboy Mansion - 5
If You Wear That Velvet Dress - 5
Please - 8
Wake Up Dead Man - 9
 
for me POP was a love-hate-love affair...for nearly 7 years after the release... i really fought hard with the pop-songs...most problems i had with 'discotheque', 'staring at the sun' and 'last night on earth'. but i always loved MOFO, MIAMI and THE PLAYBOY MANSION... now the fight is over... POP is great as it is... please no re-recordings... the POPmart tour is 'state of the art' as it are the ZooTV tours...
POP is the rough diamond in U2s catalogue...

@ShaunVox: :wave: its nice to have you back here on the forum. rock on :rockon:
 
COBL_04 said:


Do You Feel Loved - 10
Newest entrance to my previously impenetrable top ten. Absolutely love it. The intro, the guitar, bass, drums are awesome but its Bono's vocals in the lead-in that make me love this song. For all the ladies out there? Do you love those verses?
With my fingers as you want them
With my nails under your hide
With my teeth at your back
And my tongue to tell you the sweetest lies

I reckon they're incredibly sexual. Love this song.



Please 9 - Didn't like it all that much in the past, now I think it's some of Bono's best vocals of the 90s, and for a song that doesn't end with a rush of energy the outro is sensational. Still trying to understand the film clip though lol
and


Both songs are under-appreciated U2 classics, but I find Gone criminally over-rated. Good tune, but nothing remarkable.....

And Miami is toooo cooool......cause some places are like yer aunty, but there's no place like MIAMI...my mammy....oh yeah!
 
COBL_04 said:
For all the ladies out there? Do you love those verses?
With my fingers as you want them
With my nails under your hide
With my teeth at your back
And my tongue to tell you the sweetest lies

I reckon they're incredibly sexual. Love this song.
Hell fucking yes :combust:

toscano said:
Said it before, will keep on saying it. Pop is their last ROCK album, their last album which wasn't paint-by-numbers.

Larry and Adam went away after Zoo and took music lessons, and it showed. They had some new tricks and wanted to show them off. Edge didn't give a crap about sounding like Edge and just created. Bono's lyrics were some of his best ever. Angst seems to bring out the best in him. Raw, incomplete, but from the heart and soul and all the better for it. Everything has been a wee bit sterile since then. Squeaky clean and polished for the casual visitor who might drop by.
:up: Couldn't have said it better myself.


Now, I'm late to this thread, but I've been busy and that's my excuse. But Pop's the album I'll never grow tired of talking about, so even though I'm really tired and it's probably not the best time to be giving the album another review, I'm going to give it another go:

Discotheque
Ah, what can one say about this song? If anything's to blame for this album not selling better, it was the Discotheque video. Personally, I love it, but I think it scared a lot of people :tongue:
The song is rather groovy, and you can't kind of dance to it. The lyrics don't seem to be about anything deep, but there's an underlying desperation there.

Do You Feel Loved
Do you feel loved? Do you?! I certainly do. I love this song. Love is not even a strong enough word for it. The entire thing is sex. It has the best bassline ever, and in fact it was this song that made me start fancying Adam. The lyrics too are sexy, with an even sexier delivery. I could almost care less about Edge and Larry in this song, but of course they tie it all together.
Do You Feel Loved continues the album's progression into darkness, underneath all the rhythm and beats and sexual energy is a story about confusing love and sex. Look at the verse quoted at the top of this entry, the song describes all these rawly sexual acts and then asks 'Does this make you feel loved?' It seems to be about someone searching for love through rampant sex.

Mofo
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOFOOOOOO! :rockon: This song really kicked ass live, but the album version is pretty asskicky itself. Edge makes his guitar sound like a 747, Bono breaks out the ultra-deep lyrics and writes what is essentially a song about God, rock and roll, and his mother. How many other musicians would put such themes into such a KICKASS song, seriously?

If God Will Send His Angels
It took me a long time to get into this song, and it's still not one of my favourites. It's a good song, and I've gone through phases where I really, really liked it, but it just doesn't have long-standing appeal with me. I think perhaps it's the somberness of it that turns me off. One thing a lot of people don't know though, is that (according to Bono) the song is from the point of view of a guy beating up his girlfiend (or at least berrating her), and once you know that, it takes on a whole different twist.

Staring at the Sun
Not one of my favourites at all. It's good on a hot summer day, but other than that I usually don't listen to it (I love both videos though!) The song is not that interesting lyrically, aside from the middle eight which I love. The verse about the insect is particularly cringeworthy. And I just realized that I have no idea what this song is supposed to be about, or if it's even about anything at all.

Last Night on Earth
One of my all time favourites. This is truly U2's last rock song, I wish they'd go back to making music like this. Another one of the incredibly dark songs on Pop hiding beneath a shiny coating, this one's about a girl that's living wildly because she's getting ready to kill herself. It's also another one of the songs that was just incredible live. This song is home to one of my favourite U2 lines: "She hasn't been to bed in a week, she'll be dead soon, then she'll sleep" I feel like that line is about me.

Gone
This is my second favourite U2 song ever (used to be my most favourite, but Zooropa pounded it to death in a bloody brawl.) Bono has said that when he wrote this song, he felt like he was writing the last song he'd ever write, and you can really tell. He's pouring himself into the lyrics in a way that he hadn't done since Acrobat. The bitterness and sorrow and defiance in the song are almost palpable. It is a simply incredible song.

Miami
I will defend this song to the grave. I hate when people say this song has stupid lyrics? So what? Who says every song has to freaking be Streets? It's just a fun song, a little postcard of a trip to Miami with some cheesy lyrics. Is that really such a bad song? I love this song so much. The first half of it is just the buildup, it don't matter, it's when you hit that killer riff before the bridge when the song really comes alive. And how sexy is that bridge? Only song in the world to ever make me wanna go get knocked up in a photobooth in Miami. That alone makes the song awesome. The "MIAMI! MY MAMMY!" scream is also awesome in a ridiculous way.

The Playboy Mansion
Least favourite track on the album. Bless em, they tried. I appreciate the sentiment behind the song, there's a good message there, but it just suffers from boringness. The porn music at the beginning is a great touch though (took me forever to realize what it was though... I guess I don't watch enough porn), I like the latter portion of the song though, "and though I can't say why, I know I've got to believe" I love that line.

If You Wear That Velvet Dress
Amazingly seductive song, oddly enough about not giving into sexual temptation. The music starts out simple and atmospheric, and then there's this great beat that kicks in and sounds exactly like a heartbeat, and then the rest comes together, but it's still simple and ultra smooth, and the focus is still on Bono's incredible delivery. It's an incredibly gorgeous song, although the sexiness of the Jools Holland version has far overshadowed the original.

Please
I'm not into this song like I probably should be. I blame my mother's bizarre obsession with the music video. I can't deny that it's a great song though. It's another one of those songs that just builds and builds into a great climax. The middle eight is that great climax, made even more awesome by the eerieness of the lyrics post-9/11.

Wake Up Dead Man
Anybody that went around calling Pop a "dance album" probably didn't get past the third track, and certainly didn't get to the last one. The opening lines are so striking "Jesus, Jesus help me, I'm alone in this world, and a fucked up world it is too" Those lines make some people uncomfortable, but I think they're perfectly raw. The song would not have the impact it does if that sentiment were sugarcoated in any way. This song is so sad and angry, but it's understandable. Most people have been in that place of depression and anger at God. I love the "listen to the words" section, as it seems to almost be instruction to step back and calm down and listen for God's comfort, because it's there. This song is also noteable for the amount of stuff that's hidden in it. It's U2's answer to Revolution 9.


Now see, I can't rank songs or give them ratings, but I can talk about them til I'm blue in the face.

As a whole, I of course love the album, there are a few weak spots, but I think it's underrated by the majority simply because people negatively focus on those weak spots, and on any of its strangeness or differentness, and tend not to focus on the fact that Pop has some of Bono's absolute best lyrics.

I know it annoys some people the way we PopTarts continually gush about the awesomeness of the album, but personally... I just think it's such a good album that it bothers me when people don't seem to see that. Just like I'm sure it bothers the rest of you when people don't like Achtung Baby (okay, it's really only one person, and his name is Axver :wink: )
 
The album is no where near how the band view it. It many ways its better that HTDAAB. It was a daring leap for them to make and in my mind they pulled it off for the most part. It has Gone, Mofo and Do You Feel Loved - for me, three of their best ever.
 
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Discotheque - 7
Do You Feel Loved - 8
Mofo - 10
If God Will Send His Angels - 7
Staring At the Sun - 9
Last Night on Earth - 7
Gone - 10
Miami - 4
The Playboy Mansion - 4
If You Wear That Velvet Dress - 7
Please - 10
Wake Up Dead Man - 7
 
gman said:
Poor Miami isnt rated much here. Shame on y'all!!!

Not fair is it?
It's a far superior song to Playboy Mansion or even IYWTVD in my opinion, great lyrics too, some of Bono's best. Allan Ginesberg thought so too.
Live it was majestic, one of the few highlights of Popmart for me, along with Mofo and Last Night On Earth.
 
Discotheque - 8.5
DYFL - 9.5
Mofo 9.5
IGWSHA - 8.5
SATS - 8.5
LANOE - 8.5 ( the single version would get 9.0 )
Gone - 10.0
Miami - 8.5
Playboy Mansion - 7.5
IYWTVD - 8.5
Please - 9.0 ( single version would get 9.5 )
Wake Up Dead Man - 9.0

Cheers ,

Mauwer

p.s. Alot of people hate Miami but then again a lot of people want to have it live as a bonus track on the upcoming Popmart dvd.
Miami is just a great song and live it`s:drool:
 
Thanks for all the kind replies people, love ya all.

And I have a new claim to make --

Pop trilogy (Discotheque, DYFL, Mofo) > AB trilogy (UV, Acrobat, LIB) i think :reject:
 
One of the best U2 albums out there and yes the last one where creativity was the goal.

Discotheque: 9
DYFL: 9.5
Mofo: 9.5
IGWSHA: 8 (single version is better)
SATS: 8
LNOE: 8.5 (single version better)
Gone: 9.5
Miami: 8.5 (live even better)
Playboy Mansion: 8
IYWTVD: 8
Please: 10 (pure perfection)
WUDM: 9

I listen to frequently and can't understand why U2 doesnt want to be related to the album, they always shove it away as some sort of failure but it's a beauty, a raw beauty.

They should play those songs live a whole lot more, they deserve it. Long live POP!
 
LemonMelon said:
Pop is love. :heart:

The Playboy Mansion - 4.5/5

Dad :heart:

I really don't understand the dislike for Playboy Mansion, it's such a pretty song. It's very simple and I :heart: the way it builds at the end...

The only drawback I find are some of the lyrics are dated but allot of them are on the money and I personally think apply to society today as much as they did 10 years ago:

I never bought a lotto ticket
I never parked in anyone's space.
The banks they're like cathedrals
I guess casinos took their place.

Love, come on down
Don't wake her she'll come around.

Chance is a kind of religion
Where you're damned for plain hard luck.
I never did see that movie
I never did read that book.
Love, come on down
Let my numbers come around.

Don't know if I can hold on
Don't know if I'm that strong.
Don't know if I can wait that long
Till the colours come flashing
And the lights go on.

Then will there be no time for sorrow
Then will there be no time for shame
Though I can't say why
I know I've got to believe.

We'll go driving in that pool
It's who you know that gets you through
The gates of the playboy mansion.

Then will there be no time for sorrow
Then will there be no time for shame
Then will there be now time for shame
Then will there be now time for pain
 
COBL_04 said:
Thanks for all the kind replies people, love ya all.

And I have a new claim to make --

Pop trilogy (Discotheque, DYFL, Mofo) > AB trilogy (UV, Acrobat, LIB) i think :reject:

tough but...yes I agree. Though it's damn close.
 
COBL_04 said:

Do You Feel Loved - 10
Newest entrance to my previously impenetrable top ten. Absolutely love it. The intro, the guitar, bass, drums are awesome but its Bono's vocals in the lead-in that make me love this song. For all the ladies out there? Do you love those verses?
With my fingers as you want them
With my nails under your hide
With my teeth at your back
And my tongue to tell you the sweetest lies

I reckon they're incredibly sexual. Love this song.

YES. :drool: I never get tired of listening to this one.

Have you heard a live version of Miami, COBL_04? I didn't much care for the song on the album until I heard it live. It blows the studio version out of the water.
 
COBL_04 said:
Thanks for all the kind replies people, love ya all.

And I have a new claim to make --

Pop trilogy (Discotheque, DYFL, Mofo) > AB trilogy (UV, Acrobat, LIB) i think :reject:

Hmmm. I think the AB theme is too strong to be beaten by these 3 songs. The fractured relationship and the pains to reconcile is amazing.

What do you feel is the connection between these Pop songs?
 
ALSO:

God bless U2 for playing almost every cut from the record regularly on the PopMart tour. I mean, they kept plugging away at 8 or 9 of these cuts when they could have easily done a greatest hits show. "Miami" is not exactly crowd-pleasing fodder, you know? Can you imagine 00's U2 attempting something like that?
 
Yeah that's why I put 'I think' at the end. The connection between the three AB tracks is stronger than the Pop ones. The only reason I rated it that way is becasue I prefer to listen to Disco/DYFL/Mofo more than I do UV/Acrobat/LIb, though I adore both.
 
Discotheque - 8.5
DYFL - 7
Mofo - 7.5
IGWSHA - 7
SATS - 7
LANOE - 8.5
Gone - 10.0
Miami - 3.0
Playboy Mansion - 5.0
IYWTVD - 7 (but the Jools Holland version would get 9.5)
Please - 9.0
Wake Up Dead Man - 9.5
 
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