jick
Refugee
When POP was released, three of its songs had single versions that were reworked versions of the album:
If God Will Send His Angels (Single Version)
Last Night On Earth (Single Version)
Please (Single Version)
After POP, and during the ATYCLB press interviews, Bono and the gang were lambasting POP as unfinished work. After a fan enoucntered Bono after the ATYCLB period, Bono said they weren't working on a new album but were "remixing POP." Then three remixed POP songs were featured in the Best Of 1990-2000 album:
Discotheque (New Mix)
Staring At The Sun (New Mix)
Gone (New Mix)
When talk was that Hands That Built America would be released as a single, another POP song was in the mix as the b-side to Hands. Unfortunately, Hands didn't win an Oscar so it was never released:
Playboy Mansion (New Mix - that should have come with Hands' single)
Soon, Jools Holland released an album featuring a POP song, and the mix here was very similar to the mix U2 preferred and performed live during the POPMart Tour.
If You Wear That Velvet Dress (from Jools Holland album)
So now were are left with only four songs off POP that has not been touched or remixed (at least for the meantime):
Miami
Do You Feel Loved
Mofo
Wake Up Dead Man
So U2 have virtually abandoned most of the original POP album and are slowly tweaking the songs to new versions. But is this really all justified? Are the new songs really new and improved versions? Well, I just had to find out myself, so I gave the CD a spin after 6 long years, and I realized a few things I never realized before:
-Do You Feel Loved is a great song, should have been a single.
-Please is a far far cry from the Popmart live or single version
-Playboy Mansion is clever and witty, something Wild Honey tried to be but failed miserably
-If God Will Send His Angels is better than the single version
-The hook/melody of Staring At The Sun would have made it a monster hit, but it never was because the lyrics were vague and weak while the video was nothing catchy.
-The line from Wake Up Dead Man "if there's an order in all of this disorder, is it like a tape recorder, can we rewind it?" is quite prophetic. U2 eventually admitted POP was unfinished (hence disorder) and have been remixing it (rewinding it).
-The first two songs of the album start out as if it makes you all jumpy, but then the album gets serious and gloomy and leaves you with an empty bitter feeling culminating with the desolate barren picture painted by Wake Up Dead Man.
-POP has blood on the tracks. It is a much more serious album than people think.
The conclusion I have reached is that POP was a serious serious album but its severity and depth were intentionally hidden with all the drum machines, techno babble, loops and sampling. Thus, POP was unfinished in the sense that when it was released, U2 had not yet stripped the album into its core message. U2 was still in defense mechanism mode, trying to downplay the blood on the tracks.
With the release of the new mixes, U2 have attempted to open up the songs more, focus on the band and away from the drum machines and samples (hence the absence of the "boom" in Discotheque). Sure opening up the songs are good and will help highlight the song.
But in the end, the original album versions are better because it shows the conflict and contradiction within the band just like Achtung Baby. The serious lyrics of the songs in the backdrop of samples and drum machines is such a contradiction. U2 is all about contradiction. It shows the hidden beauty of the album and its timeless appeal. The album versions show the many layers of U2 whereas the new mixes are just mere manufactured pre-packaged versions.
So I think the original POP is a much better listen that making a "rebuilt" POP. The original POP is greatly underrated and misunderstood - misunderstood even by U2 themselves. But isn't that the beauty of it all - in finding an order in all of the disorder?
Cheers,
J
The King Of POP
If God Will Send His Angels (Single Version)
Last Night On Earth (Single Version)
Please (Single Version)
After POP, and during the ATYCLB press interviews, Bono and the gang were lambasting POP as unfinished work. After a fan enoucntered Bono after the ATYCLB period, Bono said they weren't working on a new album but were "remixing POP." Then three remixed POP songs were featured in the Best Of 1990-2000 album:
Discotheque (New Mix)
Staring At The Sun (New Mix)
Gone (New Mix)
When talk was that Hands That Built America would be released as a single, another POP song was in the mix as the b-side to Hands. Unfortunately, Hands didn't win an Oscar so it was never released:
Playboy Mansion (New Mix - that should have come with Hands' single)
Soon, Jools Holland released an album featuring a POP song, and the mix here was very similar to the mix U2 preferred and performed live during the POPMart Tour.
If You Wear That Velvet Dress (from Jools Holland album)
So now were are left with only four songs off POP that has not been touched or remixed (at least for the meantime):
Miami
Do You Feel Loved
Mofo
Wake Up Dead Man
So U2 have virtually abandoned most of the original POP album and are slowly tweaking the songs to new versions. But is this really all justified? Are the new songs really new and improved versions? Well, I just had to find out myself, so I gave the CD a spin after 6 long years, and I realized a few things I never realized before:
-Do You Feel Loved is a great song, should have been a single.
-Please is a far far cry from the Popmart live or single version
-Playboy Mansion is clever and witty, something Wild Honey tried to be but failed miserably
-If God Will Send His Angels is better than the single version
-The hook/melody of Staring At The Sun would have made it a monster hit, but it never was because the lyrics were vague and weak while the video was nothing catchy.
-The line from Wake Up Dead Man "if there's an order in all of this disorder, is it like a tape recorder, can we rewind it?" is quite prophetic. U2 eventually admitted POP was unfinished (hence disorder) and have been remixing it (rewinding it).
-The first two songs of the album start out as if it makes you all jumpy, but then the album gets serious and gloomy and leaves you with an empty bitter feeling culminating with the desolate barren picture painted by Wake Up Dead Man.
-POP has blood on the tracks. It is a much more serious album than people think.
The conclusion I have reached is that POP was a serious serious album but its severity and depth were intentionally hidden with all the drum machines, techno babble, loops and sampling. Thus, POP was unfinished in the sense that when it was released, U2 had not yet stripped the album into its core message. U2 was still in defense mechanism mode, trying to downplay the blood on the tracks.
With the release of the new mixes, U2 have attempted to open up the songs more, focus on the band and away from the drum machines and samples (hence the absence of the "boom" in Discotheque). Sure opening up the songs are good and will help highlight the song.
But in the end, the original album versions are better because it shows the conflict and contradiction within the band just like Achtung Baby. The serious lyrics of the songs in the backdrop of samples and drum machines is such a contradiction. U2 is all about contradiction. It shows the hidden beauty of the album and its timeless appeal. The album versions show the many layers of U2 whereas the new mixes are just mere manufactured pre-packaged versions.
So I think the original POP is a much better listen that making a "rebuilt" POP. The original POP is greatly underrated and misunderstood - misunderstood even by U2 themselves. But isn't that the beauty of it all - in finding an order in all of the disorder?
Cheers,
J
The King Of POP
"Get" it?! 
