POP Revisited: Best Moments Off The POP Album?

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The OOTS said:
Bono's best lyric = BOOM CHA!
so moving and meaningful...

BOOM CHA not only represents the fear of death and signifying the end of the world it sounds good.........
 
I´m in love with Pop:love: :heart: :bow:

Best moments ?

Without a doubt, there´re several highligths:

1- First 3 songs: AWESOME
2- Staring At The Sun: Extraordinary
3- Gone: Best non single song from the album
4- Please: IMO, one of the top-ten U2 songs

Another highligths: Avant-garde album concept, production, sounds details, variety, longest U2 album they´ve ever made( no counting half compiled Rattle & Hum ), etc, etc, etc

HAPPY CHRISTMAS TO ALL :wave:
 
I just love it,eventhou i would expell songs like miami, the playboy mansion and velvet dres, because they suck in my opinion.
If they would have put hold me, thrill me... except those songs, POP would be competing with Achtung and Joshua for the first place.
I just love this album because you can feel Adam in it. Larry is exceptional and Edge has his moments. Bono IS BONO VOX for his low voice in mofo, and high in gone.
I believe i was clear enough!!!
 
When Pop was released, I was 15. I became a fan on July 4th, 1995, when I listened to my Dad's copies of Rattle and Hum and Joshua Tree. From July 1995 - Christmas 1996, I slowly accumulated all of U2's albums. I was absolutely fascinated by them, and it was all leading up to one point.... my first U2 album to be RELEASED while I was a fan. I remember feeling broken hearted when I read that it was delayed from October 1996 to March 1997, but still I waited. Finally the day came. March 4th, 1997.

To me, the album was perfect. I loved each second of it. Each day on the school bus, I would emerse myself in it to and back from school. This was the first album I got into as a whole. Back then, I didn't know that the album was a flop, or that it was unfinished. I didn't have MTV or get Rolling Stone, so I was oblivious to all facts of the media. I didn't know the tour wasn't selling well. When Popmart came to Columbus, I had the best night of my life, and I didn't even notice the empty seats in the back.

Then I finally came to embrace the world of media. I found people on message forums like this who were just blasting Pop, and the media was also doing it, and then U2 themselves were bashing it after awhile. I actually became convinced that Pop wasn't a good album. Talking about it with other people ruined the album for me. But now I'm a 22 year old college grad-workin' man, and I'm no longer subject to peer pressure, or to even listen to people's opinions and trying to be "COOL". I have finally gotten back into Pop, the way I used to be. There are so many different colors and feelings that album brings out. I think that Achtung Baby is a great album, but it can't touch what Pop has meant to me.
 
thos 5 seconds of musical bliss that got cut off from the live performance...

you know it...

it's MoFo...

"I'm still looking for the face I had before the world was made"

best album lyric

a lot more I could type, but I must go the bathroom :|
 
Umm...

the bridge to Discotheque is very cool.

Mofo is just cool the whole way through, but the first verse is the best, IMO.

"Does love light up your Christmas tree?"

The bridge to Staring at the Sun

From Gone: "You're taking steps that make you feel dizzy, then you learn to like the way it feels, you hurt yourself you hurt you lover, then you discover---what you thought was freedom just was greed" then that final, climatic chorus "Goodbye...no emotional goodnight"

The bridge to Playboy Mansion (then will there be, no time for sorrow, then will there be no time for shame?)

Please

Wake Up Dead Man



>>>I love this album!:wink:
 
I remember really loving Pop when it came out. I had mono at the time and was too sick to do much of anything other than listen to the stereo. I must have heard Pop about 200 times in a row. And I loved it. :)

But then I went online... And the album was getting skewered by the fans. As of late the U2 fanbase has collectively decided that America just didn't "GET" Pop but that Europe loved it. That's not how I remember it at all. A small minority of the online fans loved Pop unconditionally. The remainder either liked it with reservations (it's good but it's no AB), were confused or just didn't like it that much.
I found myself defending the album on Wire left right and sideways. It was like trying to put out a forest fire. Every time you thought you were done a new flare-up would occur.

Then came the pathetic KMart press conference announcing PopMart. Bono prancing around with a "supermarket trolley." It was embarrassing and very difficult to defend to skeptical fans.
Not because it was U2 selling out (they weren't) but because it was sooo unfunny. I thought to myself that this was the first time Bono had ever resembled Jon Bon Jovi from 1987. Prancing around like a self involved prat in ridiculous outfits not realizing that people weren't lauging with him-- they were laughing at him.

Then came the disastrous (not to mention terminally dull) U2- A Year in Pop tv special. The (deservedly) lowest rated tv special in American history. I just couldn't figure out what was wrong with the bands instincts. How could a band responsible for such great tv as The Videos, the Cameos and a Whole Lot of Interference From ZooTV come up with something so boring, so self-congratulatory? How??

Then came PopMart night one in Vegas. U2's Waterloo. One of the worst shows they have ever played. In the past when the band had struggled live (The Joshua Tree opener for instance) their sheer enthusiasm and passion had won the crowd over. Not this time. They couldn't play the songs for cripes sake! It was obvious that they had no idea how to play the freaking BALLADS from the new album. If God Will Send his Angels and Staring at the Sun were disasters. Unmitigated disasters. The dancier material didn't work either. Discotheque wasn't a disaster but it was close. Bono couldn't sing Do You Feel Loved.

The online fanbase exploded. How could U2 spend over a year in the studio writing and rewriting these songs and not know how to play them?

It became harder and more discouraging for me to defend Pop, PopMart...the band themselves. Something had gone wrong.
I started to actively HATE certain Wirelings who wouldn't stop castigating the band and Pop. The endless whining about how terrible, insincere, empty, cheesey (you pick the adjective) Pop was was driving me crazy. The endless U2 Have Sold Out posts drove me into a lather. Couldn't those idiots hear the beauty in Please or Wake Up Dead Man? How was it possible that DYFL and Mofo didn't set their hearts racing. I just didn't understand.

I'm starting to feel a little bit like that lately. Only now it's the Pop fans who are making my fingers twitch. Obviously HTDAAB has been far more generously received than Pop was. The initial reviews are a wash (both were received warmly by critics at first). But HTDAAB is selling like hotcakes worldwide while Pop sold...well. Not great by U2 standards.
Also the fans are far more pleased this time around. There is a LOT less negativity.

Still, I'm starting to get sick of the naysayers. Not because I don't value their opinion (I do). But because the keep rehashing it over and over and over again. Enough already. We know that you don't love HTDAAB. We know that you're dissapointed. Why do you have to piss all over our parade about it?
It reminds me of 1997 all over again.
 
Beautifully put. A so-called friend would rag unmercifully on Pop in '97 and it really stung me. I simply loved the album. I still do. He started in on the Bomb the other day and this time I jumped him. He can take his criticism somewhere else. I know the band quite well enough and I know this new album is superb. I don't need his input.

Best moment on Pop for me? During "Last Night", about half way through there's a sound like the band, and the song, is just taking off, blazing off into the stars! WOOOOOOO!!! You guys know what I'm talking about.

THAT's what I feel like when I listen to U2.
 
Matthew_Page2000 said:

Still, I'm starting to get sick of the naysayers. Not because I don't value their opinion (I do). But because the keep rehashing it over and over and over again. Enough already. We know that you don't love HTDAAB. We know that you're dissapointed. Why do you have to piss all over our parade about it?
It reminds me of 1997 all over again.

I value your opinion too Matthew. But right now you are only posting negative remarks to make people to see it all your way.
You are just as much a naysayer as anybody else in here.

HTDAAB is great, Pop is great. Two different albums, end of story. Its not that hard to see it like this, unless we take it personally.
And that would be stupid...
 
JOFO said:
looks like someone has been watching dr. seuss's "how the grinch stole christmas" .....


jick, nice to see some positive comments from you.

cheers,

J

Exactly my thoughts! This is the first positive jick thread i've read since ive been here!
I personally love PoP. With the exceptions of Playboy Mansion & Velvet drerss, the album is full great musical moments!

IGWSHA
SATS
MOFO
DISCOTHEC
GONE
PLEASE
And yes, even MIAMI!
To name a few!

Salim
 
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Ok, best moments on Pop. Adam fucking up the intro to Please. I'm serious. I actually love how it sounds but I've been told he's playing it out of tune or something.

All of Gone and Please. Two of the best songs U2 has ever written.

The "Listen" verse of WUDM. It literally makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Cheating here a bit, but the revised ending of IGWSHA on the single version.

The "farting wasp" sound on Edges guitar during Discotheque.

Bono's lyrics for DYFL.

Larry. The whole album.

Adam. The whole album.

Now if only they'd gotten the shoes right...
 
Matthew_Page2000 said:
I remember really loving Pop when it came out. I had mono at the time and was too sick to do much of anything other than listen to the stereo. I must have heard Pop about 200 times in a row. And I loved it. :)

But then I went online... And the album was getting skewered by the fans. As of late the U2 fanbase has collectively decided that America just didn't "GET" Pop but that Europe loved it. That's not how I remember it at all. A small minority of the online fans loved Pop unconditionally. The remainder either liked it with reservations (it's good but it's no AB), were confused or just didn't like it that much.
I found myself defending the album on Wire left right and sideways. It was like trying to put out a forest fire. Every time you thought you were done a new flare-up would occur.

Then came the pathetic KMart press conference announcing PopMart. Bono prancing around with a "supermarket trolley." It was embarrassing and very difficult to defend to skeptical fans.
Not because it was U2 selling out (they weren't) but because it was sooo unfunny. I thought to myself that this was the first time Bono had ever resembled Jon Bon Jovi from 1987. Prancing around like a self involved prat in ridiculous outfits not realizing that people weren't lauging with him-- they were laughing at him.

Then came the disastrous (not to mention terminally dull) U2- A Year in Pop tv special. The (deservedly) lowest rated tv special in American history. I just couldn't figure out what was wrong with the bands instincts. How could a band responsible for such great tv as The Videos, the Cameos and a Whole Lot of Interference From ZooTV come up with something so boring, so self-congratulatory? How??

Then came PopMart night one in Vegas. U2's Waterloo. One of the worst shows they have ever played. In the past when the band had struggled live (The Joshua Tree opener for instance) their sheer enthusiasm and passion had won the crowd over. Not this time. They couldn't play the songs for cripes sake! It was obvious that they had no idea how to play the freaking BALLADS from the new album. If God Will Send his Angels and Staring at the Sun were disasters. Unmitigated disasters. The dancier material didn't work either. Discotheque wasn't a disaster but it was close. Bono couldn't sing Do You Feel Loved.

The online fanbase exploded. How could U2 spend over a year in the studio writing and rewriting these songs and not know how to play them?

It became harder and more discouraging for me to defend Pop, PopMart...the band themselves. Something had gone wrong.
I started to actively HATE certain Wirelings who wouldn't stop castigating the band and Pop. The endless whining about how terrible, insincere, empty, cheesey (you pick the adjective) Pop was was driving me crazy. The endless U2 Have Sold Out posts drove me into a lather. Couldn't those idiots hear the beauty in Please or Wake Up Dead Man? How was it possible that DYFL and Mofo didn't set their hearts racing. I just didn't understand.

I'm starting to feel a little bit like that lately. Only now it's the Pop fans who are making my fingers twitch. Obviously HTDAAB has been far more generously received than Pop was. The initial reviews are a wash (both were received warmly by critics at first). But HTDAAB is selling like hotcakes worldwide while Pop sold...well. Not great by U2 standards.
Also the fans are far more pleased this time around. There is a LOT less negativity.

Still, I'm starting to get sick of the naysayers. Not because I don't value their opinion (I do). But because the keep rehashing it over and over and over again. Enough already. We know that you don't love HTDAAB. We know that you're dissapointed. Why do you have to piss all over our parade about it?
It reminds me of 1997 all over again.




GREAT POST.
 
Best moment on Pop?

Please.

Heartbreaking, breathtaking, inspiring song about self-preservation and diplomacy and the muddy waters that run between the two.
 
I think I'm one of the few people who love it from start to finish. I love what it lacks, which is lyrical quality and musicianship. There's nothing to 'get' on it. No hidden meaning, no meaning at all. It's like a holiday from work for me, it's like time off from something serious.
I love its shallowness.
:up:
 
Forgot to add, I also missed the hype, not having read magazines or been bothered with the internet. Was the net even around back then? I was oblivious. I specifically remember the first time I heard Staring At The Sun, the radio alarm went off at 6am and only half paying attention I thought 'hey haven't heard this song before. Sounds cool'. Then I realised it was U2 and figured they had the new album coming out.
Not speaking to people about music can be a godsend at times.
:up:
 
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