I wouldn't take anything off of PoP, its near perfect as it is. The last U2 album that really sounded BOLD and balls of fire on an open flame. That era of U2 really excited me because not only was I young I was also really intrigued with what they were doing. They were globetrotting rock icons who were so far above everyone else in everything they were doing. They had their tower of Babel moment somewhere along the journey and im pretty sure they succeeded.
PoP - those sounds, colors, let the imagination run wild and once it ran you might spend your entire life trying to find it again. That wasn't the problem though, finding it. The problem would be not even trying to find it.
Sadly I haven't felt nearly excited about any U2 release since then. Not to say I haven't enjoyed ATYCLB or HTDAAB and their subsequent tours, to include the 360 Tour. But I can clearly look at Bono and see at times he is a child at heart but also see that time won't leave him alone, and all of the complications that go along with growing up, growing old, responsibility, etc. I get it, I really do. Im perfectly fine with the fact that U2 of the 80's and 90's is clearly a different band than the U2 of today. It just has to be that way, otherwise they probably wouldn't even exist anymore. I just hope they can surprise me and make their special brand of magic in the studio once again. There was a hint of that magic on the last three albums, but nothing like the three preceeding that, PoP, Zooropa, & Achtung Baby. There is more mystique on the Passengers & MDH projects than the whole of ATYCLB, HTDAAB, & NLOTH. That said, I do love most of ATYCLB and the Elevation Tour was very special. While I don't mind Atomic Bomb, parts of it left me a bit cold (no idea why really) and the Vertigo Tour seemed lacking as well. The 360 Tour was a return to the grand spectacle of the 90's U2 which I quite cherished, and the Norman and Nashville show were very special.
I will forever cherish walking around Itaewon South Korea, in Seoul, with my brand new copy of the PoP CD I had just purchased in the base exchange with a friend, and cozying up to a small bar high above the traffic jams and taxi cab violence for a mid-day beer to escape the mayhem. I had pulled out the CD and unwrapped it, looking at it with my buddy while sipping on something cold and refreshing when the young bartended inquired about the new CD I had. I gave it to him and he put it in the bars sound system, playing the first 3 or 4 tracks while we drank our beverages. At first I wasn't sure what I was hearing but I liked it. I was in some kind of orbit about the time MOFO blasted through the bars sound system...the cacophony of sounds was something I wasn't quite prepared for...but it made all the sense in the world to me on that particular day in the cozy bar, above the gridlocked city streets below jam packed with angry drivers honking their horns and screaming at one another and people stepping over each other to make their way through the alleys and the side streets. Just pure fucking sonic blowjob and mind numbing bliss. If they can take me there once again...re-kindle the old flame...I'll renew my vows to follow them to the ends of the earth.
That sums up how I feel about them too. 
