I don't know who's site this is, but I often refer to it in situations such as this:
http://www.femgeeks.net/sunrazor/pop.htm
Irishteen said:
Pop is under rated by critics, and over rated by people here
It's definitely underrated by critics, and even by U2 themselves, which is quite sad.
Overrated here? Possibly maybe..
We definitely defend it. Know why? Because we love it, and the fact that so many people, even U2 fans, even U2, seem to not appreciate it hurts us.
Pop has it's flaws, but I even love it's flaws. I mean, sure it'd be nice if the music wasn't almost completely drowning out Bono's voice in some places, but that's my only complaint. I fell in love with that album, flaws and all, and I'd hate to see it rerecorded. I don't even like the new mixes (and the single version of Please really bothers me for some reason, which is a pity, because I like the video).
On a broader spectrum, doesn't it bother all of us when people bash U2? And don't we defend them again and again?
It's the same with any U2 album. Bash Pop, and I'll defend it. And when I come along and bash ATYCLB, go on and defend it, I expect you to
Pop is lyrically one of U2's strongest albums. It's up there with The Joshua Tree, and that can't be denied.
But one thing I don't agree with is that Pop is a dance album. While the electronic presence is there in a lot of songs, Pop is a rock album. You can dance to about 30% of it. That's probably only about a little bit more than the danceability of Achtung Baby.
The beauty of Pop is that it's anything but "pop". As Bono himself put it, "Pop is fucking black". There's definitely nothing sweet about songs like IGWSHA, Gone, Please, and WUDM. Even upbeat songs like LNOE and Mofo have these darker elements underneath.
I think the reason we defend Pop so vehemently is because we see such beauty in it, and we wish other people could get over whatever stigma they have against it and see the beauty. To us, it's gold, and everyone that can't see that is missing out on something great, and that makes us sad.