Dusty Discoveries #1:: U2: “Pop”

This is the first post in, what I hope will be, an occasional series here at Tone Marrow Reviews called “Dusty Discoveries.” These will be highlighting albums that, though have been out for some time, are new to me. Some of these “discoveries” will be like today’s offering, a record that I’ve known about since it’s release but never listened to until recently; meanwhile, others will be records that were previously unknown to me. Today, we will take a look at U2’s 1997 album, Pop.

(out of 5)

Let’s begin with full disclosure. I am not a huge U2 fan. (That probably goes without saying since I’m just getting around to listening to one of their records twelve years after its release.) I have still not even heard all of their albums and I only own one of them, the famous 1987 collection of hymns and anthems known as The Joshua Tree. I say that to earn the trust of non-U2 fans (because I know how tired we non-fans are of hearing various friends and co-workers raving about U2’s work) and I hope to earn the trust of those die-hard U2 fans as well by showing that I’m still exploring their catalog and I’m willing to give them a chance (unlike some of your friends and co-workers whom you annoyed earlier this year with your non-stop chatter about the new album). But enough about that, onto the actual album.

First of all, what makes Pop a great album (and a great discovery) is that it is an album that raises genuine, thought-provoking questions about love, faith, and pop culture while, surprisingly, informing us of how empty pop music and pop culture can be when one builds their life around those things. Yet, what makes Pop even more impressive is the manner in which U2 raises these questions. These messages are carried in a beat-heavy guitar-pop album, which in many ways is an emblem of the very lifestyle which they seek to expose. And so, it remains a very subversive and nuanced listen even twelve years after its release.

Pop continues following the trend of electronic music that U2 displayed in Achtung Baby and Zooropa, but while those merely experimented with it, Pop dives headfirst into electronic-fused rock music. Pop features some great Euro-trash club beats alongside some of The Edge’s best guitar lines. Case in point of this appears on the album’s blood-pumping opener, “Discotheque,” the album’s first single and, thus, it was one of the two songs I heard from the record back in ‘97. This is also where Bono lays down the theme of love (a favorite topic of his) for the record. Throughout the album, the listeners are being asked to consider the differences between empty love and real love and this is hinted at in the first line of the record: “You can reach, but you can’t grab it.” Why can’t we find this thing (real love) we are reaching for? Because we search for it in the discotheques and clubs. And yet, I wonder how many “discotheques” and clubs this song played in back in 1997. It’s a pretty delightful thought.

Another brilliant stroke of Pop is that it begins with such a bang. In fact, the first three songs form a heavy-weight trilogy of electronic rock and though-provoking lyrics. The second song in the trilogy, “Do You Feel Loved,” more clearly identifies and develops the theme of love in the album. And the jarring, upbeat “Mofo” completels the trilogy as Bono waxes about the then-recent loss of his mother and his own role as a father. Pop will consider not only familial love, but romantic love, and notably, divine love. It asks us to wrestle with the pain that results when faith and love are disconnected in “If God Will Send His Angels.” Yet, the album’s other large theme of digging under the surface of pop culture (“looking for baby Jesus under the trash”) hits hard in a few tracks as well. In “The Playboy Mansion,” Bono paints a picture of what heaven looks like for many Westerners: huge house, material wealth, beautiful people–yet, would a heaven like that truly provide us with the love that we can’t grab?

Though, the record begins at a party it quickly mellows out and reaches its conclusion at a funeral, as Bono has famously said. The closer, “Wake Up Dead Man,” attracted a fair amount of criticism in its use of the f-bomb (rare for U2’s songs, though not for Bono’s award show banter) as well as its seeming renouncement of Christian faith. However, the song is certainly not a renouncement of faith, instead, it’s a song close to the laments in the Old Testament Psalms or the laments in the Book of Job. It showcases a genuine, honest struggle with doubts and fears– two things that are not unusual as part of “normal” Christian faith. It’s this closer that reminds us that real love often involves hardships and struggles, yet, it is so much more satisfying than the empty love you’ll find in the discotheque.

I was quite surprised to discover that among U2 fans, Pop is a bit of a black sheep– viewed as a rare misstep by some (but not all) fans. The band themselves have agreed with this as they have openly discussed being slightly disappointed with the final product due to being rushed to complete it (to the point of recording some last minute vocals on the day they sent it off to be pressed!) in time for their planned PopMart world tour. They have even re-recorded and re-mixed several of the tracks for various releases.

And, certainly, I’ll admit it’s a flawed album. Some of the lyrics are a bit clunky (the infamous and debatable line “And the cartoon network turns into the news”) but I would argue that there are a few clunky lyrics on U2’s other albums (the same is true for nearly all artists). And a couple spots on the record have the feeling of being a bit rushed or half-baked. Yet, Pop holds together really well and the passing of time has not made it irrelevant or obsolete– in fact, many of its critiques of contemporary culture are perhaps more needed today then they were at the close of the twentieth century. Its a rare achievement in music as it touches the listener’s heart, mind, and soul while being really fun to play. I’ve only spent about a month with the album and yet I feel that there are some great insights yet to be mined from it– secrets yet to be revealed– and that makes Pop a great discovery.

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U2– “Discotheque”

This is a great song and a great opener for this album. Their subversion of dance pop culture carries over into the video as well.

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For more about U2’s Pop, let me highlight Josh Hurst’s post about this album last fall– I agree with his claim that it is a “Lost Classic.” It was his review that piqued my interest in this record and it was his copy that I borrowed for a lengthy amount of time.

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