For this months Underrated Classic, we will look at U2's 1997 effort Pop. Recorded entirely in South Beach, Miami, Florida the Irish legends brought along Producers Flood and Brian Eno, who also produced the bands Achtung Baby and Zooropa records. Upon its release Pop was looked at as the bands worst record, critics and fans seem to dismantle the album as a terrible or unlistenable achievement. But for what it is worth, I don't think anyone seem to give it a chance. It is a record that produced one of the biggest tours of all time, and a tour in which still to this day I would give anything to have seen, which was the POPMART tour. For many fans and critics this was U2's way of going over the top and a reason to tour with the largest stadium size setting in music history. For what it is worth, Pop is not a terrible record, it is not the bands worse and it most certainly is not an excuse for anything. U2 being one of the greatest bands of all time and one of my favorites since I was born (and that's no lie), this record was misunderstood. What the band was listening to at the time was a lot of German Industrial music, bands like KMFDM and Atari Teenage Riot as well as a lot of 80's and European electronica, Depeche Mode and New Order. What U2 wanted to do was take a page out of Depeche Modes book and create a bluesy, electro record, and stripped down that's what Pop is. It is a blues album and it is proven in tracks like "Staring at the Sun," "If God Will Send His Angels," and "Last Night on Earth." These are blues tracks with electronic synth to add to the overall feeling of the mood and motif of the record. The albums lead off single "Discotheque" was a play at 70's disco and European music that was storming the clubs or discotheques at that time. It even had the band playing inside a disco ball and dressing up like the Village People for the video. Its an album that pokes fun at decadence with lyrics like "If coke is a mystery Michael Jackson history. If beauty is truth. And surgery the fountain of youth..." from the track "The Playboy Mansion," it gets you realizing that this is just not a throw away record. Indeed it may not be as groundbreaking as The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree or Actung Baby, but its an album that should not be overlooked and due to its layers and complexity makes it an underrated classic.
