Pop
| U2
Pop
Pop is the ninth studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Flood, Howie B, and Steve Osborne, and was released on 3 March 1997 on Island Records. The album was a continuation of the band's 1990s musical reinvention, as they incorporated alternative rock, techno, dance, and electronica influences into their sound. Pop employed a variety of production techniques that were relatively new to U2, including sampling, loops, programmed drum machines, and sequencing. -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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Billboard
History has not been so kind to Pop, and dissenters bemoan how contrived it felt for a wildly successful rock band (with members in their mid-30s) attempting to write a techno-inspired album, ostensibly to stay relevant, or just not feel quite so behind the times. Twenty years later, all we see is a group that chose not to coast.
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Spin
Pop realizes a symphonic transcendence for which the band’s earlier stabs like The Unforgettable Fire could only wish.
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Stereogum
Pop was the sound of a band who had been around nearly 20 years but were still just in their mid-30s, bottling all those experiences up into a complicated, flawed, misunderstood album that stands as a divisive oddity in their career while also casting a shadow over everything that followed.
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Spectrum Culture
More than half of Pop is indelible U2, better than most of the band’s post-2000 songs.
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Ultimate Classic Rock
For all the heat Pop takes, the album didn’t mark a huge stylistic change in the band. It was a continuation of U2’s ’90s explorations, which had included loops, dance-oriented rhythms and stylish, rocking viscosity since 1991’s Achtung Baby.
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Slant Magazine
1997’s Pop, released at the apex of the electronica movement, was a trashy, kitschy continuation of the band’s previous electro-pop-infused work; it was their least successful album to date but, ironically, it was more accessible than anything U2 had produced in years.
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AV Music
U2’s electronic-heavy Pop deserves more respect for its risk-taking
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XS Noize
...an under-appreciated gem that deserves more praise and recognition for the masterwork it is
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BBC
Straining to keep up with the zeitgeist
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Alternative Nation
Pop Was U2’s Finest Hour And A Misunderstood Classic
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Treble
Pop is nowhere near their best album, but I consider it even stronger than Zooropa which gets far more love in common U2 fandom.
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The Week
Pop is a trashy, vulgar, spiritually insightful, heart-shattering record ... And its critical failure was a miscarriage of justice.
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All Music
...an easy record to admire, but a hard one to love.
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Mark's Record Reviews
...this LP is "experimental" and dance-based, so us rockers and me just have to kinda sit still and try not to cringe too much.
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Velocities In MusicTV
Pop presents a cool new sound but is chained down by old, tired ideas which makes this listen a little too predictable.
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Rod Rioja
...without a doubt one of U2’s best albums of all time.
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Anti Music
Despite its faults, I have always personally loved Pop.
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Cross Rhythms
Bono, redemption brings more than just one chance and 'Pop''s questions have an answer in lives fully surrendered.
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The Solute
Pop has its problems, mainly down to production and a couple of dud tracks, but in terms of ambition no-one can deny that it isn’t there.
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Wilson & Alroy's Record Reviews
A step up from Zooropa, although it won't do much for the group's older fans.
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Indiecisive
...one of the most cohesive and inventive albums they’ve released
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