U2's 'Pop' far exceeds rattle and humdrum

U2

Pop (Island)

I heard the news last November: U2 had cited Prodigy and the Chemical Brothers as major influences on their forthcoming album, Pop. Rumor had it that U2 had "gone dance", hoping to ride the wave of Orbital and friends into the next century of music. I told a friend and fellow U2 fan of my fears for the future, and he reminded me of something very important: this is U2 we're talking about--it can't be that bad.

My friend was correct; my fears were unfounded. For all their apparent slipping and sliding on the edges of "mother suckin' rock and roll," U2 can still make a damn good guitar-driven album. That said, Pop is definitely not The Joshua Tree, as the campily danceable first single, "Discothèque," has already announced to the world. Like much of Pop, "Discothèque" finds its closest relatives on Zooropa; "Discothèque" itself is a close cousin of "Some Days Are Better Than Others."

Most of the tempos on Pop grow out of the slower builds of Zooropa's "Dirty Day," specifically from the slitherings of "Please" and the anxious sparsity of "If God will Send His Angels." A notable exception is "Mofo," a techno ear-scraper with little to no intelligible guitar and a lot more drums than Larry can "play" at once. "Mofo," more than any other song on Pop, represents a truly new direction for U2, "lookin' for a sound that's gonna drown out the world." The new style is legitimized by its union with highly personal lyrics about Bono's feelings on family, religion, and frailty--subject matter previously reserved for the more somber sort of strumming typfied by The Unforgettable Fire.

To silence the doubters, "Staring at the Sun" is a guaranteed hit, a flawless summer song. Bono's voice and Edge's guitar have free reign, with the usual marvelous results of rocketing harmony. "It's been a long hot summer / let's get undercover / don't try hard to think . . . don't think at all," Bono says. This is going to be U2's summer of the Popmart: enjoy.

Yes, there are still songs about God, love, and Bono's mother. There are still mutiple Greenpeace addresses in the liner notes. Edge still soars, Bono still croons, Adam still looks serious, and Larry still gives it all a beat. Pop is unmistakeably U2. What is considerably less clear is whether Pop is pop.

But what in Flood's name is pop? If pop means Blur and Oasis-like Brit-pop, Pop is really only pop for a couple of tracks. If pop means Michael Jackson royalty-pop, Pop is the antithesis of pop. If pop simply means popular, then I suppose U2 is right on the mark as they sniff the winds of change blowing across Europe. But the Spice Girls are popular too, and the only meaningful similarity between the U.K.'s first all-girl band and U2 is that they both sell well. Popularity alone won't describe Pop's pop. This time, pop is an assortment of styles, still essentially guitar-based, but cleverly mixed. This time, pop is whatever U2 says it is.

--Dan McGarry

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