rant (i'm a cranky pop lover)
i was amused to see that time magazine slammed the new u2 album. i mean, i really am not in the mode of caring too much what anyone else thinks about the cd. still, i actually have enjoyed reading some of the critical reviews more than the fawning ones. but this one paragraph near the top of the time article just annoys me.
After 1997's Pop -- a disastrous mix of disco and hubris that provided a harrowing glimpse of career death -- the band decided to banish the lead singer's politics to venues like the U.N. and focus on writing songs whose chief ambition was to charm rather than to persuade. This late-version U2 has produced a run of hits ("Beautiful Day," "Wild Honey," "City of Blinding Lights") united by a lightness of theme and an ease of sound. Unburdened by the need to make big statements, U2 proved that no one else is better at making universal small ones.
i am definitely confused by this made up storyline about the band banishing bono's politics to the UN. but what i LOVE the most is the part about "wild honey" being a hit for u2. (part of a run don't you know?)
on what planet was wild honey ever a hit? planet you don't know what the fuck you're talking about? oh, okay then.
but seriously ... and this has nothing to do with this review, really. just my own pop loving crankiness: pop = disco? and disaster? stop with this lie already, music writers! stop. puh-leez. also, hubris? the bono? whAAT? well, i never ...
no, i know u2 tricked you with their humor that nobody thought was funny. but albums are eternal, tours are ephemeral. "pop" does not equal "popmart". forget the bubble pants and the arches. think of pop as an album that exists in your ipod. in your ears. lyrically, pop is epically confused and vulnerable and devoid (almost:) of hubris.
but it's that disco description that irks me. SO MUCH. will this disco myth ever stop being perpetuated? only listened to track one on that disc, did you, you disco name callers? or, no, you listened to it all and felt that gone and please, in particular, were probably the best disco songs donna summer forgot to sing? really? exactly how many times were you dropped on your head when you were a baby?
now if i could just somehow get the revisionist u2 band members to stop bullshitting their gullible fans into believing they didn't have enough time to finish pop. (you had three+ years, you jerks. plenty of time! you finished it. it was done. you take everything down to the wire. you can't pretend, a few years later, that this album wasn't finished just because people with terrible taste didn't like it. oh, wait, i guess you can ...)
i got so cranky i tired myself out.
later
After 1997's Pop -- a disastrous mix of disco and hubris that provided a harrowing glimpse of career death -- the band decided to banish the lead singer's politics to venues like the U.N. and focus on writing songs whose chief ambition was to charm rather than to persuade. This late-version U2 has produced a run of hits ("Beautiful Day," "Wild Honey," "City of Blinding Lights") united by a lightness of theme and an ease of sound. Unburdened by the need to make big statements, U2 proved that no one else is better at making universal small ones.
i am definitely confused by this made up storyline about the band banishing bono's politics to the UN. but what i LOVE the most is the part about "wild honey" being a hit for u2. (part of a run don't you know?)
on what planet was wild honey ever a hit? planet you don't know what the fuck you're talking about? oh, okay then.
but seriously ... and this has nothing to do with this review, really. just my own pop loving crankiness: pop = disco? and disaster? stop with this lie already, music writers! stop. puh-leez. also, hubris? the bono? whAAT? well, i never ...
no, i know u2 tricked you with their humor that nobody thought was funny. but albums are eternal, tours are ephemeral. "pop" does not equal "popmart". forget the bubble pants and the arches. think of pop as an album that exists in your ipod. in your ears. lyrically, pop is epically confused and vulnerable and devoid (almost:) of hubris.
but it's that disco description that irks me. SO MUCH. will this disco myth ever stop being perpetuated? only listened to track one on that disc, did you, you disco name callers? or, no, you listened to it all and felt that gone and please, in particular, were probably the best disco songs donna summer forgot to sing? really? exactly how many times were you dropped on your head when you were a baby?
now if i could just somehow get the revisionist u2 band members to stop bullshitting their gullible fans into believing they didn't have enough time to finish pop. (you had three+ years, you jerks. plenty of time! you finished it. it was done. you take everything down to the wire. you can't pretend, a few years later, that this album wasn't finished just because people with terrible taste didn't like it. oh, wait, i guess you can ...)
i got so cranky i tired myself out.
later
posted by c at 3:00 PM
16 Comments:
You took the words out of my mouth ;-)
Pop was a ROCK album compared to NLOTH as far as I'm concerned!
...And just to be shure: I'm not saying NLOTH is better/worse or whatever...
Cool down, the TIMES review sucks. It's a shame that an overall great magazine like TIME that has been kissing U2's asses - and most of all Bono's formidable ass - so much in recent years cannot hire a more competent music critic who can at least get some facts straight.
Yeah, I didn't take the Times review seriously after I read the section you highlighted. It's one thing to write a critical review - but this review was sheer ignorance.
Well ranted.
I tend to enjoy Pop a lot...but even I think the single versions of songs were better than the album versions. They just worked a bit better.
C-You know I'm a huge fan of Pop, and the disco comparisons are a cheap shortcut to a proper description of the texture of that album. But I'd have to disagree with you when you bring up the relative lack of hubris on the Pop album. For me, the hubris is all over Pop, but it's more overt and self-conscious, which makes it both oddly confident and also clearly ironic. To me, it's different than the hubris that I would argue exists in a song like "Crumbs from your table," a(n) (amazing) track that tries to be subtle about making the world feel guilty for its lack of compassion or charity. "Please," probably the best track on Pop, is a prime example of how brilliantly U2 address the issues of indifference without trying to gloss it in diplomacy. Blah blah blah, Pop gets no love. Times review = trying to rattle some feathers. The music keeps us talking, keeps us interested. For me, this is where its value comes to the surface.
well, we may be defining hubris differently, but to me the lyrical theme of pop is the opposite of hubris. it's a soul who is broken and questioning and not sure of anything. and angry. that isn't hubris to me. but then i don't think crumbs is full of hubris either ;)
but your point about the time review ruffling feathers? it has factual innacuracies. is pop a disco record? was wild honey a hit? no and no. a good writer can ruffle feathers all day, fine, but a good writer also gets the facts right.
it's lesson #1 in journalism school. if you can't get the most basic aspects of a story correct, the reader has no reason to believe anything you say beyond that. and man it's frustrating when inaccuracies like that lead off a negative review in a magazine who should be able to get facts right. (i do realize the pop thing is an opinion, but the writer's UN notion is comically lame, in my opinon... but .. the wild honey thing is just plain ridiculous.)
I agree with Honey. Pop Bono is a cocky as hell motherf**ker.
I lOve POP. The funny thing is I remember it getting great reviews by Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly, then sometime during the tour they changed their tune and started calling it a flop. Made no friggin sense. And POP wasn't even a "pop" album. ATYCLB was.
Hey C, I completely agree with you when you say that the lyrical theme of Pop is about questioning and anger. But I still think the sonic style of Pop is too calculating to be completely vulnerable.
"Sometimes you can't make it on your own," "Kite," "Bad" all fulfill that side of unadulterated emotional exposure for me. But as music as I would love to think that "Wild Honey" was a hit...it just wasn't, and the reviewer clearly didn't make a point of getting that straight. Very frustrating. And it just makes the reviewer look bad, because they didn't do their homework.
Honey --- > If God Will Send His Angels. (And the Cartoon Network Turns Into The News)... Where do we go?
the bono's vulnerable vocal peak! that song.
I agree with everything C said. Pop is at times my favorite U2 album. I think it was ahead of it's time, considering much of the indie music that followed. This reviewer probably saw a few promo photos with the disco ball, and assumed the music must be disco too. And I'm sick of people like this guy accusing U2 of no longer addressing "issues" of a UN type nature through their music, as though they have lost relevance or something. How many songs in the U2 catalogue actually address a specific cultural issue? Very few! Most are about an individual struggling with a personal issue of a spiritual or emotional nature. Again, the guy went for some U2 stereotype without actually knowing the music. I'm very confused how this one got by the editors, especially after they were so affectionate toward Bono the past few years. I guess this is the sort of thing I expect to read (and ignore) on some random blog, but not from Time magazine. It irks me that so many people will read it and take it seriously.
POP was rushed. Wild Honey was not a hit... BUT there's POP in the K-Mart of NYC and then there's POP MexiMofo... and I have to say, "Please" and "Gone" at the end of the POPmart tour are classics.
pop was rushed at the end, no doubt, but so much of what they do is rushed and it's all about how they frame it with their lil irish storytelling. war was rushed, they finished '40' while the next band was barging in the door for studio time, but that became an epic classic, so instead of a "rush job" they call it divine intervention. no line was rushed with however many mixes in the last 48 hours, but that's termed "inspiration." i realize that yes, pop, was in fact a mad rush with the tour date set in stone and the album completion all down to the wire - but if the album was a major seller, they would have said wow, we sure did "pull the rabbit out of the hat" on that one, not "well, we did a rush job." that's my story and i'm stickin' to it ;)
Having once worked for the band, I can tell you that Pop WAS, in fact, rushed out the door, and no one felt it had been properly seen-through to its creative completion. The songs grew organically, as ever, with the live presentation, proving the brilliance of the work, and the gestation such works need to develop.
Alas, the album and the tour were both poorly received (& attended) in the US, and so the band was essentially scared off from the sort of experimentation and creative play that Pop -and its entire era - symbolized.
It's good to see a return to form (of sorts) artistically with No Line, though it's obvious the band's super-push of publicity implies nerves on theirs & Universal's parts. It's a strong piece for sure, though.
Oh, and that Time journalist should be fired. They wonder why traditional journalism going up in flames. Duh. Tosser.
Pop is it the best U2 album???
NO WAY!!!!!!
Is it amoung the best......yes definitley.
It's probably in the top three.
"Joshua Tree, Zoopropa, and Pop are all the best I wreckon, followed by Actung Baby and Unforgettable Fire......then No Line on the Horizon and All that you can't leave behind I supposse"
But some of the best songs they did was on "Passengers Soundtrack" and "Million Dollar Hotel Soundtrack"
It makes me sad to see them abandon the sound they went for on those albums with producer Flood, and then mix them albums sound with the old.
Its not exactly moving forward?
The last three albums All that, How to, and No Line have been far far from the greatest albums they did, maybe its because they're all almost 50 now.
Anyway, Pop, if you own the album you MUST get the singles they rereleased and rerecorded after the album was released, they give you a FAR Bigger picture of the album, and the finished versions of Last Night On Earth and Please are well worth the money you'll spend.
To be honest, it would still be a good idea to finish it off or rerecored.
Pop was great! Maybe the greatest! The riskiest! The most rewarding! And time will definitely prove that! And PopMart, the greatest! Bono admits to this now. It reminds me of, bear with me, "Close Encounters of the Third Kind". U2 in Pop was like Richard Dreyfuss! He went to outer space with the friggin' aliens! He took that biggest leap ever! U2 will never have that moment again! The pinnacle, the summit! Like Moses meeting the Burning Bush! The lemon, the arches, the martini glass, the huge screen behind them was as big as the songs on Pop! Their outfits were insane! Gaultier designed!!
And the intro to the gig? Come on!!! The best ever! Pop Music, then into Mofo...the band walking in like they do in big boxing fights...they can never top that!
By the way, just because it opened with Discoteque doesn't mean it was disco! The guitar riff on Discoteque was definitely hard rock! Ok, I'm done.
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