Both albums were great.
In those days they showed they were also creativ
songs as stay, velvet dress and staring @ the sun are some of the best song they ever made
Love Zooropa, one of my favourites. POP not bad at all, but more work needed to be done, as we know. Please, MOFO, Gone, Staring at the Sun, Discotheque, Velevet Dress, Wake up - all great songs.
To my mind, the difference between Zooropa and POP is the difference between setting the pace musically and responding to the pace. During the creation of Zooropa, they seemed to be experimenting within the context of song structures, trying to maintain accessible musicality while making the songs sound different and interesting, keeping the old saw "Repetition is the death of art" in mind. Sure, the album does not have the sonic cohesiveness of Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby, but that's the point. Created while on a tour that attempted to reflect the zeitgeist - the fractured nature of Western culture - it was the result of that mentality. Between the creation of Zooropa and POP, electronica became the flavor of the month, and U2 seemed to approach the making of POP as if they needed to remain hip and up to date. They were listening to groups like Massive Attack and Leftfield (an altogether agreeable thing to do, in my opinion), and consciously adopted elements of that style of music and added them to their own. That, added to their return to plaintive earnestness, to some degree scuttled the album. POP is a very good album, but is held back by the approach the band took. Zooropa is one of my faves, in large part because they chose to "abuse their position and fuck with the mainstream" rather than respond to it.
I like to think of those two albums as our albums, meaning the hardcore fan. I like both of them a lot, but I agree that they are uneven. The great songs rank among U2's best, but both albums have weak spots.
Pop is great album - it's in my top 3. I wished ATYCLB will continue the way Achtung - Zooropa - Pop, but (sadly) wasn't. I hope new album will be on the same way...
And PopMart tour was the best tour...
I belong to the part of the community that respects U2 for their courageous sound progression and creative no- limits development on Zooropa and Pop - but I prefer a cohesive rock sound. On the other hand, nowadays they tend to produce over- polished stadium pop- rock that may be more mass- appealing but less creative.
Both Zooropa and Pop are interesting sound experiments somewhere in the vast field between art, pop culture, avantgarde and social comment. But speaking personally I'd enjoy listening to these CDs more if they were closer sound- wise to TUF, TJT or AB. Nowadays I even wish the raw energy of War back instead of multi- layered and overproduced arena pop- rock.
It's not the songwriting on these albums, the songs were good as ever. It's just the arranging and sound production that don't appeal to me. Just for example: Drum programming and triggering. When I finally hear Larry drumming on the album's closer "Wake up dead man" I know what I was missing.
It's damn awesome...well...discotheque not so IMO, but Mofo, LNOE, Please, HMTMKMKM really rocked live...and the PopMart MW's are the best around!
