U2 / Pop by Mike Cardman Island Records If you're like me (and you are), you didn't want to like this album. The whole Zooropa Bonotheism thing was wearing about as thin as the Edge's hair. The new trip-hop buzz sounded pretty dubious because most of that shit is ... shit. And the "U2 lightens up" party line seemed like self-parody of the worst kind once you saw the blokes doing the Village People in their "Discotheque" video. These are the unfortunate consequences of trying real hard to be cool, I guess. On "The Playboy Mansion," Bono coyly asks, "If O.J. is more than a drink / If perfume is an obsession / What have we got to lose," when we both know damn well that U2 has been more than a Cold War spy plane for well over ten years. But it turns out this is all just so much stupid wrapping paper on a truly thoughtful gift, sent from Ireland with love. Try as Bono may to pose himself as the P.T. Barnum of pre-millennial irony, marketing Pop as discardable, of-the-moment product, he can't really hide the fact that the new album has history and substance. By which I mean to say that Pop is basically Achtung Baby, Part III. The sequence is exactly the same, with a rave-up here, a hit song there, and three melancholy numbers to wrap it all up. Once again, every damn song is about reconciling the moment with eternity, faith with doubt (only Oasis has U2 beat for thematic uniformity). Bono keeps crooning like a rock 'n' roll Frank Sinatra. The big bong-hit production is in place too: you can actually hear three years of studio craftwork blossom out of your loudspeakers. And the music retains that irresistible common U2 denominator of spiritual ambition. Not that Pop isn't fresh or inspired. And not that the electronic blips and zooms are incidental or contrived. It's just that I liked Achtung Baby fine. And if U2 feels like they have to "re-invent" themselves again to feel comfortable making music in the 90s, then fine. The sunglasses, drum loops, Lycra pants, and Howie B. don't faze me because I can take my Pop with a grain of mythic crap, no problem.

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