Pop
Front Sleeve | Purchase Album
Release Date: March 3, 1997
Highest Chart Position: UK: 1 USA: 1
Liner Notes:
Bono: Vocals & Guitar. The Edge: Guitar, Keyboards & Vocals. Adam Clayton: Bass Guitar. Larry Mullen: Drums, Percussion & Programming. Paul McGuinness: Manager.
Studio Crew: Sam O'Sullivan: Drum technician and crew co-ordinator. Fraser McAlister: Guitar technician. Des Broadbery: Programming keyboard and guitar technician. Stuart Morgan: Bass guitar technician. Colm "Rab" McAlister: Studio tech. Joe O'Herlihy: Monitoring. David Herbert: Studio Manager. Gavin Friday: Consulting Poptician. Anne Louise Kelly: Album Production Manager. Candida Bottaci: Album Production Assistant. Suzanne Doyle: Studio Band Management Associate. Recorded in Hanover - Dublin, Windmill Lane Recording Studios - Dublin, South Beach Studios - Miami, The Works - Dublin. Catering by Restaurant Tosca: Norman Hewson. Aongus Hanley, Jeff "The Chef" O'Toole, Elenor Walsh, Dominic Lombard. The Clarence Hotel: Michael Martin. Principle Management Dublin: Anne-Louise Kelly, Sheila Roche, Barbara Galavan, Trevor Bowen, Suzanne Doyle, Candida Bottaci, Susie Smith, Cecilia Coffey, Cillian Guidera, Susan Hunter, Sandra Long, Sally-Anne McKeown, Aislinn Meehan, Brigid Mooney, Suzanne O'Dea, Anne O'Leary, Eileen Osborne, Holly Peters, Joy Warner, Gerry Walters, George Augusta. Principle Management NY: Keryn Kaplan, Bess Burke, Kathy Araskog. Produced by Flood. Additional production by Howie B, Steve Osborne. Recorded by Mark "Spike" Stent, Howie B, Alan Moulder. Mixed by Mark "Spike" Stent, Howie B, Steve Osborne. Engineering Assistant: Rob Kirwan. Post production and supervision: Cheryl Engels / Partial Productions Inc. Designed at ABA Dublin by Shaughn McGrath and Steve Averill. Treatments by Shaughn McGrath. Cover Photography: Anton Corbijn. Interior photography by: Anton Corbijn, Stephane Sednaoui and Anja Grabert. Snapshots: Nellee Hooper. "Popmart Art" by Willie Williams and Mark Fisher. Dedicated to Bill Graham 1951-1996.
Track List:
- Discothèque (5:19)
- Do You Feel Loved? (5:07)
- Mofo (5:46)
- If God Will Send His Angels (5:22)
- Staring At The Sun (4:36)
- Last Night On Earth (4:45)
- Gone (4:26)
- Miami (4:52)
- The Playboy Mansion (4:40)
- If You Wear That Velvet Dress (5:14)
- Please (5:10)
- Wake Up Dead Man (4:52)
Catalog:
- Australia: Island 524 334-4
- Canada: Island 314-524 334-2, Island 314-524 334-4
- Germany: Island CIDU210 / 524 334-2
- Israel: Island / ABCD CIDU210
- Japan: Island PHJR 91835, Island PHCR-1835 (Contains Bonus Track: Holy Joe [Guilty Mix])
- UK: Island U210 524 334-1, Island CIDU 210 524 334-2, Island ??? (No PS / Special European Tour Edition / 500 Copies), Island POP 3 (U2 TALK POP / Promo / CD Cardboard Sleeve / Interview with Dave Fanning about POP), Island U210 (POP Cube / Promo / Contains Pop CD, Silver Prismatic Pen and Notepad / 250 Copies)
- USA: Island 314-524 334-1, Island 314-524 334-2, Island 314-524 334-4
Media Review:
Review: Pop
2 1/2 stars (out of 5)
By Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
No matter which way you look at it, Pop doesn't have the same shock of the new that Achtung Baby delivered on first listen. Less experimental and more song-oriented than Zooropa, Pop attempts to sell the glitzy rush of techno to an audience weaned on arena rock. And that audience includes U2 themselves. While they never sound like they don't believe in what they're doing, they still remove most of the radical elements of electronic dance, which is evident to anyone with just a passing knowledge of the Chemical Brothers and Underworld. To a new listener, Pop has flashes of surprise -- particularly on the rampaging "Mofo" -- but underneath the surface, U2 rely on anthemic rockers and ballads. "Discotheque" might be a little clumsy, but "Staring at the Sun" shimmers with synthesizers borrowed from Massive Attack and a Noel Gallagher chorus. Similarly, "Do You Feel Loved" and "If You Wear That Velvet Dress" fuse old-fashioned U2 dynamism with a keen sense of the cool eroticism that makes trip-hop so alluring. Problems arise when the group tries to go for conventional rock songs, some of which are symptomatic of the return of U2's crusade for salvation. Pop is inflected with the desire for a higher power to save the world from its jaded spiral of decay and immorality, which is why the group's embrace of dance music never seems joyous -- instead of providing an intoxicating rush of gloss and glamour, it functions as a backdrop for a plea of salvation. Achtung Baby also was a comment on the numbing isolation of modern culture, but it made sweeping statements through personal observations; Pop makes sweeping statements through sweeping observations. The difference is what makes Pop an easy record to admire, but a hard one to love.
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