It's up with the sun.

Here is it: The one known as U2's "bomb." The one that just didn't make the cut. The first of the "crap albums." And if you're agreeing with these statements, skip to the bottom, click the "Not Helpful" icon, and move on. But if you don't...

I hope you're still reading.

Pop was the third album in the U2 90s catalog - also the final one, and all that is if we're not counting Passengers. It's also my favorite. (However, Achtung Baby is the best, no question.) It was U2 at their weakest in a way - they committed to tour dates before they were finished writing the songs, and they were being thrown out of the studio on the morning the album had to be mastered. U2 was running out of steam anyway... but I'd have never known that when listening to this album if I hadn't been told that before. But then again, it almost adds to the experience of listening to Pop, knowing this was U2 hanging on for dear life, just trying to survive, when only a couple years prior they had been on top of the world. As a result Pop is an almost schitzophrenic record, whiplashing back and forth to the point of exhaustion, but always coming out on top.

Once Bono said of Elvis, that during the 50s and 60s, the time period when most people say that "came undone to Elvis Presley" was really Elvis at his vainest, and when he went to Vegas, the soul came through. Could the same thing be said for Bono and company, replacing 50s/60s with the late 80s/early 90s and Vegas with Pop? Hmm. Food for thought.

1) Discotheque
"That's not U2!" That's what my mom said the first time she heard this song. I'm sure that was the reaction of many U2 fans in '97 when this song hit radio: What?! But try listening again. There's not really a "U2 formula," but there's no denying when these four guys make music, there's something there that tells you right away it's them... even if you want to believe it's... oh, I don't know... Creed? (Just kidding... sorry.) I think it's called chemistry, but anyway, this song has that. The perfect track to lead off one of the more bizarre albums of U2's 25-year career, "Discotheque" proves you don't have to be orthodox musically to get the lyrical message across. The song speaks of those who "know there's something more" but allow themselves to get so immersed in the hedonism of the moment they end up "tak[ing] what you can get cause it's all that you can find." It's definitely an acquired taste, as is most of Pop, but it's distortion and oddball charm is only part of the package—the lyrics speak to those who get so caught up in the "lovie dovie stuff" they forget about the "something more." Not to mention the musical aspect... Edge should be arrested for that guitar riff it's so catchy.
You can push, but you can't direct it
Circulate, regulate, oh no
You cannot connect it - love

2) Do You Feel Loved
This song picks right up where "Discotheque" faded out, hitting harder than its predecessor with brilliant usage of electronia and the live band sound. And just when you thought Bono's distortion couldn't get any cooler... It's just a song that rocks, and intimidation is the key, and it's amazing intimidation that makes the song.
Take the colours of my imagination
Take the scent hanging in the air
Take this tangle of a conversation
Turn it into your own prayer

3) Mofo
Whew! Now this song rocks, quite literally. It's probably U2's heaviest and loudest song, and its soul-searching lyrics don't get much better. Bono said once if he could put his life in a song, it would be this one. He lost his mother early in life and this is the song he gives his all in that aspect of his life. It's everything it should be, and one of the best examples of the "perfect" song I've ever heard.
Mother, you left and made me someone.
Now I'm still a child, but no one tells me no

4) If God Will Send His Angels
"If God..." is stripped down and lazy, quite the opposite of "Mofo," but no less strong. The lyrics are painstaking honest, and Bono's vocal is desperate and weary, the exact point he's trying to make, I'd imagine. Call it exagerrated, call it depressing, but it's not - it's honest, and the voice of a band mourning a society fallen downhill.
Nobody made you do it
No one put words in your mouth.
Nobody here taking orders
When love took a train heading south

5) Staring At The Sun
One of the most underrated U2 songs ever. "Staring At The Sun" blows me away and captures my thoughts like few songs can. The music is perfect - it climaxes at just the right moments, and falls back when it needs to as well. Bono's lyrics are the real draw. He speaks of blind faith and searching yourself for flaws. He warns that this is not easy ("If you scratch it won't disappear"), however, and those "staring at sun" often get preached at by those who can't and won't - hypocritical idiots, in other words. Being blind to your own faults is the basic point the song makes, and I love the conclusion it comes to: "God is good, but will He listen?" The blending of electronic elements and acoustics works incredibly as well.
It's been a long hot summer
Let's get under cover
Don't try too hard to think
Don't think at all

6) Last Night On Earth
This is one of those songs U2 struggled to finish before their deadline, but it still manages to be one of the strongest tracks on the album. It's just an amazing pop song, with a chorus that'll just stick. Lyrically it's been interpreted a million different ways, but I see it as both a message of, yeah, living like it's the last night on earth, and a story of a woman who lives life at such a fast pace she's starting to not be able to catch up with herself.
She's living next week now.
You know she's gonna pay you back somehow
She hasn't been to bed in a week
She'll be dead soon, then she'll sleep

7) Gone
It's not fully realized here, I have to say. That comes on The Best of 1990-2000. But there's absolutely nothing less than incredible about the original. It's fuzzier and the piano has less effect, and there's no cool-as-heck bgv's from Edge, but it has the same impact. Bono says he's done with it all - he tells the world goodbye. No, this is a not a suicide note, it's a hope-filled desperate plea.
You hurt yourself, you hurt your lover
Then you discover
What you thought was freedom is just greed

8) Miami
Deemed as one of Pop weaker tracks - well, I just don't see it. This is a weird song, for sure, that I can't really describe. You just have to hear it, but it's a sexy song, that's for sure.
Love the movies, babe
Love to walk through movie sets
Get to shoot someone in the foot
Get to smoke some cigarettes

9) The Playboy Mansion
A lazy groove, a laid-back lyric about eternity, and a relaxed beat - can you say comfortable? This song fits like a glove after "Miami" and the next song, also very underrated.
Don't know if I can hold on
Don't know if I'm that strong.
Don't know if I can wait that long
Till the colours come flashing
And the lights go on

10) If You Wear That Velvet Dress
Now this is one of my favorite songs. The dark/light metaphor is genius. This song is vulnerable, and yet you can't touch it. Largely acoustic, it speaks of the temptations that must come with being U2, but I think we can all relate... and there's the fact that this song is very bass driven, which makes it very sexy.
Sunlight, sunlight fills my room
It's sharp and it's clear
But nothing at all like the moon

11) Please
One of the most bitter and brilliant songs U2 has ever done. It's about Ireland, I would imagine, in the time this was written and recorded. It's prophetic though: "September, streets capsizing/Spilling over, and down the drain/Shards of glass, splinters like rain/But you can only feel your own pain/October, talk getting nowhere/November, December, remember." Also one of the greatest U2 videos.
And you never knew what was on the ground
Till they made you crawl
So you never knew that the heaven
You keep you stole

12) Wake Up Dead Man
So Pop ends with a haunting, disturbing, echoing plea. Seems appropiate, hmm?
Listen to the words they'll tell you what to do
Listen over the rhythm that's confusing you

Well, there you have it. The album that ended the 90s for U2. Little did they know they'd soon make an album that would be heralded as their third classic (after The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby). But this one is as much of a classic as the others. It captures a moment in U2's history when they thought it was over (thank God it wasn't!) enough to make an album like this. Crap album? Far from it. It's a sonic and lyrical feast, a masterpiece we'll be listening to 20 years down the road.