Or, as they say in business school: sell, sell, sell! U2 has actually been the “new” U2 for a while now, ever since Bono traded black jeans and sincerity for plastic pants and irony on the band’s 1991 album “Achtung Baby.” But what’s ironic about the irony–please, try to keep up here–is that it’s actually quite sincere. U2 hasn’t changed nearly as much as they’re pretending. “Pop” is emphatically a U2 album: underneath the trancey drum loops and fat synthesizers the band is still writing big rock songs, and the Edge’s guitar sound is as distinctive as ever. Look past intentionally kitschy lyrics like “You know you’re chewing bubble gum/You know what that is but you still want some,” and you’ll find more Jesus references than on “The Joshua Tree.” What makes “Pop” a good listen isn’t so much the space-age sparkle (courtesy of coproducer-deejay Howie B) as the good old-fashioned hooks in “Do You Feel Loved” and “Staring at the Sun.” There’s also a sure-shot ballad, “If God Will Send His Angels,” in the mold of “With or Without You” and “One.” When the band tries to ditch convention in “Miami,” a hazy reflection on “print shirts and Southern accents/ Cigars and big hair,” they verge not just on silliness but outright condescension.
U2 were innovators once-their garrulous postpunk on early ’80s albums like “Boy” and “War” helped shape the course of alternative rock. These days they’re just skillful appropriators. “Pop” distills sounds that have been thriving in clubs for years by working them into a mainstream context. It’s not futurism so much as a pre-emptive strike against falling out of date. Like a detergent with a NEW AND IMPROVED sticker on it, “Pop” doesn’t so much deliver something different as make you think it’s delivering something different. That’s OK–the stuff inside has been working pretty well for years.
