i sometimes forget that i listened to huge amounts of 'pop' over '97 and '98. u2 is like wallpaper, right - it's just always there. sometimes you forget about it. but, when you remember, it becomes obvious.
i think it's universally agreed at this point that this was their last solid disc, but i'm not sure how many people really listened to it closely. it's more just that, on reflection, you have to include it - because the decrease in quality that happened afterwards is so dramatic. it's a really, clear, unambiguous cut-off. it's either that you cut off after pop or before achtung baby, and nobody wants to cut off before achtung baby - so zooropa and pop get included as this kind of afterthought.
i suppose i was the rare weird kid that actually listened to both of those discs quite a bit, and actually took quite a bit of influence from both of them. the late 90s were my industrial kick. i grew up with u2. the transition may not have made sense to most people, but it made a lot of sense to me; that is, the demographic they were angling for did exist, even if we weren't dominant.
the edge used a lot of flangers over this period, which is something i really picked up on. i know a lot of people hate that synthetic tone, but i've always loved the idea of making your guitar sound like any weird sound you can conjure out of it.
i was hoping i'd get another good record out of them, eventually. even if it took a while. it really seems unlikely at this point.
(relevant tracks: why, on sexual confusion in adolescence, thug culture is enforced by the media from the top down and the entirety of period 1.2 (98-99))
