U2 - Pop

When I first heard and saw Discothčque a few weeks ago, I metephorically slapped my forehead and gasped "what have they done?", in shock at the sight of a thirtysomething rock band dancing like Lady Miss Kier to Erasure style pop. This album wants you to like it, from the cover to the hype. But what the hell are Bono and the boys doing? Travelling off on some bizarre pop-hop trip to Semitonia?

This album will alienate fans brought up on U2’s steady eco-rock and emotive ballads and leave them wondering where they got off. This album will delight those who appreciate U2’s creative drive and reluctance to bow down to the market. They might, however, be disappointed with how little new thoughts have come through in the music.

Right, lest I fall victim to my own ranting, here’s a selective run down of the album. There is new and original stuff here if you can find it, ‘Discothčque’ itself is quite good, different even though you get the feeling through out the disc that The Edge would have better spent his time in Mustique than lending his distinctive guitar sound to the tracks. An extra keyboardist instead, perhaps? ‘Do You Feel Loved’ doesn’t satisfy the promise of the riffs and breaks; ‘Mofo’ is a Chemical Brothers meets Oasis meets Sonic the Hedgehog remix surely? (But actually quite compelling, I would imagine that this will be a single). ‘Last Night On Earth’, a rather cool and smooth entry into an otherwise disappointing song, which leads me neatly to ‘Staring At The Sun’ now then, all together now, "one love, one..."

And the rest of the album? Well, its nothing special really, sorry. I had high hopes for U2’s new album, but was let down by the usual PR bullshit surrounding the release by a ‘grand old band’.(4) Ralp