Fans of U2 are saying the Pop album should have been better received, and are hoping to hear songs from the album on future tours.
While no announcement has been made at time of writing, U2 fans remain hopeful of Bono and the band getting back on the road. Should they do so, fans are calling on the legendary rock band to add Pop songs to their setlist. A post to the r/U2Band subreddit reads: “I know Pop was not the most well-received album, but the energy the band presents in Popmart is unmatched by anything that came before or after. They came out of a giant fucking LED ball!”
Fellow fans are calling for U2 to add songs from Pop to the setlist in future. Whether they do or not is yet to be seen, but fans sound extremely excited by the suggestion of Pop material in the show. One wrote: “Pop is my favourite album. I will go to war with that album every day, but to declare that U2 trended downwards after Pop is incorrect. Maybe they never made a masterpiece album again, but they absolutely made masterpiece songs.”
Another added: “Zooropa is their creative peak. It’s my favourite album (though of course I like the classics). Pop was a decent effort. Beautiful Day was a perfect single. I would be lying if I said I thought much of their output of the last twenty years. It’s… fine. But their relevancy and acclaim from the ’80s to ’90s deserves a lot of praise.”
A third disagreed, saying the aesthetic choices of Pop pale in comparison to other tours by the band. One user wrote: “In aesthetics, I’d have to say Pop and Zooropa definitely were peak U2 aesthetics. Now, on popularity and overall fame, you can’t argue any period other than 2009-2012 with their U2 360 tour. Especially since that tour was the best and most sold tour of all time up until Ed Sheeran came along, and they kept the record as a band until Coldplay finished their A Head Full of Dreams tour.”
Others have also disagreed with Pop being the peak of U2’s career. One wrote: “Nah… U2’s peak was when they played the Superbowl. I remember watching it on TV and thinking to myself, they’ve officially become the world’s biggest band. And everything else after that never lived up to the Superbowl. Amazing show!”
my personal opinion- u2 peaked in ‘97
byu/MrLifeson inU2Band
Another added: “Agreed. That was basically the All That You Can’t Leave Behind tour. Just days before 9/11 the band recorded their best live concert in support of that tour at Slane Castle just outside of Dublin. ‘Peaking’ is about when a band has the best balance of catalogue and performance gravitas.”
A third wrote: “Yep! All That You Can’t Leave Behind was their last greatest album! I remember when I first bought it, I thought it was just okay after I first listened to it and left it in my car stereo. Then as the days passed and I kept driving around, I found myself listening to the album more and more till I absolutely fell in love with the whole album!
“It was nothing short of fantastic! And I remember how the album was a sleeper hit and gradually dominated the radio and charts for like over two years! It was just such an awesome and unexpected album!”
I like the Pop album quite a lot.
I hadn’t quite jumped off U2 as yet.