Is this U2 trying to make techno? The question has been raised so many times that its nearly become a cliché. The answer, too, that they are merely using the genre to produce a different album - one, which at the height of the twentieth century would form the apex of their self-reinvention - is nearly as much of a cliché. Their two preceding albums, 'Achtung Baby' (1991) and 'Zooropa' (1993), were both part of this great reinvention - Achtung Baby becoming a great success and Zooropa a modest one. By 1997, U2 dared to be a little 'Warholian' and succeeded in creating something very mainstream yet very different: Pop (and perhaps particularly 'The Playboy Mansion') effectively depicts the modern kitch, the vulgar plastic creations of our time and is, in that respect, reminiscent of another 1997 release, Aqua's 'Barbie Girl'.

Let me clarify: within the postmodern tradition of pop art and 'Pop', the term kitch should be quite inexistent (indeed, the inexistence of the term kitch could be understood as the very definition of postmodern art). I use the term with precaution in it's modern (as opposed to postmodern) context, to signify mass-produced, cheap entertainment and decoratives, to signify arts for the masses as opposed to arts for the few, to signify Britney Spears as opposed to Steve Reich.

Digression set aside, let me return to the album. The cover - a remodelling of Andy Warhol's famous portrait of Marylin Monroe - and the PopMart Tour both further underlined that the pop art culture as well as the commercial world were sources of inspiration. On the PopMart stage, a thirty meter tall yellow arch - appallingly similar to one of those in the McDonald's logo - was featured together with an equally tall martini stick sporting a massive olive. Sometime during each concert, too, the band emerged from an opening on-stage lemon. Evidently, the search for deeper meanings have been abolished for commercial greed and it seems that Bono has finally found "what I'm looking for" - at least on the surface - and that arts for the few have been merged with arts for the masses.

In between the masterful ironies and kitch, however, there are serious aspects to the album as well: 'Staring at the Sun' and 'Wake Up Dead Man' both describe something similar to desperation. In 'Staring at the Sun' the protagonist is "staring at the sun/I'm not the only one who'd rather go blind", evidently "afraid of what you'll find if you take a look inside" while in 'Wake Up Dead Man', the lack of knowledge, loneliness and seperation become absolute: "Jesus, Jesus help me/I'm alone in this world, and a fucked up world it is too". Indeed, the serious aspects of the album are inherently un-pop and the album would perhaps be better off titled 'Blues'.

The album probably contains some of U2's best material - that created as their confidence reemerged as an experimental epoch coming to an end. Limited time - because tickets to the PopMart Tour were already sold before the album was finished - hindered the development of some of the tracks and some remain unfinished, yet ingenious. If the band was to redo and rerecord some of their old tracks, Pop would be a good source. Indeed, those Pop-songs featured on the Best of 1990-2000 album were all new mixes, most of them for the better.