Pop Stops the Traffic

The rest of Pop is much better. With their programming and loops, "Staring at the Sun" and "Gone" are essentially power ballads for the electronic age--and that's meant as a compliment. The quietly percolating groove of "Please" only adds to the sensual, intimate subject matter. But none of the above is as adventurous as "Miami." The song was written after the band spent a week in South Beach, and The Edge has called it "creative tourism," and I buy it. Built around Mullen's echoey high hat, Howie B's eerie, fluted keyboard, and The Edge's pissed-off guitar, the forced cheerfulness of its "ba-ba-ba-ba-ba-bas" hints that the trip was less satisfying than it seemed at the time.

On Pop, U2 sounds most convincing when it's chasing pleasure, even if I suspect the guys sometimes confuse self-indulgence with a deeply profound quest. For example, it's hard to take seriously Bono's lament that "Jesus used to show me the score/Then they put Jesus in show business/Now it's hard to get in the door." After all, he's currently leader of a global infotainment complex that values self-congratulation and cross-promotion over meaning. The apocalyptic hedonism of "Last Night on Earth" proves that Bono still hasn't found what he's looking for, but the where's-Jesus-when-I-need-him? whine of "Wake Up Dead Man" proves how little progress he has made. The old U2 could be annoying with its wispy spirituality and dead-certain politics, but at least it didn't take salvation for granted as just another gift owed to spoiled rock stars.