The 90s started with a bang for U2 but the rest of the decade was a little more hit-and-miss. After they had reinvented themselves with the forward-facing post-rock’n’roll swagger of Achtung Baby and then reinvented stadium-rock with its accompanying, eye-popping Zoo TV tour, Bono & co. let their imaginations run a little too wild over their next few records.
Recorded in breaks from those Zoo TV dates, 1993’s Zooropa contained some powerful moments but felt mostly undercooked, the lasting feeling being that maybe it should and could have been an EP. It was followed by 1997’s Pop, which felt like the first time their songwriting just wasn’t up to scratch, an album built around an idea (“Let’s do a dance record!”) that, bar a few standouts, was never fleshed out with songs to match.
