From their beginnings in the 1980s U2 have maintained a reputation for their earnest and serious-minded pop rock, often tackling social issues, spiritual mattesr, and their Irish background in their new wave-inflected songs. In the 1990s however, the band experienced a career rebirth in embracing a more ironic and detached image, with a dance-inspired sound to match, achieving major commercial success on the backs of albums like Achtung Baby and Zooropa.

For many however, this shift away from their classic sound would reach a tipping point in 1997 with the release of their 9th record, Pop. The album was not a commercial or critical failure initially, but left a lot of fans and reviewers confused and baffled by this latest effort, which many believed couldn't reach a proper balance between rock and electronic. This, coupled with a turbulent production timeline, as well as a tour controversial for its technical failures sullied Pop's reputation, and to this day it's still regarded as one of U2's weakest efforts.

On this episode of Jukebox Zeroes we begin the first of a two-part crossover month we're dubbing "Old Men Yell At Lilz Month". Lilz and Patrick are joined by Christopher G. Brown of Nickelbackin' and Old Men Yell At Cloud (of course) to dig into U2's Pop for themselves, and decide whether it should have gotten a fairer shake.

Local Music Feature: Left Hand Does - "Rock Walker"

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