Production on Pop vs. Zooropa


Christian Strait ([email protected])
Sun, 24 Jan 1999 01:04:54 PST


"Russell Bennett"
In your January 19th posting you ended with this statement

"I just think U2 have either overproduced (Pop, Achtung Baby)) or
underproduced (Zooropa) this decade. They need a happy medium."

While I would have to agree that Pop may have been overproduced (maybe
to achieve a busy, chaotic sound?), I do think that Zooropa was about as
perfect as they've gotten as far as a great balance of sounds and
textures. The channels in that album are so well defined, that each one
is very discernible, with the exception of the many things you dont hear
the first time that are way in the background. Whereas Pop, everything
seems in the foreground, competing for sonic space. Bono's voice
sepecially seems a bit washed out. And there are peak moments such as in
the end of "Do You Feel Loved" where Edge sort of plateaus the climax of
his riffs, and it, to me, seems that they could have taken the song to a
higher level if the guitar in that part stood out a little more. I don't
know anything about how one produces, but it seems that Flood is a sort
of "noisy" producer, while Eno, (and I dont know how this could be
possible with everything that is going on in the songs of Zooropa) is
able to create a wonderful balance of sounds.
I still think that Pop may be their best album as artists, but Zooropa
is my favorite of theirs, I think a very, very underrated album, and
the best produced.

Didn't mean to ramble

Chris.

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