U2 / Pop and other vinyl reissues

Does anyone know if the mp3 files you get via “Auto Rip” on Amazon are the “2017 Remasters”?

The WIDE AWAKE IN AMERICA EP is £20 for 1 great song. That’s Bad.

great news. POP is the last great album they made, not a masterpiece like Achtung baby and Zooropa but pretty close on many moments (Mofo, Please, Playboy’s Mansion, Wake up Dead Man, Miami)

I’d love to own Pop on vinyl, but I have serious doubts about the quality of this remastered and whether it would sound any better than my original cd. Seems like most of the time, remastered just means more compressed and less dynamic range. Do we have any reason to believer orherwise here?

I’ll add my voice to those asking for a SDE of both Pop and Rattle & Hum. Pop was the last decent album until No Line – which was their last decent album in itself. U2 need to stop pandering to the American market and finish the remastering and deluxe editions that they started ten + years ago. Give us Zooropa as a stand alone, Pop and Rattle & Hum instead of yet another Joshua Tree remaster.

I
am totally with Francois on this, I want a SDE of POP include the tokyo sessions, year in pop with dennis hopper, and the Sarajevo show to get a sense of things. I love this album, this without a doubt in my mind deserved to be done. SDE are for fans the time is right.
It is easy to say WAR- UFF and Joshua are hight water marks but for me…Achtung Zooropa Pop are the pinnacle.
Please Paul speak to the powers that be and get Pop (and zooropa) the reissue they deserve!

I have both ‘Wide Awake in America – Japanese issue’, ‘POP’ and ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’ vinyl records already.
‘Wide Awake…’ is a perfect EP, with great Live versions! A must to own! Although not perfect, ‘POP’ will remain their last exciting album. ‘All That You…’ is a very so-so U2 album and Eno didn’t save it. The best track is ‘Grace’ and ‘The Ground Beneath Her Feet’ that didn’t come in the LP. The rest is a little bit of a disgrace.

For U2 completists, you might want to hunt down the Australian
12 inch of the ‘unforgetable / unforgettable’ fire.

from discogs : https://www.discogs.com/U2-The-Unforgetable-Fire/release/2675800

The Australian pressing of this single features different versions of “Love Comes Tumbling” and “A Sort of Homecoming” exclusive to this edition. “A Sort of Homecoming” is a different mix featuring an additional backing vocal by the Edge. “Love Comes Tumbling” features an entirely different lead vocal track with different lyrics. Again these appear to be exclusive the Australian 12″ edition and have never appeared anywhere else.

later
-1

Interesting story on u2songs.com : Rattle and Hum, All That You Can’t Leave Behind and Pop were the last albums remastered (directed by The Edge) in the period 2007-2011 but never released due to change of management and poor sales.

It appears that these 3 remastered albums have been released on iTunes “Mastered for iTunes” last year. And that those remasters are now used for the vinyl reissue.

Anyone having heard these remasters? I never use iTunes and I can’t find those 3 albums on there at all.

Any news about a Rattle and Hum deluxe edition on CD? It’s the album’s 30th anniversary, after all. I’d love to get a 3CD+DVD special edition, or maybe a 3CD deluxe edition (the remastered album on CD 1, B-sides and rarities on CD 2 and extra live tracks, including those exclusive to the movie on CD 3) and the remastered movie on Blu-ray. I actually like the album, so it’d be nice to finally get a deluxe edition. Would like to get a stand-alone deluxe version of Zooropa, as well.

POP… the last decent U2 album.

I pre-ordered from Amazon.uk and the Pop, All That… prices dropped right after that :) Hopefully the US listings will be up soon and am hoping lower priced. Amazon.uk shipping is getting slower and slower lately to the US.

Such welcome news. May I also add my name to any list of those wishing on high for deluxe reissues of Zooropa and the Passengers album with Eno. Everything U2 touched (particularly during this magical period) seemed to turn to gold.

There must be reams of material left over from the Passengers sessions, instrumental and otherwise – they could even release a Purple Rain-esque budget Deluxe on the quiet, if they’re still unwilling to attach the U2 name to it. I just think it’s such a beautiful, comforting and underrated record, and it deserves much more love.

And the Zooropa sessions could surely offer more bonus material than simply the existing remixes – that we know of, they could include fabled early versions of Hold Me Thrill Me Kiss Me Kill Me etc that were trialled at the time. I desperately want a Pop Deluxe, but feel that these two deserve the attention too. They might even be my personal favourites.

Des anyone else with the Uber Achtung Baby have issues with the big drawer being stuck? The last time I got it out, it would not shift and it made my blood run slightly cold.

Can’t wait for all these, I need to catch up on my U2 reissues and vinyl, the more the better at this point. Great move by the band/record company.

I’m not buying anymore U2 vinyl until they release a decently price Achtung vinyl. Pink Floyd, Zeppelin and U2 are absolutely ridiculous on vinyl prices, makes no sense that so many other artists manage to put out vinyl at a good price.

and they skip Achtung Baby and Zooropa!

“Pop” remains an underrated gem. The problem was the narrative surrounding the album — “This is U2’s Dance/Pop record!!” — is actually a false narrative. Other than “Discotheque” (the worst song on the album) the rest of the album is pretty much a straight-foward U2 record and echos a lot of sounds and themes they mined on Achtung and Zooropa. Combine this dumb narrative with an equally dumb theme for the PopMart tour theme and the record was cooked.

Oh well, it allowed for the “U2 is Back!” narrative to happen with the next record. And while I agree that All That You Can’t Leave Behind is one of U2’s best three records, I don’t think fall from Achtung/Zooropa to Pop and the climb back up to ATYCLB is as steep or as far as popular wisdom suggests.

For a few hours this morning they were 5.95 euros each on Amazon.it . I was able to order them, will see if they are going to ship them for this price :)

no more vinyl…..What we need is more CD deluxe reissues for POP & later…there are many unreleased tracks that need rounding up….Need Rattle & Hum reissue badly!

Luckily I still have mine don’t need to buy reissues have so much vinyl I be looking to sell soon please don’t reply as am not ready yet to sell but when I am ready will look to record collectors that know the value of vinyls am awearness is key to value and am a collector so know what I want for them tryed e bay and the cost on there is too much so I will be going private with collection when I get a chance to get a PayPal account sorted

Going to pass on ATYCLB vinyl. For me the album contains The Ground Beneath Her Feet as it was on the CD & the album won’t feel complete unless its there. Hopefully they’ll sort that out when they finally do a boxset for it

Thanks, Steve & Paul, for the clarification. Much appreciated.

Think some fans will hold off on ATYCLB on vinyl as there’s sure to be super duper deluxe box for 20th anniversary in 2020.

Not sure I want to be paying £20 for a 4 track ep though :(

Pop was originally released as a limited edition double lp. 33rpm. So this is a re release of that. Not 45rpm mastered Madman.

A vinyl ‘Achtung Baby’ would be very welcome. The scandalously priced 2011 ‘deluxe’ and ‘limited’ reissues meant a lot of fans missed out. It was actually cheaper to get a 1991 original LP than the 2011 vinyl version at the time of Achtung’s 20th anniversary. The ‘Wide Awake’ EP could have been extended: adding the tracks off ‘The Unforgettable Fire’ and ‘Pride’ 12′ singles (‘Sixty Seconds In Kingdom Come’ ‘Bass Trap’ ‘Boomerang I & II’ ‘Pride 12’ version).

Zooropa on vinyl (with a multiple ‘Numb’ ‘Stay’ and ‘Lemon’ mixes) would be lovely too…

Still no Pop reissue…

I’ve never owned or heard “Pop” all the way through; maybe now I will finally will. Are both of these 45 rpm versions?

the remixes of ‘Gone’ and ‘discotheque’ were inferior to the originals but i would say the single remixes/edits of ‘please’, ‘staring at the sun’, ‘last night on earth’ and ‘if god will send his angels’ were improvements. I’d also opt for the Bono/Jools Holland version of ‘if you wear that velvet dress’ which is stunning. I think ‘Pop’ is a classic (I also think that if you take Rattle & Hum and remove the live tracks you have a brilliant studio album – not to mention a wealth of top quality b-sides)

Whilst their output quality has been patchy i would say that throughout the noughties they have still released enough excellent songs/material that leave their peers in their wake, U2 always get judged to a different/higher standard than anyone else but i’d say they have enough armoury in that back catalogue to silence any critic.

Recordstore have Pop at £27.99 and All That You…. at £19.99

Personally I would like to see another Achtung Baby deluxe set on vinyl similar to the recent Joshua Tree box. The Uber box set was way out of my price budget and the JT box proves that it can be done well for a £120.

Regarding Pop, is it me or are those prices deliberately inflated for what are normal 1 and 2 lp sets, £38 for a double is ridiculous when most are sold at £25, I’m sure the Amazon price will come down to the same level as the What Records one when it is released.

Forgot to say “as vinyl “.

Wide Awake was available here for a limited time (maybe as an import) in all record shops .
I have one .

Pop was a great album and I much preferred U2 during their 90s period, they have been treading water ever since although the recent album was something of a return to form. Ill pre order anyway and hope the price comes down.

How about an SDE of POP ? There is os much good material on this album. Last Night On Earth is a classic track !

There should be also “the best of 1980-1990” with release in July.

Any news on when Achtung Baby might be rereleased on vinyl? That’s the one for me.

I agree with the comment about Bad being great, I’m guessing that this EP was released on the back of the success of Live Aid with fans wanting a long live version of ‘Bad’. Live Aid though is the definitive for me. :)

It’s weird that Rattle & Hum has never figured in their reissue programs. There are some rare 12″ mixes from that period that I’d like to see reissued. A box set with those and the film remastered would be great. I guess they’re just not so proud of that period.

As I recall the ‘live’ Homecoming was actually culled from a soundcheck and audience noise was added! Great EP however.

that’s such good news, wanted to add ‘All you can’t leave behind’ for a while but the £100+ price tag was far too much to pay.

Hopefully as they’re going to the effort/expense to remaster these, they will appear on CD or DE/SDE at some point.

The live version of Bad on Wide Awake in America the definitive version of this song, imo.

….also….any plans to do another Saturday Deluxe video version – really enjoyed the last one.. Thanks

Pop was their last great album. I’ll definitely be buying this reissue.

Excellent, look forward to these. Hopefully they will come down to a better-value price.

Hi Paul…have you heard any rumblings or rumours about the Passengers project being re-issued on vinyl by any chance?

I hope they don’t use the later mixes of Pop tracks on this reissue. I think it was fine just the way it was – it’s the last album of theirs I really loved. After that they settled into a safer groove that, even though it has millions of fans and produced more than a few corking songs, just didn’t interest or grip me as much.