U2 - Pop (1997/2017)

This is the discography entry for the 2017 Album Remaster of the album Pop, the album that was first released in 1997. This 2017 remaster was done under the direction of The Edge, with remastering engineering by Scott Sedillo from Bernie Grundman Mastering, and additional work by Declan Gaffney. The project production managers for U2 were Candida Bottaci and Nadine King.

This new version of Pop was initially released as part of Apple’s MFiT (Mastered for iTunes) release of all of U2’s albums in May of 2017. At the time the album remaster was only released through Apple. Pop was not the only album remastered at the time, both All That You Can’t Leave Behind and Rattle and Hum were both remastered as well under the direction of The Edge. The digital download, available in iTunes, came with a newly created digital booklet as well in pdf format.

In early 2018 it was announced that Pop would once again be issued on vinyl, and that the newly released vinyl would be remastered. The remaster used is this same remaster released digitally in 2017 as part of the MFiT program. The vinyl was produced in Germany and is sold worldwide, and is accompanied with a digital download of the songs in uncompressed Wave format. The releases in each country are the same, although the release in the United States has an additional sticker on the outside of the package announcing that the release was “Made in Germany”.

Included in the vinyl is a large booklet, and recreations of the original artwork from 1997, and inner sleeves for the vinyl, as well as the before mentioned download card which gives access to the download in 44.1/16-bit quality from “The Sound of Vinyl”. The vinyl is pressed on 180GSM black vinyl, and contains a new catalog number and new fine print on the back of the vinyl. The copyright on this release is 2017.

At the same time Pop was reissued on vinyl, Universal also reissued the new remaster of All That You Can’t Leave Behind, as well as the 2009 remaster of “Wide Awake in America,” both on vinyl. All three were released on the same day.