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New Album Info: Reviews General / Articles / Reviews / Singles / Videos / Booklet (Page 1)(Page 2)(Page 3)(Page4)(Page 5)(Page 6) (Page 7)(Page 8) Winnipeg Sun - 10/27/00 By Darryl Sterdan Ever since these Irish post-punk rockers bought into their own hype back in the '80s and started to act like a Very Important Band, they've been obsessed with making Terribly Meaningful Albums filled with Bold Artistic Statements. Like Achtung Baby and Zooropa's use of chilly electronica as a commentary on mass media. Or Pop's reliance on disposable dance music as a pronouncement on consumer culture. Or that giant lemon they emerged from on the PopMart tour, which symbolized ... well, actually, we don't know what the heck that was supposed to mean. We're not even sure Bono could decipher that one. Which makes us wonder: Is all that junk -- the zealous righteousness, the high-concept production, the sheer stultifying gravity of being modern rock's self-appointed conscience -- as tiring to U2 as it is to us? After hearing their 12th album All That You Can't Leave Behind, something tells us that the answer is yes. And that U2 have finally decided to do something about it. Simply put, they've decided to lighten up. Musically, thematically, emotionally, spiritually, you name it; All That You Can't Leave Behind finds Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry shucking off their messianic mantles, crumpling up the position papers and getting back to where they once belonged -- at the forefront of guitar-based arena rock. To go with the cover pic of the band toting carryons in an airport, on All That You Can't Leave Behind U2 are travelling light. Recorded in Dublin and France with the aid of longtime running mates Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, these tracks jettison off-putting electronic murk and ironic high-gloss techno for more earnest, soulful sounds. In this era of computer-driven hip-hop, bone-crushing rap-rock and empty-calorie bubble-pop, it's almost quaint to hear musicians playing actual melodies on real instruments. Leadoff track and single Beautiful Day is typical of the disc's vibe. Edge's scratchy, signature guitar lines jangle and ring above the snappy rattle and hum of bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen. Yes, Eno's swirly synthesizers are plentiful, but mainly as tasteful accompaniment and background atmosphere -- subtly textured backdrops for the band to paint over. For the most part, U2 steer closer to the earth tones of Joshua Tree than the day-glo tints of Pop. Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of, with its Memphis-soul groove and emotive vocal, could be an old Al Green cover. Similarly, the slippery guitar lines and unadorned melancholy of In a Little While and Grace recall the rainy-night soul of Brook Benton or Otis Redding. In a rootsier vein, there's Wild Honey, a fluidly loping acoustic strummer Wilco wouldn't be ashamed of. And at the rockier end of the scale are the buzzy, funky Britpop of Elevation and the smoky tom-tom thumper New York. Whatever the setting, though, Bono sticks to the unpretentious program. You won't find much of his pointed preaching and philosophizing on religion, war and poverty n these grooves. Instead of acting globally, he's thinking locally, urging us to embrace the joy of a Beautiful Day, offering a simple wish for Peace on Earth, and reminding us repeatedly that to reach a brighter future, we have to leave the darkness of the past behind. Obviously, it's a message U2 have taken to heart. Natural, unforced, relaxed, organic, free-flowing, sincere and satisfying -- All That You Can't Leave Behind is all that and more. Boston Globe - 10/27/00 By Steve Morse The sigh of relief you hear is from U2 fans pleased to see the band returning to genuine, heart-driven songs rather than continuing to explore the choppy, techno-obsessed production experiments that have alienated a lot of the faithful in recent years. Kudos to the Dublin band for its new album, ''All That You Can't Leave Behind,'' which comes out Tuesday. It's a humble work by U2 standards but a proper one, given that the band had to reclaim its emotional, spiritual side rather than drift again into the sometimes tediously cerebral tangents of its trendy 1990s output. The new album doesn't rock as much as expected or flaunt the provocative, grand political statements for which U2 is known. All it has is great songs that tie together beautifully - a welcome change from the disjointed nature of U2 discs such as 1993's ''Zooropa'' and 1997's ''Pop,'' which was followed by the oddly satirical ''PopMart'' tour (arguably the group's last fling in stadiums, since it's planning to switch back to an arena tour in the spring). The new album
finds singer-lyricist Bono returning to his role as
spiritual pilgrim. In the softly ambient ''Grace,'' he
sings, ''Grace - it's the name for a girl/ It's also a
xrthought that changed the world.'' In ''Peace on
Earth,'' he layers the tender antiwar ballad with the
verse ''Heaven on earth, we need it now ... Jesus, could
you take the time to throw a drowning man a line.'' That
leads to a piercing thought about a woman who has lost
her son to violence: ''No one cries like a mother cries
for peace on earth/ She never got to say goodbye, to see
the color in his eyes/ Now he's in the dirt.'' This is apparent in ''Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of,'' which sounds like John Lennon merged with classic Philly soul. Croons Bono: "There's nothing that you can throw at me that I haven't heard/I'm just trying to find a decent melody/ A song that I can sing in my own company.'' The album follows a purported identity crisis within the band, as detailed in a recent Billboard article that reveals U2 wrote nearly 100 songs, spanning every genre. But they pared them down wisely and no identity issues come across on the album. However, there is a general wistfulness, and a definite taking stock of the new millennium, on a song like ''Kite.'' It has a George Harrison-like slide guitar sound from the Edge, topped by such Bono lines as ''You don't need me anymore'' and ''The last of the rock stars/ When hip-hop drove the big cars/ In the time when new media was the big idea.'' It's a reminder that U2 isn't the Next Big Thing anymore, and they know it. But you have to admire the band's self-examination and self-acceptance. They're not trying to be 21 years old as they were on ''Pop.'' Three of the band members - Bono, the Edge, and bassist Adam Clayton - are now 40 years old, while drummer Larry Mullen Jr. is just shy of that. This is the most adult album the group has made. A number of love songs stand out, among them ''Wild Honey'' (''You were my shelter and my shade'') and the gently bluesy, soulful ''In a Little While,'' about returning home to one's lover: ''This hurt will hurt no more/ I'll be home, love/ Slow down my beating heart/ Slowly, slowly, love.'' It may seem as if Bono has been reading a little too much early Yeats judging from that line, but the sentiments are heartfelt. The music - limned with additional guitar from co-producer Daniel Lanois - is simply gorgeous. Regarding this talk of returning to one's home, it should be noted that both Bono and the Edge fathered sons in the last year. The Edge named his son Levi, while Bono opted for the more tongue-twisting Elijah Bob Patricius Guggi Q Hewson (Hewson being Bono's last name). The songcraft
is exceptional, especially if you let the CD grow on you.
There's not that immediate rush of some previous albums
such as ''Joshua Tree'' or ''Achtung Baby.'' The new one
reveals its strengths more slowly, but persuasively. The
return to using producers Lanois and Brian Eno, who
worked on vintage discs ''Unforgettable Fire'' and
''Joshua Tree,'' was a masterstroke. Eno adds some warmly
supportive synthesizer lines, though the focus is very
much the traditional sound of Bono's yearning vocals, the
Edge's psychedelic guitar lines, and the painterly rhythm
section of Clayton and Mullen. This is an album U2 diehards should truly enjoy. Music365 - 10/27/00 By Stephen Dowling The last time we saw U2 it was at the controls of the dance colossus of ‘Pop’, the album that spawned the tour that took even their propensity for over-the-top touring into overdrive. But while U2 lovers might have been able to take their heroes’ cold, hard industrialism (‘Achtung Baby’) or their wry, consumer-culture, globalisation-baiting irony (‘Zooropa’), they were far from pleased with the world’s most stadium of stadium bands embracing the bleep brigade. ‘Pop’ it seemed, looked like a mid-life crisis from a band who’d seemingly survived all that adversity and ‘Rattle ‘N’ Hum’ could throw at them. So, as the Popmart tour died down, as Radiohead officially became the Best Band Ever, Oasis shuddered and imploded, Fatboy Slim gave the rock/dance crossover a much needed makeover and David Bowie started making good records again, U2 locked themselves in the studio and got back to what it is they do best: Rock‘n’roll, with its heart on its sleeve, roaring hope and desperation. ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’ is an album every bit as good as 1991’s career-enlivening ‘Achtung Baby’. But where the latter shrouded its songs in a hard, post-Cold War industrialism set against the backdrop of a newly-reunified Germany, this new album is characterised by its sheer warmth. With Bono turning to Jubilee 2000 and a hundred other good causes to exercise his political muscles, here he’s preoccupied with the search for hope love and happiness, of universal truths in a busy, bustling world. More than once the lyrics shoot from conveying human emotion to snapshots of the world from space – “See the world in green and blue/See China right in front of you/See the canyons broken by cloud/See the tuna fleets clearing the sea out” Bono sings in the ambient breathing space in the middle of the glorious ‘Beautiful Day’ - as if the band are orbiting the Earth, spying on all below. ‘Stuck In A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of’ floats on a gospel backing vocal that the U2 of ‘Rattle ‘N’ Hum’ would have murdered. ‘Walk On’ meanwhile is their own ‘Champagne Supernova’ a song that constantly feels like it’s going to break out into hysterical guitars at any moment but always manages to stay just the right side of dignified. Perhaps it’s old-fashioned, but U2 have made an album that sounds like U2 again. Only better. It’s as if ‘Achtung Baby’ is being sung round a campfire, drunk on cheap red wine. Occasional deft touches like Larry Mullen’s hip hop drum beats on ‘In A Little While’ are restrained while The Edge’s guitar seems reborn, the sudden explosion in the middle of ‘New York’ breath-taking, as is the scratchy guitar and sonar bleeps at the start of ‘Elevation’. That a band can rack up their twentieth year together and still make a record as effortless as this makes you wonder whether rock‘n’roll is dead after all. Virgin Net - 10/28/00 By Esther Sadler After the alternative invention of Achtung Baby, the shock-pop tactics of Zooropa and the half-baked hip swinging of Pop, U2 now stride majestically into perhaps their finest and fullest moment. For All... successfully unites the old fashioned anthems of the U2 of New Year's Day and With Or Without You with the crunchy, bleepy pop monster of the latter albums, but subtly like. Songs like The Ground Beneath Her Feet and Can't Get Out Of take the best elements of both and magic up a new U2. The band seem to have stepped backwards to go forwards: these songs are more fully realised than both their experimental bits and pieces and also their earlier angsty anthems. And there are of course moments of new genius too like the carelessly perfect Walk On, the classic soul work of In A Little While and Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of where Bono comes across somewhere between Otis Redding and Disty Springfield and the simply magnificent Wild Honey. This is still serious stuff of course, (songs about The World and the state of it called Peace On Earth - not looking good - and When I Look At The World - also not good looking - and other ones where people die and suffer a lot) and Bono and the boys would not want us to forget it. However, now more than ever U2 are able to ensure that we won't. Worldpop - 10/27/00 By Matt Baskerville The much-celebrated U2, in their 20th year, release an album which is a return to the simple chemistry of a rock 'n' roll band. A straightforward studio album without cowboy hats, 40-foot lemons or a massively commercial Zooropa theme. They recorded it in their own studio in Dublin and had complete control over its recording, production and publicity. Unlike Radiohead's 'difficult' Kid A, U2 have come up with a collection of subtle, simple, cracking tunes. Beautiful Day You know it well, and despite it being on the radio every 10 minutes, it still hasn't lost its impact. It may be close to A-Ha but it's still a great rock 'n' roll song. Our trip back to classic albums like The Joshua Tree has begun. 4/5 Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of Gospel choirs usher in this bluesy song about getting ' yourself together'. The drums chug along nicely and Bono's rasping voice builds a tense atmosphere. A Bob Dylan-like ramble about making bad decisions in life, where salvation arrives in a rousing blast of brass. A sure-fire hit. 4/5 Elevation A massive distorted guitar riff, straight out of a Nike advert, fires this tune straight through your eardrums. Trademark Bono; a whisper followed by an explosive chorus and much high pitched whooping. Best track on the album, hi-energy raucous magic from the 40-year-olds. 5/5 Walk On A more downbeat Where The Streets Have No Name. Acoustic guitars carry the tune punctuated with the familiar Edge fret noodling. A slice of piano adds some gravitas to the generally heard-it-all before tune. Good but not great. 3/5 Kite A return to old New Year's Day U2 here. Angry sliding guitars raging underneath the frustrated 'I'm a man not a child' lyrics. It all sounds very '80s and Bono enjoys looking back at a time before new media and most modern technology. Hardcore U2 fans start drooling now. 5/5 In A Little While Much the same as Stuck In a Moment ...Americana blues ringing out from Bono's voice and simple plucked notes from Edge. The perfect song about missing someone. Shows the sunglassed one can still belt out the songs. 4/5 Wild Honey U2 doing folksy country and western? Hmmm, it just about works. Sounds a bit like Rolling Stones' Wild Horses mixed with mellow Beatles... all reworked by Garth Brooks. A nostalgic look back to '70s folky tunes ... something for the mums. 3/5 Peace On Earth Christmas No 1 material? Could well be. It has all the right (if too much) sentiment and is supposed to be about healing the pain in Ireland after the Omagh Bombing. A moving political track, as usual, from the band at the forefront of good causes. 3/5 When I Look At The World A more laidback effort that rumbles along pleasantly enough. Some squalling guitars liven it up enough to be average. 2/5 New York This is Bono as Lou Reed, talk/singing over a funky urban beat. Works well, as does the Sinatra-like ode to the wonder of night time New York. Moody, cool and vibrant. 4/5 Grace Not the saving grace of the album, its quiet lull sends you to sleep. 1/5 The Ground Beneath Her Feet A spiralling organ and looping kick drum keep the interest before a trancey violin-led chorus pleasantly washes over you. Will undoubtedly be re-mixed as a trance classic. Could be a massive melancholic hit. 4/5 A thoroughly pleasing release from the Irish lads, showing they've still got it after all these years. So good it'll probably win them new fans as well as keeping the existing ones happy. BBC - 10/29/00 By Nigel Packer It may be better to burn out than fade away, but the best option of all is to do neither. U2 wisely chose that particular route, and by a process of constant evolution became one of the few bands to remain fresh and relevant over the course of two decades. All That You Can't Leave Behind, their ninth studio offering, is the kind of relaxed and expansive album which could only come from a band in this exalted position. After an experimental decade, which began with the frazzled sounds of Achtung Baby and ended with the slick dance grooves of Pop, they have now returned to the original blueprint of big, sincere anthems. It may bring a shudder to those who found the early incarnation of the band too earnest by half, but happily this is no mere re-treading of the past. The years of musical travel have enriched their sound considerably, and of course Bono has come a long way as both singer and lyricist since the mullet-laden days of his youth. Beautiful Day is the album's wake-up call, reassuringly familiar in its dynamics. Rhythm section Larry and Adam go about their business as unobtrusively as ever, leaving the limelight to Bono's vocals and the shifting guitar textures of The Edge. And if what follows is not always an outright success - Wild Honey and When I Look At The World sound almost workaday by U2's standards - then the album contains several songs to rank alongside their best work. Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of is its crowning glory - a beautifully gritty ballad with one of those timeless choruses which seem to have been hanging in the ether just waiting to be discovered. Mick Jagger and daughter Elizabeth provided guest vocals on an early mix of the track, and sure enough the spirit of the Stones lives on in the song's gutsy-but-tender delivery. Grace, on the other hand, is a slick fusion of co-producer Brian Eno's artier leanings with the band's more commercial instincts. An intoxicating mix of delicate guitars and thoughtful vocals, it finds Bono once more revisiting the spiritual theme which underpins pretty much everything he writes. In A Little While boasts a strikingly soulful performance from Bono, who belts out the melody like a man possessed, and Walk On is a real blast from the past - a sweeping melodrama awash with chiming guitars. For all the big emotions on show, however, it is perhaps the least dramatic line on the album which best explains the secret of U2's long-term success. "I'm just trying to find a decent melody," sings Bono on Stuck In A Moment...and sure enough this album highlights his band's uncanny ability to do exactly that. Des Moines Register - 10/31/00 By Kyle Munson Whether or not U2 still hasn't found what it's looking for, the towering Irish rock band sounds weary of the search. "All That You Can't Leave Behind," the band's 10th studio album, is a disappointment in light of its hallowed 20-year history. The cover art pictures the familiar foursome (singer Bono, guitarist the Edge, bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen) standing in a deserted airport terminal, which turns out to be an apt metaphor: They don't know whether they're coming or going, and they're very much alone on the musical landscape. A decade ago
U2 achieved the impossible for a larger-than-life rock
act by completely reinventing itself. When a band has sold 100 million records, sold out arenas the world over, met most of its heroes and pushed its pet political causes, how exciting can it be to churn out another rock record? That's the attitude that seemingly undermines "All That You Can't Leave Behind." Producers
Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno reprise the guiding roles
they had for U2's aforementioned Lead-off single "Beautiful Day" begins the album in classic U2 style - a brash, bold and upbeat statement of purpose. The Edge tears into the chorus. It's among the album's highlights. "Elevation" preserves a whiff of electro-pop U2 and lets Bono unleash his trademark falsetto yelps. "In a Little While," with little change, could be a hit for easygoing California pop/hip-hop band Sugar Ray. "Peace on Earth" is as earnest a plea as Bono has ever written; for all his travels and meetings with politicians and oppressed peoples, he might have managed lyrics with more punch and detail than the kind of blanket sentiment expected of beauty pageant contestants. The same vagueness is telling in "New York," a midlife crisis confessional by Bono that also describes the teeming city with broad, awkward strokes. (In New York summers get hot, well into the hundreds Bono keenly observes.) Lou Reed, whose lyrics have evoked New York arguably better than anybody else in the rock canon, might laugh when he hears the song. Despite U2's attempt to rock out with conviction in the chorus of "New York," ex-Verve frontman Richard Ashcroft did a much better job earlier this year with his own "New York" tribute on his solo debut. Ashcroft found a guitar groove and worked it, which itself went a long way toward explaining the mystique of the big city. U2 strains to find a groove anywhere on this album. Bono isn't the sort of Dylanesque lyricist who can carry a song with words alone. His generalities - more general and bland than ever, for whatever reason - need a powerful musical mandate, which is mostly absent on this album. "Grace," which ends the album, shows how the U2 formula can still work. Bono plays around with personifications of "Grace" while the music, dominated by Eno's synthesizers, creates a beautiful, hymn-like aura. At least U2 starts and ends the album on high notes. The cracks in the U2 armor began to show three years ago on "Pop," an album made in service to the spectacle of the subsequent Pop Mart tour. The album failed to stand on its own merits and proved that the band had lingered too long in one style. Now the laughing gas has really worn off, along with a good deal of the band's classic conviction. U2 sounds merely bored, not true to its roots. It's high time for another reinvention, because most record buyers are likely to find that "All That You Can't Leave Behind" should be left behind. |
