listening Post: U2 All That You Can't Leave Behind

Almost at the end of the U2 retrospective....



U2 - All That You Can't Leave Behind - 2000 (buy it)

U2 crashes into it's THIRD DECADE of releasing music with this cd. Think about that. Their first four major releases were on vinyl. They have been making (somewhat) relevant music for almost 30 years at this writing. Not bad for a bunch of teenagers who answered an ad posted by a drummer looking for a band.

All That you Can't Leave Behind is just....well, it's just right. It's not overwhelming. It's not brilliant. It's highly enjoyable. There are some great tracks (front loaded as always). It's extremely well produced. It sounds like what I imagine are a bunch of guys who were staring down the barrel of their forties and realized they were nothing without each other. Together they are u2. Seperately they are a bunch of rich Irish musicians. The trouble with Zooropa and Pop is they sounded like some members of the band were being dragged behind the "I want to do disco" bus. I have no idea whose idea it was, maybe it sounded like a good idea at the time, but it wasn't. And they did what they have done over and over in their career: They reinvented themselves while never straying from themselves.
Part of this album seems like it was meant to sound underwater. Specifically the first track, Beautiful Day. Which works for when Bono sings about seeing the tuna fleets clearing the sea out. There is some really pretty stuff here. It's a gentle album, a far cry from War and ...Fire. It's a little precious, almost like a perfect cover band putting out a mature, inoffensive album of originals.
It's not agressive, or dangerous but it is heartfelt and sometimes sad. Specifically, "Stuck in a moment" which Bono has said is based on the conversation he WISHED he had with Michael Hutchence before he killed himself.
Knowing that only makes the song deeper and richer but never maudlin. It's touching and that's it.
The production is bold and layered. The band has learned something from their forays into Disco and House and they have let their producers play with that stuff and pulled back where need be. I don't know where Evans is on this album, probably at the keys or something, but Clayton and Mullen are at their best.
It's a treat, this, after almost a decade of crap.

Grade B
A Side: Stuck in a Moment....
Blindside: (tie) Wild Honey & When I look at the World or Peace on Earth.
Downside: New York. (Bono! Stop writing songs about cities. They suck.) And Grace. (Bad bad bad lyrics, man)