U2

All That You Can't Leave Behind

4 and a half stars---"Boy" grows up.

Review Score:

(8/10)
This is the album U2 should have named Pop. Two weeks ago, everyone was raving how Radiohead's Kid A was the album of the year, now this week, U2 gets handed that title. Who knows, next week the title may be given to Coldplay or Fatboy Slim.

What you get on All That You Can't Leave Behind are 11 ultra-cool modern rock songs. This picks up where Achtung Baby leaves off. Gone are the loopy loops and sequences from Zooropa and Pop. I liked those albums a great deal, and if dared to do a radio show, I would be tempted to have "Daddy's Gonna Pay for Your Crashed Car" as my theme. Both albums were strong and daring ventures that instead of making U2 sonic pioneers, it alienated their fanbase forcing U2 to regroup not only as a band, but what they may have felt was their place in Rock and Roll History.

U2 takes a step back and brings out an album, which will appease their fans and help them gain new listeners who may be sick of all the bublegum boygroups, fake femme fatales or white-rage-rock acts. The album starts with a winner, "Beautiful Day" and goes down in flash from there. The rest of the album may not "rock" like "Beautiful Day" does, but the album is complete with enjoyable and definitely hummable songs.

Most of the songs consist of Bono singing his Irish soul over but not overtaking the music of bassist Adam Clayton, drummer Larry Mullen and underrated guitarist, the Edge. Producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois really bring U2 back from the edge of musical parody and campyness (Popmart Tour) and let U2 crank out the songs that U2 is known for. They help U2 polish up the personal songs and let them roll out the rhythms when the band wants to climb the sky and fly. Instead of music that tries to change the way music is heard, U2 is back to making music with feeling, Irish heart and the Stax sound. Highlights include, "Walk On," "Elevation," and "Wild Honey" and Kite."

There is a heavy make-peace-hold-on-I-heard-about-a-tragedy song in "Peace on Earth," but it's done in such a relaxed and sweet way, that the beauty of the song glides over the listener.

It's unfair to say that this album is not as good as Achtung Baby and that there are no anthems from Unforgettable Fire or War here. It's been almost 20 years since we first saw Bono wave the white flag at Red Rocks and heard, "I Will Follow." This is great fare for the VH-1 crowd and I mean that in a good way. All That You Can't Leave Behind shows us a more mature U2. A great comeback album for a group that never threatened to leave, just redefine music.

All That... is a rebirth for U2. They acknowledge nor apologize for their electronica experiments, but realize that it is baggage that no one will deny them. They got back to what made them superstars in the first place, songs from the soul and a rock groove.

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