U2
All That You Can't Leave Behind
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U2
All That You Can't Leave Behind
Interscope, 2000
RiYL: Radiohead, R.E.M., Travis |
The requisite pre-release interviews with the group suggested that Behind was supposed to be a return to U2's rock roots. But there's virtually no evidence in the actual album of that mystical return. Despite what people say about Pop not being rock'n'roll, one also wonders when exactly U2 left rock in the first place.
Interviews aside, it's not clear what U2 was trying to accomplish here. It's certainly not the sound fans have come to expect from such masterpieces as 1983's War and 1991's Achtung Baby, or even the B-side heavy The Best Of 1980-1990. There is no "Until The End Of The World" or "One" on this album. There is no "New Year's Day" or "Sunday Bloody Sunday," either.
Instead U2 presents such material as "In A Little While," which could have been written and performed by matchbox twenty and finds Bono's voice completely out of place with the mellow instrumental accompaniment. Elsewhere, "Peace On Earth" gets wedged somewhere between a failed grasp at a lullaby and sending a statement about humanity loving one another. Surely that's never been tried before!
U2 seems to have stepped into a void. Caught between the true rock music of their past and an attempt to sound more like current trends, they've come out with an album that doesn't define anything. Most of the songs just sit there undistinguished, which is a tremendous disservice to a group that once stood so far above its contemporaries in terms of emotion and energy. Bono, in particular, doesn't seem willing (or able) to scale the vocal heights that have marked U2's best material.
Behind does get off to an exciting start with the chiming first single "Beautiful Day." If the whole album had the vibrance of this cut, there'd be no problem. The song even has modest roots in Pop's "Discotheque," as it opens and closes with a sound not unlike a computer at startup. "Beautiful Day" is one of the only tracks here that makes good on the less-is-more approach. It's a simple observation delivered with the no-nonsense rock of U2's heyday.
But any hopes of more Achtung-style empassioned rock exorcisms are squashed by song two, the quasi-inspirational "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of," which is marked by the oddly prophetic lyric: "I'm just trying to find a decent melody / A song that I can sing in my own company." If that's the case, why share it with the rest of us?
Even the tracks that should really cook like days of old never boil over. Thanks to the Edge's searing guitar melody and Bono's empassioned delivery, "Walk On" comes close, but settles for a low-key breakdown just when it might really explode. "Kite" falls from the same family tree as "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses," but Bono confuses the issue with "topical" lyrics about hip-hop and new media.
Ultimately, "New York" serves as the perfect example of the band's musical uncertainty. Programmed drums, rich basslines, and effect-slathered guitar work lay the foundation for.... Bono's testimonial on the merits of the Big Apple. As if an unconscious cry for help, he observes, "In New York I lost it all to you and your vices / Still I'm staying on to figure out my mid-life crisis."
And there we have it. With Pop, U2 at least ventured into new musical waters, even if the results were less than satisfying. Indeed, recent releases from Radiohead and Pearl Jam jumped ahead of the mainstream, where U2 seems bogged down. Arugably the least interesting album U2 has ever released, All That You Can't Leave Behind is simply too safe for its own good.
JONATHAN COHEN | Jonathan Cohen co-created Nude As The News with his Indiana University mates Troy Carpenter and Ben French. When not traversing the globe for business and pleasure, he holds down the fort as a senior editor for Billboard in New York. Stop him and he just may ask, "what for lunch?"