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Rating:
Saying that U2 ended with “Achtung Baby” is excessive. If we put together those that, for me, are the most brilliant songs from “Zooropa” (“Lemon,” “Stay,” “Zooropa,” “Numb”), from the “Passengers” period (“Miss Sarajevo,” “Your Blue Room,” “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me”), and from “Pop” (“Discotheque,” “Gone,” “If God Will Send His Angels,” “Staring at the Sun,” “Please”), we have a great album.
Obviously, making three bad/useless/decent albums (choose your adjective) that each sell 7 million copies (those are the figures) makes less art but more money than one single album that sells 12 million copies. Without this greed, they would have made only one excellent album (though not a masterpiece) and today we would appreciate U2 even after 1991, who were not like they were in the 80s, but who, nonetheless, have left us many beautiful things and even a few gems.
So, their greed allows me, in a way, to justify their post-"Achtung Baby" inconsistency.
However, I cannot justify “All That You Can’t Leave Behind.” It is their blandest, and most constructed album (meaning it’s made to please everyone, without disturbing anyone). Even “Joshua” was an album “for everyone,” but it had immense class and masterpieces worthy of a bow, successfully being popular without being obsequious. This, however...
I vividly remember an interview with Bono at the end of August 2000. He said, very sure of himself, but without a hint of arrogance: “This album will surprise you. It’s our return to our roots. After almost 10 years, we’re finally back to doing what we do best.” I went into ecstasy. I was ready for an “Achtung Baby” without technology. What more could you ask for?
Imagine my surprise when I put it in the CD player and “Beautiful Day” started. Three years of waiting, and this was the launch single? A pleasant song, to be sure, but as far as I’m concerned, really very basic. “Discotheque” (the launch single from the previous album), in comparison, is a jewel – and, moreover, it even had a classic U2 arpeggio.
We move on to “Stuck in a Moment” – certainly a group classic. But distinctions must be made. It is a song of depth because it talks about the death of a friend. Why wasn’t such a song arranged minimally with those Edge guitar phrases that have made U2 history? And above all, would this excessive use of keyboards be a return to the roots? A song that would have guts, but they forgot to implant them. A missed masterpiece. But, after all, a great song – and that's no small matter.
“Elevation.” Another song that immediately gets into your head, but you immediately understand that here we are, for me, even below “Beautiful Day.” Here, the melody is borderline banal, and, on top of that, technology dominates. I’m still waiting for the return to the roots.
“Walk On.” Finally, the origins. It doesn’t excite me like “Stuck in a Moment,” but it doesn’t have the arrangement flaws of the latter. Splendid. Another group classic. The structure – notice it – is identical to that of “Until the End of the World.”
“Kite” is a great slow song – though nothing transcendent. More than in the melody, it’s Edge’s work that makes the song memorable. The change in the sung part is very good and capable of exciting. An excellent song; the “masterpiece,” as some define it, simply does not exist.
“Peace on Earth” has a very beautiful melody but is sung too softly. Bono seems like a sweet and naive kindergarten child saying “viva la pace”: really irritating. Musically, I don’t understand what the acoustic guitar is for when the song itself demands Edge’s guitar, which appears for only a few seconds in the middle of the piece and then disappears immediately after. What a great return to the roots…
“When I Look at the World,” “In a Little While,” “Wild Honey,” “Grace,” and “New York.” Here, for me, the limit of mediocrity is surpassed. They are excellently produced songs and some even pleasant, but anyone could have written them. Truly ordinary songs.
What is strange is that U2 released, during this period, a B-side titled “Summer Rain,” an acoustic ballad that, as an "ordinary and unpretentious song," is much, much better than the previous five – certainly better than the other acoustic ballad: “Wild Honey.” Another of their absurd B-sides. Go listen to it.
The numbers for “All That You Can’t Leave Behind”: 12 million copies sold, countless Grammys, and celebrations from the world’s top critics, who called it – hear, hear – “their third masterpiece after “War” and “Joshua.”
Returning to reality, a noun comes to mind: disappointment; a verb: forget; an adjective: deceitful (because it's not a return to the roots).
Speaking of the cover, just one adjective: horrendous.
Giving a rating is not easy. Judged on individual songs, it’s fair (2.5 stars), because amidst the mediocrities, we still find – with many “ifs” and “buts” – two classics, and two great songs (“Kite” and “Peace on Earth”), and a single that is reasonably enjoyable and memorable, like “Beautiful Day.”
But globally, I can’t give it a 3 (fully acceptable/good), despite the objectively perfect packaging. The smell of mediocrity is too evident in at least 5 songs.
Too little for an album they worked on for three years.
Tracklist Lyrics Samples and Videos
02 Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of (04:32)
I'm not afraid of anything in this world
There's nothing you can throw at me that I haven't already heard
I'm just trying to find a decent melody
A song that I can sing in my own company
I never thought you were a fool
But darling, look at you
You gotta stand up straight, carry your own weight
These tears are going nowhere, baby
You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment and now you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better
Now you're stuck in a moment
And you can't get out of it
I will not forsake the colours that you bring
The nights you filled with fireworks
They left you with nothing
I am still enchanted by the light you brought to me
I listen through your ears, and through your eyes I can see
And you are such a fool
To worry like you do
I know it's tough, and you can never get enough
Of what you don't really need now... my oh my
You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment and you can't get out of it
Oh, love, look at you now
You got yourself stuck in a moment and you can't get out of it
I was unconscious, half asleep
The water is warm till you discover how deep
I wasn't jumping; for me it was a fall
It's a long way down to nothing at all
You've got to get yourself together
You've got stuck in a moment and now you can't get out of it
Don't say that later will be better
Now you're stuck in a moment and you can't get out of it
And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if our way should falter
Along this stony pass
And if the night runs over
And if the day won't last
And if your way should falter
Along this stony pass
It's just a moment
This time will pass
03 Elevation (03:47)
Yeah, yeah
High, higher than the sun
You shoot me from a gun
I need you to elevate me here
At the corner of your lips
As the orbit of your hips
Eclipse, you elevate my soul
I've got no self-control
Been living like a mole now
Going down, excavation
I and I in the sky
You make me feel like I can fly so high
Elevation
A star lit up like a cigar
Strung out like a guitar
Maybe you could educate my mind
Explain all these controls
I can't sing but I've got soul
The goal is elevation
A mole, digging in a hole
Digging up my soul now
Going down, excavation
I and I in the sky
You make me feel like I can fly so high
Elevation
Love, lift me out of these blues
Won't you tell me something true
I believe in you
A mole, digging in a hole
Digging up my soul now
Going down, excavation
I and I in the sky
You make me feel like I can fly so high
Elevation
Elevation
Elevation
Elevation
Elevation
04 Walk On (04:56)
And love is not the easy thing
The only baggage that you can bring
Love is not the easy thing
The only baggage you can bring
Is all that you can't leave behind...
And if the darkness is to keep us apart
And if the daylight feels like it's a long way off
And if your glass heart should crack
And for a second you turn back
Oh no, be strong
Oh, oh
Walk on, walk on
What you got, they can't steal it
No, they can't even feel it
Walk on, walk on
Stay safe tonight
You're packing a suitcase for a place none of us has been
A place that has to be believed, to be seen
You could have flown away
A singing bird in an open cage
Who will only fly, only fly, for freedom
Oh, oh
Walk on, walk on
What you got, they can't deny it
Can't sell it, or buy it
Walk on, walk on
You stay safe tonight
And I know it aches
How your heart, it breaks
You can only take so much
Walk on...
Walk on...
Home...
Hard to know what it is, if you never had one
Home...
I can't say where it is, but I know I'm going
Home...
That's where the heart is...
And I know it aches
And your heart, it breaks
And you can only take so much
Walk on...
(Hooo)
Leave it behind
You got to leave it behind
All that you fashion
All that you make
All that you build
All that you break
All that you measure
All that you feel
All this you can leave behind
All that you reason, (it's only time)
(And I'll never fill up all I find)
All that you sense
All that you scheme
All you dress-up
All that you've seen
All you create
All that you wreck
All that you hate
05 Kite (04:26)
Something
Is about to give
I can feel it coming
I think I know what it is
I'm not afraid to die
I'm not afraid to live
And when I'm flat on my back
I hope to feel like I did
And hardness
It sets in
You need some protection
The thinner the skin
I want you to know
That you don't need me anymore
I want you to know
You don't need anyone
Or anything at all
Who's to say where the wind will take you
Who's to say what it is will break you
I don't know
Which way the wind will blow
Who's to know when the time has come around
Don't want to see you cry
I know that this is not goodbye
It's somewhere I can taste the salty sea
There's a kite blowing out of control on the breeze
I wonder what's gonna happen to you
You wonder what has happened to me
I'm a man
I'm not a child
A man who sees
The shadow behind your eyes
Who's to say where the wind will take you
Who's to say what it is will break you
I don't know
Where the wind will blow
Who's to know when the time has come around
I don't want to see you cry
I know that this is not goodbye
Did I waste it
Not so much I couldn't taste it
Life should be fragrant
Rooftop to the basement
The last of the rocks stars
When hip-hop drove the big cars
In the time when new media
Was the big idea
What was the big idea
06 In a Little While (03:39)
In a little while
Surely you'll be mine
In a little while... I'll be there
In a little while
This hurt will hurt no more
I'll be home, love
When the night takes a deep breath
And the daylight has no air
If I crawl, if I come crawling home
WiIl you be there?
In a little while
I won't be blown by every breeze
Friday night running to Sunday on my knees
That girl, that girl she's mine
Well I've know her since,
Since she was
A little girl with Spanish eyes
When I saw her first in a pram they pushed her by
Oh my, my how you've grown
Well it's been, it's been...a little while
ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Slow down my beating heart
A man dreams one day to fly
A man takes a rocket ship into the skies
He lives on a star that's dying in the night
And follows in the trail, the scatter of light
Turn it on, turn it on, you turn me on
Slow down my beating heart
Slowly, slowly love
Slow down my beating heart
Slowly, slowly love
Slow down my beating heart
Slowly, slowly love
11 Grace (05:30)
Grace
She takes the blame
She covers the shame
Removes the stain
It could be her name
Grace
It's a name for a girl
It's also a thought that changed the world
And when she walks on the street
You can hear the strings
Grace finds goodness in everything
Grace, she's got the walk
Not on a ramp or on chalk
She's got the time to talk
She travels outside of karma
She travels outside of karma
When she goes to work
You can hear her strings
Grace finds beauty in everything
Grace, she carries a world on her hips
No champagne flute for her lips
No twirls or skips between her fingertips
She carries a pearl in perfect condition
What once was hurt
What once was friction
What left a mark
No longer stings
Because grace makes beauty
Out of ugly things
Grace makes beauty out of ugly things
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Other reviews
By Jy
The problem with this record is that it has nothing new. It feels too worn.
Then the production didn’t convince me; the final work wouldn’t make you think of such important names (Brian Eno first + Daniel Lanois).
By George gordon
An album with 5 songs like "Beautiful Day," "Stuck in a Moment," "Elevation," "Walk On," and "Kite" deserves a place among the best albums of the last 20 years.
I challenge the usual critics... to find a better band than U2.
By treno
"An album that goes fast and smooth in some moments and disappoints in others."
"'Beautiful Day' can play well and long on the radio but it will never be destined to remain a historic piece of the band."
By Pietro84
Within the simplicity of the final product, empathy emerges, the joy of savoring every little thing, and every single moment life offers, always moving forward.
All That You Can’t Leave Behind is a simple and sincere album, light years away from the sadness and desolation described in 'Pop.'
