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Rating:
As a Debaser user commented a few years ago: "This is the true return to the origins, the 'All That Can Leave That Behind' four years later." Finally, Edge's return to essentials. The result is a surprising mature "Boy."
But the surprises are not just musical. The title, truly splendid, perfectly describes Bono's return to earth. He is the atomic bomb and this album represents his "disassembly" due to the grief for his father's death in 2002 after a long illness. As the singer told Paola Maugeri on MTV Italia in 2004 (the interview is on YOUTUBE with Italian subtitles): "Six months after my father's death, while walking down the street, I burst into tears. I thought I had overcome everything, but instead, I realized the void he left in my life...." The singer wrote for his father the touching "Sometimes You Can't ...," containing one of his most beautiful verses: "I see your face when I look in the mirror."
Several tracks are a welcome surprise: "City of Blinding Lights" (with a splendid piano and guitar intro, despite the over-the-top chorus that slightly breaks the seriousness of the verses); "Miracle Drug" (sweet U2-style folk-rock in the verses, exploding into rock in the chorus); "One Step Closer" (a tender electric ballad, with a chilling chorus, with Bono repeating the title words); "Original of Species" (one of the masterpieces of their repertoire with orchestral arrangement counterpointed by Edge's work, especially in the cathartic finale with a goosebumps-inducing Bono).
"A Man and a Woman" (great acoustic ballad with nice backing vocals - not exceptional, but clearly better than the childish "Wild Honey" from the previous album), "Crumbs for Your Table" and "Yahweh" are the decently and pleasantly minor episodes of the album.
A shame not to include the energetic and highly successful "Electrical Storm" (which should have appeared on "All That Can't Leave That Behind") and the ethereal "The Hands That Built America" (a track featured in the "Gangs of New York" soundtrack, Oscar-nominated and awarded with a Golden Globe). Both of these songs are found in "Best 1990 - 2000" (2002). With these two tracks, and without the mediocre "All Because of You," "Love, Peace and Else," and especially "Vertigo" (a true lesson in bad taste), the album would have deserved a full 5 - while not being a masterpiece worthy of the masterpieces of their past.
The public also appreciated: over 10 million copies sold. An incredible result in these times of internet piracy.
An album that flies low, and in this humility (both in sound and vocals) finds its strength.
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