The 1990s were U2's lost weekend. Like most lost weekends, it began with much anticipation, excitement and intense romance. By Sunday night, it ended very badly. Instead of finding a higher light in the dark and dingy nightclubs, they just found the murk and mire.Monday morning brought a new life in the form of All That You Can't Leave Behind (ATYCLB). The record is a direct response to Pop. Bright and joyful, it is the band's most optimistic and tender album.
U2 made no bones about ATYCLB being their shot at rock and roll relevance. My eyes rolled as Bono claimed the band were reapplying for the job as the world's best rock band. It is difficult to describe this record as rock and roll. It was pure pop, with elements of rock, soul and folk thrown in here and there. Not rock and roll, but definitely a great album with all the classic U2 elements.
U2 albums take on themes. ATYCLB is more of a collection of stand-alone songs. Each song came out of the band members playing together in a room, rather than taking inspiration from samples like those that they did on Pop. This lends a looseness to the songs.
Bono wanted this to be a singer's record. Something he really had not done since The Joshua Tree. His vocals are best on the soulful tracks. The songs that require more of him as a singer, songs like "Stuck in a Moment" and "In a Little While." Then a song like "Kite" is a perfect fit to the natural qualities in his voice. I say natural qualities, but it took many years for those qualities to become natural.
The Edge was never a gunslinger guitarist, but with this album, and each since, his primary objective is to serve the song. The band still employs electronics, but just as accents or small hooks that, again, help to serve the songs. A string arrangement gently carries "Kite" - the powerful anchor to the entire album. These embellishments always support the core of Edge, Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton playing together.
There is something nostalgic about a back-to-basics U2, but ATYCLB does not sound like any other U2 album. It is an emotional, 21st century album that is trying to bring songwriting back into the U2 machine. This was exactly what U2 needed.
ATYCLB is not an ambitious piece of rock art. Boundaries are not pushed. Minds are not blown. It is a joyous, peaceful set of songs. Heartbreaking at times. Uplifting all the time. Comfort music. The kind of universal, yet deeply personal, comfort music U2 is so good at.
If there is a theme to the album, it is living through a midlife crisis. Not the kind where all you need is a new car, an earring and a leggy blonde to validate your life. There is more to it than that. It is the age where your parents and your children are starting to leave you. The elders leave this mortal coil and the little ones are not so little any more. The sentiment can touch a person at any point in that path.
Most of the songs were simple love songs. From "In a Little While":
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!
U2 never base songs on simple romantic love. Each song can mutate to fit so many different types of relationships. Parents and children. Brothers. Sisters. Lovers. The big guy in the sky. In a little while, I will be home. Love! Slow down my beating heart. The thumping beat of Adam Clayton's bass. Living, breathing and impossible to deny.
