U2 All That You Can't Leave Behind CD

"Beautiful Day" won the 2001 Grammy Awards for Record Of The Year, for Song Of The Year and for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal.
ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Rock Album. "Walk On" won the 2002 Grammy Award for Record Of The Year. "Elevation" won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal. "Stuck In A Moment You Can't Get Out Of" won the 2002 Grammy Award for Best Pop Performance By A Duo Or Group With Vocal.
Lyricist: Bono .
Personnel: The Edge (vocals, guitar, strings, piano, synthesizer, background vocals); Bono (vocals, guitar, synthesizer); Daniel Lanois (guitar, background vocals); Paul Barrett (brass); Brian Eno (synthesizer, programming, background vocals); Larry Mullen, Jr. (drums, percussion).
Audio Mixers: Jay Goin; Daniel Lanois; Julian Gallagher; Mike Hedges; Richard Rainey; Richard Stannard; Steve Fitzmaurice; Steve Lillywhite; Tim Palmer; Alvin Sweeney; Brian Eno.
Recording information: HQ; South Of France; Totally Wired, Dublin, Ireland; Westland Studios, Dublin, Ireland; Windmil Lane Recording Studios; Windmill Lane Recording Studios.
Photographer: Anton Corbijn.
Nearly ten years after beginning U2 Mach II with their brilliant seventh album Achtung Baby, U2 ease into their third phase with 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind. The title signifies more than it seems, since the group sifts through its past, working with Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, all in an effort to construct a classicist U2 album. Thankfully, it's a rock record from a band that absorbed all the elastic experimentation, studio trickery, dance flirtations, and genre bending of Achtung, Zooropa, and Pop -- all they've shed is the irony. U2 choose not to delve as darkly personal as they did on Achtung or Zooropa, yet they also avoid the alienating archness of Pop, returning to the generous spirit that flowed through their best '80s records. On that level, All may be reminiscent of The Joshua Tree, but this is a clever and craftsmanlike record, filled with nifty twists in the arrangements, small sonic details, and colors. U2 take subtle risks, such as their best pure pop song ever with "Wild Honey"; they're so self-confident they effortlessly write their best anthem in years with "Beautiful Day"; they offer the gospel-influenced "Stuck in a Moment," never once lowering it to the shtick it would have been on Rattle and Hum. Like any work from craftsmen, All That You Can't Leave Behind winds up being a work of modest pleasures, where the way the verse eases into the chorus means more than the overall message, and this is truly the first U2 album where that sentiment applies -- but there is genuine pleasure in their craft, for the band and listener alike. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine
Seldom has an album title been as appropriate as ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND. Here, U2 returns to its pre-irony '80s glory days with a straightforward rock approach, leaving behind the electronics and intentional mock-decadence of POP and ZOOROPA. It quickly becomes clear however, that the band had to make those albums in order to get to the ego-free state from which this one emerges. While Larry Mullen's driving beat, Adam Clayton's insistently throbbing bass, the Edge's chiming guitar, and Bono's soulful vocals mesh as in the days of yore, there's a less messianic feel to the proceedings that must have resulted from the group's ego-deflating '90s endeavors.
While POP and ZOOROPA were the sound of four guys having fun, on this album U2 manages to combine unpretentious joy with the open-hearted rock power of its early recordings. From the spiritual warmth of "Grace" to the soul leanings of "In a Little While," the band regains the organic quality that had been missing from its music of the previous decade. What sounds like an unusually hands-off approach on the part of producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois can only mean that they were smart enough not tRolling Stone (1/4/01, pp.106,118) - Ranked #2 in Rolling Stone's "Top 10 Albums of 2000" - "...They sound emotional, intense, sincere and full of themselves..."
Rolling Stone (12/11/03, p.128) - Ranked #139 in Rolling Stone's "500 Greatest Albums Of All Time" - "ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND brought things back to essentials. The songs grapple with morality..."
Spin (1/01, p.73) - Ranked #20 in Spin's "Top 20 Albums of the Year [2000]" - "...A warm, relaxed album....Thesis: THE JOSHUA TREE. Antithesis: ACHTUNG BABY. Synthesis: this great record."
Entertainment Weekly (12/29/00, p.138) - Ranked #2 in EW's Top 10 Albums of 2000.
Entertainment Weekly (11/3/00, pp.79-80) - "...It's as if they decided it was time to write and record an album of very good, extremely substantial traditional rock songs with an underlying inspirational bent....unwaveringly assured..." - Rating: A
Q (1/01, p.94) - Included in Q's "50 Best Albums of 2000".
Q (12/00, pp.116-7) - 4 stars out of 5 - "...U2 have turned the clock back to doing what they used to do..."
CMJ (10/30/00, p.4) - "...You are now entering an irony-free zone, where you, too, can get back in touch with the 'real' U2..."
Mojo (Publisher) (p.56) - Ranked #84 in Mojo's "100 Modern Classics" -- "The album defined an unprecedented moment, and sealed the band's place in history."
Mojo (Publisher) (12/00, p.102) - "...The performances are sparky and committed..."
NME (Magazine) (10/28/00, p.41) - 7 out of 10 - "...Possibly their most straightforward, honest record...modern enough to sound new, but sufficiently evocative of their prime JOSHUA TREE days..."