All That You Can’t Leave Behind

U2 dialing up the cheese on this one.

This is unbelievably bland. Listening to this was like having teeth pulled.

I was crying. It was so bittersweet. I remembered how much I listened to this album back when it came out.

2.36 average per track. Most of the other comments on this album reflect my opinion.

This was exactly the point at which U2 and Coldplay became indistinguishable. Feel-good stadium rock that doesn't challenge and completely falls apart upon close examination. Although, having now listened to a bunch of U2, I concede that there is always one really good track among the dross on every album. In this case, it's "Elevation." Complete turd otherwise.

Terrible lyrics throughout (A mole, digging in a hole/Digging up my soul/Now going down, excavation) but I enjoyed this more than I expected tbh, the singles are bangers for sure - opening 1/2/3 is undeniable despite their overplayed nature. Production is a bit weird, certainly very over-produced and clean, but there's an element of vulnerability to the album that I wasn't really anticipating.

Was this the album that was forced onto peoples' iPhones? I didn't listen to it back then and I didn't find anything overwhelmingly important about it now. It's a fine album that sounds like it was crafted with a "spare no expense" mindset. What I can't shake though is how formulaic it feels.

Well, got my wish for some U2 songs that I haven't heard a bunch of times, but idk if the proclivities of the y2k era did them a whole lot of favors lol.

Maybe this is stupid of me, but I think I need bono to be more unrestrained, like the stuff I tend to like from them it sounds like he's hollering at large birds from atop a mountain, and for this one he's using his inside voice

I've never liked the major singles that came of this album, which I now have noticed are all front-loaded on here. "Beautiful Day" and "Elevation" are supposed to be the bangers, but they only annoyed me on release. It sounded like an old rock band phoning it in. "Stuck In A Moment" never did anything to me, not even the hopeful lyrics. The only decent single that came of this album was "Walk On."

"Kite," "In A Little While" and "Wild Honey" are all very decent but also incredibly safe songs. A little trumpet here and a couple of strings there in the background to fill the sound out.

After that, I think this album is like chewing gum where the nice taste disappears too quickly.

Not even my favorite more modern/poppy U2 album, but still a worthwhile listen. 3.5/5

Beautiful Day is natuurlijk een lekker nummertje. Over de rest van het album is weinig te melden. De kenmerkende U2-klank wordt snel eentonig. 2 sterren voor het geheel en dat plus ik op met wat punten voor Beautiful Day.

I love U2. Absolutely love them.

But really? Why is this on the list? "Elevation" is a stadium-rock banger, but the rest is solid at best. It's not BAD by any means, but compared to their heights, it's overwhelmingly meh.

U2 starts out as a meh band for me. On top of that, this is a very meh album. Some popular songs that you can't escape but nothing here that is worthy of going back to.

Sounds pretty much like it could have been made at any time in the last 40 or so years, other than the production being a bit tighter than in their very early days. Stuck in a moment and walk on were two very good songs that I had (just about) forgotten existed, beautiful day and elevation are basically classic rock staples at this point, and in a little while might be my favourite of the whole record.

I generally like U2. Especially when they are working with Eno. The songs on this album are pretty hit or miss with me though. The tracks I think work best are Beautiful Day and In a Little while.

u2 né eu sei tu tb