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100

Entertainment Weekly

As hopelessly antiquated as it may sound in the year 2000, 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.... the new work focuses on songs, not sonic gimmicks, and the difference is palpable.

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Village Voice (Consumer Guide)

They woke up one day, glanced around a marketplace where art wasn't mega anymore, and figured that since they'd been calling themselves pop for half of their two-decade run, maybe they'd better sit down and write some catchy songs. So they did.

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Wall of Sound

Now, as the group starts its third decade, U2 has found what it's looking for is good music, songs that ring with melody and hooks -- and meaning -- while still weaving in some of the ambient and electronic textures it explored on releases such as Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and Pop. The result is a richly crafted and filler-free pop album on which each song sounds like an individual work, calling to mind mid-period Beatles titles such as Rubber Soul.

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Spin

Call it the happy aftermath of a midlife crisis. U2 is relaxing, reasserting some beliefs critics love to shove back in their face--most importantly, that uplifing art is not necessarily dumb. [12/2000, p.233]

New York Magazine

It's full of anthemic songs with echoing guitar, catchy choruses, and the kind of spacious production Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno also brought to The Joshua Tree.

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Billboard

The chaotic electronic density of U2's last few efforts has been replaced by sticky, bite-size tunes -- sporting candy-sweet choruses that are often underlined by unabashed words of love.

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Village Voice

All That You Can't Leave Behind returns to the grand gestures of old. Practically every song a potential hit single. Soulful, exuberant, at peace with its own clichés, this is one U2 record that will never be called antianything.... Call it their R.E.M. album, monster rock filtered through a sophisticate's restraint.

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Q Magazine

Stepping outside of their natural environment ensured their longevity in the '90s, stepping back in seems to have given them a fresh boost. For all Zooropa and Pop's pushing of the envelope, limiting themselves to rock's core ingredients has given the band a new challenge. Certainly, not since The Joshua Tree have U2 sounded so like U2 but, with songs of this startling calibre, right now being U2 is no bad thing.

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All Music Guide

All That You Can't Leave Behind is 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 also chooses not to delve as darkly personal as they did on Achtung or Zooropa, yet they also avoid the alienating archness of Pop, choosing to return to the generous spirit that flowed through their best '80s records.

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Sonicnet

U2 albums are generally slow growers, so it's much too early to label All That You Can't Leave Behind a classic. One can say with reasonable certainty that it's their most vibrant offering since Achtung Baby, their hardest-rocking one since The Joshua Tree, and their first true soul recording.

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Rolling Stone

U2's tenth studio album and third masterpiece, All That You Can't Leave Behind, is all about the simple melding of craft and song.... The album represents the most uninterrupted collection of strong melodies U2 have ever mounted, a record where tunefulness plays as central a role as on any Backstreet Boys hit.... Every track -- whether reflective but swinging, like "Wild Honey," or poised, then pouncing, like "Beautiful Day" -- honors a tune so refined that each seems like some durable old number. Because this is U2, there's a quick impact to these melodies, yet each song has a resonance that doesn't fade with repeated listening.

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Spin Cycle

The band neither succeeds wildly nor fails. There are only a few reminders of the lackluster dance sounds in its recent work... Otherwise, what dominates are the straight-ahead rhythms that drove the early days.

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Checkout.com

The bottom-line is that while All is a good album, it isn't a great one.... All largely rides somewhere in the '80s, hitting a few heights (the ruminative "New York"), while occasionally missing the target altogether ("Peace on Earth").

CDNow

Although devoted fans will welcome this straight-down-the-middle approach with open arms, those on the fringes who were intrigued by their tinkering will find it lacks some of the vibrancy of their recent artistic adventurousness.

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Dot Music

Despite the almost universal hyperbole that has greeted 'All That You Can't Leave Behind', this is no masterpiece. Certainly not by U2's stratospheric standards.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

Ten albums into its career, U2's emphasis on its basics--chiming guitars, a war-themed lament here and there, the enormous choruses of songs like "Beautiful Day"--is a refreshing reminder of the group's core virtues. But in terms of execution, it splits about 50-50 between soaring hits and dispiriting misses.

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Pitchfork

Subtle breakbeat drumming and glistening guitar be damned, Bono will ruin a song. And so the story goes for the entire album-- one of the band's finest, if not for the tweeting and hooting of The Fly and his grating lyrics.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 7.2 (out of 10) based on 62 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Paul T gave it a10:
A gorgeous, deeply inspiring collection of heartfelt music. U2 not only made a comeback with this album, they created a masterpiece that will lift your soul and break your heart. Bravo!

M C gave it a9:
Many "cool" or "indie" people attack this album or U2 in general just for the sake of attacking to show their cool side. Come on, it's a soulful rock album. What's wrong with compassion and big heart you people? I would not agree it is U2 THE best album but I would say it is a great album.

nick n gave it a6:
The worst album in u2's career happens to be the best reviewed; then again magazines need to advertise big stories--if they don't kiss a little ass then what happens...? magazines and critics have been castrated by the advertisers and multi-billion dollar corporates.

Ariston B gave it a6:
It is better than the stuff what follows but worse than anything U2 did before. Never again Achtung Baby or The Joshua Tree. U2 should retire or eventually try one more time, but I think they are finished, especially Bono. Money ruins everything.

[Anonymous] gave it a1:
I found myself nearly falling asleep to this,half way in the album loses its way,its vigor whilst still managing to stay in the middle of the road.And this what this is ;a band with money on the brains.I mean can you really take Stuck in a Moment seriously?Its ridiculous,I actually felt embarrassed each time it played. I think the album after this was much better.This album is the sound of a band trying to too hard to regain their crown.

scott w. gave it a10:
Every song on this album is fresh, vibrant and fool of life, and is done U2 style. One of U2s best and one of the best albums ever made. Its truly a pop rock album with lots of hits. Bono and the Edge show that they were fare from finished, in this big come back album for the band.

Kev F. gave it a9:
This album has on it 2 tracks that for me mark highlights of U2's uniquely spiritual/soulful/philosophical take on the world they inhabit with the rest of us. Beautiful Day is song of soaring hope, faith, and reaching for something better. 'Take me that other place', a refrain which gives guttural voice to the experience of longing and hoping that expresses our humanity. That other place means many things to many people, but the needing to get there is the same for us all. Kite is an opus of loss and departure. Edge incredibly captures and expresses the deepest of all human emotion in this song, the why, the oh no, the heartbreak and the dignity of our fragile existence. Just listen to what he plays throughout the track. It's as moving as anything I have ever heard. Especially when you consider the lyric, and the background to the track, uncertainty, fragility, and the loss of Bono's father. This for me is why U2 are universally appealing. In a belting stadium sounding way, they are able to uniquely in my opinion, capture, experience and reflect human emotion. All of their albums contain much of the above, but this album, next to How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, represents this special band perfectly.

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