I think I finally "get" All That You Can't Leave Behind...

[CarpathiaMan]

Hi everyone. I'm fairly new, just started posting here a little while ago. Anyway, forgive me if this topic has already been addressed, but I just wanted to share the fact that after years of trying to listen to ATYCLB and not really liking it that much, I think I can now say that I love this album, and I actually look forward to listening to it.

I guess I felt like a lot of people did, that it was a bit dry and boring. But after reading a lot of reviews and soaking it in, I think I finally see the poetry and beauty inside of it.

Anybody else here have an epiphany over ATYCLB?

Thanks.

 

[trevgreg]

I've always liked it myself. Naturally, it was their most current album at the time I was starting to get into them, so I'm sure that plays a role (as it would for any other fan getting into a band). But it works in more places than not and has some solid songwriting.

Not everything has to be "heavier" or "ambient" to be good!

 

[purpleoscar]

If you listen to POP (which I like) and look back at the backlash from it you can tell why they did what they did. Also Radiohead was supposed to surpass U2 after OK Computer and they did Kid A instead and for a lot of casual Radiohead fans U2's album was a safe place to go. Big Radiohead fans of course prefer Kid A.

Wow that was over 10 years ago.

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

All That You Can't Leave Behind has a timeless quality about it. Songs like Beautiful Day and Walk On are very classic sounding songs, whereas Stuck was a good pop song and Elevation still gets played at sporting events and probably always will. Kite is still the most overlooked song on the album, aside from perhaps Wild Honey. In a Little While is perhaps the most hated songs on the album here, if I recall, though I have no idea why really. All in all its a great album and its hard to believe its been nearly 12.5 years since it was born. My oh my how the world has changed...

 

[OpenG180]

If you listen to POP (which I like) and look back at the backlash from it you can tell why they did what they did. Also Radiohead was supposed to surpass U2 after OK Computer and they did Kid A instead and for a lot of casual Radiohead fans U2's album was a safe place to go. Big Radiohead fans of course prefer Kid A.

Wow that was over 10 years ago.

I'm far from being a big Radiohead fan, but Kid A is much much much better than ATYCLB.

How to Disappear Completely alone is much better than the whole ATYCLB album IMO.

 

[mikal]

I actually like the album more than a lot of people do here. I actually like all 4 singles and Kite and When I Look At World are my favorites on the album. With that said, I still think some of the other songs fall a little flat. If The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Stateless, and Summer Rain had been on the album, then I'd probably rank the album much higher.

This is my preferred tracklist:

Beautiful Day
Elevation
Walk On
Stuck In A Moment
Peace on Earth
Kite
New York
In A Little While
Summer Rain
Stateless
When I Look at The World
The Ground Beneath Her Feet

 

[OpenG180]

I actually like the album more than a lot of people do here. I actually like all 4 singles and Kite and When I Look At World are my favorites on the album. With that said, I still think some of the other songs fall a little flat. If The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Stateless, and Summer Rain had been on the album, then I'd probably rank the album much higher.

This is my preferred tracklist:

Beautiful Day
Elevation
Walk On
Stuck In A Moment
Peace on Earth
Kite
New York
In A Little While
Summer Rain
Stateless
When I Look at The World
The Ground Beneath Her Feet

Peace on Earth?

 

[LemonMelon]

All That You Can't Leave Behind has a timeless quality about it.

The songs cover timeless topics, but the production sounds dated already.

 

[mikal]

Peace on Earth?

Yes. I actually like that song.

 

[Mrs. Garrison]

The songs cover timeless topics, but the production sounds dated already.

not to me it doesn't

 

[CarpathiaMan]

Aha, I see I've sparked a little debate here. Yeah, I think one of the ways you could accurately look at the transition from Pop to ATYLCB is like that of a hangover ... the four lads woke up one day and said, "We recorded THAT?" and started yet another re-invention. Hey, I like both albums. It's all part of this journey as the band finds new sounds.

I have a coworker who gave me kudos once for having the patience to listen to an album until it fully sinks in. He said he pretty much gives up after one or two listens if he immediately doesn't like it.

Not so sure that's the best way of going about it. You can always put it in the "maybe" pile and get back to it later.

Oh, another thing I should state is that for a while there I thought that Atomic Bomb was the better album. I think I'm taking the reverse stance now, as I feel that ATYCLB is more cohesive while Bomb has better sound quality.

 

[OpenG180]

Aha, I see I've sparked a little debate here. Yeah, I think one of the ways you could accurately look at the transition from Pop to ATYLCB is like that of a hangover ... the four lads woke up one day and said, "We recorded THAT?" and started yet another re-invention. Hey, I like both albums. It's all part of this journey as the band finds new sounds.

I have a coworker who gave me kudos once for having the patience to listen to an album until it fully sinks in. He said he pretty much gives up after one or two listens if he immediately doesn't like it.

Not so sure that's the best way of going about it. You can always put it in the "maybe" pile and get back to it later.

Oh, another thing I should state is that for a while there I thought that Atomic Bomb was the better album. I think I'm taking the reverse stance now, as I feel that ATYCLB is more cohesive while Bomb has better sound quality.

Better sound quality? Bomb?

 

[corianderstem]

Aha, I see I've sparked a little debate here.

Welcome to Interference! You will find that even a statement like "the sky is blue" will spark a little debate.

 

[purpleoscar]

I'm far from being a big Radiohead fan, but Kid A is much much much better than ATYCLB.

How to Disappear Completely alone is much better than the whole ATYCLB album IMO.

I knew someone was going to say this.

I can say this too:

"Kite is better than the whole of Kid A"

It depends on what you're looking for in an album. I'm not looking to be depressed though I do admire some of Kid A.

 

[mikal]

Although I'll defend ATYCLB, it doesn't even come close to Kid A for me.

 

[LemonMelon]

Awesome music doesn't depress me. Mediocre/crappy music does.

 

[jeevey]

I was a very late comer to this record and wasn't familiar with anything Pop or after when I started listening to it, having been out of U2 for a very long time. I found the songs pretty accessible after a couple of listens, and that's not a quality that I resent in a record. For some people it is. One thing you'll notice on this forum is a huge variety in taste- people just like U2 for different reasons.

I'll say that I didn't find the record terribly compelling until I started watching live performances from the era. A lot of the power comes from the emotional performances. The band seemed to really be enjoying one another and playing with a lot of give to the songs and the audience. To me the record quite front loaded, with the last 3 or so tracks really dragging. I think New York was an error and Grace... well, it's a nice song. I enjoy it, but I don't think it's really worthy company for some of the rest of those songs.

I wasn't aware that Kite is underappreciated. Does the bleeding heart factor bother people? I also don't hear the datedness in the production. What tracks?

 

[purpleoscar]

Awesome music doesn't depress me. Mediocre/crappy music does.

That's fine people like it more and I'm very aware that's the case but I do find Radiohead depressing and if it's brilliant depressiveness it might be even more effective. I don't like taking downers all the time and negative art is easier to do than happy art. I like Nine Inch Nails but I have to be in a particular mood to listen to it. I just feel better after listening to U2. Even their negative stuff has a catharsis to it.

 

[The_acrobat]

ATYCLB gets too much shit around here. It's a great album, and I truly do believe it is their 3rd masterpiece. It's definitely the 3rd most important album they've ever released. It is because of this album that they are still relevant today, and not just "classic rock". However, this fall ATYCLB will be 13 years old, and HTDAAB will be 9 years old! That's a long time to go without a hit album.

This new album needs to do what ATYCLB did, which is usher U2 into the next (possibly last) era of their career. The 5th triology, if you will.

 

[LadySpinHead]

If The Ground Beneath Her Feet, Stateless, and Summer Rain had been on the album, then I'd probably rank the album much higher.

This.

 

[Globo14]

I love this album.

 

[God Part III]

One of U2's best albums.
After all the hype had died down over NLOTH and the tour was over, it occurred to me that I would listen to ATYCLB a lot more than NLOTH. It's just strangely better.

Btw, Kite is incredibly overrated and so is How to Disappear Completely. I rank ATYCLB just above Kid A, but the one song off Kid A that really does something U2 just cannot do is Idioteque. /50cents

 

[An Cat Gav]

I always liked ATYCLB, and always thought that Beautiful was a perfect song and single, but it was only after a few years when I got married and had a kid that a lot of the themes really struck home with me, themes summed up best by the image of the little girl holding her mum's hand on the cd itself.

I still wouldn't bracket it with the top U2 albums, but as Mikel said, if Stateless and TGBHF were included it would definitely make my top 5.

 

[The Panther]

To use a now-outdated and never particularly meaningful expression, ATYCLB "is what it is" -- if you're in the mood for some passionate rock by straight white guys, incorporating big tunes, passionate vocals, ambitious (meaning occasional clumsy, but occasionally great) lyrics, a mildly Christian bent, and a very intentional 'mainstream' production and mixing job from the era of hip-hop and boy-bands dominating the charts... then, it'll hit your pleasure centers.

I think I understand what they were trying for artistically (a bit more sleek and soulful, a bit less sweat and less trend-following), but as with all the U2 albums since the mid-90s, commercial compromise and curious track-selection limited the final product. Fortunately, in the digital era we can pick and choose the tracks we want to listen to from any era. They certainly had a plethora of melodies sitting around at that time.

 

[Vlaco]

Beautiful Day still is an A class tune and I like Walk On, Kite, When I Look At The World, New York and The Ground Beneath Her Feet (if that one counts). I tolerate the album version of Stuck, but I absolutely detest Elevation, Wild Honey, Peace On Earth and Grace.

It's far from my favourite U2 record. I only rate Bomb lower on my list, they really hit rock bottom with that.

 

[lemonfly]

It was certainly the last U2 album to make a significant cultural impact. Love it or loathe it, there's no denying a heck of a lot of people connected with it. I guess it was something of an "antedote" to the nu metal groups like Limp Bizkit that were big at the time. AttyClub appealed to college students and AARP members alike. I can't say it has grown on me, in fact its flaws are even more apparent now than they were 12 years ago. But as someone suggested, they weren't following trends. They didn't try to "outdo" Radiohead, they went back to being painfully earnest, unapologetically U2, and I have to give them some kudos for that.

 

[cobl04]

straight white guys

What could possibly have been your reason for including this? What does their sexuality or race have to do with anything? Would you describe Achtung Baby or Joshua Tree as "an absolutely brilliant album by straight white guys"?

Anyway, ATYCLB is my third fav U2 album on some days. People can knock it all they want but the simplicity of it all, that message of everything being alright, everything gonna be okay, from the uplifting nature of Beautiful Day, to the gorgeous pop of Stuck (yep, 10/10 song if you ask me), to the emotion of Kite, WILATW, Ground Beneath Her Feet (it's on my version), right down to the cover, the lyric booklet, the icons for each of the songs... it holds a special place in my heart.

I remember when I was about 15 or so I had been in a rut for a couple of weeks. The school counsellour didn't really help much, she just said be positive, then I went and spoke to my parents and they said the same thing, so I thought screw it, I might as well try that. And I chucked on ATYCLB and all of a sudden my mood improved. Great album.

 

[Nick66]

It was certainly the last U2 album to make a significant cultural impact.

I love ATYCLB as much as I dislike HTDAAB, but I do have to disagree with you here. ATYCLB is a far superior record to Bomb , and is more important to U2 than Bomb ever was. It (well mostly Beautiful Day) essentially put U2 back on top after they were in danger of cultural irrelevance after Pop.

But you can't say Bomb didn't have a cultural impact, if for no other reason than the massive penetration of that Vertigo iPod commercial into the pop culture consciousness. That alone secures its cultural status. Plus if I'm not mistaken it sold better than ATYCLB, and won them over legions of new fans (whereas I think ATYCLB more won back a lot of the old fans they may have lost over Pop). So while Bomb may have been an artistic disappointment, by U2's standards it was a phenomenal success.

 

[mikal]

What could possibly have been your reason for including this? What does their sexuality or race have to do with anything? Would you describe Achtung Baby or Joshua Tree as "an absolutely brilliant album by straight white guys"?

That was my thought too but I didn't want to say anything because Hewson might tell me I'm not funny or that I like all 32 NBA teams.

Agreed though. Just an odd comment regarding sexuality.

 

[jeevey]

I think "straight white guys" is code for not hip. Like when they're awesome it's not problem, but when they make a clunker you get to point out that they are still in fact white, straight and male, like those are the reasons.