All that you can't leave behind
But what of the desire to right the world's wrongs that produced the impassioned stadium rock of the '80s? Oh, that remains; it's just that U2 no longer seem sure what the wrongs are they want to see put right. With the fall of apartheid, their number one enemy, they became stripped of something to fight against; not even Jubilee 2000, with which Bono is famously involved, gets a mention here. There are hints -'In New York freedom looks like too many choices' (New York) and 'Walk On' is dedicated to Burmese opposition leader Aung Sun Suu Kyi - but never does the world according to Bono have its problems diagnosed with any precision.
Simon Wheeler
Not so sure
All That You Can't Leave Behind U2 Island Records
U2 are back. This new album incorporates elements from their three-album excursion into electronica and dance music but this new offering is more Joshua Tree than Zooropa, which will come as a relief to many. Their ability to produce lines that simultaneously enchant and baffle remains undiminished: 'When the night takes a deep breath/And the daylight has no air' (In a Little While). And Bono's voice sounds better than ever.
