The 2000 album U2 used to destroy their old selves: “Reassess everything”
The basis of any U2 album was about innovation.
Even though everyone can claim to get a decent facsimile of their sound by playing the same delayed guitar arpeggios and basic rhythmic structure, the reason why the band works so well is that they are the only ones who can actually make that kind of sound work without coming off as too boring. They made you focus on the spaces between the notes, but after years of trying to transform themselves, The Edge knew that all of the work they had started needed to be destroyed.
But breaking down a band’s sound isn’t always the worst thing to do. U2 never claimed to be the kind of band that needed to have a bunch of the same elements in every one of their tunes, and even when they began working on the Joshua Tree, their way of working on that record was completely different from what they had been building up to on albums like War. They’d grown up a little, and they were going to make sure that the music reflected that every step of the way when they performed.
And by the time the 1990s rolled in, Achtung Baby practically dismantled all of their messianic complexes in one go. Bono had turned into the post-ironic version of himself whenever they performed, and even when they began taking more chances on Zooropa, they seemed like the parody version of what a rock band was supposed to be. There was nothing wrong with that kind of approach, but Pop really confirmed what everyone already knew. The band was still good, but they needed to get over themselves a little bit.
If you keep piling irony on top of irony, all you’re going to get is a couple of lousy songs, so when All That You Can’t Leave Behind came out, it was time for them to wipe the slate clean. Most of the records before this seemed to be made with a tongue-in-cheek attitude towards the band’s own stardom, but after playing for so long, they realised it was okay to let their guard down again and talk about their feelings.
There was nothing wrong with sounding human again, and The Edge felt this was the kind of reboot that the group really needed, saying, “There was a sense of relief more than anything, but also we had our mind on the end of the millennium. That, to us, was a very significant moment in time that we felt we had to mark. In some ways, it was a natural moment to reboot and to reassess everything that we were trying to do as a band.”
So did they pull it off? Well, kind of. Make no mistake, their 2000 album isn’t meant to be one of the greatest records that they’ve ever made by any stretch, but it does have a lot more clever moments than a band of their calibre really could muster around that time. ‘Beautiful Day’ was the first time people realised that the band were on stable ground again, but ‘Stuck in a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of’ was what really sealed the deal for them.
They had spent years trying so hard to be coy when they got onstage, so by making a song that was as sincere as humanly possible, they walked away looking more genuine than they had been in the past decade of their time together. It was OK for them to admit that they had gone too far, but the fact that this record managed to revive them slightly was worth it to get a few more great songs.
Their classic material hadn’t gone anywhere, and they were still one of the finest bands on the live circuit, but if they wanted to be in everyone’s good graces, they needed an album like this. Much of their reputation made them look embarrassing towards the end of the 1990s, and this was their chance to walk on and figure out what a band like them could have been in the modern age.
