U2 – All That You Can’t Leave Behind
After losing me as a regular listener for most of the 90s (and y’know, I’m sure that loss just crushed the lads), U2 got me back on board with All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Returning to the compelling style of music that won them such an ardent fan base in the 1980s, U2 ditches some of the electronic production wizardry that drove some of us away in the next decade. And the result is a lovely thing to hear.
Sure, there are some revisitations to the 90s style (“Elevation” springs instantly to mind here), but for the most part U2 opts to let the simple beauty of the songs themselves shine through. “Stuck In A Moment” is a lovely ballad, “Wild Honey” is an almost folksy affair compared to the band’s usual output, and “Walk On” and “Beautiful Day” are a glorious return to that distinctly anthemic flavor of rock that caught everyone’s attention way back when on Unforgettable Fire.
The two songs that always stop me dead in my tracks, though, are “In A Little While” and “Kite”, two marvelous slow numbers that move along with a majestic gait and a combination of excellent lyrics and amazing musicianship. “In A Little While” in particular features some of Edge’s best guitar work (though it’s very simple and almost acoustic-sounding in places), and some of the sweetest notes ever to sneak out of Bono’s throat. 
The soaring chorus is instant classic sing-along material, even if you, like me, can’t really even try to hit those notes.
Stellar stuff from a band that, contrary to what I believed ten years ago, really has stood the test of time quite well.
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- Beautiful Day (4:09)
- Stuck In A Moment (4:32)
- Elevation (3:47)
- Walk On (4:56)
- Kite (4:26)
- In A Little While (3:39)
- Wild Honey (3:46)
- Peace On Earth (4:48)
- When I Look At The World (4:16)
- New York (5:29)
- Grace (5:31)
Released by: Interscope
Release date: 2000
Total running time: 49:42
The second album from Rob Aldridge and Tim Smith, the latter of whom was a one-time member of Jellyfish, turns out to be a departure from the duo’s previous work. Their debut album Demolotion was a trippy but rockin’ mix of catchy songs, often in the best tradition of Jellyfish, but that style has vanished for their second outing, which largely consists of acoustic ballads – or at least it seems to. Truth be told, only half of the album fits that mode, but the preponderance of such material had the effect of tricking my mind into thinking that the entire album was pretty sleepy. I don’t mind acoustic ballads, or even entire albums of them, but that’s just not what I had in mind when I shelled out money for an Umajets CD. That’s not to say that there isn’t good material on here, though – my favorite number has to be the jaunty, galloping “Hang Ten”, which seems to concern the dying thoughts of a surfer who finally encounters a wave that’s more than he can 
handle. There’s also a gentle cover of Thomas Dolby’s “Screen Kiss”, with vocals that sound very much like Howard Jones (how’s that for a bizarre mix of 80’s new wave icons?). So, to recap, there is good stuff on the second Umajets CD, but the band sounds vastly different this time than they did the first time around – there’s nothing here to compare to “Daphne’s Disease” or “Fly”. 
Another project by Jellyfish alumni Roger Manning and Tim Smith, this album sounds more like the first Jellyfish album than 1992’s Spilt Milk did, opting for Bellybutton’s slightly trippy sound rather than the Queen-like melodic hard rock of Spilt Milk. Things kick off with a wonderfully (and strangely) harmonized number, “Daphne’s Disease”. Other highlights include the somber ballad “Mother”, the 60’s-pop-inspired “Onion Umbrella” (well, the tray card says “union,” but the lyrics say “onion”), the excellent “Fly”, a commentary on a certain U.S. president who didn’t inhale titled “American