Maps of Music

All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000)

Where the lyrics of All That You Can't Leave Behind take you, and where it was really made.

The album was first named U2000, a working title for the PopMart Tour, before it got its final name.

Key places

Recording at Windmill Lane Studios (2000)

Recording site Windmill Lane Studios — Windmill Lane Studios in Dublin is listed as a recording site for this album. The marker is placed on the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recording at Westland Studios (2000)

Recording site Westland Studios — Westland Studios in Dublin is listed as a recording site for this album. The marker is placed on the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Recording at Totally Wired (2000)

Recording site Totally Wired — Totally Wired in Dublin is listed as a recording site for this album. The marker is placed on the studio building. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Cover photo at Charles de Gaulle Airport (2000)

Album cover Pathé Marconi studios — The cover photo was taken at Roissy Hall 2F of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris, the same place used for the Beautiful Day video. The marker sits at the city centre because only the city is known. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Tenth studio album by Irish rock band U2
• Produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois
• Released 30 October 2000 by Island Records worldwide and Interscope Records in the United States
• Originally named U2000, a working title for the PopMart Tour
• Returned to a sound closer to the band's earlier records after the 1990s experiments
• Four singles: "Beautiful Day", "Walk On", "Elevation", and "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of"

Background

• Through the 1990s U2 experimented with alternative rock and electronic dance music
• Experiments culminated in the 1997 album Pop and the PopMart Tour
• Mixed reception to Pop and its tour led U2 back to arrangements made almost entirely of guitar, bass, and drums
• The band reunited with Eno and Lanois, who had produced three earlier U2 albums together
• Those three albums were The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree, and Achtung Baby
• Bono's involvement in the Jubilee 2000 campaign kept him from giving all his time to the recording
• Bono worked with Lanois and Hal Wilner on The Million Dollar Hotel soundtrack, pausing the sessions for about two months
• The band had aimed to finish in 1999, but the sessions ran long and conflicting schedules caused delays
• After rushing Pop to meet a set deadline, U2 chose not to set a deadline for this album

Recording

• Over three weeks in late 1998, U2, Eno, and Lanois recorded demos at Hanover Quay Studios
• "Kite" was one of the few quality ideas from those brief sessions
• The Edge worked alone on song ideas before the band reunited at Hanover Quays
• The band recorded with the mentality of a "band in a room playing together", which produced a more stripped-down sound
• Tim Palmer mixed key songs: "Elevation" and "New York" in Dublin, and "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" in Los Angeles
• Sessions took place in several Dublin studios

Cover

• Photo taken by long-time U2 photographer Anton Corbijn at Roissy Hall 2F of Charles de Gaulle Airport in Paris
• The same location was used for the music video of "Beautiful Day"
• A single monochrome image of the band, contrasting with the colourful sleeves of the 1990s records
• At the band's request, the airport sign was changed from F21-36 to J33-3, a hidden reference to Jeremiah 33:3
• Bono called the reference "God's phone number"

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• U2 are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1976 by teenage pupils of Mount Temple Comprehensive School.
• Members: Bono (lead vocals), the Edge (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Adam Clayton (bass), Larry Mullen Jr. (drums).
• The band was first named Feedback, then The Hype, and in March 1978 took the name U2.
• They won the Pop Group '78 talent contest in Limerick and signed with Island Records in 1980.

Career

• Debut album Boy (1980); War (1983) was their first UK number-one album.
• The Joshua Tree (1987) made them international stars and was their greatest critical and commercial success, selling about 25 million copies.
• The band reinvented their sound in the 1990s with Achtung Baby (1991) and the Zoo TV Tour.
• Their 2009–2011 360° Tour held records for the highest-grossing concert tour until 2019.
• In 2023 they released Songs of Surrender and began the U2:UV Achtung Baby Live residency at Sphere in Las Vegas.
• Estimated record sales: about 170 million worldwide; 22 Grammy Awards; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees (2005).

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• The album received mostly positive reviews from critics
• Metacritic average of 79 from 17 reviews, indicating "generally favourable reviews"
• Rolling Stone's James Hunter declared it "U2's third masterpiece", alongside The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby
• Entertainment Weekly's David Browne called it "as unwaveringly assured as Pop was tentative"
• Browne said the record "focuses on songs, not sonic gimmicks"
• The Boston Globe's Steve Morse praised the songs as tying together well, a change from the disjointed 1993 and 1997 discs
• Morse said Bono's lyrics were the most thoughtful, personal, and tender U2 songs in memory
• The Village Voice's Robert Christgau felt the album dropped the artsier tendencies of earlier work for hooky pop songs
• AllMusic's Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it "a clever and craftsmanlike record"
• USA Today's Edna Gundersen wrote that the band distilled its experiments into smart accents, driven by simplicity and soul
• The Guardian's Adam Sweeting said it was the most accessible and emotional recording since Achtung Baby
• NME's April Long called it "a laudable achievement" while noting it was a little dull
• The A.V. Club's Stephen Thompson found it inconsistent, splitting about 50–50 between soaring hits and dispiriting misses

Reappraisal

• Uncut's Stephen Deusner gave the 20th anniversary re-release seven out of 10
• Deusner found the material falters in the last third and called the B-sides "dull", while praising the live tracks
• AllMusic's updated review called the remasters the "centrepiece" of the re-release

Records

• Debuted at number three on the Billboard 200 with 427,826 copies sold in its first week
• Number one in 32 countries, including Canada, where first-week sales reached 71,470
• Nielsen SoundScan counted 4.4 million copies sold in the US through March 2014
• Total sales over 12 million, the fourth-highest-selling U2 album
• Seven Grammy Awards for the album and its singles
• "Beautiful Day" and "Walk On" each won Record of the Year, in 2001 and 2002
• Ranked 139th on Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time in 2003 and 280th in the 2012 update
• Seventh-best album of 2000 in the Pazz & Jop poll

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• A laptop holding the album's lyrics was taken from Bono's car parked outside Dublin's Clarence Hotel, and Bono offered a reward of £2,000 for its return
• The Irish man who bought the laptop for £300 realised who it belonged to after seeing Bono's son Elijah Hewson on screen
• "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of" was written by Bono for his friend Michael Hutchence, the lead singer of INXS, who died in 1997
• The Edge's guitar tone on "Beautiful Day" came from a sound he had not used much since the 1983 album War, and it made it into the final song
• The album was banned in Burma because "Walk On" was dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi
• The single version of "Elevation" was the "Tomb Raider Mix", which appeared in television commercials for the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider movie

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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