It's a dangerous world U2 lives in--a world of new possibilities and tragic endings, a world of naïve dreams and shattered realities. It's a brutal world faced with brutal honesty. All That You Can't Leave Behind is a collection of snapshots of pain and love and beauty and death, juxtaposed beside one another in a scrapbook of humanity. With broad, passionate strokes they paint themes throughout their works, placing moments of human misery inside giant swirls of religious ecstasy and hope. Grace pervades this album, not only in the lyrics, but from the first soaring chorus of 'Beautiful Day,' through the soulful meandering of 'In a Little While,' to the album's concluding chords, grace drips from each note of the Edge's guitar as surely as Bono's lips. Just as 'Love Is Blindness' and 'The Wanderer' punctuated the themes of their respective albums (Achtung Baby and Zooropa), 'Grace' plays on the homonymous aspect of the woman's name and the religious nomenclature to reinforce the way the album (and all of the band's recent work) blends sensual sexuality with sublime divinity. In doing so, U2 joins a tradition of great poets and lovers like John Dunne, St. Theresa of Avila, and Solomon.

Then again, U2 (and U2 fans) are often accused of being self-important.

Despite rumors to the contrary, this album does not return to anything U2 has done before. They have, however, put down the masks of Kierkegaardian deception after a decade of mocking the musical world and Western culture through cartoonish mega-tours and tongue-in-cheek media stunts. The passion and "the sound" that define U2 no longer hide behind alter-egos and flying Trabants. U2 is again naked to the world. Maybe that is why it hurts to listen to this album. You don't have to be religious to recognize the pain when Bono laments "I think of you and your holy book / While the rest of us choke / Tell me, tell me, what do you see? / Tell me, tell me, what's wrong with me?" in 'When I Look at the World.'

'Beautiful Day,' the first single from the new album, and 'Walk On' soar like music can (but usually doesn't). 'Elevation' is as sexy, rollicking, and rocking as anything U2 has written. I'm still scratching my head over 'Peace on Earth' and 'Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of'--as my roommate said, would I like this song if it wasn't by U2? Bono's aneurism-inducing yearning on 'Kite' should provide fans with months of material for pyscho-analyzing the lead singer. 'Walk On' is reminiscent of brawny singles like 'Starring at the Sun' and 'Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.' But the real gem of the album is 'In a Little While,' a seductive and bittersweet love song a la Van Morrison. Thirty years from now, when young musicians examine their roots, this song should stand out as one of the great U2 songs, although it will probably never meet the popularity of their big radio singles.

The problem with so much radio-music today is not that the songs use catchy hooks or the artists are manufactured to sell copies of Rolling Stone--which are both true--but that the music never goes anywhere. The repetition drains the imagination as the lyrics drain the soul. On All That You Can't Leave Behind, U2 takes these same pop conventions that keep boy bands and half-dressed 16-year-olds on the top of the charts, infuses good old-fashioned rock egotism and religious hedonism, and produces music for the body, mind, and soul. It is music that fuels the optimism of we the cynics and suggests hope to we the distraught.

Then again, U2 (and U2 fans) are often accused of being self-important. (Timothy Y.)