Even the most creatively restless of rock bands can't neglect their original muse, a lesson U2 ably learned and redressed on this 2000 album (and yet again on its even more successful cousin, How To Build An Atomic Bomb). After seeming to lose considerable focus in the '90s with such trendy, if occasionally rambling Bono-led reinventions as Zooropa and Pop, U2 reunited here with Eno and Daniel Lanois, the production team that had helped shape them into epochal legends in the '80s. The results are immediately heralded by the return of Edge's ringing guitar tones on the transcendent international hit "It's a Beautiful Day," yet the album is also expansive enough to incorporate the more recent rave textures of "Elevation" and gospel-tinged "Stuck in a Moment." - iTunes
