“All That You Can’t

Leave Behind”

U2

4/5 StarsIn this ever-evolving rock and roll psychodrama we call “life,” two things remain constant: The Earth still revolves around the sun, and U2 still rocks.

With a 22-year history and over 100 million albums sold since their formation at Dublin’s Mount Temple High School in 1978, this Irish mega-band is back with yet another masterpiece titled “All That You Can’t Leave Behind.”

Surprisingly, U2 can still reach America’s youth. Take, for instance, their previous bubbly album, “Pop,” or their recent performance on MTV’s “TRL,” which pitted the band against a crowd of crazed boy-band loving preteens.

But behind all the promotional fluff is a band with a directive — a band with a mission to bring peace to the world’s hotspots, to stamp out torture and political imprisonment. U2 even petitioned to have Third World debt forgiven and forgotten.

And the best part is this band doesn’t have to do it with all the rage of their political counterparts — Rage Against the Machine.

Just one ringing note of Bono’s stellar voice from the first track “Beautiful Day” is enough to invoke a sense of peace and positive thought.

Yet his aging voice is apparent in many songs in which he can’t quite reach the vocal highs like those of his youth. The beauty is that this adds a touch of surrealism and humanity to the music.

The apparent focus of this album is songcraft and melody. The visceral “Stuck In a Moment You Can’t Get Out Of” and the sweeping planes of “Kite” are absolutely brilliant. And the levels of inspiration that seep from each tune culminate fully on “When I Look At the World.”

The skillful songsmith on this album often gives it a very moody feel. It’s hard to determine if laughing or crying is the best reaction to each of these songs. Whether it’s the Beatles-esque “Wild Honey” or the dark “New York” that turns into an ugly tromp, U2 is riding a politically-powered emotional rollercoaster.

And never before has the line “Peace On Earth” resounded so globally than when Bono sings, “Tell the ones who hear no sound/ Whose sons are living in the ground/ Peace on Earth.”

On “All That You Can’t Leave Behind,” each song comes and goes with a serene, elemental beauty that only exists for minutes, but has lifelong impact and importance.

This album is no “Joshua Tree” or “Achtung Baby.” But coming from a band that continues to reinvent itself on every album, that’s a welcome tradition.

— Kevin Hosbond

“Stankonia”

Outkast

Compare to: Bone Thugs ‘N Harmony, Goodie Mob, 36 Mafia

4 1/2/5 Stars

Sticking with their funkadelic beats and “southern pimp talk”, the duo of Andre 3000 and Big Boi continue to drop knowledge about life’s hardest lessons and everyday events in the “ATL streets” (Atlanta, Ga.) they call home.

After changing the release date for their new album not once, but twice, Outkast finally released their highly-anticipated fourth LP “Stankonia” on Tuesday.

The first single off “Stankonia” is the hard-hitting “B.O.B. (Bombs Over Baghdad).” The Morris Brown College Gospel Choir provides the chant-like background on the track, as Andre 3000 delivers deep lyrics such as, “Be what you wanna be long as you know/ Consequences are given for living/ The fence is too high to jump in jail/ Too low to dig I might just touch Hell, HOT!”

Outkast returns to their roots on “So Fresh, So Clean” and “Red Velvet.” Each song features traditional Outkast beats and vocals by Andre and Big Boi, with “Red Velvet” featuring a rather impressive instrumental mix produced by Earthtone III.

On the non-stop ride titled “Xplosion,” B-Real of Cypress Hill teams up for an appearance with Outkast as he rhymes, “Can I blast who point fingers at me/ Who criticize and talk shit freely/ Fuck XXL you’re a size too small/ I should hire Eminem so we can kill you all.”

The Goodie Mob, Outkast understudies, appear all over the record, with Khujo Goodie rhyming on “Gasoline Dreams”, Big Gipp flowing on “We Luv Deez Hoez”, T-Mo hooking up with Slimm Calhoun and C-Bone on “Gangsta Shit” and Cee-Lo Goodie going off about love (of all things) on “Slum Beautiful.”

Also featured on “Stankonia” is R&B singer Erykah Badu. Badu emerges to sing lead and background vocals on “Humble Mumble,” a track about the trials and tribulations of everyday life. The soliloquy that flows from the mouth of Badu paints an incredible picture about the cycle humans call life.

The song “Ms. Jackson” goes out to “all the baby mamas mama’s” and is dedicated to the issues surrounding welfare, poverty, and the American dream.

“She needs to get a piece of the American Pie and take her bite out/ That’s my house; I’ll disconnect the cable and turn the lights out/ And let her know her grandchild is a baby and not a paycheck,” Big Boi raps. Andre 3000 adds, “You can plan a pretty picnic but you can’t predict the weather, Ms. Jackson.”

The wait for “Stankonia” is finally over — and not a day too soon.

— Jordan Gizzarelli

“Hybrid Theory”

Linkin Park

Compare to: Incubus, Orgy, (hed) p.e.

3.5/5

When a band throws a bunch of different styles of rock music onto one record, it usually means they are still immature and haven’t found their direction as a band yet.

But Southern California-based Linkin Park is an exception to the rule.

Besides the varying guitar styles, major sonic shifting on “Hybrid Theory” is found in vocalists Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda.

The effect of dual vocalists usually sounds pretty cool, except on a few songs in which the voices don’t contrast enough.

With the rapping, singing and yelling coming from all directions, every song sounds different from the rest.

Tracks such as “Points of Authority” and “Crawling” are good examples of this, as they include a variety of vocals while keeping your head moving to the same beat throughout.

There is only one problem with this diversity. When vocals go from sounding like Filter’s Richard Patrick to Orgy’s Jay Gordon to (hed) p.e. rapper Jahred, things can get a little confusing.

But these transformations within the album can also be refreshing. It is possible to listen to the whole record straight through without getting sick of a constantly whiny lead singer or similar-sounding guitar riffs — unlike some other rock bands out there.

Linkin Park show their creativity even more with the amount of sampling and DJ-produced beats they use, blending them just right in the background of the songs.

Though a little confused, Linkin Park’s “Hybrid Theory” finds the band headed in the right direction. After a band makes an album like this, the follow-up is pretty predictable — a little more focused, but just as rocking.

— Kyle Moss

“The ABBA Generation”

A Teens

Compare to: ABBA

1/5 Stars

Why would anyone do an album of ABBA covers that all sound exactly like ABBA? The point of doing covers should be to put one’s own spin on a classic. If listeners want something that sounds exactly like ABBA they can buy something the music industry likes to call ABBA albums. They are out there.

It isn’t like ABBA dropped completely off the map. An album like this might make some sense if ABBA hadn’t been heard from in 50 years and their original recordings were badly damaged, scratchy and made on vinyl. ABBA recordings aren’t like the lost tracks Robert Johnson laid down in some hotel room in the deep South. But then A Teens aren’t Robert Johnson. They aren’t even Robert Downey Jr.

There is not one redeeming track in all 11 of the ABBA covers on “The ABBA Generation.” Their version of “Dancing Queen” sounds exactly like the original. There is no discernible difference — it’s just a bit worse.

“Take a Chance on Me” was a great song and no one ever said, “You know what would make this song better is if it were done at twice the normal speed. Oh, and snotty.” It sounds like a bunch of snotty teenagers trying to imbue something beautiful with plastic feelings.

Why do all the greats die young of overdoses and in plane crashes while pieces of crap like this are just going to live forever?

If you ever needed proof that God is dead, A Teens just provided it. Hasn’t ABBA suffered enough? Why would they give these little rugrats permission to do this to their music?

Go buy “ABBA Gold” or listen to a light-sounds station for an hour because what the A Teens have given us is tantamount to desecration.

—Greg Jerrett