Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Aggregate scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Metacritic | (79/100) |
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Chicago Sun-Times | |
| Entertainment Weekly | A |
| The Guardian | |
| Hot Press | (11/12) |
| New Zealand Herald | |
| NME | (7/10) |
| Pitchfork Media | (5.0/10) |
| Q | |
| Rolling Stone | |
"All That You Can't Leave Behind is easy to relate to, full of solid songs that appeal to a wide audience with its clear notions of family, friendship, love, death, and re-birth. ...the sounds on this album come from a band that has digested the music it started to consume while making Rattle and Hum. This time they are neither imitating or paying tribute. This time it's soul music, not music about soul."
—Caroline van Oosten de BoerThe album was generally well received by critics and the public, debuting at #1 in 32 countries (#3 in the United States). Many critics, such as Rolling Stone magazine, declared it as "U2's third masterpiece", alongside The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. Steve Morse of The Boston Globe said the record "has great songs that tie together beautifully—a welcome change from the disjointed nature of U2 discs such as 1993's Zooropa and 1997's Pop". He believed that Bono took extra care in crafting the lyrics, resulting in the "most thoughtful, personal, and tender U2 songs in memory". Robert Christgau gave it an A−, saying, "The feat's offhandedness is its most salient charm and nagging limitation. If I know anything, which with this band I never have, their best."
The first single released was "Beautiful Day", which reached #1 in the UK single charts (which tracks the popularity of individual songs) and in most European countries, Canada and Australia. All That You Can't Leave Behind became the fourth-highest-selling U2 album, with total sales of over 12 million. The album holds an average critic score of 79/100 on Metacritic.
Read more about this topic: All That You Can't Leave Behind
Famous quotes containing the word reception:
“He’s leaving Germany by special request of the Nazi government. First he sends a dispatch about Danzig and how 10,000 German tourists are pouring into the city every day with butterfly nets in their hands and submachine guns in their knapsacks. They warn him right then. What does he do next? Goes to a reception at von Ribbentropf’s and keeps yelling for gefilte fish!”
—Billy Wilder (b. 1906)
“Satire is a sort of glass, wherein beholders do generally discover everybody’s face but their own; which is the chief reason for that kind of reception it meets in the world, and that so very few are offended with it.”
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745)
“I gave a speech in Omaha. After the speech I went to a reception elsewhere in town. A sweet old lady came up to me, put her gloved hand in mine, and said, “I hear you spoke here tonight.” “Oh, it was nothing,” I replied modestly. “Yes,” the little old lady nodded, “that’s what I heard.””
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)