nytimes.com: U2'S next album, due in November, will grapple with two challenges: one musical, one cultural.
On its 2000 album, "All That You Can't Leave Behind," U2 retrenched with the kind of ringing, open-hearted arena rock that had made the band's reputation in the 1980's, deliberately reviving a sound that it had twisted and cloaked for a decade. Over its long career, U2 has made more than one foray away from its youthful anthems, first as it tried to come to terms with rock's American roots and then, in the 1990's, as it layered songs with electronic rhythms and swathed the Edge's guitar in effects and distortion. [
more]
On its 2000 album, "All That You Can't Leave Behind," U2 retrenched with the kind of ringing, open-hearted arena rock that had made the band's reputation in the 1980's, deliberately reviving a sound that it had twisted and cloaked for a decade. Over its long career, U2 has made more than one foray away from its youthful anthems, first as it tried to come to terms with rock's American roots and then, in the 1990's, as it layered songs with electronic rhythms and swathed the Edge's guitar in effects and distortion. [
more] 
