As U2 went through the arduous process of making its latest album, All That You Can't Leave Behind, the Irish quartet was on something of a mission. "We knew this was a record that was against the odds," explains frontman Bono. "We thought, 'We gotta make something that feels really pleasant, that's not about what's fashionable this week but what's about the moment we're in right now.'

"We were up against it, and I think there's a feeling that rock music isn't up to what's going on--the challenge of R&B and hip-hop. And we just want to say nay to that and [say], 'Write better tunes than us, then, whoever you are.' That was sort of the attitude of the record."

A little attitude can go a long way--and in U2's case, it has. Debuting at number three on the Billboard Top 200 (and number one in the U.K.) when it was released just over six months ago, All That You Can't Leave Behind has sold more than 2 million copies, while the first single, "Beautiful Day," helped the group snare three Grammy Awards.

In other words, mission accomplished.

All of this has launched something of a renaissance for Bono (real name: Paul Hewson) and his bandmates--guitarist the Edge (Dave Evans), bassist Adam Clayton, and drummer Larry Mullen Jr.--a reassurance that the outfit Rolling Stone once dubbed "the band of the '80s" is still vital nearly 25 years after its formation in Dublin.

"As a band, we thrive on discovering new ground," says the Edge. But he adds that U2 also guards steadfastly against gratuitous reinvention. "I just hate rules. I hate any sense that there are real absolutes when you're being creative. I think you have to follow your creative instincts; you have to go with what feels right, and in the end, your ears are the judge. If something is really working and connecting with you, I never doubt it."

That philosophy has served U2 well throughout its career. Taking its lead from classic figures like the Beatles and the Rolling Stones and punk heroes like the Clash and Patti Smith, the quartet emerged like a blast furnace out of Ireland, with a new generation of anthems ("I Will Follow," "Pride," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For"), an unapologetic dedication to the Christian faith, a keen political awareness, and a fiery passion that more than compensated for occasional indulgences into righteous self-seriousness.

But U2 proved a shiftless operation, too, achieving its greatest success with 1987's The Joshua Tree and then determinedly spending the past decade messing with its sound on releases such as Achtung Baby, Zooropa, an anonymous ambient side-venture as the Passengers, and then 1997's Pop, another experimental effort the group now admits wasn't quite completed to its satisfaction. "I love that idea that you can start again, that you don't have to go down the same route. You can turn right or left or keep going. Probably the only thing you can't do is stay still." -- Bono


Pop did well--it debuted at number one in the U.S. and was a worldwide hit--and the subsequent PopMart tour was a visually dazzling, often tongue-in-cheek stadium affair. The band even launched the album with an appearance at a New York City K-Mart outlet. Bono explains that he and his bandmates felt a need to deconstruct and deflate the almost mythic image that existed around U2 during the late '80s, but he acknowledges that they "might have tested our audience's sense of humor too far."

"I think there were, at times, other things we were interested in following," adds the Edge, 39, who's married to Morleigh Steinberg, the belly dancer from the 1992 Zoo TV tour. "Sometimes that was pushing the envelope of what it is to be a rock 'n' roll band to, in some instances, deconstructing the band and building it with other aesthetics: Industrial music was an influence for Achtung Baby, and for Pop it was more trip-hop and hip-hop.

"On [All That You Can't Leave Behind], I think we made a very direct record, a record that didn't have any kind of artifice...that was stripped to the bone in every sense," the Edge continues. "But I don't want to give you the impression that this record was a safe record; it is very innovative for us, but in a different way. The aesthetic focus of this record was keeping it simple--not too many textures, not too many other kinds of distractions. Just keep it simple to the band and to the point; the idea was an exploration of the chemistry of the band playing together."

That's also the focus of U2's Elevation world tour, which kicked off during late March in Miami and is working its way through North America before heading to Europe for the summer. It generally eschews the stadium spectacle of the Zoo TV and PopMart tours of the '90s, but as the Edge points out, "It's not exactly a couple of colored lights and a bare stage." In fact, the Elevation show combines U2's fire 'n' brimstone ceremonies of the '80s with some visual extravaganza. U2 is playing underneath four video screens--each concentrating on a different member of the band--and in front of a shimmering video-effects wall, with a heart-shaped ramp encircling part of the general admission crowd standing on the floor.

"I think perhaps on our last tour, some of the songs did get swallowed up, to be fair," acknowledges Bono, 41, who flew back to Dublin for the birth of his fourth child during a recent break in the tour. "That's not gonna happen this time. It's...about the band and not the spectacle, though I still want to make it special. I still think if people are going out to see you in an arena, it's your job to blow their minds."

The Edge is particularly happy with the ramp, which not only provides a natural separation to prevent a crush on the general admission floor levels but also allows U2 to get closer than ever to its audience. "It's like when I used to go to gigs as a 17-year-old, 18-year-old, in Dublin," he explains. "What I remember is that physical sensation of being down front with a band performing. There's nothing to beat it."

"I love that idea that you can start again," Bono says, "that you don't have to go down the route that is prepared for you, or that you may have in the past prepared for yourself--that you can turn right or left or keep going. Probably the only thing you can't do is stand still, really."

U2 has no plans for doing that, either. The Edge expects the Elevation tour to be extended, including another romp through the States later this year, but he says that the enjoyment of making All That You Can't Leave Behind has stoked U2's creative fires and has the group "really itching to get back into the studio. There's something very attractive to us right now about ending the tour this year and being able to get back to make another record pretty quick. Whenever we go into the studio, we're trying to make the same album; it's that mythical perfect record, and of course we never do, but that's why we go to make another one each time. And I'd say we'll probably be heading for the studio or in to start writing some songs with that exact same purpose in mind.

"And who knows--maybe we'll actually do it this time."