“I'm just tryin' to find a decent melody,” Bono sings in “Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of,” one of 11 new songs on U2's new CD.

        This time, he's found what he's looking for. All That You Can't Leave Behind is a long-overdue return to form.

        Despite its Halloween release, the disc presents U2 stripped of its Pop masks, abandoning that album's musical disguises for the transparently emotional sound of 1987's Joshua Tree.

        Joshua Tree producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois are back, and Bono's voice is again front and center. The Edge's guitar is pointedly supportive, from jagged riffs to swooping slide.

        Even better, instead of Pop's feeble commentary on American culture, Bono's again dealing with love, betrayal, passion and grace.

        “Beautiful Day” opens the disc on an ambivalent, note. “You thought you'd found a friend to take you out of this place, someone you could lend a hand in return for grace,” Bono sings, leading to the chorus, “It's a beautiful day, the sky falls ... Don't let it get away.”

        But U2 also lightens up. “Wild Honey” is playfully erotic, as Bono reminisces on past lives — “I was a monkey stealing honey from a swarm of bees. I could taste you even then.”

        He does put on a few vocal masks, sounding a bit like John Lennon on the Beatle-esque “Peace on Earth,” and he opens “New York” in Lou Reed's gruff monotone.

        The disc ends with the elegiac “Grace,” a dreamlike musing on Grace as a real woman and “a thought that changed the world.” It's an optimistic finish for a CD that brings back one of rock's best bands. “What once was hurt ... no longer stings. Because Grace makes beauty out of ugly things.”
       U2
       All That You Can't Leave Behind
       Interscope; 3 1/2 stars

        $18.98 CD; $12.98 cassette

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