The Best Of 1990-2000 & B-Sides
U2's second decade often seemed as preoccupied with the band's burgeoning superstardom--and how to confront/confound it--as it did with creating music. The band managed only four albums during the era (only of half its '80s output), projects whose gestations seemed perennially plagued by turmoil as much as mercurial creative instincts. But as this rewarding, 30-track double-disc anthology (and bonus DVD) chronicles, U2 ultimately managed a considerable feat: producing a memorable, lasting body of work in a decade when one of pop music's chief attributes was its disposability. Disc one mixes hits like "Mysterious Ways" and "One" with seductive soundtrack cuts (the title track to Wim Wenders'sUntil the End of the World,Batman Forever's "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me"), new mixes of "Discotheque," "Staring at the Sun," and "Numb," and a pair of strong new tracks, the Orbit mix of "Electrical Storm" and "The Hands that Built America," the title track from Martin Scorsese'sGangs of New York. The second disc compiles the band's more experimental B-sides from the epoch (many of them remixes), and offers up a concise encapsulation of the band's fascination with--and shrewd incorporation of--electronica and club music. The bonus DVD contains a generous collection of videos of songs from disc one, along with alternate versions, director commentaries, additional bonus tracks such as "If God Will Send His Angels" and "Lemon," as well as a mini-documentary of the band's historic 1997 Bosnian concert,The Road to Sarajevo.--Jerry McCulley