Rattle and Hum is an expression of U2's urge to have it both ways...

'Rattle and Hum is an expression of U2's urge to have it both ways. A sprawling double album that incorporates live tracks, cover versions, collaborations, snippets of other people's music and a passage from a taped interview, the record is an obvious effort to clear the conceptual decks and lower expectations following the multiplatinum success of The Joshua Tree.

But ambition has always been U2's gift and curse, and the band clearly doesn't feel fully comfortable with its sights lowered. Consequently, if amid the rather studied chaos here, you feel moved to draw comparisons with masterpieces of excess like the Beatles' White Album or the Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street, you can be sure that Bono, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. won't mind a bit.

This record doesn't quite ascend to those heights, but U2 does win half the prize. In its inclusiveness and rollicking energy, Rattle and Hum caps the story of U2's rise from Dublin obscurity to international superstardom on a raucous, celebratory note. At the same time, it closes off none of the options the band might want to pursue for its next big move - and, possibly, the album even opens a few doors.'