This was one of my very first albums. I was listening to it before I even knew what I was listening to. I remember listening to it in middle school on a Sony Walkman, and a kid I didn't like very much asked what I was listening to. I told him, and his judgemental reply was, "Ah! Alternative, eh?" That's when I realized that what you listen to can come to define you both to yourself as well as others. This album is NOT alternative. This is U2 at the height of their popular success. I would argue that since 1998, they have been trying to recapture the magic they harnessed more than ten years before on this album.