Elevation (song)


"Elevation" is a song by Irish rock band U2. It is the third track on their tenth studio album, All That You Can't Leave Behind, and was released as the album's third single on 25 June 2001. The song became the band's 16th number-one single in their native Ireland and their second number-one in the Netherlands. It also topped the charts in Canada, and reached the top 10 in Australia, Denmark, Finland, Italy, Norway, Scotland, Spain and the United Kingdom. In 2002, "Elevation" won the Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony. The song lent its namesake to the band's Elevation Tour.

Writing and composition

"Elevation" was inspired by a sound that guitarist the Edge achieved from a vintage effects unit when playing his Gibson SG guitar through a Fender Bassman amplifier. He likened the pedal to "some mad funkadelic thing". Co-producer Daniel Lanois, who had brought the unit to the studio, called it his "secret weapon", saying: "It's like a distortion pedal that has a warp, or a tone control, built on. As you push the pedal down you get the high frequency." Within ten minutes, the Edge developed the riff that inspired the rest of the song. He then programmed a rhythm on a drum machine to which the band started playing and lead singer Bono improvised vocals. For the heavily distorted sound of the song's main guitar riff, the Edge played his instrument through a 1970s Hiwatt amplifier. The wah-wah guitar effect at the end of the song was achieved by filtering the tone through an Electrix Filter Factory sound module. The Edge said that "Elevation" was light relief among a sequence of serious songs on the album that included "Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of", "Kite" and "Walk On", which he collectively described as "farewell songs of one kind of another".

Live performances

The song was played at all 113 concerts in Elevation Tour. Shows would traditionally open under the venue house lights with the Influx Mix of "Elevation" playing as the band's intro music. During live shows during the Vertigo Tour, it was played without drums and bass for the first verse and chorus before the rest of the band joins in. It has been played at almost every U2 concert since it was debuted except for the Innocence + Experience Tour where it was only played sporadically during the B-stage set; it has been played at every show since.

Critical reception

"Elevation" received positive reviews. When reviewing the album, Adam Sweeting from The Guardian praised the song, calling it an "irresistible mix of crude techno and raw guitar-swagger." New Zealand Herald editor Russell Baillie called it a "grand surge" noting the song's guitar and vocals which he described as "churning" and "giddy", respectively. NME was positive toward the song for "the well-exercised U2 template." Along with "Wild Honey" and "Walk On," Entertainment Weekly contributor David Browne called the song "lusty" and stated it has "the charging-horse feel of U2's youth, with a bumpy-noise upgrade courtesy of producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois."
Brent DiCrescenzo of Drowned in Sound gave a negative review of the song, labelling Bono's lyrics as: "slaughters hope with reckless chops of the hackneyed sword."

Legacy

The version of the song released as a single was entitled the "Tomb Raider Mix", differing significantly from the album version, in that it features guitars with a more "hard rock" sound than the electronic-inspired feel of the album version. The drums in the single version are also harder, with additional tambourine included. The name comes from its role in the soundtrack to the movie, . This arrangement is how U2 have performed the song since its release. "Elevation" won the "Grammy Award for Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal" in 2002.
Elevation Partners, a $1.9 billion private equity company of which Bono is a co-founder and managing director, is named after the song. In 2006, when the NFL asked teams to stop using "Rock and Roll " by Gary Glitter as a touchdown song, the New England Patriots chose to use "Elevation"; they used it for the 2006 through 2009 seasons. The song has been used from 2006 to 2008 when the Vancouver Canucks score goals at home; it was used regularly during the 2007 NBA Playoffs and before kickoff at Colorado Rapids games. "Elevation" appeared on the soundtrack to the video game NBA 2K13. The song appeared in the series The Sopranos and Smallville
"Elevation" is played during the opening of the popular Machinima series Clear Skies.

Music video

The music video for "Elevation" was directed by Joseph Kahn and is one of the most expensive music videos ever filmed. It was shot at the backlot area of Universal Studios Hollywood better known as Studio Tour.
Set with Lara Croft along with Bono and a rescue of the Edge from his "evil twin brother", the video begins with Bono receiving a phone call from his evil counterpart known as "evil Bono", who states that they have captured The Edge and demands for "the key". The evil counterpart announces that Bono himself is surrounded before ending with the words "not even Lara Croft can help you now", which puzzles Bono. After escaping several of the "evil U2's" murder attempts, the band reunites and performs a "rock-off" against their evil counterparts, which ends with the "good U2" emerging victorious. The video ends with the "good U2" walking with Lara from the scene to a place with levitating cars and a, ending with a Boeing 747-400 flying overhead before fading to black.
The video was released as a digital DVD, the band's first, on 16 July 2001. It was later featured on the Lara Croft: Tomb Raider DVD, as a special feature. The making of the video was shown on MTV's Making the Video.

Formats and track listings

Credits and personnel

U2
Additional performers
Technical

Weekly charts

Year-end charts