Bono's breathy, dramatic singing and the Edge's ringing guitar became the sound of idealistic yearning in 1980's rock, but success had brought excess.

Instead of the ringing guitars that had been the U2 trademark, the sound on record and on stage is murky and distorted, recalling much of the industrial dance music being produced these days in Europe.

The music - the crashing eighth-notes of the drums, the ringing acoustic guitar, the brutal bass line - and the lights served only to emphasize the vocals (not the meaning of the words but the power of the singing).

The ringing guitars and British-styled alternative pop of Riverside echoed the Anglophiliac passions of another Pennsylvania combo, the Ocean Blue.

Pink Floyd's reverberations, the Police's new wave dexterity, U2's ringing guitar, the Who's power chords and Deep Purple's riffs all find their way into the songs.

They also praised the composition, saying that "it's great to hear the piano and strings creeping in and the ringing guitars have a pleasing quality."

Still, it wasn't traditional music at all; it was a samba pulse surrounded by a ringing electric guitar and hoarsely declaimed vocals.

Quiet ringing guitars are offset by heavy drums, owing as much musically to the Sisters of Mercy as it does to Nine Inch Nails.

James borrows U2's ringing guitars, earnest vocals and martial beat, while the lyrics proffer self-pity and promises of consolation.

The recording features Hank Garland's ringing guitar and Boots Randolph's swinging solo sax break.