*1/2 WE WILL FOLLOW: A TRIBUTE TO U2

(Cleopatra)

This tribute wants to immortalize or stick a fork in the Dublin lads but ends up just making you pity them. Anthemic guitar ballads like "With or Without You" and "Pride" achieve a majestic grandeur in their original forms, but when channeled by Erasure clones Heaven 17 and industrial punk outfit Razed in Black, respectively, they come off as pencil-necked and limp. Plenty of good bands have been influenced by Bono and the boys, and none of them is included here. Instead of Radiohead and Smashing Pumpkins we get . . . Tiffany? The snarky-voiced Britney precursor tries to play Madonna to Front Line Assembly's Massive Attack on an industrial techno "New Year's Day," but don't expect any windows to steam. On this and nearly every other track, the questing spirit and arch sense of humor that make U2 matter are obscured in a vaguely '80s synth fog. The singers try to work in something snide and sexy but mostly sound lost, and they miss the romantic sincerity that is the key to the U2 kingdom. There's a fashionably pretty "October" by Rosetta Stone that feels like Moby in mellow mode, but this is decidedly subpar stuff even by today's incredibly low tribute-album standards.

-- Joe Manera