In U2’s efforts to be universally appealing they’ve always had a tendency to go epic on every jam, shooting for the stars – with varying results over the years. Their relentless desire to run their sound through a modern trend filter has always paid off in sales, but with an ’80s revival in full swing these days it serves them well to reach back to their glory days. They’ve done just that on No Line On The Horizon, their 12th studio album and easily their best offering this side of the Y2K bug – and arguably since Achtung Baby.
I decided that for an honest review of this record I’d have to revisit their older albums, get away from the glitzpop of the past five albums and back to the U2 that are worth giving a damn about. For the first time since moving to Los Angeles I pulled out my massive, dusty bin of obsolete coasters and ripped the U2 album catalogue to my hard drive last night, working my way through the gems that drew me like a moth to fire in the first place: I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For, New Year’s Day, Bullet The Blue Sky, Streets Have No Name, Please, etc. These were the sounds that resonated with me as a kid; the beautifully bold, the unabashed sense of complete dedication to the moment, conveying both an urgency and compelling purity of heart that was undistracted and undeterred by superficial peripherals. In other words: way, way before Pop.
It only took one song back then. Bad is what sold me on U2. The rolling reverb of the guitar, the rising sound, the bleeding passion and vitality- it’s entirely what set them apart for me when I was a kid. When Bono screamed “I’m wide awake!” it hit my core like a tuning fork. You’d think, then, that I’d have a similar sentiment for Unknown Caller, which features a riff with nearly identical features and effects- but some molds are better broken after first use. The choral hook is memorable enough, sure, but the verses don’t pack any real punch. The mix is much different (not to mention the chirping birds), and when the drums come in I’m again reminded that this album will probably sound fantastic on vinyl.
The title track opens the album with full colors flying, an Eno-stamped synth wave under a swarming polyrhythmic undercurrent that opens just wide enough to meet Bono’s envigorated entrance, hitting the melody just right, his “OoOoOoOoOhoo” dovetailing each phrase before a two-breath chorus. The Edge’s familiar swirling rhythm comes through with a chopping riff on the second verse, upping the ante, and the band matches him, kicking into a fourth and fifth gear, leaving no stone of ambition unturned on a song that singlehandedly exceeds anything this side of All That You Can’t Leave Behind.
Between No Line and the big-buildup love anthem Magnificent, it’s hard not to imagine Chris Martin alternating between furiously scribbling notes and masturbating like a chimp on ecstasy. It’s not a pretty picture.
Redemption comes, ironically enough, in The Moment Of Surrender, a delicate, ambient epic that feels a fraction of its actual length, with a syncopated beat that throws a net out to any Radiohead fans tuning in, something entirely new to Larry Mullen’s repertoire. It’s not out to save the world and thus doesn’t outreach itself, with added points for keeping Bono’s ego relatively in check here in both lyrics and melody, mercifully not outshining the beauty that drew us to his voice in the first place. In fact, the only times he really reaches into the nauseating pop-retard lyrical designs is in Get On Your Boots and Stand Up Comedy (in which he compares his ego to a small child crossing an eight-lane highway), which relates directly to No Line’s listenability from end to end.
The rolling, rumbling drums, bursting guitar and piano plunking of Breathe recalls powerful memories of the Who, and Bono’s breathless vocals are both urgent and cool/casual, but by the time the chorus rolls around the magic has somehow dried up, like a puddle in the searing heat of mediocrity. It becomes an overreaching, unnecessarily melodramatic piece that’s way too familiar, a disappointing downturn for one of the more powerful openings on the album.
The Edge’s tone has never sounded meaner and the percussion is magnetic, but our impressions of Get On Your Boots were forever ruined by the Grammy performance a few weeks back. It would fit well on Pop, but what does that tell you? Not too much. I also want to call cheese on I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight, especially given the intro’s suspiciously strong similarity to Journey’s Faithfully, but it’s a little overloaded, despite beautiful low-end strings in the breakdown and the endearing baby baby baby / I know I’m not alone.
The war-correspondent narrative of Cedars Of Lebanon and the folk-adaptation White As Snow feature Bono’s most naked vocals, stripped of grandeur that keeps us in our spectator seats rather than a part of the moment. The two songs’ greatest strengths come in the fact that, while they may swell, they never break, never crash, never deliver a cheap payoff for the listener to go out on. It’s the reflective energy that pulls you in, holding you in its majesty until you decide to leave it on your own. There’s no moment of separation from artist and audience on these tracks- we’re along for the ride, living the poem, tasting the dust in the air as the layered one-line chorus of Return the call to home resonates like a bell on Cedars.
“If this isn’t our best album, we’re irrelevant,” Bono declared recently, and while you can’t blame the guy for being enthusiastic about finally putting out another genuinely good album, it’s fair to say that he’s a little off base. No Line On The Horizon is certainly not U2’s best, but it’s their best in a long, long time. The only significant weakness of the album is that after so many albums and so many hits, we let them get away with tricks they’ve already pulled- sometimes several times over. But while there may be derivatives, it seems the old Dublin boys just needed to be reminded of themselves before they could move forward properly. This one does the trick.
No Line On The Horizon
March 2, 2009
Interscope
1. No Line On The Horizon
2. Magnificent
3. Moment Of Surrender
4. Unknown Caller
5. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
6. Get On Your Boots
7. Stand Up Comedy
8. Fez- Being Born
9. White As Snow
10. Breathe
11. Cedars Of Lebanon
- 01. No Line On The Horizon
- 02. Magnificent
- 03. Moment Of Surrender
- 04. Unknown Caller
- 05. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
- 06. Get On Your Boots
- 07. Stand Up Comedy
- 08. Fez - Being Born
- 09. White As Snow
- 10. Breathe
- 11. Cedars Of Lebanon
Nice review, but I think you’ll find that ‘Please’ is from your dreaded Pop album…
;-)
I know… I was tempted to leave that one out, but that wouldn’t exactly be honest. It’s not that everything they’ve done since Achtung is shit, there’s just a much higher ratio of it on the post- AB albums.
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There isn’t a sole album that I like of U2, the best is a compilation, because every album has about 3 mammoths on it (with the exception of that whole discotek scene) twindling to about one on each of the last albums.
Never considered myself a U2 fan, but went to their *delayed* 2006 concert in Auckland (super props to them keeping their word on that too) the only song I didn’t know was Bullet the Blue Sky. I guess I’m a subconscious fan. Or something.
Good to hear it sounds like they’re returning to their classic stuff, now I want to hear the album.
Oh and: One Tree Hill, FTW! NZ Represent!
Live in London from the BBC Balcony: http://flickr.com/search/?q=u2&s=rec
Decent review Johnny but I wouldn’t say its their best in a long, long time. Its better than Atomic Bomb (which isn’t saying much) and probably on par with ATYCLB. Pop was their last great record IMO. I see you didn’t care for that one much. Johnny, what is it with you and artists and CHANGE.
There are some nice moments here. Tracks 2-4 & 10 stand out to me. Overall I give the record 7/10.
Dear Bono, This is nowhere near your best, but at the same time you guys aren’t irrelevant. One more thing Bono – It’s better than Viva La Vida, for whatever that’s worth.
This is the most underwhelming, linear and souless U2 album I’ve ever heard and they failed miserably in delivering on their promise for something “groundbreaking” and “rock and roll”. I appreciate Eno and Lanois as much as the next person for my life would be incomplete without The Unforgettable Fire, but this album is laced sub-par lyrics (partially thanks to Lanois & Eno), questionable vocals and overdone with synths and keys to the point that I’m not even sure THe Edge showed up for duty. If they truly wanted to shake things up (which my ears really needed after ATYCLB and HTDAAB) then they would have gone for…Brendan O’Brien or Jack White, ffs. That would have rocked the world. This album is stadium adult contemporary. But at the end if the day will I mortage a kidney in order to afford tickets for the shows? Yep.
Gah, and don’t get me started on the “oh oh oh oh oh oh”s on and on ad nauseum in just about every song. There are enough of them in the first song alone for the entire album.
And this I say as I love U2:-).
And don’t you ever paint a picture so disturbing as you did with that limp dicked Chris Martin. Man, it’s getting so that this site might need a disclaimer!
tng: Are you kidding me? Brendan O’Brien? He isn’t capable of holding Eno’s jock. I won’t even address the mention of Jack White- as that’s beyond absurd. If U2 had wanted to make just another rock record they would have stuck with Rick Rubin. Thank god they fired him, as “atmosphere” isn’t in Rick’s vocabulary.
Eno is brilliant. While I agree that the album isn’t groundbreaking or even great, they definitely chose the right producer for the sound they wanted.
As for groundbreaking…Don’t blame U2 – It’s been ages since someone pushed the rock genre, and when they do, people just complain anyways.
John, Jack White may have never happened but there’s nothing absurd about his skills and what he can produce. And Rubin was responsible for the God-awful cotton candy “Windows In The Skies” which was obviously retooled and turned into “Breathe”…these things I may not forgive him for but chances are the album would be a little more lively than the sedative that it is. If U2 had any intention of living up to the hype that they, themselves, created about how amazing and rocking this album would be then they would have gone anywhere, ANYWHERE but towards Eno and Lanois. U2 don’t need atmosphere; they need adrenelin. Badly. But that’s just me.
tng: You make some good points. White is talented, but not a good match for what U2 are seeking IMO.
As for them needing adrenalin…Hmm that’s probably accurate. It’s obvious they don’t want to make a big rocking record, because Eno/Lanois don’t do that type of thing. You bring Eno in for atmosphere and mood. That’s not my issue with the record though. I like the moody stuff -Breathe, Fez & Magnificent. Where they blow it IMO is with the more straightforward stuff. It’s still a decent record, just not the gem they think it is.
“…just not the gem they think it is.” And how. And that’s my issue with it.
That said, I do like Magnificent…the bass, the drums and holy hand claps, Batman! It gives me a disco feel. I’ll be there tomorrow for their LA gig and I’m looking forward to seeing the boys live. And Shirley Manson. If I can understand a word she says.
I think one thing that IS groundbreaking about this cd and experimental is that it is a u2 cd without the big hit. The one anthem. This is a cd that has to be listened to from front to back and actually grows on you. Plus it’s a headphone cd.
I actually listened to the CD the other day from front to back and thought it was worse than I originally thought. The fact that it has no big hits is not an experiment, that’s just the sign of an aging band. Magnificent does seem to be the cut that has the hit potential.
what I meant by the big hit was that u2 albums have a song or 2 that overshadow the whole other cd… this one is more consistant… maybe consistantly shitty in some’s opinion, but that’s neither here nor there. I’m surprised they’re gonna be putting out a new cd this year too after this one as a follow up, like zooropa. I don’t know. like any cd it’s where it hits you in your life. you know. sometimes things resonate with where you’re at in the moment you’re living and this cd, this week anyway is getting a thumbs up from me. next week? who know maybe i’ll come to my senses
U2 is one of my favorite bands. The problem is the bar is set very high for them. The last 2 records just haven’t measured up IMO.
I agree with this review almost entirely- except for the Pop-bashing. :) I agree that Pop isn’t good, but it doesn’t really deserve the horrible reputation critics give it.
No Line On The Horizon made me feel relieved in a way; at least U2 aren’t completely irrelevant. That said, it doesn’t even come close to Joshua/Achtung, etc. But I don’t think anything U2 releases is ever going to reach those standards again. I’m just happy that during this outing, they at least tried to experiment more, even if some of it failed rather miserably.
It’s interesting that you mentioned the syncopation on Moment of Surrender- I’m a huge Radiohead fan, and I was really drawn to the percussion on that track. It’s got kind of a washed-out With or Without You feel to it, but it’s one of my favorites on the album.
“All that you can’t leave behind” is one of my personal fav U2 albums. I really wanted to like NLOTH but, even after repeated listens -I’m still not hearing it. Right now-I think of it as a humdrum “aight. ” I’ve always believed that the best albums grow on you so maybe after some time I’ll change my mind. Have to agree with Porkspam too: my view of certain songs/bands tend to change and deviate depending on where I am mentally. The song remains the same-it’s the listener that changes.
[...] through Summer. The record picks up tracks that were cut from 2009’s underappreciated No Line On The Horizon, and adds other songs that Bono & Co. have been working on and incorporating into concerts [...]
[...] U2 is still working! The record picks up tracks that were cut from 2009’s underappreciated No Line On The Horizon, and adds other songs that Bono & Co. have been working on and incorporating into concerts [...]