U2’s latest album has been hailed as a masterpiece in such publications as Entertainment Weekly and Rolling Stone. It’s also been dismissed as something close to tuneless garbage by Time, Pitchfork and many in the blogosphere.
What we seem to have here is the old love-it-or-hate-it situation…. all or nothing. Except that I, well, like it. It is definitely not tuneless garbage, but neither is it on par with the band’s best work (The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, or even their last two studio albums).
I’m a little perplexed by the extremes of opinion in this case. The album is straightforward enough… it’s nothing like Radiohead’s Kid A, for example, which substituted electronic noise for actual songs — these tunes are catchy and similar in style to U2’s other work. But on the flip side, none of these songs approaches the grand elegance of ‘Where the Streets Have No Name,’ ‘So Cruel’ or [Fill in your favorite U2 song here].
No Line on the Horizon certainly sounds good. Working closely with producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno (so closely they gave both men songwriting credit on the tracks), U2 has crafted a stately and dense soundscape on which to build their songs. Bono’s voice, too, is in fine form — soaring here, whispering there, milking every word for all it’s worth.
The best songs are sprinkled around the album: third track ‘Moment of Surrender’ is a hypnotic epic; middle track ‘I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight’ is a rousing singalong; and closing out the album are ‘White as Snow,’ ‘Breathe’ and ‘Cedars of Lebanon,’ a powerful triple shot that touch on politics and war.
‘Cedars of Lebanon’ contains some of the album’s best lyrics, including these compelling final lines:
Make them interesting ‘cos in some ways they will mind you
They’re not there in the beginning but when your story ends
Gonna last with you longer than your friends
I don’t consider myself a huge U2 fan, but I was surprised to realize recently that No Line on the Horizon is the 8th album of theirs I’ve owned, going back 25 years. So they must be doing something right. Here’s a band in their 29th year of recording who can still top the charts and sell out arenas. Whether their latest is the best or worst thing they’ve ever done, or somewhere in between, it’s hard not to respect them for the very fact of it.
White as Snow:
Breathe:
Moment of Surrender:
Meet Me In Montauk 
What if you have no favorite to insert in the blank provided above? How is that I have managed to be aware (vaguely or otherwise) of this band since at least the day you started incessantly playing The Joshua Tree yet have never formed a strong opinion about any of their music.
I like Bono. I like his look, his voice, his involvement in the whole “BandAid” spectacle. I LOVED his introduction of Bob Marley into the Hall of Fame and found myself smitten with his ability to use words, regardless of my desire to hear him sing them, from that point on. Looking for that introduction (“Prophet. Soul rebel. Rastaman. Herbsman. Wildman. A natural, mystic man. Lady’s man. Island man. Family man. Rita’s man. Soccer man. Showman. Shaman. Human. Jamaican!” was the part I best remembered) just now, I found great introductions he gave for Frank Sinatra and Bruce Springsteen. Clearly I was not alone in wanting this man to become the defacto master of every ceremony.
Still, I wouldn’t know they had a new album out if not for your blog, and I wouldn’t care. What’s up with that?
I think it just means you’re not a music fan the way you’re a movie fan.
You know when Martin Scorsese has a new movie out, even if you have no plans to see it. But you probably don’t even know when some of your favorite artists are coming out with new albums.
I’m not surprised I didn’t know they had a new album coming out. I just wonder why I don’t have a suggestion when you ask me to (insert favorite song here)
That’s because Dana isn’t a U2 fan and I’m not a big enough fan to be evangelical about them.
I bet ‘Joe Music Listener’ doesn’t have a favorite Joe Jackson, Elvis Costello or Ben Folds song, but you have all three because you were exposed to them through us.