U2 seems to have become to rock music what Ernest Hemingway is to literature. Ever since The Joshua Tree, they've been the gold standard, scoring critical and commercial hits with Achtung Baby, All That You Can't Leave Behind, and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. While I own five U2 albums, I've never really been gaga over any of them. Up to now I've viewed them in the same way I view Bruce Springsteen--something I should appreciate, even if it doesn't move me to my core.Things have changed though with No Line on the Horizon, the first U2 album I'm happy to report I really enjoy. It's enough to make me want to revisit the rest of their catalog and see if I can discover what everyone else has always thought was so wonderful.
The first half of the album is particularly impressive, especially the first two tracks. "No Line on the Horizon" has an assertive beat over synths and fuzzy guitars and a vaguely Middle Eastern melody. It's a really fantastic opening track, even if the lyrics are a head-scratcher ("You could hear the universe in her sea shells"...okay Bono). Second track "Magnificent" is even better, its layered rhythms of guitar, drums, synths and sonic build-up are very typical U2, which isn't a bid thing when the band is in as good a form as they are here. This must be the next single, for to deprive radio of this song would be a sin. Can't you already see the kaleidescopic video?
"Moment of Surrender" slows the tempo down, but not the intensity, with Bono's vocals sounding very strained--like it takes him every bit of possible effort to push the lyrics out. Much of U2's music is like that, as if they are putting every bit of themselves possible into what aren't just song but grand gestures. "Unknown Caller" is another high point. It's a song about breaking free, utilizing as many metaphors as possible, including Mac parlance ("force quit and move to trash"). A choir of voices punch up the chorus, and church organ and horns add an extra umph to the bridge, a real feat considering how "big" U2's sound is throughout the rest of the song.
The middle section of the album consists of three songs that are its most upbeat, but also its weakest. The best of these is "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight," which features a winning guitar/strings combo and offers up some great lyrics "every beauty needs to go out with an idiot," "the right to be ridiculous is something I hold dear." "Get on Your Boots" is a head-scratcher of a first single. It's not bad, but there are certainly better singles here than it, and it's underperformed dramatically, hitting only #12 on the UK singles chart, a real failure when you consider that every U2 album since Rattle & Hum has had it's first single hit #1 (except Zooropa, where "Numb" was not given a single release). Still, I like it better than "Stand Up Comedy," which is my least favorite song on the album, if only because it doesn't have anything particularly special going for it.
"FEZ-Being Born" begins the album's final, darkest chapter, opening with a sinister synths and beats melody while lines from "Get on Your Boots" float in and out. The sound of a radio being tuned marks the transition to the song proper, a sharp guitar, piano, and synths number with long instrumental stretches. The dark mood continues on "White as Snow," the album's slowest song about a soldier dying in Afghanistan set to the melody of a traditional hymn. "Breathe" lightens the third act's mood with a good dose of up-tempo guitar rock, before the album settles into its lovely Radiohead-like closer, "Cedars of Lebanon." It's a brooding way to finish the album, told again from someone else's point of view--this time a foreign correspondent reporting from a troubled place.
On "Magnificent," Bono sings "I was born to sing for you," a bit trite, but it's hard to argue with. Thirty years into their career now, with No Line on the Horizon the band proves, amid formidable competition from Coldplay in particular, that they still deserve the mantle of the world's greatest rock band. Best album of the year so far.
Best: Magnificent, No Line on the Horizon, Unknown Caller, Moment of Surrender, I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight, Cedars of Lebanon, FEZ-Being Born
