After a few listens, here’s my opinion of No Line On The Horizon. I disagree with the reviewers who have panned the album, and agree with Rolling Stone, that this is U2’s best effort since, Achtung Baby. Unlike Rolling Stone, I believe this effort is a four and a half star effort, not a five star effort though. I “reserve the right to let this album grow on me, and raise my rating to five stars,” and certainly like the album enough to purchase it on vinyl. :) If you want to know every detail about U2’s latest release, there is a great No Line On The Horizon entry on Wikipedia.
CHECK OUT THE ALBUM ON:
TRACK BY TRACK BREAK DOWN
1. No Line On The Horizon- Opens with a shoegaze style fuzz, moves to an almost Moroccan influence in the middle, then to an alternation between quieter choruses, more bursts of shoegaze glory, and Bono singing, “Oh, Oh, Oh!”
2. Magnificent- Begins with heavy Clayton bass, new wavy/techno style keys, and goes straight into a classic U2 style lick and vocal. “Only love can leave such a mark. Only love can leave such a scar,” sings Bono.
3. Moment of Surrender- Starts with electro percussion infused with live drumming and spacey keys. Moves into what I will call a cool “movie soundtrack style bridge.” Here, Bono, is “playing with fire until the fire plays with me...It’s not if I believe in love, if love believes in me.” From these lyrics, Bono must spend much time at ATM machines. If there were still radio stations, this would get many spins in rotation. :)
4. Unknown Caller- Ethereal “Edge style” guitar leads to warm Mullen drum fills, and straight into a guitar break and chorus from “U2 Heaven.” Bono, “was lost between the midnight and the dawning.” Track could easily be an outtake from Achtung Baby
5. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight- “She’s a rainbow and she loves the peaceful life.” Designed with the ever declining radio audience in mind, I think, this is the worst cut on the album. Designed for commercial acceptance to the point that it screams, “PLAY ME! PUT ME IN HEAVY ROTATION!” Has a cool break in the middle eight with what sounds like strings. The strings also come in at the end. Good pop tune that falls short of what U2 can do.
6. Get On Your Boots- I may be the minority opinion, but I love this! (Maybe that’s because I once wrote all the lyrics to Led Zeppelin’s song, “Houses Of The Holy,” on a desk in High School.) As someone who grew up in a Baptist church, I love the lyrics, “Satan loves a bomb scare won’t scare you.” Clayton and Mullen pack a heavy punch under Edge’s Jimmy Page style riffing.
7. Stand Up Comedy- “If I can fall down, I can stand up for your love... Stand up for hope, faith, love,...helping God cross the road like a little old lady.” Bono seems to poke good natured fun at people mocking him. The band plays a mesh of, U2 meets Zeppelin, meets funk surrounded by Bono’s words. LOVE THE LYRICS!
8. Fez-Being Born- Tune has some interesting keys and electronic effects. Electro beats move inside Mullen’s drumming. Edge does what he does best, and Bono sings, “A speeding head, a speeding heart I'm being born, a bleeding start.”
9. White As Snow- Song has strong spiritual message. Edge picks an acoustic guitar as an accompaniment to Bono’s words and Adam and Larry’s subtle bottom. Horns are added for effect. In places, this song is like a hymn. Some of the best lyrics on the album- “Where might we find the lamb as white as snow... now the wolves are every passing stranger, every face we cannot know. If only a heart could be as white as snow.” Depending on one’s viewpoint, these are the most straightforward Christian lyrics since October
10. Breathe- “...Walk out into the street with arms out, gotta love you can’t defeat...” Nothing fancy, standard U2 mid-tempo rocker, with some bursts of Who style power chords.
11. Cedars Of Lebanon- Over subtle instrumentation, Bono discusses what he has seen through his work in the Third World. “Squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline...This shitty world sometimes produces a rose” I believe another reviewer called this song, the child of The Joshua Tree’s
