The ‘No Line On The Horizon’ appreciation guide…

The back-story…

Sometime previously, after my first listen-through of U2’s 12^th studio album No Line On The Horizon, I rashly wrote an informal review of it. Let us just say that it was rather vindictive. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted to give a CD 0/5 stars before…although one has the feeling that were I to subject myself to Mr. Beiber’s collection I may completely overwrite that statement. But that’s a tangent I will not develop today.

Anyway, having read back over what I had written, I was shocked to see the amount of negativity that I had been forced to associate with my favourite band. That’s right, they’re my favourite. U2 holds that special place in my heart that belongs to the band that first opens your ears to the music world. I was 11 when I first heard Pride, which rescued me from a close brush with a favourable opinion of ABBA that threatened to develop…but let us not get sentimental! Suffice to say that U2 have always been MY band, the band that I love, have loved, will probably always love, no matter how crap they get, no matter how different they become, and long after they stop releasing albums. But THIS! This was going too far! In a rage of disappointment I completely stripped their new music to pieces with a torrent of verbose insults – and that was the edited version.

To add insult to injury, I discovered today that during the Christmas chaos I had overlooked the return date of my library copy of No Line and it is now almost two weeks overdue. Fines will ensue. However, I decided against hurling it at the wall and instead gave it a second, third and fourth chance. Here’s what I discovered…

Album: No Line On The Horizon
Artist: U2
Label: Mercury, Island, Interscope
Release date: 27 February, 2009
Chart position/sales: No. 1 worldwide (except Sweden) / Platinum in US, UK, AUS, EU, GER; CAN 2x Platinum; JAP Gold.

RATING: 3.5/5 stars

It was obvious that U2 expected big things from their 12^th studio album, No Line On The Horizon. Perhaps this was to their detriment as, previous to its release, the band enthused about its highly experimental nature, getting us all thinking it was going to be one way out record. And yes, although the album was generally well received by the critics (with ratings ranging from a few 5/5 reviews to a slightly less impressed 4.2/10), it has failed to thoroughly convince their fan base, a happening that the band have admitted disappoints.

After my first listening, I was baffled - I couldn’t get over the fact that the one time U2 say they are pushing the boundaries and being ‘experimental’ is the one time that I was shocked by what I felt was an uncharacteristically mainstream sound. Conventional drum beats reminiscent of the Pop days, cheesy-sounding harmony choruses and so many of Bono’s ‘Oh oh oh’ fillers that they were no longer familiar trademarks so much as an annoying lack of creativity. What was wrong with them? Myopic? Misguided? Heads too far up their backsides? I was as lost as their originality seemed to be.

With the wisdom of hindsight that comes from listening to an album countless times, I think perhaps it was that U2 felt that this album was experimental not so far as music goes, but as far as U2 is concerned. And that can’t really be disputed. The thing you have to get used to, is that this is U2 throwing U2 out the window. The songs are rambling, changeable, sometimes completely irrational and very unlike the U2 we have heard so far. The Edge’s trademark guitar riffs are only apparent in songs like “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight”. Bono isn’t constantly mouthing off about politics even though in many ways it is a heavily political album, making multiple references to the state of today’s world, such as trademark Bono-esque catch-calls like “The future needs a big kiss” and the war themes in “White As Snow” and “Cedars of Lebannon”. Bono has instead adopted an introverted inspiration for lyrics, creating a heart-wrenchingly personal litany, with the focus on  deep (and often dark) personal revelations delivered with an undeniably raw vocal and thematic sincerity.

But the biggest problem with this album was that I couldn’t hear U2’s voice coming through. No, I’m not just talking about the fact that Bono’s stubborn smoking habit seems to have lost him a bit of lung capacity, causing him to sing close to a lazy, spoken rhetoric. I’m talking about some reviewers’ accusations that this is Brian Eno’s record, not U2’s. Not being experienced enough in the area of Eno’s work, I can’t judge, but either his influence dominated U2, or they were just genuinely struggling to find the voice of the album. Yes, it has an overall flavour, but I found myself being startled by very How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb-type sounds from Edge’s guitar, sounding stale and strangely incongruent in their definite familiarity. Surely after 5 years (the longest between any U2 release) he’s found a different way to arrange his effects? Bits of "Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” jangled in the background of more than one piece and epic though the riffs in “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” and “Stand Up Comedy” were, one couldn’t help feeling it was the same old sound they were rocking in Atomic Bomb again. Which, don’t get me wrong, was a brilliant album…but…umm…moving on, you know?

This brings us to the final (less anger-warped) verdict. Ultimately I am forced to conclude that No Line is indeed a little bit of a flop. It falls into the limbo between original, sophisticated and revolutionary and exactly what they were doing before - disappointingly short of the high mark they set for themselves. You’d think with this dramatically long gap between albums they’d have done something a bit cleverer. But it’s as though they were thinking too hard. The word of the album is ‘too’ - it’s too try hard, too thought-out, too engineered – and one gets the feeling that U2 were a little too excited about it, a little too wrapped up in being high-brow and experimental. At the same time, like a badly worded sentence, we still kinda get their meaning and as frustratingly mediocre as some of it may be, these are BIG songs which may have more staying power than instant appeal. Be patient, don’t expect anything, take it for what it is and keep an open mind. But let’s hope their next album is a little less contrived.

Listen to: I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight, Breathe

Is it worth my $$$? – U2 fans: listen before you buy. If you are not a U2 fan: you don’t have bias/previous expectation against you, so you may well enjoy this album – it’s clever stuff. But take my tip, save up the dosh and buy a U2 360 concert ticket instead - these guys know what they’re doing when it comes to live shows and I speak from experience when I say they make it impossible for you to stay mad at them.