No Line On The Horizon: the most underrated album?

[HansaTonImbiss]

I will take the lyrics of Playboy Mansion and Miami over the pap of Magnificent, Unknown Caller, eight days a fucking week.

Really? Unknown Caller, maybe. Depends on the mood. Magnificent? That seems a bit harsh. My mammy?

In any case, I like both albums. I like NLOTH better for the reasons I stated before, and for the fact that at times, I feel like Pop tries to do too much. I love Please, LNOE, Gone, WUDM, Velvet Dress, MOFO, and, depending on the day, Discotheque. I don't like Playboy Mansion and Miami. The rest is good but doesn't catch me.

The album was all I listened to for like a year, so don't get me wrong, I think it's solid. But it hasn't grown on me like NLOTH has. Considering when many of the tracks were written, I imagine that somewhere there is an album that is an amalgam of Pop (based on the outtakes from Zooropa) and OST:V1. That album I think would hold together better, and more reflect where they were sonically at the time.

 

[cobl04]

I don't see what's wrong with "my mammy". It's a throwaway, not meant to be taken seriously and analysed to within an inch of its life.

Magnificent you can read/hear those lyrics and imagine how much time went into them. It doesn't say anything he's said a million times before. It's vapid.

Miami's lyrics are carefree, a specific piece about a specific time and place, sung with conviction. Same with Playboy Manson. Much more interesting to me, and a hell of a lot more fun to sing along to.

 

[coolian2]

The Playboy Mansion is a bit iffy to sing along to for me. But that's because I couldn't hit the high notes on the no time for sorrow parts with a stepladder.

 

[HansaTonImbiss]

I don't see what's wrong with "my mammy". It's a throwaway, not meant to be taken seriously and analysed to within an inch of its life.

Magnificent you can read/hear those lyrics and imagine how much time went into them. It doesn't say anything he's said a million times before. It's vapid.

These two points could be read as a contradiction. Couldn't the lyrics to Magnificent be seen as throwaway too? Or Boots? I think calling it "vapid" is a bit much. Sure, its all subjective and opinions are like, well, you know what, but if anything I think the accusation could be levied that the band swung for the fences too hard on NLOTH and forgot where the most unique parts of that album had come from. I think that was less of a condition on Pop, but I'll never accuse the band of writing vapid garbage out of a lack of caring. That's not who they are. Even "Elvis Ate America".

 

[cobl04]

No. Magnificent is very obviously designed to be an all-powerful single about the power of love to overcome.

Boots you could make a case for, but 2009 Bono cares way too much about perception, compared with 1997 Bono, so I doubt it.