No Line On The Horizon: the most underrated album?

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Scrumtralescent

The Fly
Joined
Feb 7, 2009
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36
Location
Niagara, Canada
Excuse me, I've had a bit to drink and I'm revisiting NLOTH. Eight years later, and I still think this album is so underrated by both the mainstream and the fan community. I LOVE it. Even the middle three!

I remember hearing it for the first time, after downloading the torrent at work and risking my job (lol), it seriously brought me to tears, I had to go to the bathroom and compose myself. I think I would rank it my 2nd favourite U2 album, to be honest, (after AB, and competing with TJT.)

Anyone with me?
 
I'm more in the camp of 1/3 terrific, 1/3 good or somewhat listenable, and 1/3 horrible. But that's just me. I do remember hearing it for the first time after it officially came out, and after listening to NLOTH and Magnificent as the first two tracks, I had excitement that this was shaping up to be a very solid album. Unfortunately, outside of 1-3 songs, the rest felt like a bit of a huge let-down afterward. Coherent themes/sounds or not, I just could never find it a consistent listen overall.
 
Great:
No Line on the Horizon
Moment of Surrender

Good:
Magnificent
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight
Fez (Being Born)
Breathe

Okay:
Unknown Caller
White as Snow
Cedars of Lebanon

Bad:
Get On Your Boots
Stand Up Comedy
 
Loved it when it came out but hasn't stood the test of time for me and it would be rock bottom of the pile alongside October.

I never ever revisit the album and if I do it's live tracks of no line on the horizon, breathe and moment of surrender.

Get on your boots wasn't bad live but can't remember the last time I had it on.

I know some people like cedars on here but I think it's the worst song on the album.

2 out of 5 for me and that's being kind

It's all a matter of opinion though I mean I still listen to songs of innocence from front to back. Really connected with that album and would probably stick it in my top 5. A lot of people wouldn't say that
 
Flawed, but far more enjoyable than most of their 21st century work, including SOI. They overanalyzed matters for sure, but there is real inspiration to be heard on here and I'd rather have that along with a few clunkers than the sleepwalking through the past that they did on SOI.
 
2 out of 5 for me and that's being kind

It's all a matter of opinion though I mean I still listen to songs of innocence from front to back. Really connected with that album and would probably stick it in my top 5. A lot of people wouldn't say that

SOI Album / Live out of 10

7 / 8 The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)
8 / 5 Every Breaking Wave
8 / 7 California (There Is No End to Love)
6 / 5 Song for Someone
6 / 5 Iris (Hold Me Close)
5 / 5 Volcano
8 / 9 Raised by Wolves
7 / 5 Cedarwood Road
9 / x Sleep Like a Baby Tonight
9 / x This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now
8 / 9 The Troubles

That stretch of Iris / Cedarwood Road / Song for Someone just made the live shows drag on a bit. I wish EBW got a full band treatment and some of the other songs got more of a go.

No Line I have to revisit the album / 360 shows to rejig my memory.
 
I still love it completely, it's my 2nd favourite album of theirs. Only song I couldn't connect with for years was Cedars of Lebanon, but even that is slowly starting to grow on me now.
 
Very good album. Much better if you use this track list.

No Line On The Horizon
Magnificent
Moment Of Surrender
Unknown Caller
Soon
Breathe
White As Snow
Winter
Fez - Being Born
Cedars Of Lebanon
 
Yeah, this is by far the album I enjoy the most of their post 90's work. ATYCLB and HTDAAB have not aged so well. This is really the only late era album I put on now. (Sometimes an abbreviated version of SOI - but I don't like that album as much).

Though I'd disagree with nbelcik - I'll go crazy if i don't go crazy to night is probably my least favorite song.

I actually quite enjoy Get on Your Boots, which puts me in the minority. I think it gets spoiled for people by its distractingly goofy lyrics (a common problem with late-era U2)- but I think it's a cool rocking song - better than Elevation or Vertigo.
 
There are very few U2 songs I dislike, where I would actually skip them every time I listen to the album.

Crazy Tonight and Stand Up Comedy are two of them.

Drop those and insert Winter and Soon and it's a legitimately great album.
 
Always nice to see a positive thread on NLOH, for me it's one of my favourite albums and it was one that I bought when I was in Waterford, Ireland at the beginning of 2009. I'd heard the classics from U2 but this was the first U2 album I listened to the whole way through and I was impressed.

It's a hugely underrated and underappreciated body of work. Over time I think it's eased somewhat but NLOH is easily one of my favourite U2 albums, the cohesion and flow is excellent, the only snag would be the choices for the singles. I would have had Magnificent or Breathe as the first single. Get on Your Boots is unfairly criticised, it has a great groove.

Favourites for me are:

Breathe
Magnificent
Unknown Caller
Get On Your Boots
No Line On The Horizon
I'll Go Crazy

The list goes on, it's almost the whole album
 
I love it, and the only song I actively dislike is Stand Up Comedy, which is in my bottom 3 of worst U2 songs.
 
I don't know that it's U2's most "underrated" record, but it's certainly superior to SOI, given that NLOTH, despite its unevenness, sounds like a band who still has their soul.



I'd argue that they're about the same. Tracks 7-11 and Iris match the greatest moments on NLOTH (tracks 1-4 and Fez).
 
Unknown Caller and Magnificent have really grown in me over the years. Breathe not so much. Crazy Tonight is such a piece of shit song. I can't even begin to explain how much I hate it.
 
For me it's an 'ok' album. Very uneven with some really strong songs but too many songs that I gave some benefit of the doubt to at the time of the tour but have not stood the test of time for me.

The middle 3 are the sound of U2 being desperate for a radio hit and are very weak. I consider Unknown Caller to be one of the worst U2 songs of all time, essentially unlistenable.

Breathe, NLOTH, Magnificent and MOS are solid to very good U2 songs.

Overall I'd love to hear this album in whatever state it was in maybe 3-6 months before it was actually released.
 
I feel HTDAAB is given a hard time on here when you listen back, and I know my fellow Aussie fans had a great time listening back a year or two ago.

Re NLoTH - I feel pretty much the same as I always have. I love all but the middle three, and feel that each of them are prime examples of the overcooking phenomenon we talk about. I know they are only beach clips, but Diorama and GOYB from Bono's house sounded so bloody promising. And SUC just wreaks of self doubt, over polish, over riffing, and verbose nonsense rewriting.


Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference
 
NLOTH's highs are higher and more exciting but HTDAAB is the better album. It feels lived-in and real to me, whereas some of NLOTH's tracks just smack of a band recutting the songs hundreds of times (Magnificent, Unknown Caller, Boots, Breathe, even Moment of Surrender, great as it is, feels a bit staid). To be fair to SOI there's an element of nostalgia I feel about HTDAAB, it being my first U2 album, but in all honesty I haven't listened to either in years, since that incident Dan is talking about, and I highly doubt I'll listen to either ever again.

Is NLOTH their most underrated? Fuck no it isn't. Boy, October, Rattle & Hum, Zooropa, Passengers and Pop all wipe the fucking floor with it. But there's a lot of good stuff on it. Conversely to the popular opinion here, I think the 'middle three' argument is rubbish. Crazy Tonight is a great pop song that just probably has a little too much sheen, Get On Your Boots sucks but it was awesome live. Magnificent is the album's worst song, and I've believed that for eight years now (FUCK, the album's EIGHT?! years old?!?!). Bono's vocals are shithouse, and his lyrics are even worse, the intro is completely incongruous to the rest of the song, Edge's "solo" wouldn't be fit on a bad Coldplay song, it's that bad. The main riff is pretty great but completely wasted. Adam's bass is a highlight, but when Adam's bass is the best thing about a U2 song you know you're in trouble.
 
NLOTH is their most underrated album on this forum. Elsewhere, no. There are plenty of superior U2 albums that don't receive credit from the larger population.
 
Passengers is definitely their most underrated album here, that's beyond doubt.

*gvox and BVS fall over each other to be the first one to quote my post and whinge it's not a real U2 album*
 
Passengers is definitely their most underrated album here, that's beyond doubt.

*gvox and BVS fall over each other to be the first one to quote my post and whinge it's not a real U2 album*



And Beach Sequence and Always Forever Now might be the most underrated songs.
 
Listening to a few NLOTH songs right now. Fez is absolutely phenomenal, as is Cedars of Lebanon. That's the type of shit I want an album of from modern-day U2.
 
I don't think that's true, I think it's always been well-regarded on this forum, Crazy Tonight-Boots-SUC aside.

It really isn't though. It seems as if the vast majority of EYKIW ranks SOI ahead of it although, who knows, maybe the honeymoon phase for that album has ended. I'm not about to run another series of polls to find out.

Passengers is definitely their most underrated album here, that's beyond doubt.

*gvox and BVS fall over each other to be the first one to quote my post and whinge it's not a real U2 album*

Passengers is underrated but the reasons for underrating it are idiotic and don't have all that much to do with music. Essentially, U2 sycophants are freed from their obligation to kiss ass because of the name technicality, allowing them to file the album as some failed Eno project. If it had been released as a U2 album, it would be as well regarded around here as Pop.
 
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