First proper album reviews - Irish Times, Irish Independent and Hot Press

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I love the Chris Martin references in a few of the reviews... You'd think that they read Interference or something.
 
Eamon Carr is obviously a huge U2 fan, it's a good review but I'm not 100% how objective it is & if he's not blowing their trumpet I bit. However for me he makes a pretty important point of how I'm going to look at the album and decide how great it is - which is basically he mentions the age of the band and especially Bono. For a band who have been together for almost 35 years and given us some truely great albums and moments, I really thought it was unrealistic to expect an album of true greatness at this stage of their career, although over the last few weeks my expectancy has been steadily rising :D. Whilst it doesn't appear to be the huge departure that many were hoping for, I really just think it's great that a band with so much experience, success and ultimately probably some tired legs in musical terms, are not just releasing an album just for the hell of it to rack up more money & album sales, but they are actually releasing something that they feel can be relevant and still an excellent album in it's own right. And even if it isn't one of their greats I honestly believe that they can be proud of themselves & we can also be proud of them. It would have been so much easier to carry on in the same mould of the last 2 albums.
 
11: Cedars Of Lebanon

Like a prize-winning short story, this has an insightful documentary feel that makes it the perfect coda to the album.

The writing here is brilliant and, as throughout, the playing shows a band at the height of its powers.

It's the tremendous sonic dynamics that grab you as the bass and drums lock into an irresistible Madchester beat and carries on with a rising lift that oozes optimism as Bono sings, 'She said, "Infinity is a great place to start"'."


Check this out: the ballad mutating into something totally different. The ballad-bashers weren't expecting that :drool:
 
great thread, let's keep this one on track. We are gonna be getting a lot of reviews over the next few days and this will be a good reference thread.
White as Snow is definitely Winter then, I know that was thrown into doubt again a few days ago..

Really looking forward to the NME and Observer review. Those will be big reviews for this album as far as the UK is concerned, and obviously Q...
 
The Times (London)
February 13, 2009

By Stephen Dalton

Like most right-thinking people, I grew up hating U2. You probably
recognise the symptoms. Queasy unease when Bono claims ownership of
the Third World's suffering from a stadium stage or TV screen; nausea
when he's pictured with his arms around Bush or Blair, who his own
drummer calls "war criminals." And that wet thud of disappointment
when U2's breathlessly hyped new album is just as stodgy and Coldplay-
esque as the last.

And yet, annoyingly, I'm strangely excited about their latest album,
No Line on the Horizon. Perhaps, after 25 years of qualified loathing
and grudging admiration, I've learnt to stop worrying and love U2.

During my teens and early twenties, U2 were easy to hate, with their
windswept mullets and bombastic battle anthems. Their music was
monochrome and sexless, all windy platitudes disguised as Big Themes.
They also seemed suspiciously keen to co-opt half a century of pop
history and global struggle for their own self-promotional ends: from
Elvis to Joy Division, Billie Holiday to Martin Luther King, African
famine to the fall of communism.

But superimposing yourself on to great historical events doesn't
confer greatness by association. You just look like ambulance
chasers. The Forrest Gumps of rock.

I first wrote about U2 in NME in the early 1990s, soon after their
Achtung Baby album. In this period there was a big shift in the
band's musical hinterland, from wide-open, hope-filled vistas to
nocturnal cityscapes of doubt, despair, distorted guitars and
diabolical desires. But it felt fraudulent. I criticised U2's clumsy
attempts to hijack the integrity of more sincere, innovative artists.
In response, Bono sent an axe over to the NME office. As in hatchet
job. Geddit?

But now: a shameful confession. With apologies to fellow U2-haters, I
began to fall for their charms in the mid-1990s. With their 1995 side
project, Passengers, and their 1997 album, Pop, they seemed willing
to experiment -- and, more importantly, to fail. Their music became
more humorous, colourful, adventurous and self-mocking. U2 grasped
the importance of not being earnest. Crucially, they also looked like
they were having fun for the first time, rather than carrying the
world's woes on their messianic shoulders.

Pop became U2's first major commercial stiff, alienating much of
their traditional fanbase with its kaleidoscopic camp and disco
kitsch. But the accompanying PopMart tour was fantastic, and remains
the most dazzling stadium spectacular I've yet seen. Any superstar
rockers prepared to emerge from a giant lemon-shaped glitterball
every night to a thunderous wave of pumping techno are clearly not
taking themselves too seriously. I was convinced.

And then -- they blew it again. After burning their fingers with Pop,
U2 greeted the new millennium by retreating to old monochrome
certainties on their past two albums, All That You Can't Leave Behind
and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Both were safe, plodding affairs
calculated to win back the band's commercial heartland. Reverting to
type, taking care of business.

U2's hard-nosed business methods are a red rag to my fellow haters.
In 2006 the band were criticised for moving a chunk of their huge
Irish operation to a more "tax efficient" regime in the Netherlands.
Bono the charity cheerleader was singled out as a hypocrite, which
arguably he is. But attacking U2 for being profit-driven is like
criticising sharks for being predators. They have always been
disarmingly frank about their ambition to be the biggest band in the
world, and the Faustian deals they will strike to get there. The
history of rock is a parade of millionaire tax exiles, not left-wing
revolutionaries. Pop stars are capitalists. Get over it.

The chink in U2's armour is said to be Bono's outspoken charity work
on African poverty and Aids: and, yes, there are many arguments
against celebrities dabbling in global politics. But if the U2 singer
has saved just one life in his decades of activism, all such
criticism looks pretty flimsy.

U2 are bound to stir debate. After all, the Times critic David
Sinclair branded them "rock's last superpower." Bono has been
criticised from both right and left; for doing too much or too
little. But at least he is prepared get his hands dirty on complex,
prickly problems instead of retreating into perpetual pampered
adolescence like most millionaire rockers.

Who else in pop has the clout and arrogance to badger world leaders,
hoping to shape global poverty policy? Even as a sometime U2 hater,
this seems to me a valid use of celebrity power. Ethical
contradictions do not make U2 a lesser band; they are precisely what
makes them interesting.

But let's not forget the foundation of it all: the music. After two
drab albums, No Line on the Horizon marks a step change for U2.
Although not quite the Achtung Baby-style leap promised by early
reports, it is their most sexy and experimental work for more than a
decade. A mix of lustrous electronica, Arabic instrumentation and
revved-up guitar riffs, it sounds like a band having fun again.

A bizarre historical pendulum appears to be at work here. When the
Republican Ronald Reagan was in the White House, U2 made thumpingly
earnest and conservative records. Under the Democrat Bill Clinton,
they loosened up and embraced sleazy hedonism. With George W. Bush,
back to one-dimensional pomposity again. This bodes well for their
albums in the Obama era.

About now, my fellow U2 haters, those familiar symptoms should be
kicking in. The urge to smash the TV whenever Bono appears. The wave
of bile as "Get On Your Boots" blasts from every radio. But try to
fight it. Deep breath. The sickness will pass.

© The Times, 2009.
 
The clips from Magnificent, Crazy, Stand Up, Moment and Breathe are just utterly amazing! My expectations are sky high! The downsize of it is that if the songs don't measure up to the clips i'll be greatly disappointed.

I'm excited and afraid at the same time.
 
Not a proper review, but a few insights.

No it wasn't a review, he's a self confessed U2 hater, but to me it seems like he likes the new album (even if he can't bring himself to openly admit it)
 
The chink in U2's armour is said to be Bono's outspoken charity work
on African poverty and Aids: and, yes, there are many arguments
against celebrities dabbling in global politics. But if the U2 singer
has saved just one life in his decades of activism, all such
criticism looks pretty flimsy.

I wish I had a signature so I could put this on it.
 
I hate it when people like that Times writer refer to U2 in such banal terms - its only rock n'roll man! It makes me feel like I'm doing something wrong or something! :reject:
 
Wow, somehow I really enjoyed that article (not really an album review) from the self-professed 'U2 hater'. By coming from their point of view, he just destroyed all of the cynical's usual 'anti U2' and 'anti Bono arguments. Just re-affirmed my deep, true, undying, even if sometimes critical, love for this band :up:
 
I love this: Keep on Moroccan!

Haha. It reminds me of my uncle (also a huge U2 fan) whose a bricklayer, who often says "Rockin like a Moroccan!". I always thought of U2 when he said it when I found out they were recording in Fez. That's what I plan to do in Barcelona hopefully :hyper:
 
Wow, somehow I really enjoyed that article (not really an album review) from the self-professed 'U2 hater'.
personally I strongly dislike it when someone equates all that he likes to positive things and all he dislikes to negative things
I would reckon that when you try to write about something you try to get across a balanced view
not - I hate what they did in the 80s, bunch of self righteous pompous twats but they got so much better in the 90s when they showed more humour and were more adventurous

perhaps in the 80s they were very much on the serious side but wrote many anthems that will live on for quite a while and in the 90s they finally managed to mix it up but hardly ever were able to write songs that managed to touch a larger group of people
 
personally I strongly dislike it when someone equates all that he likes to positive things and all he dislikes to negative things
I would reckon that when you try to write about something you try to get across a balanced view
not - I hate what they did in the 80s, bunch of self righteous pompous twats but they got so much better in the 90s when they showed more humour and were more adventurous

perhaps in the 80s they were very much on the serious side but wrote many anthems that will live on for quite a while and in the 90s they finally managed to mix it up but hardly ever were able to write songs that managed to touch a larger group of people

Of course, I disagreed with tons of things he said--such as U2 were crap in the 80s and Bono is a hypocrit--but to me this article shows that you just have to be so cynical to really hate U2... and I liked that he admitted it somehow.
 
But if the U2 singer
has saved just one life in his decades of activism, all such
criticism looks pretty flimsy.

U2 are bound to stir debate. After all, the Times critic David
Sinclair branded them "rock's last superpower." Bono has been
criticised from both right and left; for doing too much or too
little. But at least he is prepared get his hands dirty on complex,
prickly problems instead of retreating into perpetual pampered
adolescence like most millionaire rockers.

Who else in pop has the clout and arrogance to badger world leaders,
hoping to shape global poverty policy? Even as a sometime U2 hater,
this seems to me a valid use of celebrity power. Ethical
contradictions do not make U2 a lesser band; they are precisely what
makes them interesting.

This is probably the most thoughtful and well-reasoned thing I've read about Bono's charity work of all time, especially from a "hater".
 
Of course, I disagreed with tons of things he said--such as U2 were crap in the 80s and Bono is a hypocrit--but to me this article shows that you just have to be so cynical to really hate U2... and I liked that he admitted it somehow.
I guess it depends on how you read what he says
to me it seems that he feels his hatred is just unless U2 changes into what he wants them to be
I prefer your take on things though :D
 
It bodes well for the album that will follow No Line on the Horizon, which has, he says, "the idea of pilgrimage at its centre," and is made up of the "quieter, more meditative songs" that did not make it on to this one. "Intimacy is the new punk rock," Bono added, laughing. But is it the new stadium rock?

They're already planning the next one?! :shocked: :combust:
 
The only thing that worries me is that the follow up won't have any rockers according to what Bono said, I mean, quiet songs can be great, but surely there must be some rockers on every U2 album?
 
The Irish Independent review is really well written and definitely seems to have a realistic grip on taste. There's a huge danger of reviews getting caught up in the U2 PR machine, so I'm definitely putting stock in the least positive. Sounds very exciting - can't wait to hear Fez, White as Snow and Magnificent in full now :hyper:
 
http://u2ol.net/2009/02/u2-no-line-on-the-horizon-review/

U2 No Line On The Horizon
Review Date: 13 February 2009

Currently boasting 33 years on the go and hailed by many as “the biggest band on earth,” I’ll not be the first to say that perhaps the secret to U2’s unfaltering success is their ability to pick up on current trends and appeal not only to their hardcore fans but also to a new generation. There’s been a sort of 80s revival happening in indie rock, electro punk and pop music for the last couple of years. U2 were around for the real thing, and on No Line On The Horizon they use their first hand experience to do an uncanny job of melding currently popular electronic beats and synthesisers with their own original rock sound.

The impact of Brian Eno’s songwriting and production contribution here is palpable, with the ambient minimalism he’s famous for often giving a most familiar band a strangely atypical sound, particularly during the glorious extended intro of Fez - Being Born. It’s only a shame that these influences are never given free reign, but smothered by U2’s unyielding loyalty to stadium rock. On the many tracks driven by keyboards and synths rather than guitars, it too often seems that crisp, clean guitar solos are laid down on top merely to give The Edge something to do, while Bono’s vocals can be overbearing when added into these surrounds.

That said, this conflict of styles is sidestepped when they aim for funkier guitar based rock. The monotone style verse and quirky percussion of single Get On Your Boots are knowingly contemporary while the 70s style rock riff of Stand Up Comedy is surely one for air-guitarists the world over. The highlight though is undoubtedly Moment of Surrender, which feels a mere fraction of its 7mins23. Layering drums, synths and seeping strings with organ and gospel choir, the sound reflects the song’s religious reference to the stations of the cross and its plea for “vision over visibility.” Though Bono’s sanctimonious presence in these kinds of lines can often grate, the subtlety of closer Cedars of the Lebanon (despite the nauseating lack of subtlety of its title) manages to convince you of the sincerity of its sentiment.

Whether accomplished with ambient electronics, solid drums, layered vocals or scuzzy guitars, you can’t fault U2’s ability to create an epic sound that can thoroughly fill a room. Let’s just say, they’re not coming down off their rock throne any time soon.
 
Of course, I disagreed with tons of things he said--such as U2 were crap in the 80s and Bono is a hypocrit--but to me this article shows that you just have to be so cynical to really hate U2... and I liked that he admitted it somehow.

Exactly:up: And Stephen Dalton was certainly cynical here- how many artists have written songs that are tributes to some prominent person- or to a movement such as the civil rights movement. Way too many to count. That he would think U2 was just trying to peggy back on the admiration people had for MLK is a little crazy- if you told me that some death metal band had a tribute to MLK on their new album, I doubt I would go buy it though I greatly admire the man. Pride had to be a great song, with the uplifting, ringing edge guitar, adam's thumping bass, Larry's pulsating rapid fire drums, and Bono's soaring vocal to be as big at it was. He had to be real cynical to say that U2 was insincere in their innovation w/ AB, when they had been talking about it since 1989 and when AB was hardly playing it safe w/ the grunge music that was popular at the time.

He is flat out wrong when he says they made very conservative songs in the Reagan yrs- as if conservative in terms of straightforward music was the same as conservative politics. That being said, I dispute the whole idea that what U2 was doing in the 80s was conservative- they started w/ their own unique Boy-Oct-War sound that immediately distinguished them. Insincere and pompous w war anthems like Pride or SBS or NYD?- hardly, U2 experienced poverty and repression and war firsthand in Ireland before it was the celtic tiger.Then, boom, just as they became famous w/ War, they made the biggest transition ever in their career to UF. Conservative? Playing it safe? Think not. He obviously did not hear much on the radio in the 1986-87 range- "your love" by the Outfield is one of my favorite non-U2 songs, I like a good deal of Bon Jovi as well, but WOWY and Streets sounded nothing like these 80s generic anthems that he accuses U2 of being caught up in. In fact, none of their 80s work really sounded like anything conservative or traditional, it was all so interesting because it broke the mold of the time. Politically, many songs took an anti-Reagan, anti conservative, anti arrogant stand, and even more so Bono's rants of the day(see silver and gold, SBS and Bullet from rattle and hum). As for the self deprecating/fun thing, Bono used to preface his comments about Reagan with "hey, I'm just a rock and roll singer, what do I know," and I can recall a story my aunt told me about all the way back in the Boy era. U2 was playing their first ever shows in Boston at the Paradise Rock club, and Edge and Adam had some problems, technical or otherwise, getting it together during the 1st couple songs. Bono turned to the crowd and said "I knew we were not as good as the critics have been saying." They were always self deprecating, they say they started writing their own songs because they were not good enough to do covers. They always had fun on stage as well, dancing w/ girls, Bono jumping off balconies, dressing up as a country band, the list goes on. Anyone saying U2 started having fun in the 1990s loses all credibility on anything w/ me immediately. I guess zoo tv was fun/ironic, etc, but it also had the satellite link ups to people dying every day in Sarajevo, and Bono's subsequent bashing of those not doing anything about it, himself included. Sounds pretty earnest to me.

They have always mixed earnesty and fun together, and the fact that they are never satisfied, always think their best work is ahead of them combines with this to make them the biggest band in the world to this very day. This, I might add, is a status none of the reviewers so far are expecting to change!

Conclusion: Not only is Dalton cynical, he doesnt know what the hell he is talking about. I am glad he has seen the light, guess then theres hope for all the haters.
 
Hot Press' review is really upbeat, and especially well written. (all except the Morocco pun, although I did smile).

Interesting that WAS is based on a preexisting song, and it turns out to be a christmas carol, good ears on whoever made that connection from the clip. The last review seems a bit odd in their treatment of SAC, it praises it and then says it fails, I also doubt they would have treated Breathe that way if it weren't for the hype, that song looks to be excellent to me (I just hope we won't have to endure people's complaints and comparisons to the beach clip for eternity around here, believe me I'm no fan of their tendency to overcook, but relax).


Any, my point is I'm freaking out in anticipation :hyper: I just hope we won't have to wait so long for a follow-up, no matter how good it is.

Also, I think this clears up any question that WAS is Winter, at least in lyrical content.
 
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