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U2girl said:
No Line on the Horizon 2 : The rockiest moment you will hear brings back the funky groove for the album’s closer.

Isn't Cedars of Lebanon closing ?
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I'm assuming NLOTH2 is the bonus track in Aussieland... which means they can't differentiate between the album closer and the bonus tracks...

Nice thorough review there. :up:
 
ny_atom said:
Here are a couple more reviews, posted for no other reason than completeness.

I have no doubts that by the time all the reviews are in, every song will be called either a classic or a dud.

AZ Central (Mostly positive)

ML Live (Mostly positive)
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Should add:

AZCentral = 3 1/2 stars out of 5 stars

And the "ML Live" link already posted couple of pages back.

And as for U2girl: Maybe it depends on where you live. :wink:
 
wow \- well even the thre major reviews (uncut, Q and Mojo)- can't agree on the key tracks, apart from M:wave:agnificent of course - nuff said Mike
 
I made sure to vote "Awesome reinvention" on the poll of that Melbourne one. Not sure if it counted or not. "Too experimental" is winning though. :tsk: Interference, get to work!
 
whatAday said:
U2 never made a 'reliable commercial' album, that's Kylie Minogue for god's sake.
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Kylie Minogue always sucked so I never cared. But when the band I love released something as contrived and derivative as HTDAAB it broke my heart. Kylie innovates more than that crap.
 
2 stars negative review from Eyeweekly.com :angry:

U2: No Line on the Horizon - EYE WEEKLY

“The right to be ridiculous is something I hold dear,” Bono sings on No Line on the Horizon’s best song, the unfortunately titled but otherwise exceptional “I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight.” But sadly, that line — an early entry, perhaps, in the contest for 2009’s Most Mind-Numbingly Obvious Statement of the Year — proves sadly misleading for the rest of the record. If anything, Horizon, produced with the Joshua trio of Eno, Lanois and Lillywhite, isn’t ridiculous enough. Gone are the disco balls and devil masks of the Zooropa era, not to mention the killer tunes, which have been displaced by more of the ersatz earnestness that’s been the band’s stock-in-trade since “Beautiful Day.” That’s not to say U2 are out of the pop-song business altogether: the handful of keepers here, like the genuinely euphoric “Crazy,” at least remind us that the band are still capable of greatness — and great ridiculousness. But it’s not enough. Who ever bought a U2 record for its subtlety?
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:doh:
 
(From the Chicago Tribune, 3/5 stars)
Album review: U2's 'No Line on the Horizon' | Turn It Up - A guided tour through the worlds of pop, rock and rap

Album review: U2's 'No Line on the Horizon'
On its latest album, “No Line on the Horizon” (Interscope), U2 sounds like a band trying to shrug off years of staleness.

The Irish quartet is once again in transition, uncertain of its destination, and producing some fascinating music along the way. Five of the 11 tracks sound as fresh as anything U2 has done in a decade. The rest isn’t nearly that good, putting this in the middle tier of the band’s dozen studio releases. But at least the band is trying to reconnect with the sense of yearning and mystery that once made it special.

It’s hard to be mysterious when you’re the biggest band in the world. But that sense of mystery is key to U2’s sound; their fondness for atmosphere forged a new kind of stadium rock in the ‘80s, epic yet somehow intimate, then embraced even deeper undercurrents on their ‘90s masterpiece, “Achtung Baby!”

That adventurousness was largely missing from the previous two U2 studio albums, “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” (2000) and “How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb” (2004). These were “back to basics” gambits, as predictable as a late-period Rolling Stones album and drained of surprise. Play these albums now and they sound like calculated, inferior versions of the band’s callow but ecstatic early-‘80s releases.

Nonetheless, the albums served a broader commercial purpose. They reassured fans who had strayed from the band through its ‘90s experiments, and helped U2 fill arenas around the world. But the Irish quartet had lost something crucial in trying so desperately to connect with iPod nation. Everything sounded too pat; calculation had trumped inspiration.

“No Line on the Horizon” tries to restore what’s missing by pulling things apart and letting the songs breathe. The band has reconnected with its two most trusted collaborators, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, and given them an even greater role. They not only coproduce the album, but play some of the music and share in the songwriting.

The songs have become more amorphous; five stretch past five minutes. The melodies reveal themselves more reluctantly, and the layers undergirding them teem with ambiguity. At times it’s uncertain who or what instrument is creating the sounds heard on several tracks; Larry Mullen shifts between live drumming and programmed beats and keyboards mesh with guitars in a thick ambient mist. Only Adam Clayton’s bass retains its singular personality; its prominence in the mix makes him the album’s most valuable player, as he pushes the songs forward with a mixture of elegance and supple power.

The first three songs point a way forward. On the title track, melancholy synthesizers drift across the horizon like distant jets, playing counterpoint melodies over a thick stew of rhythm. Bono’s voice sounds appealingly frayed, caught up in the whirl of sound around him. “Magnificent” lurks in the shadows for a minute, then breaks into a gallop over the Edge’s ringing guitar and Clayton’s bounding bass. It’s a quintessential U2 moment: Big and yet somehow vulnerable. “Moment of Surrender” completes the journey, and lays out one of the album’s key themes: “Two souls too smart to be in the realm of certainty.” Nothing can be taken for granted. Anxiety hovers like the organ chords draped over Bono’s patient vocal melody. Once again Clayton’s bass serves as an empathetic foil, standing just off the vocalist’s shoulder, answering his every line.

At its best, “No Line…” is about sonic drama. “Let me in the sound, meet me in the sound,” Bono demands on at least two tracks. But in the middle of the album, U2 loses its nerve, and rapture gives way to formula. It’s as off the band were hedging its bets, knowing it needed a couple of stadium-ready songs when it visits the worlds sports arenas later this year.

Producer Steve Lillywhite strays from the evocative blueprint laid out by Eno and Lanois, and swaths the band in conventional pop sweetness (“I’ll Go Crazy if I Don’t Crazy Tonight”) and bluesy bombast (“Breathe”). “Get on Your Boots” flails around in search of a melody, and “Stand Up Comedy” is a bad marriage of neo-funk and riff-rock. “Unknown Caller” aspires for classic U2 grandeur, but trips on robotic vocal harmonies. “Cedars of Lebanon” ends the album with a whimper, Bono murmuring like Frank Sinatra in the wee small hours of the morning over a hushed backing track.

Amid this desultory finish, U2 tucks two exquisitely realized pieces of music. “White as Snow” is as still as a winter landscape painting. It imagines the final words of a soldier dying in Afghanistan, appropriating the stately melody of the 12th Century hymn “Oh Come, Oh Come Emmanuel.”

“Fez—Being Born” evokes an exotic marketplace in an impressionistic, multi-part arrangement. It contains only a handful of lyrics, but takes the listener on a headphone-worthy journey from the outskirts of a Moroccan city into its bustling heart, before drifting out to a sea of dancing lights. It’s a mesmerizing song, a series of surprises that unfolds like a great mystery, and then recedes before its secrets are fully revealed.

greg@gregkot.com

Rating: 3 stars
 
at this point, the rest of the world is much like Interference.

everyone now has an idea of what the ideal U2 should be -- 1992, or 1987, or 2001. no one is unaffected by their music. everyone has an opinion. and no one is going to be satisfied unless they meet the band where they are in this particular point in time. i'm struck at how much the reviews reference the past.

they have to deal with the weight of their own legacy at this point. no small task.
 
Irvine511 said:
at this point, the rest of the world is much like Interference.

everyone now has an idea of what the ideal U2 should be -- 1992, or 1987, or 2001. no one is unaffected by their music. everyone has an opinion. and no one is going to be satisfied unless they meet the band where they are in this particular point in time. i'm struck at how much the reviews reference the past.

they have to deal with the weight of their own legacy at this point. no small task.
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Exactly! With everyone setting different expectations for the band, there is absolutely no way in my opinion that U2 will ever "win" again by making an album that will be universally hailed as a "classic." Because of this, I think U2 should now stop trying to do the impossible and stick completely to an idea. Stop catering to different segments of U2 fandom.
 
The reviews are so mixed, sometimes it makes you wonder whether everyone has heard the same album. Some, I think, haven't listened at all. At this point, I really don't care about reviews, my head is starting to spin if I even try to find a kind of consensus here.
 
I think you have to accept that U2 is going to be put under a microscope everytime they release an album, single or go on tour. People's opinion of Bono play a large part in the their evaluation of U2. I think you just have to go with it and just enjoy the music.
U2 is no ordinary band and the line between love and hate is very thin but the music is still there. No rust on the horizon.
 
U2’s ‘Horizon’ majestic, but could be a tough sell
MELISSA RUGGIERI MUSIC CRITIC
Published: February 26, 2009

THE BEAT: U2's "Horizon" majestic, but a tough sell U2 isn't the type of band you expect to see sitting in with Paul Shaffer for a week on "Late Night With David Letterman."

Those slots are usually reserved for people like John Popper of Blues Traveler or Ashford & Simpson artists whose names aren't synonymous with "global superstars" at this time.

But this is a different era for U2.

In the five years since the Irish quartet released "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," everyone from Mariah Carey to Neil Diamond has popped up to pimp new projects on "American Idol," and Prince -- never mind Bruce Springsteen -- embraced the benefits of performing to the largest TV audience of the year during Super Bowl halftime.

But it's still a little disconcerting, even cringe-worthy, knowing that U2 will hang out with Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra every night next week as a means of promoting its new album, "No Line on the Horizon."

This mainstream shilling is now a requirement if an act hopes to sell even a few hundred thousand copies of its work the first week out.

But in a musical landscape where John Mellencamp licenses his songs for car commercials and Coldplay turns a new video into an iPod commercial, you have to shrug and swallow the reality that even heritage acts must now pander.

Though U2's "Horizon" won't officially be released until Tuesday, leaks sprouted across the Internet last week. So the band did what every musical act is forced to do these days: Let the public hear it for free.

U2 chose its MySpace page (U2 on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads) as its official listening room.

And now, with the generous airtime provided by Letterman (you can already hear him crowing, "Aren't they tremendous, ladies and gentlemen?") and the band's first morning-show performance a week from tomorrow on "Good Morning America," U2 will embrace the challenging task of selling its beautifully atmospheric, muscularly constructed and lyrically stimulating album to a nation attuned to three-minute radio hits.

There really aren't any of those on "Horizon," which will please fans of the band's more complicated work ("Zooropa") and disappoint those in love with the soaring melody of "Beautiful Day" or the guitar-slashing adrenaline of "Vertigo."

"Horizon" demands your attention and requires dedicated listening -- you'll miss many of the album's nuances if you merely blast it on the car stereo.

Instead, slap on some headphones to fully appreciate the lightly plinked synth notes in the opening title track and the keyboards that ricochet between the left and right channels and shepherd one of The Edge's sunbursts of sound on the aptly titled "Magnificent."

With frequent knob-twiddlers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois returning for production duty (with some help from Steve Lillywhite, who steered U2's 1980 debut, "Boy"), the album revels in being a dense, textured soundscape, devoid of the airy arena anthems the band has perfected during its career.

There are a few glimpses of classic U2 -- "I'll Go Crazy if I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" benefits from a sumptuous chorus and Larry Mullen Jr.'s metronomic snare drum drilling, and the album's most infectious track, "Stand Up Comedy," is as funky as it is jaunty.

Since Bono had five years to scribble and rework lyrics, his achievement here isn't surprising, though he still occasionally gets trapped by his own Bono-ness.

But, for every "playing with fire until the fire played with me" ("Moment of Surrender"), there's an "only love can leave such a mark, only love can leave such a scar" ("Magnificent") to remind us that Bono has always been a realistic romantic.

His self-awareness is also commendable, as he sings on "Crazy," "The right to appear ridiculous is something I hold dear"; and his smirk is practically audible on "Stand Up" when he offers, "Stand up to rock stars, Napoleon in high heels. Josephine, be careful of small men with big ideas."

The album's first single, "Get on Your Boots," was met with a combination of indifference and puzzlement, but when it appears on the album -- track six of 11 -- its blast of sonic fuzz and techno squelches comes as a kooky intermission.

"Boots" might be the black sheep of the album, but it's impossible to ignore Bono's pleas to "let me in the sound."

The song is an exquisite mess, but if the goal of "Horizon" is to scrape away the commercial residue and submerge itself in layers of thick instrumentation, it succeeds mightily.

Now let's see how well it translates to the masses.
 
Q Review Of NLOTH

No Line on the Horizon
By Paul Rees
Mercury
Five stars

Brian Eno recently gave Q an insight into the method by which U2 make records. It was, he said, tortuous, since they rebuilt, scrapped and rebuilt every song, over and over again. At any given point during recording, a track was as likely to be a lost case as it was to be in match shape.

The quality of each album, Eno noted, therefore depended entirely
upon how many songs there were in the latter of those categories when deadline arrived. And since there was no way of controlling such things, fate played a decisive hand in how good or otherwise a U2 album turned out to be. Fortune had evidently been kind for The
Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby, less so for, say, Pop. With No Line on
the Horizon, U2 are holding a winning hand again.

In many respects, it is Pop that has had the most influence on this
record. Perhaps their most underrated album, it nevertheless amounted to less than the sum of its parts. Buoyed by the two years they spent touring Achtung Baby, and during which they also made the experimental Zooropa, on it U2 tried to stretch out further still and
over-extended. It was, they are still wont to bemoan, never properly
finished, the result of ridiculously drawn-out sessions and the never-
to-be-repeated folly of booking a tour in advance of leaving the
studio.

Upon release Pop was, as history has recorded, poorly received, no
one entirely sure as to whether the U2 who were then poncing around
the globe inside a giant lemon were playing an elaborate joke on them or not. Since when, the band who'd seemed blessed with an unshakeable self-belief lost the stomach for challenging both themselves and their audience.

All That You Can't Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb recovered any lost commercial ground (and Pop hardly left them on their uppers), but they're meat and potatoes records -- solid,
reliable, a couple of rallying tracks apiece, otherwise unremarkable
and unloved. No Line on the Horizon is a reaction against them in the
same way as they were a reaction against Pop.

Clearly key to pushing U2 out of their comfort zone are Eno and his
fellow producer Daniel Lanois. They arrived to steer the band through
The Unforgettable Fire, the first great, questing U2 album, and
stayed on board for The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. And if they
were cowed as the band on All That You Can't Leave Behind, their
absence for How to Dismantle… was keenly felt. Following an aborted
hook-up with Rick Rubin (so obviously the wrong man at the wrong time for this record), they, and that other enduring U2 cohort Steve
Lillywhite, are back here, their mission surely to prod, cajole and
tease adventure out of their charges.

The extent to which they have succeeded in doing so is evidenced by
the lead-off single, "Get On Your Boots." Here, once again, are Camp
U2, missing presumed mothballed since the PopMart lemon went into
storage. Here, too, is Edge's monster guitar and a Bono who can poke
fun at himself. "I don't want to talk about wars between nations,"
teases the little fellow, "not right now. Hey, sexy boots...." The
better that this all comes within the sort of big playful beast of a
song they haven't gone near since the ill-fated, but really rather
fabulous "Discothéque."

"Get On Your Boots" is located within the middle of No Line on the
Horizon's three distinct sections (something perhaps befitting an
album made in such far-flung locations as New York, Dublin and Fez) -- the one that has a mirrorball twirling above its head and a neon-lit
dance floor beneath its feet. Here you will also find "I'll Go Crazy
If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight," their most unabashed pop song
since "Sweetest Thing," and "Stand Up Comedy," wherein Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. bring forth U2's hitherto unrevealed funky side and Edge comes over all Led Zeppelin.

The first part of No Line on the Horizon contains the U2 of wide-open
spaces, of sweeping mountain valleys, and of Edge's signature chiming guitar lines. It is home to the title track (Eno's gloops and loops, a swelling crescendo of a middle eight, "Magnificent" (a re-boot
of "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?") and "Unknown Caller" (icy
piano lines, a naggingly effective repeating guitar figure). And
to "Moment of Surrender," the first of two tracks Eno has stated are
the best he's worked on yet. With Bono in blue-eyed soul man guise, a
solo from Edge that sails deep into Pink Floyd territory and a seven-
plus minute running time, it's this album's "One" or "With or Without
You," with added bonus points.

"Breathe" is the other outright window of which Eno speaks –- it's
all jungle rumble drums and crashing guitars, Bono negotiating a
breathless jumble of verses into the mother of all emotive U2
choruses. "Breathe" arrives during the album's final third, which
provides No Line on the Horizon with its twist in the tail as it
heads down winding souks in the evening half light, the smells of
incense and spices heavy in the air. Alongside it are the slow-
burning atmospherics of "Fez – Being Born," and the hushed, gentle
shifts of "White As Snow" and the closing "Cedars of Lebanon," songs
as spare and still as U2 have written.

What else to tell? Edge, as suggested, is on fine form, Bono better
still. Lyrically, he has reined in his tendency to the overblown
and/or the wincing, with wit, warmth and some keen observation in
their stead ("Cedar of Lebanon"'s story of a career foreign
correspondent is especially acutely rendered). And vocally, with age
has come greater control and craft; while he still activates that
sermon-on-the-mount setting, he does so less frequently and with
exponentially more effective results.

Simply, what all of this amounts to is the best U2 album since
Achtung Baby. With time, it may prove to be better still

Download: Magnificent//Moment of Surrender//I'll Go Crazy If I Don't
Go Crazy Tonight//Get On Your Boots//White As Snow//Breathe

© Q Magazine, 2009.
 
Fullonedge3 said:
Because of this, I think U2 should now stop trying to do the impossible and stick completely to an idea. Stop catering to different segments of U2 fandom.
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They´re so big and established that no matter what they do they´ll be accused of everything.........of catering to different segments............and of catering to none............of being too commercial or not radio friendly enough. I read in a review that those who listened to the album without baggage or without expectations would be most rewarded and that´s how I feel too. I think they should do exactly what they´re doing right now. I saw that interview on the BBC Culture show and they are clearly very much at ease and content and happy with what they´re doing right now, and fuck it but isn´t that what it´s all about eh.
 
zwervers2 said:
A brave review and a bit of fresh air after the first storm called hype has lied down. Do I agree with the review? For a big part NO but at least it is an honest anti-suckfest which in all honesty makes the album even better to swallow. Raher this than hearing for the 3232823 billion time that this is the best record in he last 10 years and that coldplay suck

Oh. Edge should quit if he has any compassion left because he has been on a holiday for the last 11 years. Glad he emailed magnificent and beautiful day from wherever he has gone to. Enjoy your retirement; you have more than earned it and I take my hat of to you sir but Damn I MISS YOU!!!!!!!!
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They have said what they had to say... You are very on point here-- if the really wanted to they could come back and capture new, young souls and hearts like no other band could ever hope to... America is dying on the vine for pop music; we need a new (old) U2 or atleast and old (new) U2 to come back from vacation... I MISS THEM AS WELL.. A Sun Devil Stadium Streets experience I guess will have to last a lifetime for some; unless they come back from the South of France with some kind of JT retreat to go deep for some of their A game..:sad:
 
kurtnils said:
They have said what they had to say... You are very on point here-- if the really wanted to they could come back and capture new, young souls and hearts like no other band could ever hope to... America is dying on the vine for pop music; we need a new (old) U2 or atleast and old (new) U2 to come back from vacation... I MISS THEM AS WELL.. A Sun Devil Stadium Streets experience I guess will have to last a lifetime for some; unless they come back from the South of France with some kind of JT retreat to go deep for some of their A game..:sad:
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Again so you dont like it, U2 should do something totally new again just for you?

man this is getting tedious, sometimes you feel guilty for actually liking it
 
KUEFC09U2 said:
Again so you dont like it, U2 should do something totally new again just for you?

man this is getting tedious, sometimes you feel guilty for actually liking it
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Everyone has a menu and U2 served something that some won't like. In the end time will pass and the tour will get many to like it as they see it in a new context.
 
I thought Q magazine's review was top notch. The tracks are described clearly and "Unremarkable and unloved" is perhaps the most cogent summation of ATYCLB and HTDAAB I've read yet. I also agree with the conclusion- it is their best work since AB, narrowly edging out out Pop.
 
Most reviews in my country are out. I'm actually surprised at how balanced and positive they are, apart from the usual snarky moment, but some of them are really praising the band and the album, that's really something I haven't heard or read about U2 here in a long time. :ohmy:
 
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