Crave Online review:
U2: No Line On The Horizon
U2's most cohesive album since Achtung Baby?
Jeremy Azevedo, CraveOnline
March 3, 2009
U2 is a band that I have always found incredibly difficult to form a critical opinion of. As a teenager, I was fascinated by bands that were “tough”, like Danzig, Guns N’ Roses and Pantera.
U2 didn’t fit into my preferred aesthetic, with their lame, giant sunglasses, standard arena rock attire and slicked back hair. And yet it could not be denied that they were excellent songwriters. After procuring “The Johua Tree” and “Achtung Baby” from Columbia House (Yes I actually subscribed to Columbia House), I was officially a fan. I’m not ashamed to say that a combination of teen angst, northern California weed and a careful listening to U2 circa 87-91 was apt to leave me feeling more than a little bit goose-bumpy on the occasional weekday night.
My brief flirtation as a U2 fanboy came to an abrupt end due to a combination of “Zooropa” and “Pop” sucking and my girlfriend at the time having an affair with a goddamn U2 stage show lighting technician. I sold all my U2 records to Amoeaba and washed my hands of them. I no longer enjoyed U2 without thinking of that crushing humiliation suffered at their unknowing hands. In addition, I found their anti-establo, anti-consumer stage show to be completely at odds with their obvious embracement of super-fame and the crass commercialism of their band name. It was as if they playing some epic joke on the very same people that they were selling their albums to, but without the self-awareness that would make this come off as cocky/cool. That’s the thing about U2: You can never gauge their level of self-awareness.
Years later, U2 had only become more over-exposed and insulated. Bono with all his politicking… How much of it was for the greater good, and how much of it was for self-promotion? Seriously, the dude is on par with Sean Penn in the pantheon of annoying celebrity do-gooders. And what’s with all the iPod ads, and moving all their finances to the Netherlands to avoid paying taxes? Uno, dos, tres, catorce? What the f**k? Their music and live performance was admittedly getting better and better, but their attention begging was at odds with their credibility. I honestly didn’t think I’d ever be able to enjoy U2 subjectively again. And then I got “No Line On The Horizon” in the mail.
Initially, I found myself unable to take the album in. The U2 signature sound was there, with the droning hum behind the clean guitar lines, the subtle bass lines and soaring vocals. Typical. But something was different. Did I actually like this? I’ve always been the kind of person to reserve praise for the underdog, and U2 is certainly far from that. Or are they? In a world in which everyone with a MySpace can be a rockstar by sending out enough friend requests or kissing the ass of someone at Vice or Pitchfork, actual songwriting and the art of constructing a cohesive album is all but lost. Most albums these days seem like they were thrown together in a week, slapping together songs as haphazardly as can be, failing to edit out the weak material and patently unable to manufacture anything resembling a running theme. “No Line On The Horizon” is the exact opposite of this.
In interviews regarding their last two albums, U2 have been known to criticize the fact that while there were no “poor” songs on either album, neither “All That You Can’t Leave Behind” nor “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb” had the thematic arc that a classic album like “The Joshua Tree” had, with it’s concise deconstruction of the American mythology. “No Line On the Horizon” corrects this, with every track serving a dual purpose both as a potential single and also as part of a larger story. If Anton Corbijn’s film, “Linear” (which uses material from this album as its soundtrack), achieves any modicum of success, it may be looked at as U2’s own personal version of Pink Floyd’s “The Wall”.
After a few listens to this album, I can see why “Get On Your Boots” was chosen as the first single. It sounds the most contemporary of all the songs, at least when compared to previous U2 singles from this decade. But held up next to the rest of the album, it’s probably my least favorite. Bored of writing in the 1st person, Bono has adapted a story-telling approach on some of the songs that really expand the band’s musical vocabulary, but maybe aren’t as radio-friendly because of it. At least not until the initial reviews are in, after which you’ll probably hear just about every song on this album make it’s way to your car radio. “Moment Of Surrender” and “I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight” are particularly good examples of the band’s new direction, combining elements of classic U2 with modern production technique in a way that is undeniably catchy. Although it’s the slightly more psychedelic songs toward the end of the album like “FEZ-Being Born” and “Cedars Of Lebanon” that make the hairs stand up on your neck.
As much as I hate to go back on years of shit talking, the honest truth is that even haters like myself will find little to dislike in this album. Although "No Line On The Horizon" does nothing to answer the age-old question, “Is U2 full of shit or do they know exactly what they are doing?”, this may ultimately for the best. For this is the mystery that keeps U2 relevant throughout the years… this question of whether they are the biggest sell-outs in rock history or bonafide geniuses. And mystery is exactly what the music industry today is missing more than anything.
CraveOnline Rating: 9.5 out of 10
-1.5 if you have never and will never see U2 perform live.
+0.5 if you are the kind of person that actually bought a limited-edition U2 iPod without thinking for a second that it was kind of weird.
***I'm sick of all the neutral scores coming in lately, especially from big publication companies***
