Coaches Become Collaborators: Lanois Expands the U2 Horizon
March 8, 2009
By Tracey Hackett, Editor
March 8, 2009
To have respect for the music of U2 is also to have respect for the careers of producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois.
The two could easily be considered the band’s personal dynamic duo, working behind the scenes to repeatedly challenge Adam, Bono, Edge and Larry to songs thought by many to be their most acclaimed work. The professional relationship began on The Unforgettable Fire in 1984, and it’s no coincidence that the production duo helped U2 achieve its first No. 1 album in the United States with The Joshua Tree three years later. Eno and Lanois were also there for U2′s audiovisual reinvention on 1991′s Achtung Baby. Throughout that time, the relationship remained clearly that of players and producers.
The recent release of U2′s 12th studio album, No Line on the Horizon, however, undeniably transcends and blurs those boundaries.
Infinity is a Great Place to Start: Eno’s Influence on the Horizon
March 5, 2009
By Luke Pimentel, Editor
March 5, 2009
It does not take an expert to recognize that U2′s latest is a key effort in the band’s career. After coasting on the familiar and comforting tropes of their “classic” sound for much of the last decade – as is their right to do, we might add – U2 has once again embarked on sonic adventures, and in doing so, has taken its music to a new level.
As it turns out, that new level is, quite literally, the stratosphere.
There is a Line on the Horizon, and we want to draw your attention to it!
March 3, 2009
By Noah K. Mullette-Gillman
March 3, 2009
The first thing that I noticed when I saw the cover to U2′s new album No Line On The Horizon (photography by Hiroshi Sugimoto) was that the image pictured there did the opposite of what the title would make us expect it to do. It’s a photograph of the ocean, where the sky meets the sea. Now there is a phenomenon which I’ve seen myself on more than one cloudy day, when you look out from the beach, and there’s a blur where the water touches the sky. There’s a feeling of dizzy uncertainty that comes with only having a vague idea where the one ends and the other begins. You know it’s somewhere within about the span of your thumb, but it’s too cloudy to say quite where it is.
Thankfully, No Line on U2′s Horizon
March 2, 2009
By B.F. Azure
March 2, 2009
You could be forgiven for initially doubting U2′s mettle behind their latest work, No Line on the Horizon, based simply off of lead single “Get On Your Boots.†While as thick and gritty as any U2 lead single, it does a miserable job of representing the collective it ushers in on U2′s latest effort since 2004′s How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. Unlike its predecessor, this album is not immediately friendly, familiar, or easy to stomach. Indeed, it’s the challenge of stepping back into the ring for more punches that makes the sometimes heady lyrics presented here resonate. Whenever Bono is close to the edge with his storytelling and similes, a confident Edge and Larry Mullen Jr. and Adam Clayton in a surprisingly resurgent rhythm section, rescue the album from the cliffs and make us realize it was all for a reason—and somewhat metaphoric.
March Madness of the “Magnificent†Kind: All U2, All The Time!
March 1, 2009
By Andrew William Smith, Editor
March 1, 2009
With the impending global release of a new record, with an imminent announcement about a world tour of stadiums for summer 2009, with impromptu concerts in every imaginable context coming on a daily basis—from television spots to “secret†free gigs and more—this is an insanely impressive and intimidating time to be a U2 fan, much less the co-editor of an international U2 fanzine.
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