"Restart and re-boot yourself" is an apt lyric. Much of U2's output this decade prior to this album was, in the opinon of a considerable number of people, much more pedestrian than their output from previous decades. My personal opinion - it's not at all that it was bad - I enjoy a good number of tracks from ATYCLB and HTDAAB, but getting enjoyment out of a track and being moved by a track aren't the same thing, and most(not all) of those two records don't move me - it was that it was below what I knew they were capable of - listen to what they did on the Million Dollar Hotel soundtrack, recorded in 1999/2000, and you know that they were still evolving as musicians, and that their ability to make music of depth didn't go anywhere when they recorded Vertigo - it was just hidden. It is being hidden no more here. That's not to say every track is a deep and evocative - there are rockers too!
No Line On The Horizon, as far as rockers go, is the opposite of Vertigo. It is 100% buildup, where as Vertigo was all about instant gratification, and that is a good thing. It's a great opener, and it's really growing on me. At first I was waiting for a little more melody in Bono's vocals, but then I realized that that isn't what this song is about. It's about everything going on behind Bono. It's atmospheric, lush, intense, and it just keeps building up and never letting up. Every time I listen to it, I feel the adrenaline, and I'm just waiting for an explosion that never comes. And not giving us that explosion was the right decision. The closest it gets is when Bono goes up an octave and is joined by Edge on vocals in the last repetitions of the chorus. It's perfect. Rather than an all-out explosion, it's a restrained and controlled peak that harnesses all of the power that's been built up throughout the song - which is a lot - and focuses it all on the listener's soul, and that moves the listener, where as an all-out explosion wouldn't have that focus, would make your whole body move as you jump around the room, and while you'd be excited, you wouldn't be moved. A sensational opener. Easily their best opener to an album since Zooropa(though it's not better than Zooropa - Zooropa is just that good).
Magnificient is, to me, the most U2-sounding song on this record. It is a common complaint in these parts that U2 have tried too hard this decade to sound like themselves. But there's a difference between U2 trying to sound like themselves by trying to recapture the essence of their past songs, and U2 trying to sound like themselves by trying to sound like the guys who made those past songs would sound in 2009. Rather than trying to duplicate their older sound, they're trying to evolve it here. They're taking their sound from, I'd say, October through The Joshua Tree, and applying all of the musical and personal growth they've made over the years to it instead of just trying to echo it, and this is the result. The riff is one of those eternal sounding riffs. Simple, but eternal. It may go down as one Edge's greatest. It's a really simple song actually, but it could go on forever. The intro is great, the way it starts out dark and spacey and techno-y, like it's gonna be a Depeche Mode song or a Pink Floyd song or something, and builds into that amazing riff. The verse melodies are sort of hypnotizing, and they simply act as a set-up for the riff and chorus. That little oh-oh-oh-oh hook Bono uses at the end of the verses as a springboard into the chorus is perfectly placed. The outro is gorgeous, with Bono's falsetto, the drums, the backing vocals, the moroccan-sounding strings, which then give way to a final repetition of the chorus. This doesn't sound like U2 trying to sound like U2. This just sounds like U2. I think this track is a little bit overrated on this forum already, but it's too early for all of that. Great, great track. It seriously sounds like the band who made the October album. I mean, listen to 'Fire' and this back-to-back. It's uncanny.
Moment Of Surrender is my favorite track on the record thus far. Brilliant. While people were praising Original Of The Species as a great ballad, I was hoping that the band that made Stateless would come back someday. Here they are. There are no words. Just brilliant. One of the early reviews from the listening sessions - the one that was blatantly hating on it - made a comment about U2 trying this song live a half a dozen times before never playing it again. That will probably happen with at least one song. I just hope it isn't this one. I can picture the crowd holding up the lighters. Except that that seems too cliche for a song as evocative and moving as this. THIS is how U2 should have followed up Pop and MDH. THIS was the natural evolution of their musicianship. Oh, and can we stop already with the freaking about about the ATM lyric? Bono isn't the first person to use the phrase 'ATM Machine'. It may be incorrect but it's common. Google it. I got nearly 900,000 hits. Anyway. I'm sort of blown away by this. And relieved. It's been a decade since U2 touched territory like this. I had total faith that they were still capable of this, but not proof. Here is the proof.
Unknown Caller is a joyful pseudo-prog rocker. The 'sunshine' intro is Beatlesque, and it gives way to a riff that, in the beginning, sounds kind of like the Walk On riff...but that is short lived, and this song is anything but Walk On. The riff quickly transforms into a slightly proggy riff underneath the instantly catchy oh-oh-oh-oh-oh melody. The instrumentation in the verses, as well as the shouting parts of the chorus, are very Red-Hot-Chili-Peppers-esque, and it's amazing to hear that in a U2 song. What's cool is that instrumentation behind the first and second verse aren't identical, which makes the song as a whole more musically diverse. I love that. The outro is incredible. I hear synthesizers and an ORGAN playing together as Edge plays his solo, which is perhaps his best on the record - it sounds vaguely like his solo from Please, but maybe even better. Wow. It's hard to articulate this song.
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight is the second most U2-sounding song on the record. The backing track during the verses sounds, to me, sort of like the backing track of 'Bad' if it were sped up. The melody in these verse is simply, not hooky, but hypnotising. The chorus starts out in full Bono-belting fashion, works its way into a great hook with 'as you start out the climb', and then transforms into a shout-it-out-to-the-world style finish line, I KNOW I'LL GO CRA-ZY IF I DON'T. GO. CRAZY. TONIGHT! The 'Baby, baby, baby' coda was a brilliant surprise...almost like an homage to Ultraviolet(Light My Way), from nearly two decades ago. The melody there is infectious and adrenaline-pumping. Bono nails the vocal here. This song was expected to be some kind of cheesy pop song. I don't think it's cheesy at all. I think it's a brilliant pop song, with a chorus that walks up to the border between pop and rock and then backs up.
Get On Your Boots is Get On Your Boots. Probably the weakest song here, but that's not really saying anything. I still love the chorus and I still think the 'Let me in the sound' parts are some of the coolest things U2 has put on a record in their career.
Stand Up Comedy should be a huge single. One of the early reviews claimed that it sounded the same as Crumbs From Your Table. Perhaps fleetingly, here and there, for a like a second, if you listen real hard. But to me, it's more The Fly meets Holy Joe, and that's just as kick-ass as it sounds. The riffs in this song are some of the heaviest and trippiest U2 have had in a while, and the song itself is just catchy as hell. The melody accompanying 'out from under your beds' is the kind of hook that can put a song at the top of the charts. The bridge melody starting at 2:58 is incredible and a great surprise, when the song could have finished without it. The Bono is in fine form here. Love it.
Fez-Being Born is like Moment Of Surrender for me in that it is proof that the U2 that were intent on fucking up the mainstream a decade and a half ago still exist. Amazing. The first part of it straight up could be Sigur Ros, and for U2 to record something like that blows my mind. The second part of it is like a cross between The Unforgettable Fire's title track and songs from the soundtrack of the 1984 fantasy cult classic, 'The Neverending Story'. Parts of the melodies here put the image of the Ivory Tower in my head. The lyrics are intriguing and abstract, and I like them a lot, but the song doesn't need them to be brilliant. I actually an instrumental version of this song without Bono's vocals could be an interesting B-Side for one of the singles. Just absolutely fucking drool-worthy. Sigur Ros, Zooropa-style transitions, The Unforgettable Fire-esque atmospherics, Neverending Story-style melodies, all in one U2 song? Just WOW. I'm sad for the people who think this song is 'meandering' and 'goes nowhere' and 'is too weird', because this is one of the most inspiring, beautiful things U2 has put on record in a long, long time. In fact, that meandering quality is precisely what makes it so great. It's not a song looking for radio airplay. It's not a song that's begging for attention. It's just art.
White As Snow is another gem. This is unlike anything U2 have ever done. There's some 'Hands That Built America' vibe here, but this is a different animal than that - this is much less melodramatic and over-the-top. The melodies are sweet but melancholy, the lyrics are good, and the song as whole is a slow-burning builder in a way that only U2 songs can be. The point near the end when it reaches its climax, finally building all the way up to a scaled-down reprise of Unknown Caller's chorus melody, is sublime. The song starts out sad, but gets less and less so as the song goes on, and by the time it gets to the Unknown Caller reprise, the sadness has built all the way into restrained yet pure joy. But then after this, it gets sad again, ending with 'if only a heart could be as white as snow'. There is a longing that drives this song. It's as if the speaker starts out sad, longing for days gone by, and then as he gets lost in those memories, he suddenly feels more joyful, and then he snaps out of it and realizes they are only memories and he's still here and now, and he gets sad again. Beautiful song.
Breathe is a good song. I love it. But not as much as some of the others. I dig Bono giving the Dylan stream-of-consciousness vocal style a try, and he's actually pretty damn good at it. The chorus is obviously huge. One of the most sing-along-able choruses on the album, and it will be a killer live. The instrumental coda is really, really good, but I think Edge's solo, while good, is one of those solos that he'll make into a different monster live.
Cedars Of Lebanon, like Moment Of Surrender and Fez-Being Born before it, overjoys me because it is proof that the band that made Zooropa and Passengers and MDH is still here and is still willing to put out music like this under their own moniker. The lyrics, overall, are are some the finest Bono has written in over a decade. The atmosphere is perfect, and the the short, one-line chorus is hauntingly beautiful. Best closer since Wake Up Dead Man, maybe Love is Blindness, and follows in the grand tradition of U2 albums finishing on a dark song.
Eno and Lanois are all over this album. Their influence cannot be overstated. Eno and Lanois - especially Eno - take U2 to another level. Period. I'm sorry, but I just don't think Steve Lillywhite could produce anything close to this evocative and layered. This is far and away U2's best-produced album since Zooropa, which as an Eno-Edge-Flood collaborative effort.
Bono is vocally stronger and more powerful than he's been since Achtung Baby and Zooropa. He's not quite what he was from 1987-1989, but there are things he's doing now that he never could've done then too. He used his lower register much more back then, but he never could've hit the high notes then the way he's doing now. He's technically a better singer than he was then, even if his voice doesn't quite have the power it did then. It's still just as good as it was on Achtung Baby and Zooropa. Just as good. And considering the state of his voice between 1998 and 2001, that's just a great thing to know.
Adam and Larry are more present and more exciting on this album than they've been since Pop. They've been kind of muted on ATYCLB and HTDAAB, but they're back in full force.
The thing that stands out about this album, the thing they've done with this album that they haven't done since Zooropa, is that they're clearly not worrying about singles anymore. They've brought artistry back. People talk about the 'every song is a single' philosophy that U2 has had in recent years, and people attribute it to ATYCLB and HTDAAB. But it started on Pop. Discotheque, Do You Feel Loved, If God Will Send His Angels, Staring At The Sun, Last Night On Earth, Gone, Please...all were single material. I think Pop is brilliant, but it doesn't have the avante-garde nature of Zooropa and Passengers. Not only is this the most cohesive album they've put since Zooropa, but some of the tracks truly fit that avante-garde territory. And that makes me happy, because outside of the MDH stuff, U2 hasn't been willing to go there for a long time.
"I don't wanna be in a crap band, and the minute U2 becomes a crap band, we're, you know, we're all out of here. And crap does not mean, it's not measured in sales, or even relevance, it's about the sense of adventure, is it still there, are you still blowing your own mind, are you still growing as a musician, and as a songwriter, and as a person, and I think, I think that in U2 we are, right now."
I posted this quote recently and said that more than anything else, I hoped this album would prove that the spirit of that quote is still alive in Bono and the rest of the band. It has, with flying colors. I think they blew their own minds again. They've certainly blown mine. And in that respect, they've rebooted themselves.
1.Moment Of Surrender
2.Fez-Being Born
3.No Line On The Horizon
4.Magnificent
5.Stand-Up Comedy
6.Unknown Caller
7.Cedars Of Lebanon
8.White As Snow
9.I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Crazy Tonight
10.Breath
11.Get On Your Boots
I think. But it could change. And I'm in love with all of them.
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