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U2 - No Line on the Horizon
- U2’s new album, “No Line on the Horizon,” begs a very important question. Is the band actually capable of putting out a bad album?
Sure, some might point out the band’s overtly religious early release, “October,” or the ill-advised dance experiment of 1997’s “Pop,” but there’s no denying the listenability of either album or that of any album in the band’s catalogue for that matter. If anything, U2’s weaker efforts are judged solely on the lofty standards laid out by masterpieces like “The Joshua Tree” and “All That You Can’t Leave Behind.”
Which is where “No Line on the Horizon” comes in. Released more than four years after the band’s “still kicking!” album, “How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb,” “Horizon” sees U2 taking a more experimental approach to its songwriting, to a level not heard since 1991’s “Achtung Baby.”
Gone are the face-melting rockers like “Vertigo” or “All Because of You,” replaced instead with moody, introspective pieces like “Moment of Surrender,” this millenium’s version of the band’s classic “One.” The song, U2’s longest to date, sees Bono turn in one of the strongest, most impassioned vocal performances of his career at age 48.
Don’t fret. The band still has its fair share of rocking. Some of the more upbeat numbers like “Magnificent” and “Breathe” easily rank among the best songs in the U2 canon. On the former, the band accomplishes what it tried so hard to do on “Pop” in creating a successful blend of its rock sound with dance and pop sensibilities; the latter, well... just rocks.
However, the album’s not perfect, with some of the tracks ultimately sounding a bit forced. The opening title track feels like it should work but somehow doesn’t. It's like an anthem that inexplicably gives up about 90 percent of the way to the top of the mountain. And for all its grandiosity, the album’s centerpiece, “FEZ-Being Born,” ultimately winds up meandering in nowhere-land. It's a song with so much, and yet so little, to say.
But taken in context, it’s U2’s 11th studio album and comes nearly 30 years after their first, it’s hard to complain too much about “No Line on the Horizon.” Here’s a band whose members are all pushing 50, yet are still finding ways to evolve their sound.
In an era where pop music is largely a disposable genre, that’s something to appreciate.
Reviewer: Dan Kaplan
new
Reviewer's Rating: 7.5
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Reader's Votes: 0
Added: 1-Mar-2009
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