An Old Line on the Horizon - A Review of U2’s Latest Album
For many years, I have been enamored (like most of us in the “Post-Modern” Evangelical church) with the innovative Dublin band U2. At some point in my life, I have owned every one of their studio albums, and I have studied and absorbed their music with a passion that I’ve devoted to few secular bands. Needless to say, I was excited to hear the latest album, No Line on the Horizon. This album, though I hate to admit it, left me disappointed.
By now most of us have seen the released promotional video for “Boots,” the first single from the new album; this catchy tune is just about the best the band has to offer on “Horizon.” It seems that U2 has come to a point in their career where they can simply parody themselves and get away with it. For all the pomp and circumstance surrounding the album as the band’s new foray into experimentation (think “Pop” and “Zooropa”) I kept hearing the familiar rhythms of “Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” and the warm tones of “One.”
Is it fair to expect a band that has been playing together for thirty years to be able to produce a completely new sound? Maybe not, but this album is far from reinvention; the word that best describes it is regurgitation. It’s as if our boys from Dublin have swallowed the U2 formula and spit it back out with an unmistakeably familiar aftertaste. Even the album’s strongest songs, “Moment of Surrender” and “Cedars of Lebanon” offer little in the way of new sonic landscape to be explored.
U2 has made a reputation for themselves as always sounding like the future. I suppose that this album is no emendation of that reputation, but the songs on this album don’t sound like the future of U2. These songs, although diverse and colorful, are not anything new. Songs like “Stand Up Comedy” offer funky little grooves that would catapult lesser bands into strasopheric pop stardom. The problem is, U2 has set the bar for themselves in such an otherworldly place that any attempt to recreate those past glories sounds campy and staged. Even the obligatory thinly veiled Christian redemption song “White as Snow” just didn’t do it for me, because I felt that I had heard it before.
The one bright spot about this album is Bono’s voice. The past two albums, All that You Can’t Leave Behind, and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, have revealed a Bono whose voice was struggling to accomplish the soaring gymnastics U2 fans have become used to. Apparently, 30 years of belting his soul into the high notes of “Pride” and “Where the Streets Have no Name” had taken their toll on the vocally untrained frontman. Bono’s voice on this album, however, sounds more like his voice on Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree. Bono navigates the incredibly difficult and unsingable vocal lines of each of the songs on NLOTH with a power and presence that defies description.
So, if you need to complete your collection of U2 albums, go out and buy this album. However, don’t expect to hear something new. Once in a while, it’s nice to take a stroll down Musical Nostalgia Lane, and this is where you’ll find yourself as you listen to NLOTH.
Related Articles:
NME Review: No Line on the Horizon
SFC Review: No Line on the Horizon
Shannon Lewis: Review: U2’s No Line on the Horizon
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March 1st, 2009 at 10:20 pm
Wow. We must be from different planets. I think this one ranks as not only one of U2’s most creative moments, but one of their greatest collections of songs ever. Hard to imagine anyone being disappointed by it, unless they were just wanting a ‘best of’ collection. I’m honestly left pretty much baffled by your review.
Did you get around to reading mine?
p.s. - I still love your blog, though.
March 1st, 2009 at 11:34 pm
I did take a look at your review, and I think you like this album for the reasons that I don’t. I don’t like it because it’s being hailed as the next phase in U2’s development, but it sounds eerily the same as their entire catalog. I’m used to U2 reinventing themselves, not recycling themselves.
You wrote
That is entirely my problem with the album. See, to me, it sounds exactly like a “best of” collection.
N-E-hoo….guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree on this one. As my dad says, in his North Georgia drawl, “you’ve got a right to be wrong.”
March 1st, 2009 at 11:46 pm
You see, what’s so odd is, I think it only barely has hints of anything they’ve done before - only barely enough to recognize it as being “U2″… there are several moments when I forgot who I was listening to entirely. Definitely strange that what one U2 fan considered old hat another die-hard considers almost overwhelmingly fresh. Usually records that inspire such diverse opinions end up being labelled “classics”.
So, when did you move to Louisville?!
March 2nd, 2009 at 1:59 pm
I’ve been here since July of 08. Still getting used to it.
March 31st, 2009 at 5:33 am
[…] Line on the Horizon Part 2 Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 @ 5:32 am | Artists I took a little heat for this post, in which I complained about more than praised U2’s new album, No Line on the Horizon. If […]
April 23rd, 2009 at 3:57 am
No Line On The Horizon Review
No Line on the Horizon is the twelfth studio record by Irish rock band U2, released on 27 February 2009. The No Line on the Horizon is U2’s first since 2004, the longest period between studio albums in the group’s career. The material was originally …