When it comes to reviewing albums, especially for bands I like, I'm a bit like Homer when he started reviewing restaurants for the local paper--everything is great. So the non-U2 fans out there might want to take this review with a grain of salt, but I really like the new album, No Line on the Horizon.
One challenge might be getting past the first single "Get On Your Boots", which I linked to here before the album came out but never have really come around to. It's got an OK riff, but just seems kind of disposable. However, it does seem to work when mashed up for ABC's NBA playoff promos. I've never really understood why U2 chooses to release the most unique and often oddball songs as the first single, but Boots is part of a long history: "The Fly" from Achtung Baby, "Numb" from Zooropa, "Discotheque" from Pop, and "Vertigo" from How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb just to name a few. [Aside: I remember hearing Numb for the first time on the radio driving to the lake with Mon in her Ford Ranger with the windows down (no AC) and one working speaker. I jumped on the U2 bandwagon with Achtung Baby, so this was the first time I was anticipating a new U2 album. I could barely hear it, but I remember thinking--is that Edge rapping? What?!!]
But the album as a whole is strong. There's plenty of big, over-the-top anthems that U2 do so well: the title track, "Breathe", "Stand Up Comedy", and "I'll Go Crazy ...". "Stand Up Comedy" is only OK, but Bono included a nice Napoleon complex joke about himself--"Josephine, be careful of small men with big ideas" and the song will be a big stadium hit with it's command to "come on people, stand up for your love!" "I'll Go Crazy" is one of my favorites on the album. They did a great job with the song live on Letterman. While Bono sings in the chorus that "it's not a hill it's a mountain," Edge's guitar rings out like the birds flying above the summit.
For all those kids out there who are only allowed to listen to Christian music, there are plenty of tracks you can play for your parents to convince them that U2 are OK. "Magnificent" is a classic Bono "is he talking about a girl or Jesus?" song with plenty of religious overtones. Plus it's got a great 80's synth in the opening. In "Moment of Surrender" Bono either had a mystical spiritual experience or a public sex act, I choose the former. This song reminds me a bit of "So Cruel"--both are midtempo songs with earnest lyrics that turn out to be one of my favorites on the album. Finally, I'm afraid the boys might get sued over the similarity between the tune in "White as Snow" and "O Come, O Come, Emmanuel". Let's home Emmanuel is in the public domain by now.
"FEZ-Being Born" maybe the most interesting song on the album for the odd electronic additions and reprisal of "let me hear the sound" from Boots. It has a great keyboard line when song gets going. Throughout the album I enjoyed Adam's baseline being up in the mix (at least on headphones). Not all the songs work ("Unknown Caller" and "Cedars of Lebanon" are duds), but I'll give No Line on the Horizon an 8 thumbs up.
