NO LINE ON THE HORIZON, the epic new U2 album opus

Leaked.

Cursory listen indicates nothing for me. This album is all over the damn place. More keyboards than anything since Pop, though, and some twinkly vintage guitar styles from The Edge.

That single is too close to The Escape Club for my own comfort.

I refuse to pick this up for more than $3 from the clearance bin in a few years.

14 hours on, I can't tell you a thing about what I listened to. It's unremarkably flat and wandering. When Bono said it's time to not rock anymore, he wasn't kidding.

not sure how being "close to the escape club" could be seen as a negative

I like the big clattering drum fills on the 45, but the verses (melody and lyric) seem very standard-issue late Bono. It picks up a bit when it threatens to change key.

In a way I was moved to watch them start the Brit Awards tonight, just for the sense of these 4 men, still together after ... 33 years or so? - playing their piece to a live audience for the first time.

http://www.spotify.com/go/20090223-u2-excl-preview-guardian

whole LP audible now

Get On Your Boots sounds like the song from the end credits of Only Fools And Horses.

not heard it yet but i really wish they had done this

it doesn't sound like that

not that I watched it

let's release the U2 album before U2 releases the U2 album

Big Sunday NY Times Pareles feature/interview and they're doing the Leterman show all week. Musc biz blogger Lefsetz says they'd sell more copies if they did the morning tv talk shows instead...Did somebody mention on another thread how Bono and the Edge are trying to defend their tax practices from charges of hypocracy.

All that hanging out with George Bush must have told them something.

Letterman hypocrisy

vs. Chinese democracy

Correcting my spelling.

Now they're doing Led Zep covers in rehearsals because of a project the Edge was involved with

Better than Led Zeppelin originals...

Many tracks had their names changed during the recording sessions. "French Disco", "Chromium Chords" and "For Your Love" were retitled as "Magnificent", "Fez – Being Born", and "Stand Up" respectively.

Did Stereolab sue over the first two?

I'm giving this a shot because it was produced by the same guys who did Unforgettable Fire, which is far and away the best U2 album. Also, my friend snagged me a promo copy from the radio station she works at.

I'm giving this a shot because it was produced by the same guys who did Unforgettable Fire

I like how Eno's career is reduced to this. "Oh yeah, that guy."

: (

Let's not make everything about Brian Eno.

Which I think is an oblique strategy.

That explains the last 15 years of U2 albums - someone gave them a rigged OS deck where every card said "Try and make everything the same"...

We should make our own set of Oblique Strategies to help U2 create their next album.

DISREGARD NUMBERS FOUR THROUGH THIRTEEN

JUST ONE SONG ABOUT PLIGHTS

LET THE LYRICS BE TERRIBLE

Heard that "Crazy if I don't Go Crazy tonight" on the radio this AM...

ugg...though one Bono-defining lyric though:

The right to be ridiculous is something I hold dear

My brain is having trouble mapping this onto Unforgettable Fire.

This album would be classic with the vocals removed. What is WRONG WITH YOU, Bono?

Cedars of Lebanon samples a Harold Budd track!

I think this is great stuff. Interesting and atmospheric arrangements, but without losing sight of the tunes. Upon first listen, seems to me like one of the best ever U2 works.

Which melodies here do you think are worthwhile, Geir? To me that's its biggest failing-- no tunes at all.

I haven't gotten them into my head, but there are choruses. Big, catchy choruses. And that is a good tune to me.

big catchy choruses that you can't remember?

btw geir, i was wondering, do you like iron maiden?

Looking at the wiki entry, I noticed that every song I like gives Eno/Lanois writing credits and every song I don't like is just U2.

btw geir, i was wondering, do you like iron maiden?

No, although that has more to do with annoying operatic screaming vocals and annoying drumming with way too much use of the bass drum, than with actual lack of tunes.

from the Ideal Copy newsletter i just got: "The new U2 album is out today and we are bewildered that only one customer has ordered it from us. Many ordered the single which only results in more head-scratching about the album."

haha, maybe the single put everyone off?

Looking at the wiki entry, I noticed that every song I like gives Eno/Lanois writing credits and every song I don't like is just U2.

I don't dislike any of them, but the ones with input from Eno/Lanois seem like generally the best songs. Also because of Lanois being an ace producer as always.

Daniel "Fuckloads of Reverb" Lanois

Amazon reviewer sez:

1.0 out of 5 stars See the Shark. Jump the Shark., March 3, 2009

By wordnat "wordnat" (boise, idaho United States) - See all my reviews

Great records are daring, spontaneous things. "Blonde on Blonde", "OK Computer", and "Tha Carter III" share little other than a fearless certainty of purpose and execution. Bad records -- apart from being artistically bankrupt, of course -- are timid, inherently dishonest concoctions that sacrifice any legitimate artistic goals in favor of financial ones. They play not to lose -- all bets are securely hedged. Truly bad records -- from Michael Jackson's "Bad" (pun intended?) through Brittany Spears' "Oops! I Did it Again", and on to U2's embarrassing, calculating "No Line on the Horizon" -- are terminally self-conscious ones. NLOTH is a VERY self-conscious record, and it's easily the band's worst since their last pure piece of undiluted musical product, 1997's "Pop". In fact, NLOTH is even weaker than "Pop", because it lacks that snoozefest's all-encompassing ironic gloss. In other words, U2 can't say "Just kidding!" this time -- and that's what makes NLOTH so disappointing: it's the sound of the plot truly being lost, backed with a looped sample of laughing all the way to the bank....

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Comment Comments (24)

Yeah right up until the MJ dis I was in full agreeance.

OK Computer spontaneous?

recording an album in a studio is about the least spontaneous thing possible.

so if i liked Pop does that mean I'll like this album more then ?

OK Computer spontaneous?

ok maybe not full agreeance

fwiw from ilx's single u2 stan

achtung baby >> pop/zooropa > passengers >>>>> no line on the horizon >> all that you can't leave behind >>>>> how to dismantle an atomic bomb

i listened to achtung baby for the first time in years, man "Zoo Station" is a fucking awesome song.