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

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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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.

and the other day the local indie station played this song and i was all like "oh is this comsat angels? chameleons? sweet song!" and it turned out to be some deep cut offa the first U2 album

U2 was really amazing for 3 albums, very, very good for 2, annoying for 1, then really amazing again for 1 before appreciating them had to start carrying qualifiers to handwave Bono's growing ego.

Daniel "Fuckloads of Reverb" Lanois

I am usually not a big fan of reverb myself, but Lanois, unlike most 80s "indie" producers did, uses it in a tasteful way, making the music bigger and more "spacey" but still managing to keep each instrument very much separated and not create the "porridge" with the vocals completely drowned in the rest of the sound etc. which was a problem with the overreverbiated 80s guitar pop/indie. By giving each instrument their own reverb effect rather than the entire sound the same reverb, he manages this.

Nigel Godrich does largely the same thing great too today.

thanks for dis mah 40 year old virgin friend!!!

The title from "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" looks like it was conceived by Jim Steiman.

geir otm. this is so much better than i thought it would be. even "get on your boots" doesn't sound horrible where it's placed in the song sequence. nothing's stood out yet as U2 Anthem but for realz this could be "the best u2 album since 'achtung baby'"

You realize I'm reading that in the context of only hearing the ILX version of the album.

I bet the reviews are pretty funny if you only go off the ILX version

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ragogna/huffpost-reviews-u2-emno_b_170968.html

That brings us to one of the album's more "commercial" tracks, "Get On Your Boots." If you love Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up," you're gonna REALLY kinda like this one.

Hahahah!

i really had no hope for this thing. but then i read pitchfork's review. the last time they underrated something i knew i like was alex moulton's exodus. i figured no, can't be, but just maybe they're as wrong about the new u2 album. and hey, what do you know. thanks pitchfork!

I haven't gotten them into my head, but there are choruses. Big, catchy choruses. And that is a good tune to me.
― Geir Hongro, Tuesday, 3 March 2009 Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

big catchy choruses that you can't remember?
― Tracy Michael Jordan Catalano (Jordan), Tuesday

lol

That brings us to one of the album's more "commercial" tracks, "Get On Your Boots." If you love Elvis Costello's "Pump It Up," you're gonna REALLY kinda like this one.

What is it abou those albums that turns its fans into equivocating numbskulls?

*about this

The title from "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" looks like it was conceived by Jim Steiman.

― Wally West, Wednesday, March 4, 2009 12:16 PM (4 hours ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

or mid-90s Garth Brooks

^^^
That is exactly what I thought when I first saw the tracklist, I figured something in the tradition of "Longneck Bottle".

longneck bono, let go of my hand

I am usually not a big fan of reverb myself, but Lanois, unlike most 80s "indie" producers did, uses it in a tasteful way, making the music bigger and more "spacey" but still managing to keep each instrument very much separated and not create the "porridge" with the vocals completely drowned in the rest of the sound etc.

when lanois talks about what he learned from eno, he mentions mastering simple tools and reducing unnecessary ornamentation. I'd add "creating a sense of space" to that list. here come the warm jets is one of the great object lessons in virtual soundstage mixes. while most producers and engineers tried to create realistic soundstages where listeners could pinpoint instruments in a 3D field, eno created soundstages where the guitar is 2 stories high, the vocalist is traveling through a tunnel at 80mph, and the drummer is on mars. the same thought process is all over eno's on land, his first collab w/ lanois, that sense of boundless space.

that sense of boundless space is all over the title song, appropriately enough

stop making me want to listen to the new U2 album

it's not bad, honest

when lanois talks about what he learned from eno, he mentions mastering simple tools and reducing unnecessary ornamentation. I'd add "creating a sense of space" to that list. here come the warm jets is one of the great object lessons in virtual soundstage mixes. while most producers and engineers tried to create realistic soundstages where listeners could pinpoint instruments in a 3D field, eno created soundstages where the guitar is 2 stories high, the vocalist is traveling through a tunnel at 80mph, and the drummer is on mars. the same thought process is all over eno's on land, his first collab w/ lanois, that sense of boundless space.

Surely he has learned a lot of this from Eno, but I feel he has developed it even more himself. His work on Dylan's "Oh Mercy", Neville Brothers' "Yellow Moon" and "Wrecking Ball" by Emmylou Harris are brilliant examples of this. I also love the two albums he produced for Peter Gabriel, but I might have regardless of who produced them.

Also, I feel like Nigel Godrich is building even more upon the heritage from Eno and Lanois. He might be the man to work with for U2 if they want to "update" their sound and still preserve the core of what they have always been about.

Wrecking Ball and Time Out of Mind are his nadirs, to my ear: all those caverns, etc.

lol

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/new-u2-album-within-months-1638928.html

The new album will be called 'Songs of Ascent' and will be a sister album to their latest release - a trick U2 already pulled with 'Achtung Baby' and 'Zooropa' and in the early 1990s.

Bono said that it would be a quieter album than the current effort, and the lead single will be called 'Every Breaking Wave', a track pulled from 'No Line On the Horizon' at the last minute.

Bono said that it would be a quieter album than the current effort

WAHT 60% OF THIS ALBUM IS AN UNINTERRUPTED DIRGE

I'm just excited that we can do another comp

Bono's desire to move on with future projects may be a direct response to the lukewarm reception for the band's current single 'Get On Your Boots'.

"I was going off the song myself for a minute," said Bono of the album's lead single. "And then the Grammys really put me back on it. I really enjoyed performing it. It's gonna take a little longer to stick.

"It was never an obvious first single . . . it's an earnest love song. That's what's beautiful about it."

(xpost) yes, and only in a few months too!

I finally heard this over the weekend, its nowhere near as bad as everyone seems to say! I certainly like it better than the last one (and arguably the one before that). It feels like some of the criticism against this (U2 by numbers, lazy) would have better applied last time around. But I'm just a guy that thinks Pop is totally great and underrated, so what do I know?

How does Eno has time for this? He is also currently working with Coldplay, on an album that is supposed to be released in November already.

listened to this with the missus (who's a much bigger U2 fan than me) the other day, and there was a general "hmmm, this is kind of nothing, is it over yet?" feeling among both of us.

How does Eno has time for this?

http://www.canpages.ca/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/dr-manhattan.jpg

No, that's how Right Said Fred have made so many terrible records...

I don't find it that bad: a couple of songs are surprisingly good.

I bought it today, on double-LP vinyl !!

"I don't find it that bad: a couple of songs are surprisingly good"

Obviously this is just another way to say I'm getting old.

Actually you are kind of right. But then, complaining about current music being mastered to sound like shit is like saying you're getting old too, so it seems, in today's age, you have to be getting old to understand some simple things about the quality of music anyway.

Thank you, Elvis Costello.

Now there's another brilliant musician who still makes music that is way better than the stuff modern kids listen to.