'No Line On The Horizon' is available now.
Irish über-stars U2 released two other servicable albums during this decade, but after spending the last 72 hours with No Line on the Horizon, (the band's12th album) , I almost forget what they were (wasn't there an iPod commercial?) But to be honest the release of Horizon's first single "Get on Your Boots" (a weird little stomp that pretends never to have heard Elvis Costello) back in February didn't give me much hope. Stories had surfaced that the band had scrapped two albums worth of tunes with Rick Rubin. Then came news of further delay of the album since the band wanted to continue with its songwriting efforts; generally code for "we've been partying so hard that we've barely had time to record, man" (see: the album Pop) . I wasn't alone in suspecting the band's magic days had passed.
Apparently they haven't. Re-teaming with the producers who crafted their early masterpieces (Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, and even Steve Lillywhite), the band has cobbled their richest, most interesting collection of music since 1991's Achtung Baby. From literally the opening seconds of the title track, when Eno's trademark aural haze starts to warm up your speakers with the title track, you can feel an intangible that only happens when these certain individuals get together. Like Darth Vader once said, it's "a presence I've not felt since...".
And what an opening it is. The first five tracks might be the most fluid five-song sequence anywhere in the U2 catalog. In particular, the first three (the title track, "Magnificent", and "Moment of Surrender") are literally the sounds of a band refocused and reborn. Edge's clarion guitar has become one of the most comforting and emotive sounds in modern music. The Eno/Lanois (who co-wrote many of the songs with the band this time) atmospherics are the mortar around the most flawless rhythm bricks Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen have ever laid down. Bono's has always sung like he's trying to win your heart, and that hasn't changed here. There are a couple more rasps than 10 years ago, but his instrument still has few peers.
The disc was originally intended to be released as two EPs entitled Daylight and Darkness. The second half of the album (presumably the Darkness side) eschews the cohesion of the first for a moodier, more meditative and varied bundle of sounds. It's interesting, but it doesn't all work down the stretch. "Breathe" sounds like it wasn't finished cooking, and "Cedars of Lebanon" might have been better suited for one of those rare "B-Side" collections than the closer to one of U2's stronger albums. But "Get On Your Boots", awkward as a stand-alone single, is well-placed and welcome breath of levity in proximity to these other tunes, as is "Stand Up Comedy", which cops a Beatles riff without sounding like The Beatles.
There are certain combinations of things in this world that are absolutely bulletproof when they come together. Tropical beaches go with sunsets. Beer goes with pizza. And the production team of Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno go with the band U2. If you locked them in a freezer with a tape recorder and a ukelele, the sly bastards would probably still figure out a way to record somthing timeless. Horizon might not set the music world on its ear the way their earlier collaborations The Unforgettable Fire and The Joshua Tree did (no album by anyone likely ever will), but as a singular work of art it will certainly parallel those releases as a watershed moment for its creators.
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