No line on the horizon has arrived

March 3, 8:50 PMPhiladelphia Music ExaminerDaniel Horne

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Bono and the boys of U2 are back after a four year hiatus just in time to give us the experimental genius that is titled No line on the horizon. I will be the first one to admit that I felt while still being a great band that maybe U2 was loosing some of their punch but after giving this album a listen a few times I stand corrected. What makes this effort work so well is the fact that U2 have seemed to distance themselves from their previous two records. I am in no way bashing 2000's All that you can't leave behind or 2004's How to dismantle an atomic bomb, I for one was one of the millions of people who eagerly anticipated and went out and purchased both within the week of their respective releases.

U2 has reinvented themselves once again, while there might not be a Beautiful Day, One, or With or without you type track that you may memorize and repeat over and over again, the underlying fact is U2 along with legends Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois have created a complete CD from track one all the way up to the end at track eleven.

Get on your boots which is the first release from the album is jam packed with energy and is a great song to have placed in the middle of the album if for some reason listeners were dozing off, which really shouldn't be the case. White as snow is a slow ballad detailing the life of a man, it is a refreshing song from the band as there really are not very many like it in the U2 catalog.

Another reason why this album is different that its predecessor's is the fact that Bono has just about left politics behind except in the track Breathe. The guys have paid close attention to writing energy laden rock songs. This is why No line on the horizon should fall behind The joshua tree, and the Unforgettable fire as the third  best U2 album to date.

In closing, No line on the horizon is a must buy for any fan of music even if you may have been like me and doubted that U2 still "had it", I plead you to go out and let the album do what it did to me, and that is restore faith in the rock and roll phenom that is U2.