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No
Line of the Horizon (©2009)   
1.
No Line On The Horizon 2. Magnificent 3. Moment of Surrender 4. Unknown
Caller 5. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight 6. Get On Your Boots
7. Stand Up Comedy 8. Fez - Being Born 9. White As Snow 10. Breathe
11. Cedars Of Lebanon
I bought this the day it came
out . . . and then waited a while to post my thoughts? "Why so
long?" you ask. The answer comes in two parts.
1. I couldn't quite get my
head around the album
2. I was feeling kind of lazy, and over time to be honest kind of forget
I had this one
3. (bonus excuse) I wanted to wait and see if this became a smash or
trash
The one question that seemed
to come up over and over again when this album was about to drop was
"Is U2 still relevant?" In my mind that question was answered
with the first single "Get on Your Boots" A song so painfully
calculated to be a "hit" that all you had to do was add an
"s" as the first letter and you had the result.
There is no doubt that U2
fans love new U2 and this album has a lot going for it in terms of being
nearly great U2. The reality is that the band is among the elite of
the elite in terms of rock acts, and as a touring band there are only
a smattering of bands in their league. As far as relevance goes U2 have
nothing left to prove, and even if they release an absolute turd of
an album it will not diminish their stature. Do you think the Rolling
Stones suffered as a result of their 80's output? Hardly. People who
go to see them go to see them play their classics, not to pull out deep
cuts from Voodoo Lounge or a Bigger Bang?
I'm getting ahead of myself.
Allow me to get back to the task at hand. While the argument can be
made that U2 has had its day - their latest effort is a worthy addition
to their body of work. In fact one could even argue that they are still
playing with a sense of urgency and fire most of their contemporaries
would have a hard time matching.
Why is that?
Because they are U2, still
arguably the best freakin' band on the planet that's why.
Not to sound like too much
of a broken record (I do tend to repeat myself), but I've been riding
on the bandwagon since their first albums, and to be honest I still
look nostalgically at their first two albums as high water marks. War
had some killer, lots of filler - same with Unforgettable Fire,
and especially so with The Joshua Tree. Later albums would see
the band more focused and the highs and lows would somewhat even out.
What I especially like about
No Line on the Horizon is that the band delivers all the way
through. Heck, even "Get your Boots On" is decent when taken
as a part of the whole. There is no other band on the planet who sounds
like U2, and has managed to survive the last few decades by moving with
the times and remaining true to their own sound.
If there is a downside to this
latest effort, it has to do with the band sounding too much like themselves.
The songs seem to fall into categories. This one sounds like Joshua
Tree era U2. This one is Achtung Baby - this one hearkens back to the
rough early days. For me it was a nifty trick - the mixing of new wine
and old wineskins as it were.
So to answer the question that
still remains to be answered. Is the band still relevant?
The answer is a wonderfully
vague: depends.
The proof in the pudding will
be what their audience embraces as the band's catalog gets deeper and
deeper (that was The Fixx, not U2, but you know what I mean). For the
time being the band continues to defy the odds and release albums that
are consistently top shelf.
Reviewed September 28, 2009
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