U2 - No Line On The Horizon
3 March 2009
Interscope Records
Review by Meghan Kearney

There is always much to be said about a band that can stick around for thirty years and continue to create records which earn top reviews from the most respectable critics. In this generation, Irish lads Bono, The Edge, Adam Clayton, and Larry Mullen Jr. more commonly known as U2, snuggly fit into this generations most enduring musical icons.

Their wildly anticipated 12th studio release since 1980’s Boy, No Line on the Horizon finally became a reality after almost two years of world-wide recording from Dublin, to Morocco, to New York City. Produced once again by U2 regulars Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois (who began their work with U2 on 1984’s Unforgettable Fire), No Line on the Horizon howls the unequivocal ambient rock sounds of U2.

The opener and title track, starts the album with heavy, mounting energy. Into track two, “Magnificent,” the band reverts back to their beginning with an electric guitar nostalgic of European New Wave Bands of the era.

The album’s overwhelming ambience, thanks to the ambient fathers Eno and Lanois, begins on “Unknown Caller,” and grows from there. Bono’s early high pitched vocals blend in smoothly on this very All That You Can’t Leave Behind-esque track.

Half way through the album, “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight,” comes straight from the heart of the peace-driven foursome. The lyrics “Every generation gets a chance to change the world/ Pity the nation that won't listen to your boys and girls”are sure to be included somewhere in the next Live/Aid festival.

The two songs to follow, “Get On Your Boots” and “Stand Up Comedy” are the not-so-ambient pieces of the album. Each song sounds of older and harder U2 with grungy guitar, and fierce drums. The haunting “White As Snow” immediately radiates a western movie feel. Play this track with your eyes closed and let the visual of Bono in spurs, shot gun at the ready, silhouetted outside two swinging saloon doors humor your mind.

The album ends with its most musically ambient, “Cedars of Lebanon.” Here the music is pure and chimerical. Bono’s sturdy vocals and the chorus’ Queen-like harmonization contradict the musical tranquility, but fit together plausibly. The song (and album) ends abruptly with the lyrics “Choose your enemies carefully cause they will define you/ Make them interesting cause in some ways they will mind you/ They're not there in the beginning but when your story ends/ Gonna last with you longer than your friends.”

For a band that has been creating records longer than a good portion of their current listeners have even been alive, the long awaited No Line on the Horizon in no way puts U2 to rest. Going strong now for over thirty years, this album makes it obvious that these four musicians and their favored producers have boxes of talent still stored away on their shelves.