The creation of a U2 album - by descriptions that filter out from the band and journalist observers - is something akin to the cataclysmic, magma-spewing upheaval that forms mountains and sinks continents beneath the sea. Evidence of this could be heard first-hand when stolen "work tapes" of early Achtung Baby! sessions surfaced in the bootleg underground in the 1990s. Songs like "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?" and "Even Better Than the Real Thing", among other familiar hits, came into the world joined at the pelvis and spitting fire.
Fans have endured more than three years of rumors and anticipation awaiting the release of U2's 12th studio album, No Line on the Horizon. In the months leading up to this, there were descriptions from the band that the new album would be a challenging, experimental work that would pull fan expectations out by the roots, similar to the moody experimentation of Achtung Baby!
Based upon the first single from the album, "Get On Your Boots," fans alternately primed and braced themselves for the rest of No Line On The Horizon. Listened to in the context of the entire album, "Get On Your Boots," is a juicy anomaly. It turns out the album, though hardly predictable, dull or disappointing, is another fresh offering from a band that reinvents itself every time it jumps back into the bullseye of public consciousness.
The first track on the album, the title track, is U2 emanating from stereo speakers as though they'd never left. Bono doesn't go in for any of the over-finessing vocal work he sometimes takes on in new recordings released between U2 albums. Also coming to the fore is the Edge's guitar work. There's no question that this is a much more guitar-oriented U2 album. At times, the Edge's licks ring like a sword striking whetstone.
The second song, "Magnificent," has been described by some music journalists as being the "most U2" song on the album. It's upbeat and again showcases Bono striving for the outer reaches of his vocal range. This is even more true about "Moment of Surrender," which Bono described in an interview as the "One" of No Line on the Horizon. Apparently, during the recording of Achtung Baby! the band found itself at a crossroads and the dreaded words "musical differences" threatened to envelope them, and possibly force a split. But then the Edge came up with the music for "One," and Bono penned the lyrics and that song brought the band back on track. "Moment of Surrender" was apparently written and recorded within only a few hours, and the basic skeleton of it on the album came from one of the first takes. The subdued lead-in betrays no hint of the boisterous vocal performance that soon blasts onto the scene.
Not only is this a more guitar-centric U2 album, but the intros to the songs are more developed. Gone are the over-produced quirks and studio tricks that marked the openings of previous hits like "Until the End of the World" and "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses?"
Not everything on the new album rocks the house. Although much of the track "Unknown Caller" is moody, trancy and inviting, it's scarred by a strange, chanting chorus, which sounds like it was written for a Gatorade or New Balance commercial. A sort of macho, grunting, demanding chorus that is strangely and sort of painfully at odds with the rest of the song.
One wonderful affirmation on the album is the horribly titled "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight." Despite its clunky title, it's classic, radio-friendly U2. The chorus is irresistible, and once again the Edge's guitar work is outstanding. As is his frontal assault on the song "Stand Up Comedy." The title may lead some to believe that this a song will be something like R.E.M.'s "Man on the Moon" or "Stand," but the song bursts forth like a lost, unreleased Jimi Hendrix riff.
The only truly experimental track is the undoubtedly Brian Eno-inspired "Fez - Being Born", which runs more than eight minutes in length. Edge's guitar keeps the listener grounded, while Bono's raise-the-roof-beam vocals will have whole stadiums of fans roaring along with him.
As with all U2 albums, the final song is slow, atmospheric, sounding almost like a latter-day Doors tune; something from the B-side of Morrison Hotel or even L.A. Woman. The song is sung from the perspective of a journalist who is trying to "squeeze complicated lives into a single headline." Some may feel it's an anticlimactic end to an album that leaped from the stereo speakers with such brazen fist-pumping rock, but the lyrics alone in this last song carry the artistic load as Edge finger-picks his part, and Larry and Adam provide a fog-like backdrop.
No Line on the Horizon is truly a musical journey. Recorded in Fez, Morocco, Dublin, New York and London, U2 and its production crew bring a sophisticated rock album to life that has the rawness of far-off marketplaces, nightclubs where no English is spoken, and the post-Bush optimism of the west.