U2 - No Line On The Horizon - Album Review

I think I am long overdue a review of this album. I gave my first, early impressions of it, but I was kind of putting off going into any depth because I have still been getting to grips with it. Not that it is hard work, but just that I am allowing it to wash over me gradually. I didn't want to rush my thoughts.

Prompted by a friend's email to me with her thoughts, I wrote back to her with mine. A little shambolic and jumbled though they were, I think they are as close to an in depth review of the album as I am likely to get in the coming months, as I have a lot of travel coming up (during all of which I will have my iPod earphones jammed in my ears with NLOTH on!).

So... I thought I would simply paste my email to my friend. So hope you enjoy my rambling about NLOTH. I have edited here and there to cut out anything irrelevant and to make it suitable for my blog.

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I have been trying to formulate my thoughts on the album into some sort of cohesive sentences, because at the moment it seems more instinctual for me to like it, rather than intellectual, if that makes any sense. I kind of sense what is being conveyed, but it's more of a silent language at the moment. The music is uppermost in my mind (more on that later) and I am trying to make sense of the lyrics - which incidentally I think are some of the best that Bono has ever written.

Sometimes I am loathe to try to analyse what Bono means when he writes, because as you know, writing is so objective/subjective, and the meaning can be easily disguised. Here on this album, Bono is kind of hiding behind the "third person" (technically he is still writing in 1st person POV), and this is something a writer can easily do. Pretend it's a character and you can get away with anything. If you show your heart or your hand too much you can say it's not you. I think that, despite the characters he uses a little in this album, these are some of the most personal songs that he has ever done.

I like this album better than The Joshua Tree - and I LOVE the Joshua Tree. That album will always be an absolute classic, and it showed a band (and moreso a man) maturing, turning from a boy to a man. Both in ideas and in voice. But, even though the Joshua Tree spoke of worldly things, they were only worldly things that Bono was just on the cusp of discovering. Joshua Tree was, for me, the onset of a journey into discovering life. Writing about a bigger world that was to be explored. His songs were passionate and objective, but only from the point of view of an outsider looking in. A relative youngster (he was only 27!) Now, Bono has explored that world, and his lyrics are more intense because they come from a direct experience he was only touching on before. When he talks from the point of view of a war correspondent, he is really talking about his own experiences. Mourning lost youth, and past loves, and talking about futility, and war, and the way the world is. And religion of course... God is always there. I have no religious beliefs, but have always been in awe of other people's. Especially Bono's. I mean, it can't be the bunkum I think it is, if someone like him believes it! Right? I respect his views, and marvel at the strength it so obviously brings him.

There is such beauty in his words... at times on this album just hearing them brings me to tears. Most notably on Magnificent: Only love can leave such a mark/Only love can heal such a scar - the profundity of that. The contradiction of love. It scalds and soothes. And Bono laid bare… From the womb, my first cry was a joyful noise.

One of the best songs lyrically for me (at the moment!) is “I’ll Go Crazy”. This track literally erupts with genius! Humour abounds along with pathos. Every beauty needs to go out with an idiot and The right to appear ridiculous is something I hold dear brushing shoulders with The sweetest melody is the one we haven’t heard and is it true that perfect love drives out all fear?

Lots of other gems on the album… a couple that spring to mind now are Where a lovesick eye can steal the view and If only a heart could be as white as snow.

I need to explore the lyrics more. But I will finish on the subject by saying that I can not find any "dodgy" lyrics on this album. And that happened on the last one, and on subsequent songs that U2 were involved in (I won't mention the songs here, but they know who they are!!). Lyrics "thrown in" at the last minute it seemed. Easy, clichéd rhymes and bad grammar for the sake of fitting them into the song in the alloted space. I always feel cheated when that happens. It doesn't happen on this album. All the lyrics are relevant and true. Even the "cockatoo" lyric. All part of a bigger genius. You don't have to look far for the sense in these songs.

Moving on, musically and vocally, I find this album breathtaking. Bono’s voice soars and the guitar roars. All those fun clichés we heard are made real on this record - Bono is singing like a bird and the Edge is on fire!! This album is pure U2 (in parts so utterly recognizable that it’s like you have come home) but it's U2 on steroids! The title track is the most amazing thing… U2 venturing out into something new, and proving that they can be relevant, and ground-breaking, in their own right.

I love all of the tracks… the only one I really skip is “Boots” but then I always skip the first single off an album. There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s a great song. But I’ve listened to that enough. I thought there was going to be a track I hated, and indeed, when I first played the album there were tracks that were great contenders for that title, but I genuinely love them all. They are so diverse. The music is in parts uplifting, in parts soothing, thought-provoking. This is exactly what I wanted. Music of power, and poetry, and sensual, caressing vocals.

My one fear before the album was released was that it would be like the previous two. That it would have a few great songs but no cohesion, no sense or message that I could discern. But this album flows from beginning to end and it makes perfect sense to me. Even if I could not explain it to anyone else.

As for how this album will translate to the live environment. I think that already we can see the crowd-pleasers, the sing-alongs, the songs that move you to tears. I hear reports that the bassline in Magnificent can be felt in your chest! I look forward to that! Can you imagine the hysteria that will erupt when the first strains of that song are heard? I can’t wait to sing along to “Crazy” and “Breathe” and to cry at “Moment of Surrender”…..

A fitting title as we surrender ourselves again to the joy of a U2 show!