U2 - No Line on the Horizon

[murlough23]

True. War is far from flawless, but some of those flaws give it a youthful recklessness to me

True. The youthful recklessness helps Larry and Adam, and it hurts Bono. Age also hurts Bono, so I guess he peaked somewhere between late 80's and late 90's. Edge has been pretty solid throughout all of U2's morphing (except for when he's underused, I guess).

and I am more prone to enjoy that than boredom, which is where the flaws in other U2 albums tend to send me. Almost the entire back half of Joshua Tree for instance.

The back half of TJT gets a lot of flak, but "In God's Country" and "Trip Through Your Wires" rank among my favorite U2 songs. Those are a total blast.

NP: "Till We Make Our Ascent", The Reign of Kindo

[Josh]

If I'm to guess, Josh would consider The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, and Pop just a nose ahead of their latest.  Do I get the prize?

In terms of my personal preference, those have always been my three favorites, though I think No Line is more consistent, song-for-song, and perhaps a bit more sophisticated, if a little less bold, than Pop.

Joshua and Achtung are both canonical rock classics, and yes, two of my favorite albums of all time, so I'd give each of them a 10 with no hesitation. Pop is more like a 9.0 or 9.5 in terms of a purely objective score, though my personal fondness for it goes well beyond that.

Seriously loving this album in a way I wasn't expecting to. Flat-out fantastic record.

[Ian]

Alright, I usually don't take lyrics into account when grading an album unless they're especially good or bad, but this album easily falls into the latter category.  Some areas are absolutely painful to listen to, espcially when paired with some really weak deliveries from Bono (see Moment of Surrender, in which he nearly succeeds in ruinning the song).  I mean seriously, look at Unknown Caller:

"Restart!
And!
Reboot yourself!
You're free to go!
Oo, ooh!
Shout for joy!
If you get the chance!
Password!
You, enter here!
Right now!
You know your name,
so punch it in!"

What the hell is that?  The music is growing on me a little, but the lyrics make me hesitate everytime I think about starting the album.

[Josh]

I really love those lyrics, and I'm not afraid to say so. To me, the song is a call (a Divine call, more precisely) to put down the gadgets and turn off the phone and listen-- in stillness and silence-- to the voice of God. The use of technological jargon is a clever way of conveying that; moreover, it's very different from a typical Bono lyric. I think it's a stellar song-- one of the best on the album, in fact.

And man, you lost me with your criticisms of Bono's singing; this is his finest vocal performance in, like, two decades, "Moment of Surrender" included. In fact, it's his gravelly performance that makes the song work for me, as it lends a certain weight to a tune that might have otherwise been a little overwrought for my tastes. I won't disagree that there are one or two bad lyrics-- well, one: his "stations of the Cross" pun is a little stilted-- but it hardly ruins the song.

BTW, note also the way that the "Unknown Caller" lyrics come back into play in "Cedars of Lebanon." Complicated stuff at play here, pholks, I'm telling you.

[Aaron]

warning warning, teetering on fanboy ..warning warning!  I jest.

[Josh]

What can I say? Only love could leave such a mark.

[bloop]

Dude, Bono, we really didn't need to hear about your hickeys.

[murlough23]

I mean seriously, look at Unknown Caller:

"Restart!
And!
Reboot yourself!
You're free to go!
Oo, ooh!
Shout for joy!
If you get the chance!
Password!
You, enter here!
Right now!
You know your name,
so punch it in!"

What the hell is that?  The music is growing on me a little, but the lyrics make me hesitate everytime I think about starting the album.

There's a reason why "Unknown Caller" is my least favorite song on the album. Those lyrics just scream, "It's 1983 and we just got ourselves a new Apple IIe and we're stoked!"

[Josh]

I believe all of the technical terms employed in the song are just as applicable to computers in 2009-- and to PCs, for that matter. I mean, if they were trying to be trendy and cutting-edge, I guess they could have worked in a Twitter metaphor, but since the album is about escaping from the ravages of time into something eternal, I don't think cutting-edge was what they were gunning for.

[bloop]

I didn't get hung up with that lyric, but I'm not in love with it either.

[spacebrat311]

BTW, note also the way that the "Unknown Caller" lyrics come back into play in "Cedars of Lebanon." Complicated stuff at play here, pholks, I'm telling you.

I just don't think self-reference is particularly complicated or uncommon.

[Ian]

It's not, but when you're too wrapped up in something, even elementary things like self-reference can seem quite impressive.  ... >_>

Just imagine if U2 had written something along the lines of mewithoutyou's Spider songs... 

[murlough23]

I didn't get hung up with that lyric, but I'm not in love with it either.

You didn't get "hung up" by Unknown Caller?

[Josh]

It's not self-reference; it's the development of imagery and the cultivation of a theme. In other words, it's not just that U2 references one song in another, but that they develop their ideas from one song to the next.

And no, I am not easily impressed, nor am I simply being a fanboy on this one; there have been plenty of times in the past when I have been critical of U2, and, frankly, I was somewhat bracing myself for disappointment with this album. But, much to my delight, I think it's a flat-out fantastic record, and I haven't heard a single criticism of it that I find to be particularly well-conceived or compelling. My defense of why I love the album (as outlines in my review) is, I think, a very reasonable and concrete one.

[murlough23]

And no, I am not easily impressed, nor am I simply being a fanboy on this one; there have been plenty of times in the past when I have been critical of U2, and, frankly, I was somewhat bracing myself for disappointment with this album.

This could be the inverse of the phenomenon I noted before. Lower expectations that are surpassed can make a project seem more amazing than it would if you had high expectations that were met, but not exceeded.

But this has more to do with one's initial impressions than with one's carefully considered impressions after listening more closely, so I'm not saying it applies to your reaction overall. But it may have bolstered your initial reaction.

[spacebrat311]

I just don't honestly see all that much concrete about the things you praise about this album, Josh.

[murlough23]

I just don't honestly see all that much concrete about the things you praise about this album, Josh.

I'm willing to grant that he's done his homework in terms of examining the lyrics more closely than a lot of us would. It can take me weeks or months to uncover some of the meaning/connections in U2's lyrics. So I'm willing to accept that there's a purpose to even the most seemingly inane U2 lyric. (I have to keep in mind that my all-time favorite U2 song was designed to sound inane.)

But that still doesn't change the fact that some of it sounds goofy even when I understand the intent or meaning behind it. The "computer language" in "Unknown Caller" is a very good example of this - it strikes me as overwrought and the way it's sung/spoken is also more than a bit goofy. To me it's one of those "Nice try, but this doesn't have the effect you wanted it to have" sorts of things.

Similarly, I like the message behind "Get on Your Boots". It's a playful way of saying, "Men have messed up the world with their violence and machismo and testosterone, let's let women take the wheel for a while." Something like that. I don't even know if it's entirely serious, but there's a playfulness to it that I like. Too bad they royally screwed it up in the execution.

NP: "Less Than Love", The Normals

[murlough23]

Here's an interesting tidbit - the companion U2 record due near the end of the year is entitled Songs of Ascent. Iona has a song trilogy by this title on Open Sky. I can only assume that both came from the same source inspiration.

NP: "Sounds Like War", P.O.D.

[Ian]

Not being familiar with Iona, what source inspiration was that?

[Josh]

Here's an interesting tidbit - the companion U2 record due near the end of the year is entitled Songs of Ascent. Iona has a song trilogy by this title on Open Sky. I can only assume that both came from the same source inspiration.

Uh, the Bible?

[murlough23]

Uh, the Bible?

I honestly didn't realize there was anything called that in the Bible.

[NewDimension]

Songs of Ascent, are the Psalms between chapters 120--134.

[murlough23]

Songs of Ascent, are the Psalms between chapters 120--134.

Haha. Now I feel dumb.

[Aaron]

epic win:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8S7-0AfHjdQ

[Ian]

Heh, some of those were pretty good 

[murlough23]

Heh, some of those were pretty good 

The one about "U2, party of four" and the one about how people kept sending them videos thinking they were YouTube were my favorites.

Adam made a remark in defense of Sting last night when Letterman was interviewing the band. Something about how Edge was just jealous because Adam and Sting had "four thing, long strings" and Edge just had "6 girlie ones". 

NP: "Overjoyed", Jars of Clay

[Josh]

They're surprisingly funny guys, aren't they? You could tell that even Letterman was impressed with Edge's little improv-- which was indeed much funnier than the joke that was written for him.

[murlough23]

They're surprisingly funny guys, aren't they? You could tell that even Letterman was impressed with Edge's little improv-- which was indeed much funnier than the joke that was written for him.

Indeed. I loved Larry's riff on his family asking him, "Are you Larry or Adam?"

[Josh]

I enjoyed a nice long chat with Beth Maynard-- co-editor of the book Get Up Off Your Knees: Preaching the U2 Catalog, mastermind of the U2 Sermons Blog, professor of theology at Gordon-Conwell in Boston-- about the theological and spiritual issues raised on the new album, and her insights are extraordinary. You can view it here:

http://tinyurl.com/csv5l9