U2 - No Line On The Horizon

Viewer Rating:HSP has rated U2 - No Line On The Horizon rating: 2 Star

I am one of those people who would be in the bracket of 'I seen them when they were good' brigade. I grew up in my early teens with their first venture into the rock world. Through the years a U2 single or album was something I couldn't wait to get my hands on & was guaranteed to be an excellent addition to my music collection. They have done a few things to damage their 'street cred' with me. The worse offence being the allowance of those idiot Winkers boyzone into The Sweetest Thing video. Then Bono was ordained and became Father Bono. I gave up going to their concerts years ago after one of his sermons went on for over half an hour... even The Edge looked a bit edgy that day! So this was not an album I would be rushing out and buying without hearing it first. My good buddy loaned it to me & has be raving about it for weeks so I said drop it down & I will lend it my ear. I was put off by the single which came out before the album... 'Get Your Boots On'... what a load of crap that was. That song gave me the impression that if this is the best track they have to offer as a debut single... then they have a problem with studio album 12. They originally had Rick Rubin booked to produce this album. He is given credit for mixing rap music with heavy metal & has worked with Green Day, Johnny Cash, Justin Trowsersnake & was responnsible for the collaberation of Run DMC & Aerosmith with 'walk this way' in the 90's. However this didn't work out to everyones liking & eventually they used the old reliables Steve Lillywhite, Brian Eno & Danny Lanois to finish the job. Their influence is definitely present throughout the album but in my opinion the songs are not good enough & this is Father Bono's worse vocal effort to date. I have played it quite a few times now & actually would be interested in an instrumental version of it if it ever surfaced. Musically it certainly has something going for it but that's not U2. Bono usually stamps his authority over everything they record... but not here... he is almost marked absent! The opening two tracks did get my attention & I thought I was in for a treat as they are decent enough efforts with the title track sounding very similiar to 'The Fly' & 'Magnificent' for me is the best song here & is well named. Plenty of keyboard influence too which I like... almost with that 80's Simple Minds feel to it. They followed two good songs with 'Moment of Surrender' which at 7mins 24 seconds is 8 minutes too long! After that it gets worse & I can't believe how worse it gets. They maintain they recorded around 50 tracks before deciding on the 11 that were included here. Surely to God there is 9 better songs in the vault than the 9 filler tracks from 3 to 11. i think it's time to let a few fans hear some demos & voice their opinion to the lads if they care to listen. So overall I found this album very disappointing and forgettable which is sad as I was once a huge fan. Instrumentally sound but vocally flawed. Big room for improvement lads!!!

Review published on the 28 July 2009 17:07