No Line On The Horizon

by

U2

Edit

If you want to nit-pick that this album isn't Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby, and is thus by default a steaming pile of cow manure, go right on ahead and live in your own pool of negativity. No this isn't those albums. Those are masterpieces, pure and simple.

OK, for this album just sit back, put on the head phones and soak it in. Like any U2 album, it plants a seed, sprouts, grows and matures if you listen to it more than a simple fast forward on your ipod like many shortened attention span detractors probably did. I believe it lives in the top 5 of the band's compilations. Sonically, the Edge continues to expand his boundaries. The man has given us a lifetime of musical gifts. How many other musicians can continue to create interesting music after 30 years! Bono continues to spew his classic Bono-isms. The words, poetry, and one-liners that stick in your head and make you think. I find his lyric effort the best since 1991. As usual, Clayton and Mullen Jr keep things tight and round out the experience.

My favorites?

1) Magnificent - might place in their top 10 songs. Made the hair on the back of my neck stand up. Like Streets have No Name did when I first heard it.

2) Being Born - Interesting direction in sound that I hope they explore more in the upcoming sister album.

3) Unknown Caller - Vintage U2 take on things. your personal interpretation necessary

4) I'll Go Crazy - Yeah, its got to be the first song played at the live show

5) Moment of Surrender - Might live long as one of their best. Like "One" did after AB.

I've loved this band since the War days. I can't believe they are still pumping out great music! Thank you U2!

This review is for the deluxe box set. Since the cd is the same the question is whether you want to pay anywhere from 65 to 95 dollars for the extras. You get 2 posters - 1 a large reproduction of the album cover that to me has gotten boring pretty quickly. The other side of that poster and the other smaller poster show the band standing around looking serious and important as they are prone to do. There is a large sharp-looking high-quality white hardcover book with some nice pictures and an interview with the band. I've read it through once and enjoyed it, and will probably read it once or twice again before my death hopefully many years from now. I guess I bought this set primarily for the dvd by Anton Corbijn, a film that is played over the new U2 songs. Mostly it shows a man riding his motorcycle and walking. The only U2 content is the band playing Magnificent on a staticky cafe television, really too distracting to watch. I want to say that watching this dvd was as exciting as watching paint dry but I think that would be insulting to paint. I don't think I will ever watch it again, even if I live a long long time. All of these things are packed in a big mother of a box (12" x 9" x 2"). I absolutely love the NLOTH cd, but with this box set and with U2 bigger is not always better. Like with their new stadium tour called U2 360 - the band will play from a stage "in the round" so more fans can see the band (and their backsides) than would normally fit in a 60,000 person stadium. As far as the De-luxe edition it currently takes up a large space on my bookshelf, always reminding me that I could have bought the regular cd for $10. UPDATE ONE YEAR LATER 3/20/10: Another thing that bugs me about these "De-Luxe, Limited Edition, Collectors Items" is that they never are. One year later you could pick up a new copy here on amazon for $25, a third of the original price. Any collectors item or high priced deluxe edition mass produced for a major artist will NEVER go up in value.