A new U2 release is always a momentous occasion. After five years without anything new from these Irish rockers, "No Line On The Horizon" hit shelves in North America yesterday. A bit of a departure from 2004's "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," parts of this new record harken back to U2's '80s roots with soaring vocals, delay pedals and driving rhythms.
The title-track opener is a high-energy jump start to the album. Bono's vocals belt out over a driving wall of guitar, drums and synth and really carry the song. Catchy and fresh, "No Line on the Horizon" proves to be one of the album's strongest tracks. The next three songs on the album are also quite notable and bring to mind the U2 of old. Songs like "Magnificent" and "Unknown Caller" continue to drive the album with the Edge's signature delay-heavy guitar style and Bono's ear for catchy choruses.
However, there is a fine line between familiar and overdone. Some guitar riffs are immediately reminiscent of past albums, and while the tracks are still enjoyable, they don't feel particularly new. Over the entirety of the album, the band struggles to develop a new sound or branch out from its past works.
Sticking with its old formula, however, has some benefits. The '80s-sounding songs are some of the album's most successful ones; it's when U2 starts to move away from their tried-and-true approach to songwriting that the album really falls flat. The middle of the album contains a few tracks obviously intended to be the "rockers," but the harder U2 attempts to rock, the weaker the songs feel. The first single, "Get On Your Boots," ends up sounding a lot like "Vertigo," the first single from "Atomic Bomb." It's got the same fuzz distortion, the same muffled guitar stabs during the verse and it leaves the exact same sour taste in listeners' mouths.
Other tracks, like "Stand Up Comedy," fall into the same category of disappointing, grungier rock that U2 always seems to feel compelled to include in a record. The opening riff sounds like the main guitar line from Black Sabbath's "Paranoid" (1970). Regardless of one's feelings for Ozzy and company, that comparison can't mean anything good for U2. The album's middle songs seem to be thrown in as a statement that the band members still young and hip, but that's just not the case anymore and they would do well to grow old gracefully.
Luckily, "No Line" picks up again with "FEZ -- Being Born." The song has an opening that seems to act as buffer between the less-stellar middle tracks and the rest of the album. This song is probably U2's most significant move away from the familiar, and, for once, it works very well. It still sounds like U2, but it showcases each band member's talents in a fresh way.
"FEZ" is also one of the only tracks in which Brian Eno's production improves the song. Much of the album is drowned in synths or excessive studio effects. Gone are the days of the stripped down, intimate and edgy U2. Following a trend in a lot of modern music, synth organs and heaps of vocal processing decorate most of the album. There is even a moment in "Unknown Caller" in which the rest of the music dies down and a Coldplay-style synth dominates the mix.
Even though U2 has worked with Eno for a long time, their collaboration this go-around hasn't created anything stellar. There are still some great moments and catchy songs, but the album as a whole never really shines. The production often hinders the music more than helps it. While modern studio tricks can be interesting at times, the band has come to depend on them when it really doesn't need to. Everyone knows Bono can sing and the Edge can play guitar, and it is frustrating when these elements, the core of U2, have to compete with generic-sounding synths.
The value that exists in U2's latest release is interrupted by throw-away grunge songs, and nearly every track has some layer of overproduction that keeps the listener from really connecting to the heart of the music. Bono's lyrics, while at times sappy, always convey the emotional content driving each track. Like any U2 album, "No Line on the Horizon" requires a lot of listening for fans to really understand. Unfortunately, the end result of that listening might be disappointment with a band that is struggling to redefine itself.
