NLOTH: General discussion thread

Originally posted by Zooropean:Excellent quality torrent of No line on the horizon (the song) is being downloaded by hundreds of people from the Mininova site at the moment.

Crank it up, it's SUPERB!

How I learnt to love U2 (almost)

Stephen Dalton

Like most right-thinking people, I grew up hating U2. You probably
recognise the symptoms. Queasy unease when Bono claims ownership of
the Third World's suffering from a stadium stage or TV screen; nausea
when he's pictured with his arms around Bush or Blair, who his own
drummer calls "war criminals." And that wet thud of disappointment
when U2's breathlessly hyped new album is just as stodgy and Coldplay-
esque as the last.

And yet, annoyingly, I'm strangely excited about their latest album,
No Line on the Horizon. Perhaps, after 25 years of qualified loathing
and grudging admiration, I've learnt to stop worrying and love U2.

During my teens and early twenties, U2 were easy to hate, with their
windswept mullets and bombastic battle anthems. Their music was
monochrome and sexless, all windy platitudes disguised as Big Themes.
They also seemed suspiciously keen to co-opt half a century of pop
history and global struggle for their own self-promotional ends: from
Elvis to Joy Division, Billie Holiday to Martin Luther King, African
famine to the fall of communism.

But superimposing yourself on to great historical events doesn't
confer greatness by association. You just look like ambulance
chasers. The Forrest Gumps of rock.

I first wrote about U2 in NME in the early 1990s, soon after their
Achtung Baby album. In this period there was a big shift in the
band's musical hinterland, from wide-open, hope-filled vistas to
nocturnal cityscapes of doubt, despair, distorted guitars and
diabolical desires. But it felt fraudulent. I criticised U2's clumsy
attempts to hijack the integrity of more sincere, innovative artists.
In response, Bono sent an axe over to the NME office. As in hatchet
job. Geddit?

But now: a shameful confession. With apologies to fellow U2-haters, I
began to fall for their charms in the mid-1990s. With their 1995 side
project, Passengers, and their 1997 album, Pop, they seemed willing
to experiment -- and, more importantly, to fail. Their music became
more humorous, colourful, adventurous and self-mocking. U2 grasped
the importance of not being earnest. Crucially, they also looked like
they were having fun for the first time, rather than carrying the
world's woes on their messianic shoulders.

Pop became U2's first major commercial stiff, alienating much of
their traditional fanbase with its kaleidoscopic camp and disco
kitsch. But the accompanying PopMart tour was fantastic, and remains
the most dazzling stadium spectacular I've yet seen. Any superstar
rockers prepared to emerge from a giant lemon-shaped glitterball
every night to a thunderous wave of pumping techno are clearly not
taking themselves too seriously. I was convinced.

And then -- they blew it again. After burning their fingers with Pop,
U2 greeted the new millennium by retreating to old monochrome
certainties on their past two albums, All That You Can't Leave Behind
and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. Both were safe, plodding affairs
calculated to win back the band's commercial heartland. Reverting to
type, taking care of business.

U2's hard-nosed business methods are a red rag to my fellow haters.
In 2006 the band were criticised for moving a chunk of their huge
Irish operation to a more "tax efficient" regime in the Netherlands.
Bono the charity cheerleader was singled out as a hypocrite, which
arguably he is. But attacking U2 for being profit-driven is like
criticising sharks for being predators. They have always been
disarmingly frank about their ambition to be the biggest band in the
world, and the Faustian deals they will strike to get there. The
history of rock is a parade of millionaire tax exiles, not left-wing
revolutionaries. Pop stars are capitalists. Get over it.

The chink in U2's armour is said to be Bono's outspoken charity work
on African poverty and Aids: and, yes, there are many arguments
against celebrities dabbling in global politics. But if the U2 singer
has saved just one life in his decades of activism, all such
criticism looks pretty flimsy.

U2 are bound to stir debate. After all, the Times critic David
Sinclair branded them "rock's last superpower." Bono has been
criticised from both right and left; for doing too much or too
little. But at least he is prepared get his hands dirty on complex,
prickly problems instead of retreating into perpetual pampered
adolescence like most millionaire rockers.

Who else in pop has the clout and arrogance to badger world leaders,
hoping to shape global poverty policy? Even as a sometime U2 hater,
this seems to me a valid use of celebrity power. Ethical
contradictions do not make U2 a lesser band; they are precisely what
makes them interesting.

But let's not forget the foundation of it all: the music. After two
drab albums, No Line on the Horizon marks a step change for U2.
Although not quite the Achtung Baby-style leap promised by early
reports, it is their most sexy and experimental work for more than a
decade. A mix of lustrous electronica, Arabic instrumentation and
revved-up guitar riffs, it sounds like a band having fun again.

A bizarre historical pendulum appears to be at work here. When the
Republican Ronald Reagan was in the White House, U2 made thumpingly
earnest and conservative records. Under the Democrat Bill Clinton,
they loosened up and embraced sleazy hedonism. With George W. Bush,
back to one-dimensional pomposity again. This bodes well for their
albums in the Obama era.

About now, my fellow U2 haters, those familiar symptoms should be
kicking in. The urge to smash the TV whenever Bono appears. The wave
of bile as "Get On Your Boots" blasts from every radio. But try to
fight it. Deep breath. The sickness will pass.

© The Times, 2009.

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article5726724.ece

Originally posted by AllBecauseOfU2:

[..]

Ok got some more news from my source.

"The label has been using very strong tactics to avoid the album from leaking. Even though earlier in the week there was a leak, they were able to contain it and keep it from spreading. The leak came from Germany. I think someone was fired. They do acknowledge though that another leak will probably happen this weekend they won't be able to control."

Originally posted by AllBecauseOfU2:

[..]

Originally posted by vanquish:Updates on the rumoured album leak

From one of the sources of the rumours:

[..]

So there was a leak it seems, but Universal stamped it out.

"The label has been using very strong tactics to avoid the album from leaking. Even though earlier in the week there was a leak, they were able to contain it and keep it from spreading. The leak came from Germany. I think someone was fired. They do acknowledge though that another leak will probably happen this weekend they won't be able to control."