No flies on the U2 musical horizon
Bono and Co's new work deserves lavish praise -- it is far from music by numbers
Independent, February 15, 2009
Barry Egan
"Is there no end to your sycophancy with Mr. Bono? When his proctologist is giving him an examination, does he have to move your feet to one side?" The above was a blog reply to Neil McCormick's review of the new U2 album in the Daily Telegraph.
Other Irish journalists who might perhaps have their dainty feet moved to the side by Bono's esteemed proctologist include: Kevin Courtney in the Irish Times ("No longer constrained by perspective or depth, and...free to throw colours and shapes around"), Niall Stokes in Hot Press ("No Line on the Horizon is a huge record, full of big songs, powerful riffs and superb musicianship") and John Meagher in the Irish Independent ("A triumph...a ticket for world domination once more"). Many others will, of course, devote long eulogies to No Line on the Horizon.
In parts -- in other words, not all of it -- U2's twelfth studio deserves the high-blown praise.
With this album, U2 have created a work that stylistically refuses to stand still. Even their most virulent critics would have to acknowledge that No Line on the Horizon isn't U2 following the formulaic or easy route.
You really don't expect groups like U2 to write an avant-garde song called "Unknown Caller," about a man's phone which starts talking to him ("Escape yourself, and gravity"). That's more what we expect of Radiohead or Kraftwerk.
There's more out-of-kilter envelope-pushing on the New Romantic synth-bonkerness of "Fez -- Being Born."
No Line on the Horizon is an awkward album, difficult in places, but that in itself is admirable: "Fez -- Being Born" and "Unknown Caller," among others, feature the sort of experimental pushing of the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm for lazy rock stars with bloated waistlines and bank balances to match.
"I know a girl with no hole in her heart/She says infinity is a great place to start," sings Bono on the bizarre title track (bizarre in that it sounds like Coldplay's "Yellow" played by a Teutonic Arcade Fire produced by Wim Wenders or some such hard to contemplate weirdness).
No one really knows the inner workings of Bono's vision and the external forces shaping it (I doubt even Bono knows) but No Line on the Horizon's raison d'etre is hardly to be just another U2 album.
Those who think Bono is a messianic, pint-sized Narcissus with a God complex might need to urgently listen to "Stand Up Comedy," where he takes the mickey out of himself: "Stand up to rock stars, Napoleon is in high heels," he sings, tongue-in-cheek, "Josephine be careful of small men with big ideas."
That said, Bono has said that "Stand Up Comedy" was motivated by the events at the Stand Up and Take Action against Poverty of last year. "It's not a 'let's hold hands and the world is a better place' sort of song," he said. "It's more kick down the door of your own hypocrisy."
Then, it might seem a little less hypocritical if you and your group hadn't, in 2006, moved your business affairs to Holland to avail of tax breaks perhaps -- not least when this country is feeling such financial pain, eh, Bono?
Another thing; "If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" is a U2-by-numbers stadium anthem; and they should have had the cajones to leave this ersatz soul song off the album.
That grip aside, No Line on the Horizon is U2's b... (I almost typed bizarre) best record since Achtung Baby. The dreamteam behind the production console -- Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Steve Lillywhite -- are to be congratulated on a job well done.
"Get On Your Boots" is Dylan's "Subterranean Homesick Blues" with The Kings of Leon joining in, weirdly. Just as odd is Bono repeating: "Let me in the sound!" again and again like he was being inducted in some sort of cult.
Oddest of all is the Clapton guitar line on the seven-minute-long "Moment of Surrender": a new departure for the Edge.
Only a fool would deny U2's influence on contemporary music.
Recently, Creation Records boss Alan McGee was asked by the Guardian to discuss Oasis's best ever shows. Talking of the Loch Lomond concert in Scotland in 1996, he noted that "Noel's studies of U2's Rattle and Hum paid off. I was obsessed with U2 being the enemies of rock 'n' roll due to the commercial gloss of Bono and Co.
"Of course, I get U2 now and they always got Creation Records -- Achtung Baby being 50 percent Primal Scream, 25 percent the Jesus and Mary Chain and 25 percent My Bloody Valentine."
And, in 2009, on the evidence of the new album, U2 are still the greatest band in the world -- for the time being at least.
At the risk of joining certain journalists in Bono's proctologist's examination room, the U2 singer's voice throughout on No Line on the Horizon reminded me of the lines in that Seamus Heaney poem, "A Grace Note For Michael": "What stays with me is the rich braid of his voice/As deeply laid as the North Atlantic cable/ When he said 'Seamus' I could hear a wash/ Of ocean over me and his person-to-person call/ Coming in on the life-line like sean nos."
Bono doing sean nos next? My arse.
© Independent.ie, 2009.
