Originally posted by BonoIsTheMessiah:I think the album is more cohesive than it appears at first. It will become clearer when we see the Linear film. At the moment, there seem to me to be three sections, which are related:
(1) NLOTH, Magnificent, Moment of Surrender, Unknown Caller -- these songs all deal with moments of personal epiphany, turning points in the lives of individuals that give them an expanded view of the world, a view of the world beyond their own limited experience. The theme is "vision over visibility," and the moral imperative to "escape yourself and gravity," as Bono says in MOS and UC. In NLOTH, the cop wants to flee (the scene of an accident?), Magnificent deals with the experience of grace, MOS with some kind of personal breakdown that leads to surrender, and Unknown Caller is some sort of weird epiphany that occurs "between the midnight and the dawning." All these songs deal with the theme of liminality, of transition and personal transformation.
(2) Crazy Tonight, GOYB, Stand Up -- these songs are all calls to action, the consequences of the epiphanies/conversions in the first section of the album. The "change of heart" mentioned in Crazy Tonight leads to the urge to "get on your boots," "stand up" and try to change the world.
(3) FEZ--Being Born, White As Snow, Breathe, Cedars of Lebanon -- these songs all deal with the aftermath of action, the danger and exhilaration of leaving behind one's old horizon and discovering new ones. Hence, the setting appears to be places outside the Western world, Morocco, Afghanistan, China (?) and Lebanon.
The concept that runs through the album is, as the album title suggest, that "there is no line on the horizon." And so we need, as people living in the Western world, to expand our vision to include the rest of the planet. No coincidence that the album starts in Paris and ends in Lebanon.
It does sort of feel like the story that is being told through the songs is unfinished. What happens after "Lebanon?" Where does the pilgrimage go from here. I think it would be great if U2 released a "No Line On The Horizon Vol. II" later in the year, maybe with the alternate version of NLOTH, Tripoli, Every Breaking Wave, a reworked Mercy, Winter, and more...
Great food for thought, thank you.
