U2start.com | No Line On The Horizon 11 years on.

*BUMP*

Was listening to this album in full earlier today and found it MUCH BETTER than a) i critique it to be b) the general public claim it to be c) the band feel it is. The first 5 songs (even Boots at the end) feel great and cohesive! Some of the best songs they've done EVER. Songs like Stand Up, White as Snow, Breathe (most of Crazy and Boots) however kind of ruin it for me...

I was genuinely surprised by how terrible Breathe sounded to me lyrically to be honest. That song has not aged well for me at all...

But if the next album has a vibe as good as the first 4 songs on NLOTH then it'll be great. I'd bump my rating of it from a 7/10 to an 8/10, better than Behind & Bomb for sure.

Recommend playing it LOUDLY to it with fresh ears!

The bass on NLOTH is ASTOUNDING.

kezman

13 years

I still think its a belter album 3 years on now,and enjoy all of the songs on there,for me it was never going to be a really huge album as far as sales etc go,yes all us U2ers are going to buy it but the days of cd album sales are pretty much over,saying that i really do think if some of these songs were released 10 years earlier they wouldve been chart hits.
As for future tours,why not? Magnificent,Unknown Caller,MoS would all sound awesome in an arena.

ahn1991

13 years

I've said it before and I'll say it again.

NLOTH is a strong album. All the songs sound great on the album, except for Breathe which still sounds awkward in my opinion.

In the arena, I think NLOTH, Magnificent, MOS, Boots, and Fez can do well.

RattleandHum1988

13 years

I think the album would've been much better if it was released with the Linear tracklisting (including the original version of winter instead of I'll Go Crazy). I actually love watching that movie, but truth be told I don't think I've listened to NLOTH since 2009.

aussiemofo

13 years

Originally posted by ahn1991:I've said it before and I'll say it again.

NLOTH is a strong album. All the songs sound great on the album, except for Breathe which still sounds awkward in my opinion.

In the arena, I think NLOTH, Magnificent, MOS, Boots, and Fez can do well.

Unfortunately the casual fans did not agree. Sales and radio airplay speak for themselves i suppose. I think it still makes it in my top five, beating their previous two albums for sure.

17s

13 years

Well, hello everybody. I don't know when was the last time I've been here, but I spent this last two months to get back into U2, because 360° Tour gave me a great disappointment and I haven't listened to their music and haven't heard anything from them until now.
As I said I was getting known with the new things (setlist of the last leg of the tour, Achtung Baby Remastered, From The Sky Down, etc) and of course listening to the old songs and bootlegs. And I have to say I really enjoyed this time with U2, rediscovering them again.
And of course I had to listen to No Line On The Horizon again. I haven't listened to it as a whole since the middle of 2010 I think. But now I was suprised. I quite liked it. No Line On The Horizon is the song what I missed the most part of the tour: it's rough, it's hard, but it's very U2'ish and very powerful. Shame they dropped it. Magnificent is an other thing: I remembered it as a boring 'too long to be enjoyable' song but then I realised that it was just the tour version I remembered. The album version is quite flowing and enjoyable indeed. Moment Of Surrender and Unknown Caller are the highlights of the albums and of course it wasn't popular among the people because they were heavy songs and today's people don't want heavy songs (just look at Justin Bieber, Nicki Minaj, Hannah Montana) on the radio and on the concerts like in the old days (think about Bohemian Rhapsody, Stairway To Heaven or Paradise In The Dashboard Light). But after them the album goes down. Really down.
Crazy Tonight is a radio song but it's just a shit (sorry, but it's my opinion). And if I said Crazy Tonight is shit I don't know what to say about Get On Your Boots. I think it's the worst U2 song I've ever heard and that haven't changed. Stand Up Comedy: almost the same. No character in it. White As Snow: the same. It's not a problem because there were some bad songs which were good live but it just hasn't happened this time. But Being Born is a great gem. That's my favourite song. Quite the only song which act like what Bono and U2 were promised during the recording sessions (electric music mixed with rock and roll, with arabic influences). Breathe is a firm U2 song. Nothing more, nothing else. Just like listening something from the old days. Cedars Of Lebanon is a great atmosphere and great closing song.
So thank you for reading my novel (if you actually read it), now comes the conclusion from a guy who hasn't listened to U2 for more than a half year. No Line On The Horizon is a decent album. It's better than the previous two. But my first problem with it was it's advertising. They released almost the worst songs from it and forgot about the best ones. The other one was the tour. This tour meant to be their prime. With this stage they could really reached the stars with their songs. But No Line isn't a stadium compatible album. I think these songs would perform much much better in an indoor arena. An when they dropped the good songs (No Line, Unforgettable Fire, Breathe) and kept the 'meh' songs I think I had enough. They should have gone more experimental with this set-up. Like Discothéque, Mofo or something else, but playing In A Little While or Stuck In A Moment with this stage? They just couldn't fit. And playing a Crazy Tonight remix? Why remix? If I want to listen to playback or karaoke I would listen to Madonna or those 'artists' I've mentioned above U2 has to be one of the last bastion of live music. But they had some great moves too (Zooropa, Hold Me, Thrill Me...).
So, sorry about this, most of them was off-topic but I just had to clear it before you and myself. So, I think I'm ready to get back to the guys and merge into their songs and music again.

Cheers, Zsolt.

RattleandHum1988

13 years

Originally posted by aussiemofo:[..]

Unfortunately the casual fans did not agree. Sales and radio airplay speak for themselves i suppose. I think it still makes it in my top five, beating their previous two albums for sure.

I don't think disliking the album means you're a casual fan. I wouldn't consider myself a "casual fan" at ALL and I really don't like the album, and I think the two albums before it blow it out of the water. (I'm not just being a dick, I actually feel this way)

ahn1991

13 years

Originally posted by aussiemofo:[..]

Unfortunately the casual fans did not agree. Sales and radio airplay speak for themselves i suppose. I think it still makes it in my top five, beating their previous two albums for sure.

A couple comments about that.

The first is that the album leaked a couple weeks before it was to be officially released, so of course album sales would plummet.

Secondly, U2 does not perform to get their songs played on the radio. Bono said that it was one of his goals, but I think that was a mistake. If you look at their last couple albums (actually all of their albums), the only album to get many songs played on the radio was ATYCLB. Casual U2 fans absolutely love that album while a lot of people who call themselves hardcore fans hate it. Refer to the infamous "Walk On" complaint poster from I forget when. Whenever I hear a U2 song on the radio, it's most likely Beautiful Day, In A Little While, or Elevation. I never hear Streets on the radio, and never hear anything from Pop, AB, or even The Joshua Tree played. There was one time I heard an alternate version of No Line On The Horizon played on the radio, but aside from that, nothing.

And finally, the coup de grace towards the myth that U2 is drifting away from relevance lies on the road. U2 is a live act. They produce albums that become even stronger on the stage. I mentioned before that I felt that U2 designed each album with their live act in mind and all of us know it. It's their tried and tested formula for success.

aussiemofo

13 years

Originally posted by ahn1991:[..]

A couple comments about that.

The first is that the album leaked a couple weeks before it was to be officially released, so of course album sales would plummet.

Secondly, U2 does not perform to get their songs played on the radio. Bono said that it was one of his goals, but I think that was a mistake. If you look at their last couple albums (actually all of their albums), the only album to get many songs played on the radio was ATYCLB. Casual U2 fans absolutely love that album while a lot of people who call themselves hardcore fans hate it. Refer to the infamous "Walk On" complaint poster from I forget when. Whenever I hear a U2 song on the radio, it's most likely Beautiful Day, In A Little While, or Elevation. I never hear Streets on the radio, and never hear anything from Pop, AB, or even The Joshua Tree played. There was one time I heard an alternate version of No Line On The Horizon played on the radio, but aside from that, nothing.

And finally, the coup de grace towards the myth that U2 is drifting away from relevance lies on the road. U2 is a live act. They produce albums that become even stronger on the stage. I mentioned before that I felt that U2 designed each album with their live act in mind and all of us know it. It's their tried and tested formula for success.

Yeah but like it or not, U2 want to be commercially successful. And they want to be played on the radio. I don't know what country your from but mainstream in Australia plays all variety of U2 dating back to 1983 I suppose. I regularly hear Streets for instance. And I wasn't trying to pigeon hole casual fans nor was I suggesting that everyone who dislikes NLOTH is a casual fans as someone else thought i was saying. That's just nuts. I think its fair to say that the casual fans lean towards albums like JT, AB, ATYCLB and HTDAAB. NLOTH just didn't do it for them, generally speaking. But for the casual fans to establish an appreciation for a new album it helps to have radio play, and certainly in terms of Australia, the stations dropped it like a bag of shit.

RattleandHum1988

13 years

Stations dropped it because it wasn't gaining any popularty, and it wasn't gaining any popularity because the songs weren't that well received from the radio listeners, and it wasn't being that well received because they didn't like the songs, plain and simple. I don't think you need to be able to understand where a band is coming from or know something about a band to appreciate the music more. Either the music is good or it's not, simple as that, and if the majority don't like it, well, that's saying something.

It's funny because the other day a friend of mine was telling me how I'm the only person he knows who loves the "big hits" from their favourite band. Most people tend to dislike the big hits from their favourite band because they're the radio friendly ones and they're not as attuned to the hardcore fan's ear. The way I see it, yeah Zooropa is one of my favourite albums, but Beautiful Day is still one of my favourite songs. Regardless of the fact that it might be overplayed and overloved by """casual fans""", it's still a great song, and the fact that it still gets played on the radio only reinforces that claim.

aussiemofo

13 years

Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:Stations dropped it because it wasn't gaining any popularty, and it wasn't gaining any popularity because the songs weren't that well received from the radio listeners, and it wasn't being that well received because they didn't like the songs, plain and simple. I don't think you need to be able to understand where a band is coming from or know something about a band to appreciate the music more. Either the music is good or it's not, simple as that, and if the majority don't like it, well, that's saying something.

It's funny because the other day a friend of mine was telling me how I'm the only person he knows who loves the "big hits" from their favourite band. Most people tend to dislike the big hits from their favourite band because they're the radio friendly ones and they're not as attuned to the hardcore fan's ear. The way I see it, yeah Zooropa is one of my favourite albums, but Beautiful Day is still one of my favourite songs. Regardless of the fact that it might be overplayed and overloved by """casual fans""", it's still a great song, and the fact that it still gets played on the radio only reinforces that claim.

I'd agree with all that. By coincidence my fruit and vege guy had Pride on his car radio when he delivered to me the other day.

u2joost

13 years

Ah, I'm glad this topic was *bumped*!
I gave a reply 1 year ago,
now let me think about the scores again ("3 years on")

No Line On The Horizon - 9.5/10
Magnificent - 7/10
Moment Of Surrender - 10/10
Unknown Caller - 7/10
I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight - 6/10
Get On Your Boots - 2/10
Stand Up Comedy - 6/10
FEZ - Being Born - 9/10
White As Snow - 3/10
Breathe - 8/10
Cedars Of Lebanon - 7/10

No Line On The Horizon 11 years on.

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