No Line on the Horizon

This is an album that has taken many years to write and it shows.

The album is full of very densely filled soundscapes and subtle tones very reminicent of 80s U2 for the most part but unlike the last 2 albums this does not sound forced and sounds like a massive step forward.

Track by Track Review:

No Line On The Horizon - Probably the most "Achtung Baby" type track on the record. The album comes out with a cluster of sound that wont be soon forgotton.

Magnificent - My personal favourite on this record has a very "Where The Streets Have No Name" flair to it but in a new way. It is like a new car with a new coat of paint.

Moment Of Surrender - Very Pink Floydish type ballad, again a very dense soundscape and really instead of U2 being a 4 piece band on this one they are a 6 piece band by including Lanios and Eno on the track in a major way. A gospel song if you were going to compaire it to anything it would probably have to be "I Still Havent Found What Im Looking For" but again in a very different mold.

Unknown Caller - A pretty experimental track that is hard to describe sound wise because it does not sound like anything really that U2 have done in the past. One of the real hidden gems of this record. U2 also show that they are Apple computer fans for you tech nerds out there :)

I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight - A very All That You Cant Leave Behind sounding track. A very nicely crafted pop song, fully expect that this one will be a radio single as it is very uplifting in the mold of "Beautiful Day".

Get On Your Boots - An uptempo rocker again with a lot of layering of sound. Most people should have already heard this track and will either love it or hate it. Should be a very big hit live though.

Stand Up Comedy - A very Jimmy Page type guitar riff starts this rocking track from Edge, again this will be a big hit live. U2 just rocking the heck out and there is nothing wrong with that.

Fez Being Born - The most expirimental track on the record. Sounds like it could have came from the U2 side project Passengers in the mid 90s. A sonic masterpiece of sound. Would love to hear more experimentation like this on upcomming records.

White As Snow - A beautifully written track that is quite the departure for U2, again very hard to pin down something that this track would remind you of in U2s back catalog but definatly a track that grows better and better with each listen.

Breathe - One of the best tracks on the album, this is purely a magical track will be a big hit live. Again many layers of sound are happening in this one.

Cedars Of Lebanon - A haunting balled to end the album, probably U2s best closing track at least since Mothers of the Disappeared. Leaving you with the idea that your enimies will last with you longer then your friends...a very true statement.

Overall this is the most complete record U2 have written and the sum of all the songs together is greater then its parts. This is meant to be listened to as an album with a good pair of headphones. People may not like it on the first listen but after multiple listens you will hopefully start to like it more and more.

U2 Eno and Lanios should be very proud of this record because it is a true masterpiece if people give it a shot with an open mind.

Let me just say this: No Line On The Horizon is not the best record they've ever done, but it is nowhere near their worst (if they even have a bad record). For the fans that have followed faithfully from whenever, there is much to listen to. The casual fan, however, might get lost and wonder where tracks like "Vertigo" and "Elevation" ended up. I'm glad they've gone the experimental route, involving Eno and Lanois in the writing of many of the songs. The Edge is doing what he loves to do by crafting melodies and guitar hooks that get stretched out over aural landscapes as only Eno knows how. Bono's vocals are showing a little wear, but he wears them well on this record. His lyrics on the other hand, might be the weakest thing about the record, but not by much. He's challenged himself to write in the third person, creating characters that he can't inhabit - a Moroccan-French traffic cop; a soldier in Afghanistan; a war-correspondent. Bono as The Fly, Mirrorball Man, and MacPhisto wasn't a stretch; these are characters he was, is, and will be for some time. These guys are extensions of Bono on stage. By not writing from his point of view he may have shown his limitations. That said, this is sonically an ambitious record and worthy of most (but maybe not all) of the praise from the press.

Standout tracks: "No Line on the Horizon", "Magnificent", "Moment of Surrender", "Fez - Being Born", and "Breathe".

About the special deluxe edition; Beautifully packaged, the box set comes with a double-sided poster (one side of the band, b&w, against a wall in Fez, the opposite being the cover photo), a 64-page hard cover version of the magazine, containing interviews with the band regarding the recording process, and great photos by Kenny Morrisson, a DVD copy of Corbijn's "Linear", and the digipak version of the album (which contains the extended liner notes and additional photography by Corbijn). Is it worth the $90 price tag? If you are a die-hard fan looking for the complete No Line experience, then this is a definite must-have. If the packaging, poster, and a hard-copy of "Linear" isn't high up on your list of necessities, then check out the No Line on the Horizon (Limited Magazine Version), as it still has much of the same content and access to a downloadable version of the movie.

I got this item because I'm a huge fan of U2 and I have pretty much everything they ever did (CD, BOOK, DVD..). This limited box set is amazing if your the type that keeps everything sealed, but if you use it like I do, its not worth it. The CD is the same as any other (content wise), the movie too, the hard cover book is only pictures (most of them U2.com members have already seen them) and the poster is nice but small and is folded so not too nice to put up. Basically i wish I had only got the regular CD and saved 70$.