U2: No Line on the Horizon

Initially, the new U2 was to be cut into Eps and sold separately. And it was also supposed to be a Rick Rubin project. Either Rubin was fired off the job, or Brian Eno stuck his big nose back in before the infamous Rubin-Bono collaboration took off. Having worked with Eno before, U2's newest- NO LINE ON THE HORIZON is an homage to themselves. It's a big batch of new songs, but could also work as a "Best of" record, spanning Joshua Tree-era U2 with Achtung Baby and Vertigo mood swings. The title-track is an obvious nod to the experimental Zooropa outer-space phase, with a touch of John Lennon stylish melody. They've always been a band to create vivid album openers, pumped up energy-driven drug-rock, but then the record drops down to a variety of mellow Pop ballads. I wouldn't be surprised if this is the first U2 record to not fit any kind of sequencing code. The order of songs are jumbled up in no particular fashion, much like a Greatest Hits compilation. "Get on your boots" is the single, which comes toward the middle of this collection, and revives the bands' vitality, followed by "Stand up comedy", the grungiest riff-rock track of the bunch. Eno's influence (and from reading the album credits, he co-wrote most of the songs), is prevalent more than usual on "Fez", a track that was recorded in the city of Fez, Morocco. The remainder of the album wanders between more Unforgettable Fire-era ballads, and techno-trance "Pop-Mart" jams. Essentially, they made a new record of old songs, and for a group that's been around as long as they have, that's not necessarily a bad thing. One cannot try to reinvent music every time around (Radiohead's still trying), sometimes you gotta stick to what you know, and no one knows Pop like U2.