Saturday, April 25, 2009

Thoughts on U2's "No Line on the Horizon"

by: Andrew Pryor and Brent Owen


(We might have strayed from the topic)


Pryor’s first note on U2 “No Line on the Horizon”:

Cover of

1st song (No Line...) is lame... man i'm disappointed... hope the rest of the album isn't like this... i like the music a lot but not Bono's voice...

the 2nd song (Magnificent) is better than the first.....

Song 3 (Moment) - Don't like... is that hand claps?

Song 4 (Unknown Caller)- Ok... may grow on me, may not...

Song 5 (I'll go crazy...) - Good. Solid u2 tune.

Song 6 (Get on your boots) - starts off good... may grow on me... i know a lot of folks don't like this one but I do, sounds very u2-ish and makes sense it's the single to me...

Song 7 (Stand up...) - Liked a lot... ... minus a bit of Bono's crooning which he does a lot on this album... could have almost been on Achtung Baby....

Song 8 (FEZ) - love the music, my favorite tune on here

song 9 - (White as Snow) - u2 meets "o come o come Emmanuel"... not sure what they were doing here...

song 10 - (Breathe) hate it... bring in the guy that sang on the last several u2 albums...

song 11 - (Cedars) - boring and redundant...

Not sure what happened... you have 3 of the best producers (Lanois, Eno, Lillywhite) in the biz with one of the best bands in the business and you end up with this... Maybe Brian Eno won out too much...

Overall... pretty lame...music is reaaally good but then there's Bono... but, that's just my opinion... I know my friends who are "u2 can do no wrong" nuts will blast my inability to see u2's brilliance on this one but I'll just sit idly by and bask in my audiological ignorance and be glad I only spent $3.99 at Amazon for this. Also, I have several others new albums this Spring to look forward to including:

Mr. Anonymous (buddy Jeep's alter ego), here's a vid:
http://www.mranonymous.net/musicblog/video/
- "Mr Anonymous 2" due April 19th

Gomez:
http://www.gomeztheband.com/
- "A New Tide" due March 31st

Depeche Mode:
http://www.depechemode.com/
- "Sounds of the Universe" due April 21st

Simple Minds:
http://www.downloadhome.co.uk/simpleminds/index.php
- "Graffiti Soul" due May 9th

Mute Math:
http://www.youtube.com/mutemath
- something due in August

Brent’s Response:

Just got the new U2. I like it with the premise of its U2 stepping out of the “U2 Box” - it’s the daring bone they pull out ever decade and a half (i.e. Zooropa or Pop). By that standard, I kinda dig it, however it’s not in my top 5 favorite U2 albums. I do, LOVE “Magnificent”. I think that song could have been ripped straight off of “Boy” - it’s so retro-U2 it’s not even funny…and I think that’s fantastic.

But don’t fret, they’re going to have their next album out before the end of the year. And I’m betting it’s the sessions they recorded with Rick Rubin before scrapping the whole project and starting from scratch with “No Line on the Horizon”. With Rick Rubin (who’s production value drastically outweighs all three of the gentlemen on this album) behind the board, it can’t be wrong. I mean he even made Neil Diamond listenable.

And Simple Minds…really?

Pryor’s Response:

Brent -

That’d be great. I’d love more u2. The more the better, I say. And I agree with your take. Sometimes you’re right on. ;)

Simple Minds? Yep… they’ve put out better and better music over the years… and yes, politically charged too… musically, they’re still at their game and far removed from the 80s that everyone likes to pigeon hole them in… I mean, if u2 isn’t tied forever to Joshua Tree, then why does Simple Minds have to be forever tied to Alive and Kicking? Now, grant it, they haven’t been reinventing themselves all the time, but they have progressed and matured and I love their stuff much more today than I did back then. It’s certainly not just nostalgia. Not that it’s a bad thing… after all, everyone like Joshua Tree the best still, yes? :)

Brent’s second response:

I don’t mean to discount Simple Minds - it was just surprising to see their name pop up since I literally don’t think I’ve heard anything from them since Breakfast Club. It’s not unfathomable to me that they might be good, there are lots of bands I find amazing that others scoff at, including but not exclusive to: Soul Asylum, Better Than Ezra, and even The Smiths/Morrissey (Morrissey’s new album “Years of Refusal” falls barely short of true brilliance, I love that record). So I’m not knocking - I will allow for growth from anyone, it just seemed a little out of the blue. But I don’t tolerate growth from Green Day, though…they hit their maturity peek with “Good Riddance (the time of your life)”, it’s all been down hill from there. And since we know I’m a bleeding heart liberal - one might assume I support their anti-Bush sentiments…that would be false. Asinine political statements are not signs of growth, but rather they are simply asinine political statements, nothing more.

2 comments:

Andrew said...

Hey Brent, I went back and corrected my note about the album a few weeks ago, my song order was jacked up in iTunes so my comments didn't always apply to the song I was referring.

Just an FYI...

Brent said...

All fixed...gracias for the note.