Haha in what ways?

well, apart from the fact they've both said they'll try to release another album before the end of the decade...

 

In 2003 Coldplay tracks like one I love, and moses were straight out of the early u2 textbook. The song and videos for Speed of sound and city of blinding lights are surprisingly similar. And oddly enough I've seen both bands cover "Lost Highway"... Okay it's really not much, but kind of entertaining.

haha yeah....I see it more as Coldplay in U2's footsteps.

NO LINE ON THE HORIZON

 

Its leaked boys. I'll be on for an hour or so. PM me for link!

I'll be listening to it soon! Getting it now! Yay

LEEEEEEEEEEEEAK

 

U2 DOWNLOADS THREAD

 

GO GO GO

Where is the U2 Downloads topic?.

i found it already.

Listening to it right now...I'll make a concise review later. :D

Maybe is 'No Line On The Horizon' the worst U2 album i have heard,it's nothing special in my opinion,there are too much drum sounds more than before,and that's bad i think,there other album 'How To Stop An Atomic Bomb' is much better maybe there best.but this is really bad.

Just got done listening to the album.And I must say that I am a little dissapointed with this effort.I really like u2.I loved their last album and the many before it.But this album to me seems like they were trying a little too hard.The songs seem too long.Bono seems to be talking in a lot of the songs and not singing.Or maybe a little too much than i would have liked.The drums to me sounds the same in most of the songs.And what suprised me the most is that the Edge really didnt impress me at all on this album.It may seem that they have run out of ideas or so.But I wasnt really impressed on this album.The only song I can remember really liking was Ill Go Crazy.I mean they are all pretty decent songs but nothing rememerable.Oh well.I still like them.Would have expected a little more from them also working with Eno.Thats just my opinion.We will see what others have to say.

U2: No Line On The Horizon - full review (plus what Bono really thinks)

 

The new U2 album, 'No Line On The Horizon' will be released on March 2nd. It is a great record, and greatness is what rock and roll and the world needs right now. From the grittily urgent yet ethereal title track all the way to the philosophically ruminative, spacey coda of 'Cedars Of Lebanon' it conjures an extraordinary journey through sound and ideas, a search for soul in a brutal, confusing world, all bound together in narcotic melody and space age pop songs.

 

Get On Your Boots: an escape from politics

 

"Let me in the sound" is a repeated lyrical motif (showing up in three songs, including current single 'Get On Your Boots'). The theme of the album is surrender, escaping everyday problems to lose (or perhaps find) yourself in the joy of the moment. For Bono, it clearly represents an escape from the politics of his role as a lobbyist and campaigner into the musical exultation of rock and roll, yet the very notion of escape remains political, if only with a small p. "Every day I have to find the courage to walk out into the street / With arms out, got a love you can't defeat" is the inspirational bridge in an epic, explosive rock anthem 'Breathe', that could be set in Gaza or at your own front door. Scattershot half-spoken verses fire images like news reports from the battleground of life ("16th of June, Chinese stocks are going up / And I'm coming down with some new Asian virus ... Doc says you're fine, or dying") til he is "running down the road like loose electricity", tension building in thundering drums and grungey two note guitar riff until it all lets loose in a soaring, anthemic chorus, as Bono tells us "I found grace inside a sound / I found grace, it's all that I found / And I can breathe".

 

The theme is even more explicit on 'Moment Of Surrender', a pulsing, dreamily gorgeous 7 minute weave of synths, silvery guitars, sub-bass, handclaps, Arabic strings and soulful ululating vocals, in which the narrator experiences a spiritual epiphany at the very prosaic setting of an ATM machine. It is a beautiful piece that provides the album's beating heart and shows how far U2 can drift from their stereotype as a stadium rock band into unknown territory while still making something that touches the universal.

 

Musically, these songs might be the two poles of an album that switches between overloaded rockers and hypnotic electro grooves: the U2 / Eno divide. 'No Line On The Horizon' was produced by the professorially brilliant Roxy Music synth magus Brian Eno with his rootsy, muso collaborator Daniel Lanois, the same team that has presided over U2's finest albums, Unforgettable Fire (1984), The Joshua Tree (1987), Achtung Baby (1991) and their latterday reclaiming of pop's high ground 'All That You Can't Leave Behind' (2000). The chief difference is that here they have been explicitly invited into the songwriting process, with 7 of the 12 tracks credited to both band and producers, and recorded with a six-piece line up featuring Eno on electronics and Lanois on acoustic and pedal steel guitar. It is these songs, in particular, which push U2 towards the invisible horizon of the title, at once more linear (they tend to be driven, with singular grooves, often pulsing along on particular sound effect or rhythmic repetitions) and lateral (they defy obvious song-structure, choruses drop rather than soar, Bono's rich, high voice subsumed into stacked harmonic chants). These tracks draw out of Bono a contemplative depth, so even the fantastically odd 'Unknown Caller' hits a vein of emotional truth, when the spaced out singer is cast adrift on the soundbites of computer and communications networks ('Password, you enter here, right now / You know your name so punch it in') yet seems to find himself talking to the inner voice of God ("Escape yourself, and gravity / Hear me, cease to speak that I may speak"). Words and music dovetail in surprising ways that send the senses spinning.

 

Left to their own compositional devices, U2 produce rock songs of high-wire adrenalin and in-your-face immediacy. It is almost a relief when they arrive like a troop surge in the middle of the album, reclaiming familiar territory with a burst of shock and awe. This is U2 on safe ground, ramming home the kind of smack bang crunch pop rock that they know radio programmers will fall at their feet for, yet there is almost too much melody and a surfeit of lyrical ideas. Current single 'Get On Your Boots' is the prime example, walloping along with two note punk rock energy, a low-slung heavy metal guitar riff, an expansively melodic psychedelic chorus and playful sloganeering lyrics in which Bono gets off the soap box to pay homage to the more prosaic pleasures of a beautiful woman in comically "sexy boots". Along with the Oasis on steroids singalong pop of 'I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight' and pop Zepplin-esque grooviness and shuffling beats of 'Stand Up Comedy', these songs are the albums most immediate and yet least resonant tracks. They are light relief from the more demanding adventures into new sonic terrain.

 

Bono's worst reflex as a lyric writer is sloganeering, partly because he is so good at it. On the three songs just mentioned, he piles catch-phrase upon soundbite to build up a thematic idea, often one that plays with his image. So in 'Stand Up Comedy' the diminutive rock star in stacked boots warns us to "stand up to rock stars / Napoleon is in high heels / Josephine be careful of small men with big ideas" and in 'I'll Go Crazy' he confesses (or complains) "there's a part of me in the chaos that's quiet / And there's a part of you that wants me to riot." It is all good fun but too often sounds like a series of t-shirt slogans rather than a song with a heart of its own. His phrasemaking is put to much better effect when it pared back so that the emotion of the song takes precedence, as on the strange, addictive title track, where he loses himself in the blur of a mysterious love, a person whose unknowability represents a kind of Godliness and who tells him "infinity is a great place to start."

 

On 'Breathe', U2 locate the emotional and philosophical heart in an out and out ball busting U2 anthem (which Eno, apparently, asserts to be "the most U2 song" they have ever recorded). It is matched, in this respect, by the quite wonderful 'Magnificent', in which the U2/Eno/Lanois combo conjure up an instantly recognisable U2 classic in a love song with the flag waving pop drive of 'New Year's Day'. These are songs that will fill their fans with joy, but it is in the album's more intimate, off beat adventures that U2 lock into something that forces listeners to sit up and take note of them anew. There is a busy-ness in terms of sonic tapestry, the meshing together of Edge's sci-fi guitars and Eno's synths providing an intricate, detailed soundscape that constantly tugs at the ears and mind, but the U2/Eno/Lanois songs hold the centre, slowly revealing themselves, demanding repeat listens. It certainly sounds like U2 (as do a lot of groups these days) but in its boldest moments is as fresh and ambitious as the work of first timers, not veterans 33 years on the road.

 

If it has a flaw, it may be in U2's inherent tendency to want to be all things to all people, so that in album of surrender, they can't quite let themselves go all the way. They still want to bat the ball out of the stadium everytime, and so instinctively counterbalance their desire to reach something otherwordly with the safe bets of crunchy rock hits. In that respect, it doesn't have the innocence or singularity of 'Unforgettable Fire' or 'Joshua Tree', nor does it quite affect the bold re-wiring of their sound that was 'Achtung Baby'. To me, it is probably the album 'Zooropa' was supposed to be, building on the sonic architecture of classic U2 and taking it into the pop stratosphere. But what a place for a band to be, in orbit around their own myth, making music that bounces off the inside of a listeners skull, charged with ideas and emotions, groovy enough to want to dance to, melodic enough to make you sing along, soulful enough to cherish, philosophical enough to inspire, and with so many killer tracks it might as well be a latterday greatest hits. It is, at the very least, an album to speak of in the same breath as their best and what other band of their longevity can boast of that?

 

Anyway that's my opinion. I can tell you what Bono thinks, because he has been texting me. He comes (as he explicitly says on 'Breathe') "from a long line of travelling salesmen" and he would probably sell his album door to door if he could. "Lifeforce, joy, innovation, emotional honesty, analogue not digital, home-made not pro-tooled, unique sonic landscape," are his buzzwords (although punctuation and spelling are mine). "I pinch myself every morning, evenings no longer a trial. Soul music for the frenzied, rock music for the still. The album we always wanted to make. Now we f*** off ..."

 

Not for a while yet, I suspect.

 

(telegraph.co.uk)

NOOOOOOOO. I have class right now so I can't listen. It's a lecture and my prof can barely see me, but I'm not sure I have the balls to pull out the headphones. Damn it. I want to listen to it so badly!!!

 

Oh and the idea that I would wait for the release date like some will is just preposterous. I used to be that person, and if U2's album came out in November when it was supposed to and leaked in October I am sure that I would have had the strength to not listen (maybe not :\), but I've had to wait so much longer.

 

I got all the files onto my iTunes and heard about three seconds of each opening. The differences are SOOOOOOO profound. I'm really excited.

 

AH...got to go!

 

Oh and I've already got the album on pre-order on iTunes...in case anyone thinks I would cheat U2 out of what they deserve.

Where could you listen to it ? :shocked2:

^U2 download thread

wow. a leak? really? Well have fun with that. I'm taking this one 'cold turkey'.

Love the album. Absolutely fantastic, with some very special tracks.

Quite good, indeed !

I-like-it. No need to say more!

 

Favorite song: magnificient (all is in the title)

Less favorite: Get on your boots XD

U2: No Line On The Horizon - full review (plus what Bono really thinks)

 

The new U2 album, 'No Line On The Horizon' will be released on March 2nd. It is a great record, and greatness is what rock and roll and the world needs right now. From the grittily urgent yet ethereal title track all the way to the philosophically ruminative, spacey coda of 'Cedars Of Lebanon' it conjures an extraordinary journey through sound and ideas, a search for soul in a brutal, confusing world, all bound together in narcotic melody and space age pop songs.

 

Get On Your Boots: an escape from politics

 

"Let me in the sound" is a repeated lyrical motif (showing up in three songs, including current single 'Get On Your Boots'). The theme of the album is surrender, escaping everyday problems to lose (or perhaps find) yourself in the joy of the moment. For Bono, it clearly represents an escape from the politics of his role as a lobbyist and campaigner into the musical exultation of rock and roll, yet the very notion of escape remains political, if only with a small p. "Every day I have to find the courage to walk out into the street / With arms out, got a love you can't defeat" is the inspirational bridge in an epic, explosive rock anthem 'Breathe', that could be set in Gaza or at your own front door. Scattershot half-spoken verses fire images like news reports from the battleground of life ("16th of June, Chinese stocks are going up / And I'm coming down with some new Asian virus ... Doc says you're fine, or dying") til he is "running down the road like loose electricity", tension building in thundering drums and grungey two note guitar riff until it all lets loose in a soaring, anthemic chorus, as Bono tells us "I found grace inside a sound / I found grace, it's all that I found / And I can breathe".

 

The theme is even more explicit on 'Moment Of Surrender', a pulsing, dreamily gorgeous 7 minute weave of synths, silvery guitars, sub-bass, handclaps, Arabic strings and soulful ululating vocals, in which the narrator experiences a spiritual epiphany at the very prosaic setting of an ATM machine. It is a beautiful piece that provides the album's beating heart and shows how far U2 can drift from their stereotype as a stadium rock band into unknown territory while still making something that touches the universal.

 

Musically, these songs might be the two poles of an album that switches between overloaded rockers and hypnotic electro grooves: the U2 / Eno divide. 'No Line On The Horizon' was produced by the professorially brilliant Roxy Music synth magus Brian Eno with his rootsy, muso collaborator Daniel Lanois, the same team that has presided over U2's finest albums, Unforgettable Fire (1984), The Joshua Tree (1987), Achtung Baby (1991) and their latterday reclaiming of pop's high ground 'All That You Can't Leave Behind' (2000). The chief difference is that here they have been explicitly invited into the songwriting process, with 7 of the 12 tracks credited to both band and producers, and recorded with a six-piece line up featuring Eno on electronics and Lanois on acoustic and pedal steel guitar. It is these songs, in particular, which push U2 towards the invisible horizon of the title, at once more linear (they tend to be driven, with singular grooves, often pulsing along on particular sound effect or rhythmic repetitions) and lateral (they defy obvious song-structure, choruses drop rather than soar, Bono's rich, high voice subsumed into stacked harmonic chants). These tracks draw out of Bono a contemplative depth, so even the fantastically odd 'Unknown Caller' hits a vein of emotional truth, when the spaced out singer is cast adrift on the soundbites of computer and communications networks ('Password, you enter here, right now / You know your name so punch it in') yet seems to find himself talking to the inner voice of God ("Escape yourself, and gravity / Hear me, cease to speak that I may speak"). Words and music dovetail in surprising ways that send the senses spinning.

 

Left to their own compositional devices, U2 produce rock songs of high-wire adrenalin and in-your-face immediacy. It is almost a relief when they arrive like a troop surge in the middle of the album, reclaiming familiar territory with a burst of shock and awe. This is U2 on safe ground, ramming home the kind of smack bang crunch pop rock that they know radio programmers will fall at their feet for, yet there is almost too much melody and a surfeit of lyrical ideas. Current single 'Get On Your Boots' is the prime example, walloping along with two note punk rock energy, a low-slung heavy metal guitar riff, an expansively melodic psychedelic chorus and playful sloganeering lyrics in which Bono gets off the soap box to pay homage to the more prosaic pleasures of a beautiful woman in comically "sexy boots". Along with the Oasis on steroids singalong pop of 'I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight' and pop Zepplin-esque grooviness and shuffling beats of 'Stand Up Comedy', these songs are the albums most immediate and yet least resonant tracks. They are light relief from the more demanding adventures into new sonic terrain.

 

Bono's worst reflex as a lyric writer is sloganeering, partly because he is so good at it. On the three songs just mentioned, he piles catch-phrase upon soundbite to build up a thematic idea, often one that plays with his image. So in 'Stand Up Comedy' the diminutive rock star in stacked boots warns us to "stand up to rock stars / Napoleon is in high heels / Josephine be careful of small men with big ideas" and in 'I'll Go Crazy' he confesses (or complains) "there's a part of me in the chaos that's quiet / And there's a part of you that wants me to riot." It is all good fun but too often sounds like a series of t-shirt slogans rather than a song with a heart of its own. His phrasemaking is put to much better effect when it pared back so that the emotion of the song takes precedence, as on the strange, addictive title track, where he loses himself in the blur of a mysterious love, a person whose unknowability represents a kind of Godliness and who tells him "infinity is a great place to start."

 

On 'Breathe', U2 locate the emotional and philosophical heart in an out and out ball busting U2 anthem (which Eno, apparently, asserts to be "the most U2 song" they have ever recorded). It is matched, in this respect, by the quite wonderful 'Magnificent', in which the U2/Eno/Lanois combo conjure up an instantly recognisable U2 classic in a love song with the flag waving pop drive of 'New Year's Day'. These are songs that will fill their fans with joy, but it is in the album's more intimate, off beat adventures that U2 lock into something that forces listeners to sit up and take note of them anew. There is a busy-ness in terms of sonic tapestry, the meshing together of Edge's sci-fi guitars and Eno's synths providing an intricate, detailed soundscape that constantly tugs at the ears and mind, but the U2/Eno/Lanois songs hold the centre, slowly revealing themselves, demanding repeat listens. It certainly sounds like U2 (as do a lot of groups these days) but in its boldest moments is as fresh and ambitious as the work of first timers, not veterans 33 years on the road.

 

If it has a flaw, it may be in U2's inherent tendency to want to be all things to all people, so that in album of surrender, they can't quite let themselves go all the way. They still want to bat the ball out of the stadium everytime, and so instinctively counterbalance their desire to reach something otherwordly with the safe bets of crunchy rock hits. In that respect, it doesn't have the innocence or singularity of 'Unforgettable Fire' or 'Joshua Tree', nor does it quite affect the bold re-wiring of their sound that was 'Achtung Baby'. To me, it is probably the album 'Zooropa' was supposed to be, building on the sonic architecture of classic U2 and taking it into the pop stratosphere. But what a place for a band to be, in orbit around their own myth, making music that bounces off the inside of a listeners skull, charged with ideas and emotions, groovy enough to want to dance to, melodic enough to make you sing along, soulful enough to cherish, philosophical enough to inspire, and with so many killer tracks it might as well be a latterday greatest hits. It is, at the very least, an album to speak of in the same breath as their best and what other band of their longevity can boast of that?

 

Anyway that's my opinion. I can tell you what Bono thinks, because he has been texting me. He comes (as he explicitly says on 'Breathe') "from a long line of travelling salesmen" and he would probably sell his album door to door if he could. "Lifeforce, joy, innovation, emotional honesty, analogue not digital, home-made not pro-tooled, unique sonic landscape," are his buzzwords (although punctuation and spelling are mine). "I pinch myself every morning, evenings no longer a trial. Soul music for the frenzied, rock music for the still. The album we always wanted to make. Now we f*** off ..."

 

Not for a while yet, I suspect.

 

(telegraph.co.uk)

 

That is one impressive review! Thanks! Should hold me over 'til the album is released.

Review if you want to call it that.

 

The Edge said in Q Magazine that he wanted this to be like the albums he loved. The one you could listen to again and again and always find nuances. You could grow with the album. You could take a lot from it over a long period of time.

 

On the outset this seems that very album. It's going to take patience and it's going to take a lot of time. I'm really happy I got started. The thing is, we're all at a Coldplay forum so I'll assume we're all Coldplay fans. Viva la Vida was the most exceptional album. I thought it had a lot of color and flavor. I think it was a great move forward for Coldplay. I listened to some of those songs again and again. I still do. But the thing about Coldplay, the thing about most music, is that after a while it's just the song. The deconstruction period ends. You know the lyrics. You have your take. You like the sound or you don't. Maybe a song that didn't grab you at first now has or maybe a song you loved has drifted into oblivion. That's what happens to me with most albums. Even a lot of U2's. But I know this album isn't just going to end up being background noise and melody for me while I do homework. It demands to be listened to. It's going to take a LONG time to digest.

 

This album is full of paradoxs. It's not a singles album, but it will probably have at least two big singles. This is not a mainstream album but I assume it's sales will only be affected by the music industries climate and not by U2's own music. This album is loud and it's quiet. It's generic and it's experimental. There are a hundred and one binaries.

 

This being said...I'm not sure what my take is.

 

While I'm into some mainstream music, a lot of my palette exists a little off of mainstream. I cannot listen to The Fray over and over again, but I can listen to them a little. I can listen to Coldplay a lot because I find their music exists in that a little off to the left of mainstream. When they go all out mainstream, in songs like Lost! and Lovers in Japan, I tend to cringe a little after my initial enjoyment of a song.

 

I guess I'm just trying to set up my take. To make sure everyone understands I would only be a little annoyed if this album had no really radio worthy songs.

 

The thing is I think it does. I think this is a type of album that will move U2 fans. The thing about U2 is that they change. The change a lot. Yes there's always Bono, The Edge, Adam and Larry, but they have evolved beautifully and turned their sound upside down before.

 

This album doesn't go that far. If you want to know what I thought song by song on first listen I will say, but I doubt it will hold for long.

 

No Line on the Horizon was not what I was looking for. I sort of found this song boring to be honest.

 

Magnificient, which seemed such an apparent U2 song, is not working for me. There are parts where I'm moved, but only just. This might grow on me, although I think for most it will be one of the more apparent hit songs.

 

Moment of Surrender might be the most profound track I've heard U2 do in a while. When U2 is at their best for me, is usually when Bono is at his best. It's about so much more than the music. It's about the soul. This track has soul. I'm not sure how to say it any better than that. It is beautiful and profound.

 

Unknown Caller is one of those tricky songs that anyone with any knowledge of Bono and U2 should figure out is about God. I like it a lot for the most part. I don't like how they tried to do a robotic voice - I thought that was poorly thought out. I liked the organ coming in though, it just validated my thought it was about God (I say this because of church organs). Oh and I love the bird sound.

 

I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight is an unabashed pop song. I love it though. It's going to be on their decade album. All the reviews said it'd be happy and it is. It's a feel good song. The mood I achieved while listening to it was sort of like what Strawberry Swing did to me except to a lesser extent - which does not mean I think the songs worse.

 

Get On Your Boots...is their really something for me to say. Everyone has pretty much come to their opinions. I just know mine has evolved since my initial disgust. There's some satisfaction I draw from this tune.

 

Stand Up Comedy...hmm. I wish they just did Stand Up. Some review was complaining about song names. I concur. The comedy should have been dropped. I didn't feel it really, but there's some wacked out part near the end. Very quick though. I think you'll know what I'm talking about. I liked that.

 

Fez - Being Born was as weird as I expected. There are a few moments on this album where it did really stop being a U2 album. The beginning of this song is one of those moments. If I thought U2 had Eno's usual style in them full blown I would say that they could come up with something like this, but I feel it's them just letting Eno do more than he should. I like the guy. I like his music even, but I don't like it taking over a record. I like the atmospheres when they compliment U2's style, but not for the sake of atmospheres.

 

White as Snow is a song I think will grow on me. I like how its constructed. I like what it says. It's just one of those songs thats going to take a while to get into.

 

Breathe I liked. How much I liked it I'm not sure. It has brilliant parts. I like the idea of grace through sound. I like the idea of this song. I like that it's not blowing me away yet.

 

Cedars of Lebanon is stripped down. This song seems to exist to let Bono do what he wants. You almost forget there's music. You just hear the character Bono has created for you (has anyone thought about how these characters might end up in the concerts? I think that'd be pretty damn cool). It's a solemn way to end an album. It's not uplifting like Yahweh. I sort of wish it was.

 

 

 

I'm sorry this was so damn long. I just devoted a lot of time to listening and paying attention, so I had a lot of thoughts. Regardless I think we are all going to hear a lot of fringe U2 fans taking the piss out of this album. The fans who could only get into albums like The Joshua Tree, All That You Can't Leave Behind and How to Distmantle an Atomic Bomb. Basically the singles fans. But if you're into music at all I can't see how you could dislike this album or what U2 are trying to achieve. They aren't sitting on their laurels everyone, and that's quite a thing for four men about to hit 50.

wow. a leak? really? Well have fun with that. I'm taking this one 'cold turkey'.

 

ditto!

From the people who have heard it.....is it good??

So glad I hit the download button in class so that I could listen right when I got back to the room. I've just finished a full listen from start to finish. And lemme tell you, I'm not going to have an opinion of this album until maybe the 10th or 15th listen.

 

Nevertheless, I will have my second listen later tonight, and will be writing my impressions here while listening.

 

I will tell you now, however, that I was right when I stated that "Get on Your Boots" could have been chosen as the first single merely because it's the most radio-friendly song on the album.

The new album is excellent! I think it's up there with The Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby, and Zooropa.