U2 - No Line On The Horizon

Wit and wisdom in equal measure

A helpful warning crops up midway through the track Stand Up Comedy, where Bono teasingly advises us to “beware of small men with big ideas”. Playing pals with presidents and popes is all well and good but, on their most consistent and satisfying album since 1991’s Achtung Baby, U2’s eyes are firmly fixed on the day job.

Smart one-liners pepper the album, the group often making themselves the butt of the joke, though when U2 do get serious it’s with impressive clarity. White As Snow addresses soldiers caught up in the Afghan conflict and Cedars Of Lebanon chronicles the loneliness of the long distant war correspondent; both avoid fanciful poetic imagery in favour of depictions of cold, hard scenes that could have been plucked from last night’s TV news.

Musically eclectic at every turn, the title track is swathed in the staccato guitar figures Franz Ferdinand might have recently monopolised, while I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight, despite its lazy Bon Jovi-esque title, is a vibrant collision of Spectorisms that brings to mind the party vibes of the E Street Band. The classic-in-waiting, however, is the seven-minute slow-burner Moment Of Surrender, its Brian Eno “rhythm loops” and existential lyrical questions echoing the anthemic universality of One.

4 stars 4 stars 4 stars 4 stars

Island | tbc

Reviewed by Terry Staunton
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