I’ve sometimes threatened to write a platitude to No Line on the Horizon. On its anniversary, I’ll just write a mini-ode to, for me, the best U2 album of the last quarter century.
I’d still put this album as #4-5 in my U2antheon. Never going to beat Unforgettable Fire, but jockeying with Zooropa, which is elevated because of that album’s experimentation and place it’s had in my life.
NLOTH: The title track is the sound of an ill-tempered elephant driving a freight train. The bits of sound U2 conjure in parts of this tune justify their existence this century. “Moment of Surrender,†a righteous shuffle contemplation. “Fez†builds to an otherworldly sound that subverts one of the Edge’s great, simple, spacy solos. “Breathe†has interesting sonorous-cavey sounds in odd tempo. Cedars with the woody bass, Magnificent with the gallop-on-the-hill wideopen U2 sound. Even for me (duck and cover) Get on Your Boots captures a paranoid mood of impeding chaos following uneasy peace. The use of French horn and cello peppered throughout is tasteful and provides a cohesive thread.
When the album came out, I was in a strange period of my life. I was trying to cut back some bad habits which were taking over. I listened to this album and would describe to others what I called “the power†which is simply described as the greatness of life around us. I felt that - “the power†- when listening to this album.
I’d like to think the version Eno and Lanois wanted could have been a latter-day U2 cornerstone.
Anyway, I should have written this more in depth long ago. And I know this is a dismissed album at large, and decisive record among U2 fans…. But I think when U2 is all done, this will be regarded as a highly underrated, misunderstood, and positively re-acclaimed record.