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.