U2 - No Line on the Horizon

It's been a while since I've written an album review; there just hasn't been a whole lot released lately that I've been genuinely interested in.

When I heard U2 had a new one hitting the stands, I was excited for one reason:

New album = World Tour.

(Which, if you haven't taken a glance at the column on the right, would enable me to check "See U2 in concert" off on my Bucket List.)

OK, now to the review.

I wasn't too interested in hearing the new album--for Pete's sake I wasn't even aware it was released this week, ..nor did I know "No Line on the Horizon" was the title. I was sitting in class yesterday when a friend of mine pointed proudly to the screen of his MacBookPro, "Look what I got. It came out on Tuesday." He had listened to it once through (which is how it's supposed to be done, people) and then listened to a few songs here and there. Overall it sounded like he thought it was one of those albums that grows on you after a few listens.

My friend bought the digital album on Amazon for $3.99, so I decided I'd have to try it out. Why not? I grabbed my Sony headphones, flipped on the noise-cancelling switch and sunk into the couch to take a ride out to "The Horizon." (Okay, that was cheesey.)

"No Line On The Horizon" was as boring as its album cover.

There was nothing to it, no substance, no golden moments. It was flat. Stale. It was Boring. Plain. Unoriginal. Did I say it cost $3.99? I had to use every ounce of self restraint not to skip through every track on the first listen.

With the exception of the second-to-last track, "Breathe", there were no guitar solos. Bridges barely existed on this album. When songs are 5 and 7 minutes long, ideally there is a bit of contrast somewhere. But there was nothing. The intros were long and gave me anxiety. Not only did Bono pull out the talking-but-sorta-singing act (which drives me nuts), he pulled lyrics out from where the sun don't shine. And I don't know if this is just me, but I felt as though Bono's ego was so oversized you could actually hear it.

I get the feeling this one was overworked, overproduced and maybe...just maybe, they tried too hard to be mainstream. You'd think after 11 studio albums, U2 wouldn't feel the need to impress anyone--just make your music, man!