Sunday, March 01, 2009

"No LIne on the Horizon" U2 One Review

So friends have been waiting to hear my review of U2s latest offering... essentially this post follows on from my initial thoughts about the album generally!!
It's not stunning, earth shattering, landscape changing... but it's not bad!!

The Brian Eno/Danny Lanois [lan-wah] influence means that this record has echoes of former eras especially familiar riffs from 'Boy' and 'War' mixed with under produced and stark musicianship. It is one of those albums yoiu'll enjoy the more you listen!!

But there's no anthemic, seminal, 'you have just got to hear this!!!!' kind of track... it's more ambient and sparse.

Love is a dominant theme and to some extent the undesereved or more importantly unfettered love and grace of God woven through episodes and aspects of life!!

That said there are at least three songs that'll make brilliant wallpaper soundtracks for photo reflections or audio-visuals...

"Magnificent"
"...only love can leave such a mark/But only love, only love can heal such a scar"
This is an ambient reflection on place and belonging given the restorative and healing power of love on a grainy life lived in the moment.

"Moment of Surrender"
This is my favourite track from the album!!
"...it's not if I believe in love/but if love believes in me...at the moment of surrender/of vision over visibilty/I did not notice the passers by/and they did not notice me"

To me these songs are about 'feel' and this for me feels like an Easter Friday tune... it would be great with black and white artistic images of the Easter story, the cross and stuff that's happening around us from news, nature and life...

"Cedars of Lebanon" picks up on the imagery around the shade of a tree, it's place in the landscape and the history of the place... and to me has a confessional element.
"...the worst of us are long drawn out confession, the best of us are geniuses of compression..."

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