How, do you do a 'review' of a band that has been with you through all the good times, the down and out times, the depressing times, the happy times for more than half of my life? How? Well you don't. Your personal heroes are never up for a review especially an instant coffee one.
Over the past week I didn't take a snap call on the new U2 albumn calling it a classic or a failure because this band deserves a respect like no other. Their music and lyrics have hit chords deep within. I have learned more about life as I have delved on a U2 song more than any life experience...most song of theirs finds a place in the soundtrack of my life.
Ever wondered why, when you watch a U2 concert their are always a majority of people in their twenties in the audience? How is it that as the band grows older are they able to continue to appeal to younger and younger people. All through the decades they have something that has appealed to the young men and women that no other band has been able to capture.
So even their bad songs (do listen to Pop, there's plenty on it which is goddamn awful) gets a fair listen time and again and its because of that the song 'Please' from Pop is on my top 10 list of favourite U2 songs of all time. So with a feverish excitement that I feel very rarely I unwrapped the CD from its super packaging - complete with a 32 page booklet, an Anton Corbijn Film, a surreal U2 poster and fonts and colours that hits you like a bomb. The end thank yous mention Jay-Z, Green Day and the mandatory Save Burma, contribute to the Red campaign and all. I started it out with No line on the Horizon and ended with Cedars of Lebanon.
I was transfixed. I heard it again...liked it more and then played it all night after I jacked my headphones into the player and knelt by it and listened (like someone once said 'if you want to kiss the sky better learn how to kneel, on your knees boy') and then played it every hour I could during the week. The music on the CD ... the back-up guys Brian Eno, Danny Lanois show up, Will.I.am shows up on the keyboard for a couple of songs and they have arrangements for pianos, guitars and keyboards from an assortment of I'm sure very talented people ..just like Achtung Baby did.
Their travels across Europe to record the albumn presents a wonderful smorgasbord of the places they stayed and worked at the most visible sounds of a place is noticed on Cedars of Lebanon.
Well a verdict if I can give one...the CD is better than All that you can't leave behind and How to dismantle an Atomic bomb which more mainstream crowd pulling rock music. The failure of Pop made the band go back to their rock roots and that is fair. But after more than 30 years in music U2 is in a place where I wonder if they really care what the listening public feels and so they went back to the studio to experiment and we the U2 loving fans waited to see if they'd turn out a Achtung Baby or a Zooropa or meet their Waterloo in Pop version 1.2
I can't begin to tell you what a classic this album is. Each song grows on you like no other I've heard since I dismantled an Atomic bomb. There are three excellent get the crowd dancing songs - Stand up comedy, Breathe & Get on your boots. Four super super slow numbers - Moment of Surrender, Cedars of Lebanon, Fez - Getting born and White as Snow. The other three - No line on the horizon, Magnificent, I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight and your regular rock songs and one a-w-f-u-l song called Unknown caller. I can't seem to like it no matter how many times I listen to it.
If good music is everything that you think we were given as an escape from the world go buy No line on the horizon....it won't change your life but Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen & Adam Clayton will try their damnedest. The influence of Bono and The Edge was way too much on the previous two Cds on this one Bass and Drums get an equal footing...they sound like a complete band with all four minds working toward the same line on the horizon.
And as all the hype machine dies down news comes that a new CD by the band may come before the year ends (the band recorded close to 60 songs in their sessions) I'm booking my ticket to go see them live when the tour itinerary comes out. Classic. Sheer genius.
A track wise introduction to the CD:
No Line on the Horizon: Different in its music arrangement from the the song inthe Singles CD I had picked up earlier. She starts with a couple of seconds of ominous sounds before a flash of guitars hit you before Bono's voice hits you, complete with the whoooo ooo owws . Edge's guitar is omnipresent in this one. Best parts of the song is the beginning and the slow down to a twinkle between 2:50 to 3:10 before the songs picks up again.
Magnificent: Larry Mullen shows us who's the boss in the band with a whoop drum set in the beginning before Edge kicks in with his guitar. Top lyrics in the song "only love can leave such a mark, but only love can heal such a scar, justified till we die, you and I will magnify. Moment of Surrender: My favourite song on the CD. Brings back memories of So cruel, With or without you, Walk On and Faraway so close as a Beautiful love song but is a stand alone classic in its own right. Slow, bluesy, the greenlights from a 7-11 are replaced by 'punching numbers into the ATM machine, I could see in the reflection a face staring back at me' What a song! each lyric, each tune hits the mind in the mellowest way possible. "I’ve been in every black hole At the altar of the Dark star My body's now a begging bowl That's begging to get back Begging to get back To my heart To the rhythm of my soul To the rhythm of my unconsciousness To the rhythm that yearns To be released from control...."
Unknown Caller: I can't say I like anything about this song, maybe because Moment of Surrender has just stole all the thunder? Dunno. So I let it pass.
I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight: Belongs on the All that you can't leave behind CD. It's got the same feel of all the music from back then. Bono yells incredulously 'It's not a hill it's a mountain!'
Starts out with a rat-a-tat of information:
"She's a rainbow and she loves the peaceful life
Knows I'll go crazy if I don't go crazy tonight
There's a part of me in chaos that's quiet
And there's a part of you that wants me to riot
Everybody needs to cry or needs to spit
Every sweet-tooth needs just a little hit
Every beauty needs to go out with an idiot
How can you stand next to the truth and not see it? "
The Edge's guitar will make you tap your feet like hell.
Get on your boots: I'd written previously about it so I'm not going to repeat but since the CD also comes with the music video I'm hoping you caught the usually immobile Adam Clayton do a little shoulder jig as he plays Bass in the video...it made me smile
Stand-Up comedy: LOVE the vibe this song gives you. It's cheeky and the closest you'll hear Bono rapping and a bit of self mocking thrown in as Bono (all of 5'7" sings "Stand up to rock stars, Napoleon is in high heels Josephine, be careful of small men with big ideas")
The get up and dance number in the CD. Love the bit where he sings "...but while I'm getting over certainty stop helping god across the street like a little old lady.." Bono owns this song.
Fez- Being born: Cant say I love how this song starts, it borrows the 'Let me in the sound' line that ends the pulsating Get on your boots but it's like the song's..well being born before it meanders in the streets of Morocco, its got everything a whole lot of bass, Bono's wails, the guitars and drums taking the song to a super pitch, the song is devoid of lyrics, the focus is on the music. Top song.
White as Snow: It's a 'soppy' love song and I don't do soppy. But The Edge's strumming steals the show. Bono's voice is a low growl and he sounds like he's at the end of a long journey. This awesome French horn courses through the song.
"Where I grew up there were no hills at all, the land was flat, the highway straight and wide
my brother and I, we'd drive for hours, like we'd years instead of days our faces as pale as the dirty snow"
Breathe: And just when you think the band seems to have run out of steam. They bring in Breathe. In my opinion this should have been the track that introduced the CD to the world instead of Boots. The song loops and twists and boy is it good. We are all people borne of sound and this song is a testament to how much sound there is in this CD. The music is textured, there's the usual from the boys but then a cello is thrown in and more keyboards. This band as Bono sings plays a striptease in our heads.
Cedars of Lebanon: And it ends too soon with the classico Cedars. Bono adopts a conversational style as it slips dangerously close to 'If you wear that velvet dress', the sounds of Lebanon come alive frequently in this track.
" Now I’ve got a head like a lit cigarette
Unholy clouds reflecting in a minaret
You’re so high above me, higher than everyone
Where are you in the Cedars of Lebanon?
Choose your enemies carefully ‘cos they will define you
Make them interesting ‘cos in some ways they will mind you
They’re not there in the beginning but when your story ends
Gonna last with you longer than your friend"
It slows the whole pace of the CD down as the song lingers, blurs and disappears ending a fantastic CD. So much time has flown between now and the last albumn. I mean I bought the last one on tape and listened to it in a Walkman frantically rewinding and changing sides....
As we grow old U2 reminds us that we can capture youth at any point of our lives.
