It has been five years since U2's last album "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb", which is the longest gap between albums in the band's career. The big question here is, was it worth the wait? The short answer is yes, in this reviewers opinion it is their best since 1992's "Achtung Baby", but the album does have its flaws. The lead single, "Get on Your Boots" is the biggest flaw on the album. It is catchy, bombastic, loud, and everything else a lead single should be? Yes, but the song lacks some real memorable lyrics and a good chorus. I'm sorry but to me, "Sexy Boots/ Get on Your Boots/Yeah, is a failure of a chorus, out of the three mega producers (Steve Lilywhite, Daniel Lanais, and Brian Eno) working on this album should have told Bono to go back to the drawing board.
Speaking of Bono, we now come to the big flaw of the album, his lyrics. Now, I love U2, I have every album, every DVD, and I stick up for the man as best as I can. This time around I have to call him out a few of lyrics, like those in "Boots". Track seven on the album, "Stand up Comedy" is a terrific rock song; it has loud drums, a pounding bass line, and an epic guitar riff. However, the song is nearly done in by Bono with a few of lyrics, especially at the end of the song with the line, "Stand up/ then sit down/ for your love". The song is a great U2 stadium anthem but to include the line, "then sit down" makes no sense to me, as it is not sung anywhere else in the song, it isn't even sung meaningfully as the rest, Bono mumbles it as though he is ashamed of it.
My least favorite track on the album is "Unknown Caller". In Q magazine the band describe the story behind the song, saying it is a man who is lost, with no cell phone reception, and it is talking into his phone. While it is certainly a new concept for a song, the lyrics fall flat, the chorus is just the band shouting random things like "Password/you enter here/you are free to go". It is a song that takes itself far too seriously, if it was a bit looser, it really could be a fun song. There are two songs that I enjoy but they don't move me that greatly, "Fez/Being Born" is the first.
It is one minute of ambient music, thanks of course to Brian Eno, whose pretence is everywhere on this album, but then it turns into a mid tempo rocker. The lyrics are good, but not that good. While I didn't see eye to eye with a very large amount with the recent Time Magazine review of the album, I have to agree with that fact that the song isn't as brilliant as U2 thinks it is. The second song I am that is just ok, is "White as Snow" which is a ballad about a soldier in war. It is fine lyrically and sonically, it is just boring after the two minute mark.
Throughout the album there are lyrical missteps, but the album contains some of the best songs U2 have ever written such as, "Moment of Surrender" and "Breathe". "Moment of Surrender" is the longest tracks on the album, clocking in at 7 minutes and 20 seconds. It is a gospel sounding ballad with great lyrical imagery, brilliant guitar work from The Edge, and reminds of me of a mixture of "One" and "Still Haven't Found What I am Looking For". "Breathe" should have been the lead single from the album, it is the most lively U2 song on the record, it also happens to be the best on it. Brian Eno said in Q magazine that it is, "the best thing that have ever recorded". I wouldn't go that far, but it is one of the best things they have done this decade.
The opening track "No Line on the Horizon" is a terrific rocker. It grabs you from the moment you hit the play button, while I honestly can't say what the concept of the song is suppose to be about other than a girl "whose like the sea", it has a great chorus and it has Bono's signature "oh/ooh/Oooh's". The leads right into the rumored 2nd single, "Magnificent" is just that, magnificent. It is a rousing love song, probably written to Bono's wife Ali. The hopeful 3rd single "I'll Go Crazy, If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" is the best pop song U2 have ever written, it would be an instant number one should they ever release it as a single.
This brings us to the closing track, "Cedars of Lebanon". It is a rewrite of a Brian Eno song, "Against the Sky", which I have yet to hear. The concept of the song is about a report giving his perspective about the war. The song is honestly a spoken word track and contains the brilliant closing lines "Choose your enemies carefully because they will define you/in some ways they remind you/they aren't there in the beginning but when your story ends/going to last longer than your friends" and with that the album closes in a haunting fashion. This album isn't perfect but it is daring, creative, and different for them. There are tracks that could have been reworked or even omitted, but at the end of the day U2 are back after five long years and they are in tip-top shape, and that is a wonderful thing.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
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