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Rating: * * * *
They are U2 and they have the power to do anything. The thing is, in the last decade especially, the Irish rockers have played it safe and predictable and in the process - with the exception of Coldplay - still managed to retain the world's biggest band crown.
And taking the band's predictability a step further, across their 30-plus year career, apart from the oddball Pop (which never really worked) and the 1991 classic Achtung Baby (with The Fly a futuristic highlight), they have never ventured too far from that trademark rousing, sometimes rebellious, and majestic rock 'n' roll.
That says something about what fans expect when it comes time to release a new album - more of the same please.
And it would seem, on first impressions, not much has changed on the band's 11th studio album, No Line On The Horizon. It sounds just like U2. Phew. But don't get too comfy because delve deeper and it reveals itself as the most radical U2 album in years - perhaps ever. But not too radical, mind.
Rowdy first single Get On Your Boots has already given a few fans the jitters considering previous two albums, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004) and All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000), have been trumpeted by polished yet harmless songs like Vertigo and Beautiful Day.
Now, Bono and band hardly need a pat on the back, but No Line On The Horizon is deserving of an appreciative backslap because they've pulled on their boots and geared themselves up for a musical adventure.
Most noticeable is the lack of the Edge's trademark shimmering guitar. It comes through on I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight (a I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For for 2009) and Magnificent, the most classic U2 sounding songs on offer. Although, Magnificent starts off Fly-like and in an 80s-synth-mood before giving into classical mode.
However, whether U2 were conscious of it or not, they have a few rebellious bands to thank for this sense of adventure. Like Queens of the Stone Age, for the electric boogie woogie and melodic dirge in the chorus of Get On Your Boots, or New York weirdos TV On the Radio for the underlying, agitating din of the title track.
Elsewhere though it's pure U2. The seven minute-plus, gospel and roots-tinged Moment Of Surrender has a smoky lope and escalates subtly like Miss Sarajevo, and you half expect Pavarotti to do a cameo from the grave a la Tu Pac; and Bono, never short of something to say, is at his lyrical best with lines like "Rockets at the fun fair/Satan loves a bomb scare/But he won't scare you".
In structure No Line reminds of The Unforgettable Fire - U2's excellent 1984 album that gets overshadowed by The Joshua Tree, which came after - with a series of anthemic and catchy songs on the first half before morphing into a smouldering and mostly atmospheric final bunch of songs (with the exception of tough-talking Breathe). The best of these are the trippy and hypnotic Fez - Being Born and beautiful ballad White As Snow.
Although, unlike The Unforgettable Fire, when bonus tracks were not yet in vogue, the album is brought to an end with a funked-up and, er, zany version of No Line On The Horizon. It's an unneccesary addition to U2's best album since Achtung Baby.
- Scott Kara
No Line On The Horizon is out Monday.
