Word: enos
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...Tyrangiel for his incisive, honest and, above all, brave review of their new album, No Line on the Horizon. I've listened to an advance copy about 30 times, and it's a poor, disjointed, unmusical record with a few listenable songs. The only good ones sound like Brian Eno tunes with guest appearances by U2. The other publications to which I subscribe have written reviews that left me wondering if the critics were listening to a different record. (To Rolling Stone, the album is a "5-star masterpiece"; to ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY, an "A-"; and to the New York Times...
...solid rock cuts but no instant classics or spiritual transcendence.The five-year buildup to “No Line” has been long and labored, including terminated sessions with Rick Rubin at Abbey Road Studios, an extended visit to Morocco, and the enlistment of longtime collaborators Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois as not only producers, but fellow songwriters. What makes this album so disappointing is that the past half-decade has ultimately yielded a cohesive and dense group of songs, but not an exciting record.The churning title track opens the album with a catchy, upbeat riff over a wash...
...sound doesn't provide much refuge. Work on No Line on the Horizon began in 2007, when the band decamped to Morocco with Brian Eno and Danny Lanois, the men who oversaw U2's 1980s transformation from anthem singers to makers of textured, daring rock. As a hedge, the band also paid visits to Dublin and London to check in with Steve Lillywhite, who helped U2 crank out some of its muscular early and recent hits. (Most bands would have to take out a second mortgage to cover the per diem for just one of these producers...
...feel. On a few tracks, the Edge, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. and bassist Adam Clayton sound at home rumbling through the verses and blowing out the choruses in the old familiar way. But as No Line trudges on, it slumps under the weight of its own need to surprise. Eno invented the bleeps and whirs that are mixed into the background of so many rock albums, and used as seasoning, his effects still have the power to create mystery. (On the title track, it sounds as if Bono is duetting with a quasar - very cool.) The problem is that...
...pleasantly stripped of their supercilious phrases (well, for the most part - one critic sounds like a high school student thumbing through a thesaurus when he deems the 1983 hit "Relax" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood "Fellini-esque") and its tributes to popular songs are exquisite. The review of Brian Eno's "1/1," tells how the bedridden singer's inability to reach the volume knob on his stereo led to the creation of an entire genre of "ambient music," and provides eager but inexpert music fans with a greater understanding of pop music's evolution. But the problem with the book...