Azzurri

Fan of the Last Broadcast but never got any of their other stuff. I do enjoy that album but I was always worried that it would be more of the same but not as good. Looks like I was wrong (this one time).

 

God loves.

i think they've gotten better with each album. Some Cities is so underrated. i think it's clearly their best stuff. for example, i'd put the song Snowden against anything on Last Broadcast. that's one of their classics.

OK ready, set - leak!!

i would say a leak is imminent...probably within a few days. i think journalists finally have copies now and reviews are popping up

i heard it through a link on stereogum.com but don't know if it's still active or not. it's a cool song. the version on the album will be much better though, more expansive and dense sonically.

i actually think this record has the potential to be pretty great. i've heard preview clips of each song and it sounds impressive. if you are a fan of the band, i don't see how you could be disspointed. what other band with their longevity is even attempting to make fresh music?

here's a review for Ireland's Hot Press....

Hot Press

U2 No Line on the Horizon ****

Keep On Moroccan in the Free World

It's a testament to the band's staying power that a U2 album is still a global news event - as opposed to, say a Rolling Stones record, which everybody knows is just an excuse to got out on another Greatest Hits tour.

As Bono told Hot Press a couple of years ago, it's the young guns like Franz Ferdinand and The Killers (not to mention Kings of Leon and Fleet Foxes) that they're competing with, rather than dadrockers whose best work is a good 20 or 30 years behind them. Which isn't to suggest that they've fallen into the trap of being middle-aged family men trying - and failing horribly - to sound like they're down with the kids. Far from it.

No Line On The Horizon is a mature, tender, reflective record of great musical variety, depth and beauty that could only have been made by four people who've experienced just about everything that life can throw at you.

Anyone judging the album by 'Get On Your Boots', a big funky beast of a song, with Bono hitting notes that a 48-year-old has no right to, will have forgotten how U2 like to tease with their lead singles. The collection's only other ball-busting, out and out rocker is the title-track, which lives up to the 'Buzzcocks meets Bow Wow Wow' billing it's been given by its author, who mizes metaphysics with mischief-making as he recounts: 'She said, 'Time is irrelevant, it's not linear/Then she put her tongue in my ear'.

If that line's playfully throwaway, on the rest of No Line On The Horizon Bono is as lyrically dexterous as he's ever been.

'From the womb my first cry, it was a joyful noise ... only love, only love can leave such a mark', he proclaims on the aptly-titled 'Magnificent', an eclectic mix - inspired by Johann Sebastian Bach's The Magnificat, no less - of mournful Roy Orbison guitar, Killers-style synth stabs (this musical magpie lark works both ways, Brandon!) and anthemic flourishes which recall the likes of 'New Year's Day' and 'Pride'.

You're still digesting all of that when up pops 'Moment of Surrender', a gospel-flavoured seven-minute epic that rides in on an orchestral wave, and includes such evocative cinematic couplets as: 'I was speeding on the subway/Through the stations of the cross/Every eye looking every other way/Counting down 'til the pain would stop'. If U2 were trying to conjure the same spiritual vibe as Marvin Gaye's 'Abraham, Martin, John' they've succeeded. 'Moment Of Surrender' is a big, sweeping track in the vein of 'With Or Without You' that's certain to become a U2 classic.

The first reminder that Fez, in Morocco, was the birthplace for much of the album - and that Brian Eno was among the midwives - is provided by the birdsong and looped Arab percussion at the beginning of 'Unknown Caller', which also finds Bono giving his falsetto another impressive work out.

Things get even more experimental on 'Fez - Being Born', a wonderfully intriguing song of two halves that starts with disembodied voices, FM static and other ambient weirdness before giving way to Edge's trademark chiming guitar. Unconventional, but it works.

Listeners looking for autobiographical insight, meanwhile, should proceed immediately to the Will.i.am and string section-assisted 'I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight', a real grower which features such revelatory lines as 'There's a part of me in the chaos that's quiet/And there's a part of you that wants me to riot'.

You also get the strong suspicion that Bono's talking about himself on 'Stand Up Comedy', another dirty white funk workout on which he declares: 'I can stand up for hope, faith, love/Josephine, be careful of small men with big ideas/Stand up to rock stars, Napoleon is in high heels'. Find me a Chris Martin line that self-deprecating and I'll buy you a pint.

U2 revisit Rattle And Hum 'Van Diemen's Land' with the sparse 'White As Snow', a track written for Jim Sheridan's Afghanistan war movie Brothers. Both lyrically and musically it trays into the same territory as Springsteen's The Ghost Of Tom Joad, with an extra twist of Leonard Cohen for good measure.

Eno has decided that the penultimate track, 'Breathe', is 'the best U2 song ever'. While that assessment is perhaps a little over the top, the Beatles-esque track is a genuine standout with Bono evoking the spirit of St John Devine and unnamed ju-ju men, as a hyperactive cello and Larry's tom-toms fight it out in the background.

If ever there was a song for the times, it's the closing 'Cedars of Lebanon', a beautiful half-spoken ballad in which Bono narrates from the point of view of a weary war correspondent - the thing is that you just know that there's a lot of the U2 frontman in there too.

'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 friends', he pronounces, before the song does the musical equivalent of The Sopranos' last scene and comes to an abrupt halt, ending the record on a suitably low key and yet indisputably high note.

32 years in, and the buggers are still worth every column inch that No Line On The Horizon's going to garner them. To say that U2 fans will love it is a gross understatement. NLOTH is a very powerful record indeed.

Any thoughts on the title track "No Line On the Horizon" which debuted on Irish Radio a few days ago? The verses (musically) remind me of the guitar/drum breakdown before the big guitar solo on "The Fly" -- definitely feels like they are on to something less like the last two records...i.e. standard/verse-chorus-verse. The first two songs we've heard haven't really had choruses.

it's not the title track...it's the alternate version that appears as a b-side to Get On Your Boots single.

no i just hate how he feels a need to sound like a crooner and whisper everything, even on rock songs. it's not that he doesn't still have a great voice, he does, it's just how he uses it currently that bugs me.

fair enough. we'll see how it turns out. i am sure pitchfork already has it's 4.9 rating penciled in, even before hearing it.

i dig the croon though...he uses it on one of my all time favorite u2 songs - So Cruel. that's an amazing track.

i think the previews are very promising. and his voice sounds pretty good to me...after all, he's almost 50 years old. he's not going to sound like 1985 - Pride in the Name of Love - Bono.

anyway, i'd take his voice any day over some of these yelpy, whiny voices of the pitchfork endorsed indie bands.

1. All the King's Men - Robert Penn Warren

2. The Sound and the Fury - William Faulkner

3. Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck

4. The Brothers Karamazov - Fydor Dostoevsky

5. The Road - Cormac McCarthy

hear the first single (the title track)!!!!!!

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/zanelowe/

 

fast forward to 31:05

 

it's fucking BRILLIANT

it certainly is...must have listened to it like 10 times already.

i just heard the single, Kingdom of Rust, on BBC 1 Radio....

an amazing, beautiful song. I know I'll have to listen several times to really rank it, but first impression is that it is one of their best ever. I can't wait to hear CD quality.

i am sure they'll be mp3's floating around before too long.

http://www.doves.net/

you can download the album opener, "Jetstream," from their new website.

Just got this email from Doves - I can't wait for this. I loved the last one, Some Cities. Anybody else a fan?

"Hello

Just wanted to start by letting you all know we've finally finished our new album & after a week of compiling the track order & other details I can confirm we're all made up with it, we reckon its our most diverse record yet. Looking forward to it being out there for people to listen to(will be released sometime in April)

We're also looking forward to being released from our doves bunker & to being fully integrated back into society & playing live again. Lots of gigs are being planned for 2009,just the u.k & the u.s at the moment, but we are hoping to go further a field too. Also, keep your eyes peeled for our new website over the next couple of weeks.

As always thanks for you're patience & support ,

We will be seeing you soon

Doves"

i think the lyrics are really good...certainly more abstract this time around, with some cool imagery.

no way this is the best song on the album. i've heard the so called "beach clips" and the songs Magnificent and Unknown Caller are amazing even with the poor audio quality.

http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/down...ur-boots-stream

...interesting, even those pitchfork geeks like it.

it's decent. at first, it sounds like another Vertigo rehash but there's much more going on here. it's the obvious choice for a single...most of the songs on the album are 5 plus minutes in length.

"All night I lay on my pillow and pray

For my boss to stop me in the hallway

Lay my head on his shoulder and say

Son, I've been hearing good things"

"I won't fuck us over, I'm Mr. November

I'm Mr. November, I won't fuck us over"

sucks we have to wait at least another year for a new album.

The video for that song is floating around YouTube. While I'm not a big fan of Christmas songs, I have to say it's nice to hear Bono sing something I haven't heard him sing before, and I like that the song wasn't overdone. I'm curious about this album--I have high hopes for it based on what I've read, but it could also be the album that makes me give up on U2 for good.

 

All of my favorite artists except for Carla Bozulich are either in the studio or have announced releases for the coming months. 2009 is shaping up to be a good year for music

yeah, i've heard the Christmas song, but the link i posted is for a song off the new album. i like the minimalist style of guitar playing on the Christmas song. however, bono's vocals, at least in the beginning, could have been better.

http://media.u2.com/flash/highlights/FatherBrianEnoDrums.swf

although you can just barely hear the song in the background, pretty cool drumming...

i have a feeling it's going to be a very different and potentially great record, especially with Eno and Lanois' songwriting input. Edge confirmed that one song is over 7 and half minutes long.

i am a big fan of Andrew Bird and will buy the album when it comes out...in the meantime, can anyone help me out with a PM? It would be much appreciated. Thanks

i don't know if it's playing in many places, but the movie Slumdog Millionaire is pretty great. I think it's one of the best movies I've seen in 2008, and i wouldn't be surprised if it gets an Oscar nomination.

Good to hear - I haven't read any of Lehane's stuff, but it certainly translates well to the screen (plus he wrote some great episodes of The Wire) - I read an interview where he said the nugget that got him writing about that era was post-WW/molasses disaster and realizing people must have been thinking the world was ending, and to extend the point, people must always be thinking their era is when the world will end.

if you do get the time to read Lehane, i would certainly recommend The Given Day. but to fully appreciate his development as an author, you may want to start with his earlier works. his best after The Given Day is clearly Mystic River, followed by Shutter Island (mind twisting mystery that is soon to be a Scorcese movie).

redpillbox, hope you love The Brothers K as much as I did (do). It continues to live in my head.

Brothers K became, rather unexpectedly (I am not a huge baseball fan), one of my favorite books of all time...you can't help but fall in love with the family.

while i will reserve final judgment until i hear the proper studio versions, at least two of the clips sound like potential classics (i am talking clips 1 and 4 for those who have listened).

clip 1 has an unconventional chorus sung by what sounds like three or four people (probably Eno and Lanois joining Bono and Edge) and ends with a beautiful 2 minute guitar solo

clip 4 has a majestic, Unforgettable Fire feel to it...nice atmosphere and a really cool guitar sound. definitely a darker, meloncholy feel to this one, at least more so than what was on the last two albums.

is there any band out there in which someone says, "man, their new stuff is so much better than the old albums..."? i can think of one band that gets better - Radiohead. In Rainbows is amazing -right up there with OK Computer. I am hoping the new U2 will be a return to glory. i've heard some clips on youtube and it sounds promising, but the audio quality is pretty poor (recorded outside Bono's villa in France)

i haven't heard all of the Portishead album, but the few that i've heard are good - somewhat of a departure from their distinctive sound.

i am a die hard fan of the Italian national team, and i have to say that Spain deserved it. Italy played very well defensively, but did little else...we were inconsistent throughout the tournament, and there was never any team chemistry. the absence of Cannavaro and Pirlo was huge. congrats to Spain...beware of Russia though. this is a different team than the one that lost 4-1. they are peaking at the right time.

i agree that there was a lot of diving today, but Spain is equally guilty. i've been playing soccer my whole life, and it's my favorite sport, but this is what bothers me the most. they are the biggest pussies sometimes, and, yes, Toni is the biggest one of them all.

i generally do not like Coldplay and thought X&Y was terrible, but this new one isn't bad at all. thanks in large part to Brian Eno. i like how they veered away from standard song structures, and the lyrics are a bit better this time. I hope Eno can do a good rehab job on U2's sound for the new album.

the most powerful and moving novel i've read in years. in my view, it's a modern classic. but all of his books are well worth reading.

i am looking forward to the film version coming out in November with Viggo Mortensen as the father. it's by the dude who directed The Proposition, a great Australian western.