Azzurri Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
solace Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Azzurri Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jcroach Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 I keep hearing people say that the Grammy performance sounded rough, but I don't hear it. I thought they were in fine form! Made me enjoy the song more than the single. I liked the imagery better than the official video too. The 30 second clips are hard to judge an album by, but I have a lot of hope for the second half of the album. Stand Up Comedy, FEZ-Being Born, White As Snow, Breathe, Cedars Of Lebanon Quote Link to post Share on other sites
John Smith Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 Five Nights with LettermanThe band will be guests on the Late Show with David Letterman on Monday March 2nd... and then again on the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Coinciding with the worldwide release of No Line on the Horizon, it's the first time a musical guest has performed an entire week on the CBS late night broadcast. Monday, March 2-Friday, March 6 (11:35 PM-12:37 AM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jakobnicholas Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 Five Nights with LettermanThe band will be guests on the Late Show with David Letterman on Monday March 2nd... and then again on the Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Coinciding with the worldwide release of No Line on the Horizon, it's the first time a musical guest has performed an entire week on the CBS late night broadcast. Monday, March 2-Friday, March 6 (11:35 PM-12:37 AM, ET/PT) on the CBS Television Network. Definitely will check that out. Most likely they'll play 5 new songs, but maybe they'll surprise us with an a classic nugget one night. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
aricandover Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 U2 - Get On Your Boots (video) wow, I really like this song, it sounds like something off of Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bigideas Posted February 12, 2009 Share Posted February 12, 2009 wow, I really like this song, it sounds like something off of Tiny Music... Songs from the Vatican Gift Shop i like that STP album. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
redpillbox Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Duck-Billed Catechist Posted February 13, 2009 Share Posted February 13, 2009 Kind of bland. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 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.How did you hear it? Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Azzurri Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
bjorn_skurj Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 Kind of bland.Yeah. I get the same feeling I get from it when my friend tells me the new Paul McCartney whatever is great and I invariably find he has misspoke. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 How is everyone hearing this song? Not GOYB. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Azzurri Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 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 PressU2 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. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 OK ready, set - leak!! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Azzurri Posted February 14, 2009 Share Posted February 14, 2009 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 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Analogman Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 Link (Spin Magazine) You've heard "Get On Your Boots," the first single from U2's forthcoming record, No Line on the Horizon. Now, listen to another new U2 track below! "No Line On The Horizon," which features digitally-manipulated guitars and Bono's crooning chorus of finding, well, "no line on the horizon," debuted yesterday on Irish radio station RT&E 2XM. It spread to the internet soon after. The track's leak marks a busy week for U2, who announced yesterday that they will be performing five consecutive nights on the Late Show with David Letterman starting March 2, the day before No Line On The Horizon is released. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 Okay, now we're getting somewhere. That's a tune. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Moss Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 That's a great track. Kind of grabs you immediately. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Sir Stewart Posted February 15, 2009 Share Posted February 15, 2009 Doesn't have that overwhelming 'big' sound that's been U2's crutch lately. I like that a lot. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Azzurri Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 This leaked. just had a listen - it's a real grower i think. much better than the last two albums. the first four songs are great. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Three dollars and 63 cents Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 I'm torn. I said I was going to hold out for the official release, but now that it's actually leaked, I don't know if I can wait another few weeks. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
jcroach Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Anyone willin' to PM me details about this here "leak"?! Quote Link to post Share on other sites
Duck-Billed Catechist Posted February 18, 2009 Share Posted February 18, 2009 Hmm. The album version of the title track is better than the B-side version. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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