U2 are at their most evocative and effective when creating music in the tension between the anthemic and the atmospheric and lyrics in the tension between affirmations and asymmetries. This is the ground that they occupy with No Line On The Horizon and, as a result, the album is a return to form after the lacklustre How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb and one which stands alongside their best work.
No Line On The Horizon has the rhythms and feel of Pop but with melodies that put that rather underappreciated record well and truly in the shade. Bono has commented that with this album the band got polyrhythmic, electronic sounds "without losing the thing that a band can do when it is playing live" and that that was what they didn't manage to do on Pop.
Daniel Lanois has said that Bono began work on the album talking of writing future hymns. This intent is most clearly apparent on 'Magnificent' which draws on the Magnificat in creating a worship song which could be sung in church and is guaranteed to become a standard feature of future U2charists.
'Magnificent', though, is only the most overt example of the themes of "surrender and devotion" which run throughout the album. The centrepiece for these themes is 'Moment of Surrender', a beautifully evocative meditation on the way in which the most profound experiences are all embracing for the participant and invisible to those outside of the moment:
"At the moment of surrender
I folded to my knees
I did not notice the passers-by
And they did not notice me."
This all gives the impression of the 'earnest' U2 of their more declamatory albums but that would be to mislead. When creating in the tensions noted above Bono's aphoristic lyrics are often pertinent, self-mocking and witty:
"Stand up to rock stars, Napoleon is in high heels
Josephine, be careful of small men with big ideas."
Occasionally, though, the quality control monitor is switched off and the "mole living in a hole" moment on this album duly arrives with the faux IT-speak of 'Unknown Caller'. As a result, No Line On The Horizon does not quite sustain the consistency of The Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby but manages to come pretty damn close.
The band that sung "Is love like a tightrope" on Boy are still standing up for love by walking the wire "stretched in between our two towers ... in this dizzy world." I, for one, hope they don't come down any time soon.
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U2 - Moment of Surrender.
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