U2 - "No Line on the Horizon" (Interscope)

It's sometimes difficult to critique a band as accomplished and as influential as U2. And it must be equally as challenging to be a band of that stature and continue to create music as stimulating as your earliest works. On their 12th studio album, No Line On The Horizon, U2 has yet again crafted an album that is expansive, and at the same time attentive to that familiar U2 spirit.

No Line On The Horizon is immediate. It doesn't take very long to realize that U2 has done it yet again. Backed with the dream team of producers that includes Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Steve Lillywhite, No Line On The Horizon exceeds expectations and turns out soon to be classics. Songs like "I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight" and "Magnificent" will certainly find their place in the epic U2 catalogue of hits. And for a band that knows the formula so well, they continue to be on the innovative front.

Influence for No Line On The Horizon certainly was impacted by travels around the globe. The band recorded in New York, London and even Morocco which becomes evident after listening to the atmospheric "Fez – Being Born". And while his work around the globe often takes headlines, credit Bono with drawing a line between the activist and the rock star. As he states boldly on "Get On Your Boots", the albums first single "...I don't want to talk about wars between nations, not right now...".

Whether it's opening the Grammys or five nights in a row on "Letterman", there are few bands that can match the promotional blitz with an album as engaging; U2 is one of the few.

Written by Mike Vasilikos

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