Opposites - Review

A few truths first.

• I love Biffy Clyro.
• Double albums are usually over bloated shite.
• Getting Storm Thorgerson to do your album cover usually points to a certain type of record...  

Opposites is the final Biffy album of this particular three record arc, before they plan to strip things back for their next one, but this double album isn't the 'Snow Play' record Only Revolutions seemed to be leading them towards.  

The first three Biffy albums are a curious mesh of pounding prog metal, with very odd time signatures and dark words.  They're brilliantly different and it was a joy to discover the band just after the release of their second album.  Puzzle, their fourth record, took the best bits of those albums and tightened everything up.  It's probably my favourite album ever by anyone.  The slower stuff on Puzzle isn't emo relationship bollocks it's about Simon (lead singer and song writer)'s mother dying.  There's an honesty on Puzzle and live the songs just soar.  Only Revolutions has some great songs on it that live are the equal of anything on Puzzle but on record the whole thing (with the exception of Mountains and Bubbles) lacks something.  I've never really been able to put my finger on it, I still really like it, but it's not a patch on its predecessor.  I think probably it's less aggressive.

Which brings us to Biffy's sixth studio album.  The double.  

I was worried.  A concept album, that cover (beautiful as it is) and the thought that my favourite band might be slowly becoming Cold Play.

I was being a dick.

Opposites has allowed the band, over the twenty two songs to go back to being quirky.  Thank fuck.  So as well as the rock songs there's a mariachi band, a massive church organ, bag pipes and what sounds like a choir.  There's even room for Clint Mansell from Pop Will Eat Itself.  The concept album thing always sounded a bit odd.  The first half is darker for sure but as an album, sonically, it feels like one coherent piece.  Guitars sound urgent again, particularly on the heavier Modern Magic Formula, The Jokes on Us and the brilliantly titled A Girl and His Cat.  It's tracks like this that bear repeated listens, these have Biffy's signature scrawled all over them.  There's plenty here for the Only Revolutions crowd too though:  The Fog, Biblical and Victory Over the Sun could have been ripped from Revolutions, if it had been better.  The latter in particular keeps the urgent guitar sound with a great riff and crowd pleasing chorus. Personal favourite so far is probably Spanish Radio with the previously mentioned mariachi band.  Has to be a single surely.  Genius.

Is there a Many of Horror?  Yes and no I guess.  There's nothing as obvious I suppose.  The song Opposites is all kinds of lovely, but more grown up than Horror.  There's nothing here that's gonna end up on X-Factor.  *Throws street party*

Simon Neil has a way of making everything sound genuine and from the heart.  Even a line like ''is it trumpet or tap?" sounds earnest and full of meaning.  Your guess is as good as mine at what that meaning might be but that's always been the case with Biffy.  Are you cool as a porcupine?  Exactly.

I know it's ridiculous, but they've been (along with the Foos) my band since I first heard Questions and Answers ten years ago.  I know it's stupid to feel so proud of them, but fuck it, I do.  They did this the old school way, gigging and gigging and gigging.  Building up a fan base, an incredibly loyal fan base.    Opposites is a great album when it would have been so easy to have released another radio friendly Revolutions and rested on their laurels.  Instead we get a quirky rock album, a little softer than Puzzle, with some obvious Americanisms, not a criticism (see Pocket), that delivers on the promise of those awkward but brilliant first three albums.  This is where Biffy were supposed to end up.

The light leaves me terrified, I hate it when the darkness dies

Oh just go and fucking buy it.
★★★★★
(A not in the least bit bias review.  Get fucked stud.)

Revolutions: Live at Wembley - Review

The 4th December was a pretty special day.  Biffy Clyro's biggest gig to date at Wembley Arena and we were there.  The gig was amazing and now Biffy have released a recording of the concert as a an album with a DVD included.

It's been beautifully done, so many live albums don't do the band or the concert justice, but Revolutions gets things right by including as much crowd noise as possible without spoiling the music.  On the quieter songs like Machines or Many of Horror you can hear the crowd bellowing along to every word.  It's that noise that I go to big gigs for.  As much as I love live music there's something about the almost tribal singing of a big group of people that makes every hair stand on end.  I love that noise.  Here it's everywhere.

There's some disappointment that it's not the whole gig: nineteen of the twenty five songs played are included and Just Boy and Joy.Discovery.Invention are missed.  It's a bit of a Greatest Hits, with added backing vocals, and if you don't own any Biffy this is a pretty good introduction.  All of the more familiar stuff is here and once again it's a reminder of how much better the songs from Only Revolutions sound live, Bubbles in particular is just a different song.  More energy, less Snow Patrol leanings, louder guitars, perfect.

It's the DVD that brings things to another level.  Not the imagery to be honest, that's pretty much standard live gig that's been filmed fodder, but it was recorded in 5.1 and fuck me does it sound impressive on a surround sound.  It's a shame it's not available as a BluRay, but from the quality of the pictures it doesn't look like it was filmed in anything but standard def.  Pity.

Highlights are much the same as they were at the gig.  Many of Horror is reclaimed from X-Factor, Folding Stars is incredibly beautiful and Machines is about as perfect as a song can be.  Mountains?  Well Mountains just roars.
★★★★★

And on a personal note....

I adored the Foo's a few weeks back at Isle of Wight but this is a reminder that last December at Wembley I sang/shouted/screamed along to Biffy through all the glitter and the trauma at the end of last year loving every cathartic mother fucking second.   When they played All The Way Down that night it was the perfect moment.  Perfect lyrics to a fucked up situation that seven months later I'm well past and well out of.  It's good to be able to go back to Revolutions with fresh ears and just remember why I fucking fell for Biffy in the first place without all that shit dragging with it.  That before they were your band they were mine.  Wondrous noise.  Glorious quiet.  All the Way Down.  


'And I'll try not to think what the happy things were.'

Wasting Light - Foo Fighters - Review

The last two Foo's albums have been ok.  Cracking singles but for the most part the album tracks that never see the light of day, either as a single or at a live gig, have been a disappointment.  In Your Honour was too long, the acoustic second half should have had a separate release and the last album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace despite containing the monstrous The Pretender was largely pretty average.  So Wasting Light needed to be special.

So is it?

Well... it's not far off...

It opens with Rope which you've probably heard with it's thudding riff and chiming guitar.  It's a solid enough start, lets face it the Foo's have a template and their not deviating from it much on Wasting Light but Rope has all the classic signature stuff for their album opener including the singalong muthafucker of a chorus.  Where it gets more interesting is towards the end of the song when it all goes a bit crazy.  That might be Pat Smear being back as a full time member, maybe it's just Grohl letting the band be a band, but it feels a tad more free.

Dear Rosemary might be the best Foo's song for three albums.  Bob Mould's presence is a big factor, his voice sitting behind Grohl's on the chorus and it's good to hear that him inside a great song again.  Makes you miss those Copper Blue days.  Yes it's another anthem but the words are pretty potent for a Foo's track and live it's gonna kick like a mule.

White Limo sounds like it's been lifted from a Queens of the Stone Age album.  Distorted vocal, dirty and fast.  Good.  It's like the harder stuff on The Colour and the Shape and although newer fans will hate it it's a relief to hear that Grohl still loves making music like this.

The one that's gonna get the festival crowds on their feet is Arlandria.  The chorus is to die for, an angry break up record and a great rock tune.

What Wasting Light doesn't do is waste a second of the fat it's two predecessors were guilty of and it's so much better for it.  It's still the Foo's, Burning Bridges and These Days are about as by numbers as they get, but there's more bite here than on the last record.

In short this feels like a throw back to those early Foo records.  The ones that felt like they mattered.  A little harder, a little less obsessed with playing it straight and more focused on sounding tight and full of life.

If you like your Foo's a bit softer you've been catered for too.  I Should Have Known is their most beautiful song since Everlong.  A lament to lost friends that's inevitably going to be linked to Cobain but is apparently about the more recent loss of Jimmy Swanson one of Grohl's best friends.  Krist Novoseleic is on the track playing accordion, beautifully I might add, and with Grohl's voice faltering it's going to interesting to see how big this becomes among the faithful.  Swanson was a school friend, a Foo's roadie and died of a drugs overdose three years ago.   'I can not forgive you yet,' goes the chorus.  It's as powerful and direct as Grohl has ever been, the song's more emotionally charged as anything he's ever sung.

Wasting Light isn't going to convert anyone.  It's a Foo's album.  But it's better than the last two.

★ ★ ★ ★ 

Elbow - Build a Rocket Boys! - Review

It's a been out a little while now, but to say Elbow's fifth album has infected my listening habits over the last month or so would be to downplay its significance.

From the opening of The Birds it's clear Guy Garvey and co aren't resting on their laurels and the success of 2008's Seldom Seen Kid.  There's more innovation here than we've previously had, but it's all still built around beautifully crafted tunes and Garvey's voice.

Elbow are the Coldplay it's ok to like.  Maybe it's about being northern.  Maybe it's just they're better at making music you can genuinely connect to.  The song writing is on another level though and the quite wonderfully simple Lippy Kids, which yes, I may have mentioned a few times, stands as one of the great songs of this or any decade.

But there are other highlights too.  Neat Little Rows, with its references to cobble stones and the chiming, almost thumping chorus is another example of Garvey taking you somewhere else with his words.  There's a world weariness to it all, but a knowing smile too, as if Garvey is saying, 'Yeah, I am kind of old now and a little grumpy some mornings, but, hey, the suns out, let's go kick a ball around the rec.'

High Ideals and The River are full of warmth and melancholy and that's always been Elbow's great trick, you feel sad and happy at the same time as you listen, Garvey opening a door to his life as he sings.

Open Arms is almost on a par with Lippy Kids, it's going to be an incredible live track, and you can almost hear a festival crowd singing along with Garvey as it plays, but every track as its own identity, its own sense of purpose and weight of delivery.

I can't help but wish I'd been a fly on the wall when Chris Martin sat and listened to Build a Rocket Boys! for the first time, his reaction could have only been one thing: 'Fuck.'

Everyone needs this album in their life.  It's not gonna have you dancing around the lounge, but will have you sat, lost in Elbow's world.  It's a good place to go visit.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Tyler Massey - The Ocean Within

Acoustic guitar and vox lovingly crafted by Tyler Massey.

There's a 60's vibe here at times, Tyler's voice reminds me of Lennon, particularly on 'Dollar Bill' where there's a definite Beatles feel to the vocals.  Listen to the track once and it'll be stuck in your head all day or better still iPod it, some stuff is just built for headphones.

The album opens with a short pretty burst of guitar as it's title track before 'Clarity's' gentle strumming and soft lament welcomes you properly to 'The Ocean Within'.  Beautifully understated with a genuine feel to the vocals that's a rare treat these day.

'Sirens' has a brittle, breakable feel to it that suit Tyler's voice, it reminds me of Placebo's less abrasive music, the kind of song that grows on you after repeated listens.

Although 'Dirty Little Secret Love' sounds like it's going to be similar to the previous two songs in tone the chorus is to die for.  Tyler's voice grasping for the high notes.  Emotive and clearly sung from the heart.

Stand out for me though, 'Dollar Bill' sits mid album and is followed by 'Only Me' another lovely uplifting song that you can imagine singing along to in an old English pub on a Sunday afternoon over an ale.

The album closes out with 'Supergirl' and the stunning 'Anthem' (a close second for song of the album) before finishing with Tyler's eldest, at three years old, free-styling her way through 'Left or Right'.  You get the feeling Tyler had the recording of her and him kicking around for years but needed some where to find a home for it.  Well he found the perfect place here, The Ocean Within is a great album.  Forget that this might not be by someone you've heard of, or that it was recorded on a micro budget, because you will 'forget' that when you've listened to the songs here.

Beguiling stuff from Tyler Massey, The Ocean Within is available from Band Camp for a minimum of £5.

Here's 'Dollar Bill'.  Have a listen then go buy the album.

 

★ ★ ★ ★ 

Biffy Clyro - Only Revolutions Review

Album five then. After all the expectation and excitement, following seeing them live two weeks ago, I guess it was always going to be hard for 'Only Revolutions' to live up to being as good as I'd hoped it would be.

Don't get me wrong I'm loving it. It's a great album, it just isn't as poky as its predecessor. 'Puzzle' felt like an album that was held together by an intangible theme where as this feels like a collection of unrelated songs. The fact that 'Mountains' is here, a song from last summer, is a testament to that, great though it is.

I've been listening to Biffy's first album a lot on the lead up to 'Only Revolutions' and what strikes me is how much more polished this album is, all of Biffy's delightful ruff edges have been smoothed out, but is that for the better? Depends on where you sit I guess.

However, despite these misgivings, it's still an album that shines above so much dross. Biffy Clyro have been given time to mature by their fanbase and a lack of overnight success. And this is their most 'mature' album thus far.

Album opener is the recent single 'The Captain' a romp of a sing-along rock song, swiftly followed by 'That Golden Rule' the stunning earlier release that really whetted our appetites for the long player. Next up is 'Bubble' that chimes along like a 'Vampire Weekend' track until it drops into a classic Biffy Clyro chorus.

You are creating all the bubbles at night

I'm chasing round trying to pop them all the time

We don't need to trust a single word they say

You are creating all the bubbles at play

Brilliant. And completely Biffy at their most weird.

'God & Satan' is destined to be a show closer, it's already superb live. Classic slow Biffy, full of angst and questioning lyrics, and a beautiful arrangement. Slow build on the bass and drums, a wonderfully crafted modern rock song. Buy the album for it alone. 'Born on a Horse' is probably the most experimental track all weird pulsing bass sound and lyrics about Simon's girlfriend being a horse... honest. Good song though rescued from not being great by suddenly breaking into an old school monstrous guitar solo towards the end. 'Mountains' follows, and if you don't like 'Mountains', well to be honest, your probably not reading this.

'Shock Shock' is one of the three genuinely harder edged new tracks, but just feels like a bit of a pacifier, maybe a bit 'filler'. There's the customary bit of Biffy swearing, but it's very Idlewild in sound. Idlewild before they lost their edge and went all 'Snow Patrol' and crap on us. There's still that glimmer of Biffy towards the end when what sounds like a trumpet suddenly chimes in out of no where with seconds to spare.

'Many of Horror' is the best track here. A sequel of sorts to 'Machines' from 'Puzzle'. A gorgeous love song full of ache and sadness.

I'll take a bruise, i know you're worth it

When you hit me, hit me hard.

Essential Biffy Clyro, and the song stands out as the one that must be released next as a single. This would get played to death on the radio, when the strings come in at the end you wanna hear it again, immediately.

'Boooom, Blast Ruin' is the second of the newer heavier tracks, although I still miss Simon screaming, it's another cracking song but of all the tracks it's probably the most likely to get over looked by the fans and the noobs alike. Which is a pity because after scraping beneath the sheen, there is a great anthem here.

Of the heavier tracks 'Cloud of Stink' is my favourite. This sounds more like the quiet/loud Biffy of a few albums back and it races along at a proper pace and we get the closest we come to a wail from Simon.

'Know Your Quarry' is another slower track, that does that classic Biffy build and build thing until the hairs are tingling and you're singing along on your first listen. Awesome song.

Closer 'Whorses' is driven by a drum track and an uplifting lyric. The song gets more and more hectic as it goes on until it drops into an almost choir like refrain and then explodes for its final burst and ends in a squall of feedback.

So it's good then?

Yes it is. Very. But it's not as good as 'Puzzle'. It just lacks the same coherence of their previous release and there's a step back from trying to burst eardrums and terrify the neighbours into a vaguely worrying mainstream vein. There was something serious about 'Puzzle', a statement of intent that 'Only Revolutions' lacks. There's a couple of tracks that don't sound as essential as they might and there's none of that wrestling with a song to find the tune and miss steps of timing that have made Biffy such a cult band.

If your a fan of Biffy, you'll love it, but wish they sounded like they do live on record. If you're new to Biffy, buy 'Puzzle' and then buy this.

****
Rip: Many of Horror, God & Satan, That Golden Rule, Know Your Quarry.

Cross Blogination #4 Tool - Ænima

When I put this album onto i-Tunes it knew that it was metal and I knew a bit about Tool, roughly the same amount as i-Tunes...

This is a band I should have been listening to for years. I loved it because it was the opposite of what I expected. I was waiting for the blur of industrial rock and impenetrable wailing.

What I got instead was something unusual, cerebral even. I had no idea Tool made albums like this. This is crafted metal. Dark dense and intoxicating. Sure in parts it's heavy, really heavy but then I've never been afraid of a track that pounds the senses, there just has to be melody somewhere even if you have to work at the song to find it. And there is melody here, in spades.

Take a song like 'Forty-Six and Two' as an example. Over six minutes long and full of spiralling guitars and that quiet loud aesthetic that I love. The vocals from Maynard James Keenan are buried deep down in the song at times, barely a whisper. But when he cuts loose, man can this guys rock a chorus.

And there's humour here, self depreciating and vital. Check out 'Hooker with a penis'. It sounds like it should be on a Goldie Looking Chain album from the title but it's a rebuke to a fan for accusing the band of selling out. And it's brilliantly written. 'Point that f***ing finger up your ass.' Class. The 'F*** you, buddy,' refrain at the end of the song is just so full of contempt for the idiot that dared to criticise.

I've got into this thing of sitting up close to my PC speakers, which aren't bad, and turning my music up loud while I write or tweet and I've done this three times with the Tool album. The bass makes my monitor shake. In particular 'Die Eire Von Satan' which is sung completely in German makes the whole desk rattle. I'm very tempted to type the translated lyrics out in full here for that track but the context from the sound of the song to the words would be lost. So I'll leave you to investigate that yourselves. (Consider it homework.)

I did a bit of research after listening to the album and discovered that the whole thing is a tribute to Bill Hicks one of my favourite comedians who died in 1994. That kind of made it even more special a discovery. There's a small snippet of Hicks just before the final track which is the stunning thirteen minute long 'Third Eye'.

Thudding bass. Check. Thumping drums. Check. Some screeching. Check. This is the art of noise. Brilliant. Oh and there's a bit that sounds like a fly but is actually an ion... honest. It will freak you out.

Go listen to this. I dare you.

5/5 (and I don't give them out lightly.)

Now go to Paul's (@formulaic666) blog to see what he has to say about one of his favourite albums. Go. Go now! GO HERE!

Next week my attempt to 'mess' with Paul's head.

Cross Blogination #3 Miles Davis - Kind of Blue

This week Paul and I are stepping well out of our comfort zone with a genre neither of us are 'fans' of. Jazz. The album was suggested by @butterflygrrrl (LJ) who is a massive Miles Davis fan.

Firstly let me say that I can appreciate the beauty and the technical brilliance of Miles Davis' trumpet playing. The album is considered his greatest and it does ooze class from every note. The man is a complete legend.

I'm taken to some smoky café by the music, where I'm sipping on a warming black coffee on a cold day and possibly reading a book, but is that really where I want to be?

Honestly and apologies to LJ, no, probably not.

It just isn't my cup of tea. It's the sort of music I would love seeing played live to see how it's being created but to sit and listen to on your own? Nah. It's great background music, but to be honest I don't really do background music, I like to live inside a song and I can't seem to do that with Kind of Blue because I can't connect to it.

It's not that I don't like this album, I can see why it's so popular, it's the best Jazz I've ever heard and the five lengthy tracks here do all sound gorgeously luxurious. The album was recorded in 1959 over the course of two days yet it sounds as though months of work have gone in to each track, every note so perfectly placed. I can not deny that there is a mournfulness to all the tracks that I like. However it doesn't move me in the same way that I'm moved by say a great singer, a great riff or a delicate acoustic number.

So now I'm sat here, typing, wondering why that is. What is it about this music that doesn't touch me? Why can't I connect to it? It's an album that is in every top 100 list as being one of the greats but why wouldn't it be on mine?

I think there's an element of it just not being 'music that I grew up with' so it's not part of my personal 'life soundtrack'. Ok, so it takes me to a smoky café (probably in France...) but that's not somewhere I've actually been. But there is a decision to be made here. Will it become part of my life soundtrack? Will my ears prick up when I inadvertently walk into somewhere (a smoky café?) and hear 'Kind of Blue' playing because I've been listening to it loads when I'm at home? Probably not.

If you like Jazz and don't have this album then you should own it but my guess is that you already do. The 50th Anniversary edition has lots of alternate versions of the songs but I stuck with the original five tracks for this review but if you are a fan I imagine you'd love it. Me, not so much.

2/5 (If you are me.)
5/5 (If you love the Jazz.)

Nice.

Now go see what Paul thought at Blog on the Motorway for the Cross Blogination.

Cross Blogination #2 Rival School - United by Fate

So this week I got to choose one of my favourite albums for Paul (formulaic666) and I to review. As a band, Rival Schools burnt brightly for one album then disbanded and a much muted second album never materialised in the shops. They have recently reformed and been touring, it'll be interesting to see if they capture the magic of their début from 2001.

Cross Blogination #1 Clutch - Blast Tyrant

I'd never heard of 'Clutch' so when Paul (@formulaic666) suggested them as our first 'Cross Blogination Band' I was a bit, 'errrr... ok then.'  But actually if this is gonna work that's how it needs to be.  I'm guessing that plenty of you won't of heard of them either.  If you've come here first, because I know you out there in the real world, I doubt it.  Certainly none of you have ever mentioned them to me.  I'm guessing if you know Paul he's gonna have made sure you know all about Clutch.

So how to describe Clutch.  'Fricking good,' would be a start.

Seriously Paul, thanks, this is a great album, I shall be getting my hands on more Clutch albums.

When I was a student I shared a house with a couple of interesting characters one of whom we shall call Jason (his name was Jason) and he was very into his 'metal'.  Wore a lot of black leather and that.  Jason, if you're out there, you would adore Clutch.

I did a bit of reading up on the band before I got hold of the album and they were described an American 'Stoner Rock Band', which for me conjures up the sound of Dinosaur Jr etc. But for me Clutch are way more funky than that.  Most songs have a driving groove to them, you can easily imagine bouncing along to them in a small, dark, sweaty club, beer in one hand fag in the other.  Neil Fallon has one of those classic 'rock' voices, gravel and soul and you can not help but slip into that mild head banging motion to the throbbing guitars.

Lyrically it's pretty dark in places, in others there's an underlying humour that I really like.

Best songs for me on the album are 'Subtle Hustle', all pounding sexy groove with heavy guitars and 'Ghost', which is a slower more thoughtful track.  I do like a bit of quiet/loud in my rock and this has it in abundance with some great old school guitar playing.  Good stuff.

It's riff city here, each song sounding low slung and vaguely dirty.  Which, obviously I also really like.

It's an album that sounds very American, you just wouldn't get a British band making stuff like this.  I guess that's partly the joy of living in a country where a more niche sound can find a decent enough sized market to support it.

I can highly recommend it for a journey to, I imagine it's a great driving album, but I made good use of it on my boat trip on Friday.  The old dear next to me probably thought I was one of the cleaner cut guys on the boat, little did she know what my i-Pod was feeding into my ears.

Clutch guys.  Check them out as long as you don't mind your rock heavy.  And even if that's not your bag get hold of (download) 'Ghost', it's a great tune, I promise.

4/5

And of course that would usually have been the end of my review but now you need to go read the other half from the man who helped make all this possible.

GO ON NOW!  GO HERE!

We hope you enjoy out Cross Blogination, let us know what you think.

Oh and read the post preceding it on Paul's Blog about Patrick Swayze.  Sums up a lot of our feelings on a sad day.

Two weeks time and I get to turn the tables on Paul.

Biffy Clyro - That Golden Rule (EP) Review

'Time Jazz confronts us all,' apparently. You gotta love the Biff.

Four new tracks then although 'That Golden Rule' has been available to listen to for about a month. It's a great song though. Overblown dynamic rock spelt RAWK with hands held aloft making the devil sign. I imagine. Classic Biffy in some ways but it could easily of sat on last album 'Puzzle'.

Journal for Plague Lovers - Review

The Manic Street Preachers are back with this their ninth studio album.  That it's reminiscent of their third album 'The Holy Bible' is a reflection of where the songs have come from.  All the lyrics were handed over to Nicky Wire by Richey Edwards shortly before he disappeared on the 1st of February 2005.

The songs are just as dense as they were on their '94 album with the nagging concern that James Dean Bradfield is struggling to fit all the words into the songs.  And yet it works.  This is the sound of a band putting their Richey demons to bed.  From the opening crunch of 'Peeled Apples' it's an album that doesn't let go.  Full of bludgeoning riffs, but also quieter more thoughtful pieces it's their best album since 'Everything Must Go'.  

Stand out Tracks 'Jackie Collins Existential Question', 'All is Vanity', and 'Williams Last Words' are up there with the best that the Manics have produced.

The album has a distinctly lo-fi feel to it, but this helps to make it sound all the more raw.

This could have been such a let down, but the band obviously revere the source material and have done all they can to produce an album that does Edwards words justice.

4/5

No Line On The Horizon - Review

I've been listening to it all weekend.  Better than Achtung...? Time will tell I guess.  Best since? No doubt.  Achtung still sounds good today, the last two will fade into the memory, U2 treading water, but this is, this is different.  Bono's probably ruined U2 for millions, including the band members, with all his crusading, but this album sounds like the rest of the band went away and 'dreamt it all up again'.  It's probably the album that should have followed Zooropa.

There was a danger they'd become a bit Foo Fighters: great singles, dodgy albums and sure this has Eno and Lanois all over it writ large, but god it benefits from it.

If Eno can weave this magic on Coldplay, maybe they can come out of their current stupor.

U2 still biggest band in the world?  Well certainly no band divides opinion liken them.  If you can get past the posturing and Messiah complex then buy this.  Or download it, whatever...

★ ★ ★ ★ ★