Happy Day

At the risk of sounding like a fanboy sycophant I feel I must shout from the rooftops my joy at the new U2 album No Line on the Horizon! I can't remember the last time I was more enthralled when listening to an album the first time through. Oh, wait, now I remember, it was when Achtung Baby came out!

Seriously, as most of you know, U2 is my all time greatest guilty pleasure. The rebel in me hates that I love a band that is so commercial and popular, but I just can't stop. With this album in particular my joy is complete. With How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb and All That You Can't Leave Behind I was actually starting to think that the band was settling into late-career mode. You know, the period where they all look at each other and say, "You know what? We're old. Let's just write some pretty songs and put out an album to prove we can still play our instruments." However, it is my great pleasure to announce that this seems NOT to be the case with U2. As they have done over and over in the past they have reinvented themselves in a way that is familiar and yet new and exciting.

I'm particularly enthusiastic about Brian Eno's involvement in the album. His influence can clearly be heard (by those with discerning ears) in the strange but lilting organs and blips and beeps that pervade but never dominate the production. While Bono's voice has indeed lost a little of the dynamic intensity that his youth afforded, it has been replaced with the emotional intensity of maturity. Here is a man who makes clear through his lyrics that he has traveled the world, lived the high life as a pop star and yet spent countless hours working for and in behalf of the underprivileged, the wrongfully accused, and the starving and orphaned.

Go buy this album!