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U2, No Line on the Horizon (Universal-Island Records, Interscope Records, 2009)

           No Line on the Horizon began when Bono headed to Fez Morocco for an ecumenical festival of sacred music. He asked his band mates, and long-time producers, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, if they would join him. There, in a courtyard with Eno and Lanois wearing their performing and song-writing hats, this expanded version of U2 began recording. Two years later, with some additional help from Steve Lillywhite, another long-time U2 producer, they finished the CD. Eno and Lanois helped U2 push the musical boundaries, while Lillywhite preserved continuity with the earlier U2 catalog. In the end, No Line on the Horizon belongs with the band’s more experimental corpus (The Unforgettable Fire, Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and Pop).

           The eponymous opening track gives the CD its theme; there is no line separating sky and sea, and, by extension, the everyday and the apocalyptic. “Magnificent” showcases U2’s soaring sound, earnestness (“I was born to sing for you”), and grand themes: a sense of calling, a need for healing, and the power of love. “Magnificent” echoes Mary’s “Magnificat.”

           In “Moment of Surrender,” Bono sings of the apocalyptic (“vision over visibility”) in the midst of the mundane, punching in numbers on an ATM machine. “Unknown Caller” begins with the sound of the Moslem call to prayer. The song’s message is in fact a variant on God’s command to Moses to “Be still and know that I am God”: “Hear me, cease to speak that I may speak; shush now.”

           In “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don‘t Go Crazy Tonight” Bono pokes fun at his out-to-save-the-world image: “The right to appear ridiculous is something I hold dear.” The next song, “Get On Your Boots,” embodies rock craziness, albeit with the serious message that there is a sacramental side to music: “[God] meet me in the sound, let me in the sound.” “Stand Up Comedy” continues in the same vein as “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight” and “Get On Your Boots,” after which with “FEZ-Being Born” (“the engines roar, blood curling wail”), the CD takes a decidedly serious turn.

           The music in “White as Snow” is inspired by “O Come, O Come, Immanuel” and there is a contrast between “the lamb white as snow” and the condition of the human heart. The last two songs leave us with a stark choice, to live and breathe in grace, “Breathe,” or obsess about enemies, “The Cedars of Lebanon.” No Line on the Horizon is itself breathing room in a world seething with vengeance.



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