In the 1980s, U2 was widely beloved. Their 1987 release The Joshua Tree was both a critical and commercial smash. In the 2010s, seemingly everyone hated U2. Whether the infamous iTunes debacle caused the tide of public opinion to turn against the band or merely revealed an existing animus, the venerable Irish quartet had lost its grip on the imagination of music fans.
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In between these two eras, U2 embarked on a trajectory that fans and critics found mystifying. Their dance-oriented 1997 album Pop received mixed reviews, but many fans found it too experimental, rendering it as U2’s first album to not reach multi-Platinum status since their second album October. U2 followed Pop with a pair of albums—All That You Can’t Leave Behind (2000) and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004)—that sold better but were criticized for being staid. More than four years later, U2 returned back to square one with No Line on the Horizon—an album that divided critics and left fans underwhelmed.
As with Pop, the band were generally dissatisfied with the way No Line on the Horizon turned out. One culprit U2 couldn’t blame for the album’s shortcomings was a lack of time or effort. They spent nearly three years working on a follow-up to How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, including an unsuccessful attempt to record an album with producer Rick Rubin. When U2 finally emerged with No Line on the Horizon in February 2009, they hailed it as a risky, experimental album. They also hyped it with a week’s worth of performances on the Late Show with David Letterman.
While U2 were bold in their promotion of the album, retrospectively, they have expressed disappointment in how No Line on the Horizon turned out. Here’s how an album that was supposed to revitalize U2 wound up being held in low esteem by the band and fans alike.
The Dissipation of Inspiration
From the start, U2 were looking to make a different kind of album when they set out to write and record No Line on the Horizon. The process began in earnest when the band accompanied Bono to the Fez Festival of World Sacred Music in Morocco in 2007, where the lead singer “had been invited a few years running,” according to The Edge. While in Fez, the band set up a studio in a courtyard where they worked on several songs with producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Over the two-week period in which they recorded in Fez, the album’s sound started to take shape, blending rock with more ethereal textures.
After the festival, U2 continued work on the album in Dublin, New York and London. With the changes in scenery came changes in the band’s attitude about what the album should be. Over time, the band steered back towards more traditional rock song structures. Most of the 11 tracks on No Line on the Horizon sounded like typical U2 songs, albeit in a more muted and ambient state. The only part of the album that is obviously influenced by the band’s time in Morocco is the first minute of “Fez – Being Born.”
“It Was Pretty F—ing Miserable”
The issues that members of U2 had with No Line on the Horizons may have been rooted in the band trying to make a type of album that wasn’t a good fit for them. In a 2014 interview with The Guardian, The Edge said, “It was conceived as a more fun, off-the-cuff type of work, but we realized towards the end that that doesn’t exist for us. There’s no small album from us.”
The tension between trying to shift into a looser mode and wanting to make music in a more familiar way led to U2 riding in two lanes while making No Line on the Horizon. In talking to the Irish Independent in 2015, The Edge concluded, “I think we probably should have said ‘It’s an experimental work. That’s what it is.’”
Most of the band felt that the album suffered from their lack of commitment to a particular process or style. Bono conceded in a 2009 Guardian interview, “[We didn’t] pull off the pop songs.” Drummer Larry Mullen Jr. was far more pointed in his assessment, saying, “It was pretty f—ing miserable. It turns out that we’re not as good as we thought we were and things got in the way.”
The Producers Chime In
Steve Lillywhite, who produced several tracks on the album during the post-Fez sessions, was also critical of how No Line on the Horizon turned out. He told The Irish Times, “I don’t think the spirit of what they set out to achieve was translated. Something happened that meant it did not come across on the record.”
Eno questioned U2’s choices for the final track listing, as he had hoped for a greater balance between the intended radio hits and less commercial material. He said to the Irish Independent, “They’ve spent months working on the ones that are supposed to be the radio singles. Months!”
Still a Worthwhile Listen
As with many albums artists have misgivings about, No Line on the Horizon has songs U2 has felt good about. For a time, they regularly included “Magnificent,” “Moment of Surrender,” “I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight,” and “Get on Your Boots” on their setlists (though Mullen and bassist Adam Clayton have said they’re not fans of “Get on Your Boots”). Eno went as far as calling “Moment of Surrender” a “miracle.”
No Line on the Horizon might not have become what U2 and their producers were hoping for, and fans didn’t get the experimental album they were promised. They did succeed in departing from the more predictable sonic landscape of the preceding two albums and creating several tracks that are worth revisiting.
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