U2 - No Line on the Horizon

Like any good sports team, the mark of a great rock band is its ability to bounce back from defeat. U2 did that earlier this decade, with the success of All That You Can’t Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb after its pompous and pretentious outings of the 1990s, Zooropa and Pop. With their latest recording, Bono and the boys have achieved the equivalent of the sporting world’s three-peat with their third consecutively winning album.

Full of anthems that soar over emotional peaks and valleys, No Line on the Horizon covers often familiar U2 terrain. Numbers like “Magnificent,” a fiercely euphoric love song featuring the Edge’s searing guitar riffs and drummer Larry Mullen’s militaristic attack, are steeped in the same aural textures as The Unforgettable Fire’s “Pride (In the Name of Love).” Similarly, the more subdued “Moment of Surrender,” featuring Bono’s anguished vocals, echoes the dreamy “One” from Achtung Baby.

But No Line on the Horizon is no retread album. Working with their usual production team of Brian Eno and Canada’s Daniel Lanois, Bono, Larry, the Edge and bassist Adam Clayton also bravely venture into new sonic terrain. The electro buzz of the sexy “Get Your Boots On” is a dizzying joyride, while the darker, hypnotic “Cedars of Lebanon” features the spoken-word reportage of Bono as a war correspondent. But, for classic U2, nothing beats the giddy rush of “Breathe,” a stirring anthem that will leave fans breathless. Once again, the Irish rockers have scored a winner.