prolific.org

As published on atu2.com

Whatever they say to hype their albums about reinventing themselves, going back to their roots, incorporating dance or electronica, U2 always end up sounding like U2. I wouldn’t have it any other way. But I can never remember the titles of U2’s previous two CDs. They weren’t bad and contained some great songs, but they weren’t memorable to me as albums. No Line on the Horizon is.

I’m not religious, I don’t bleed for Africa, I’m not keen on stadium rock. What turned me on to U2 was as much their military beat as a certain Celtic mysticism, their affinity with the European landscape, their singer’s do-or-die delivery and their big ideas.

For some fans, Achtung Baby is the touchstone in assessing a new album’s worth. For others it will always be Pop. My U2 is more ephemeral, present in moments found across their vast back catalog. You can hear echoes of these moments all over NLOTH.

“Moment of Surrender” reaches levels of intensity on par with “Bad” or “Please.” There’s a dash of “Van Diemen’s Land” with “White as Snow.” You’ll hear some Zooropa in “Magnificent” and “FEZ-Being Born,” the latter of which harks back to The Unforgettable Fire, while the first is the 00’s “Gloria”. “Unknown Caller” has roots in The Million Dollar Hotel. “Breathe” comes from the same songbook as “Gone.” And you may hate the single, but “Get On Your Boots” is probably their most Achtung Baby-like track in 20 years, and the title song borrows a riff from “The Fly.”

This is U2 doing what they’re best at: being U2. Except in “Stand Up Comedy,” where they attempt to be Led Zeppelin. Give it up, lads.

Anyone watch Pop on Trial, the 90’s with Stuart Maconie, Caitlin Moran, Goldie and Paolo Hewitt on BBC 4? Oh. My. God. The. Smug. Goldie’s the only one I didn’t want to throttle. He seemed a lot more interesting than previously suspected. Hewitt, Moran and Maconie represent everything I hated in the British music press in the 90s. The insular, anti-European, suspicious of anything attempting to be more than entertainment vibe. No mention of U2, of course – the band that arguably dominated the early 90s world wide. Paolo ‘I’m so far up the Gallagher’s arse my face looks like I’m permanently smelling poo’ Hewitt especially I wanted to gag. I don’t know who said it and I’m paraphrasing but, yeah, the 90s… all about Thatcher’s children run amok. Fuck Oasis and Loaded and lads and ladettes.

Friday 6/8 Marseille

I wake up early to catch the morning light, despite not having slept very well. I take pictures of the men and women setting up the fish market on the Quai des Belges. I get a lot of comments, but only one guy plays ‘take the piss out of the foreigner’. He asks where I’m from, but doesn’t really want to hear an answer. He wants to rattle off a list of Asian countries and end with ‘Mongolian’. So very funny. His friend tells him off. That’s no way to treat the nice tourists. The man feigns innocence. ‘What? I used to live in Mongolia for years.’ It would have been good natured if he’d actually looked at me and talked with me instead of about me. Prick.

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Long weekends are lovely (when they’re migraine free). Good things these past three days include: