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With 'Horizon,' U2 maintain that the album is a complete art form

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A sense of wonder and grandeur permeates the whole of Horizon. Epic hymns, ie, the "big statements," such as Moment Of Surrender (the album's emotional center, a luxurious 7-minute meditation), Unknown Caller (its intro beautifully recalling Bad until it takes off in its own direction) and FEZ - Being Born (a bit of a Roxy Music groove here, not surprising give Eno's touch) masquerade as rock, but they have a spiritual pull that suck you in and overwhelm.

On previous albums, Bono brazenly beseeched listeners to fall to their knees, but on tracks this potent, he doesn't have to ask - the impulse is instinctual.

King-sized riffs

"Let me in the sound!" Bono shouts in Get On Your Boots, and it's no empty slogan - it's an order

Since Achtung Baby, U2 have woven king-sized riffs (The Fly, Discotheque, Elevation, Vertigo) into their narrative, and songs like Get On Your Boots and Stand Up Comedy (both of which pack some in-your-face Zep-like guitar crunch that don't sound out of place) deliver yet more cock-punch chapters to the continuing story.

Detractors who dismiss these tracks as contrivances are missing out on the fact that U2 sink their teeth into them are fiercely as Jimmy Page (a recent inspiration for The Edge) and co ever did - they believe whole-heartedly in their big-time rock. "Let me in the sound, let me in the sound!" Bono shouts in Get On Your Boots, and it's no empty slogan - it's an order.

Slippery time signatures

Historically, the contributions of Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr go largely unnoticed on U2 albums, and that's to be expected from non-flashy rhythm sections who do their job and don't get in the way (John McVie and Mick Fleetwood, anybody?). But expect the occasional surprise: White As Snow has a slippery time signature that will keep you scratching your head. How they follow The Edge's delicately plucked acoustic guitars is anybody's guess - or is he following them?

The album doesn't feel 'fussed over.' It arrives fully formed, the natural order in check

While U2's previous album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, won the Grammy for Album Of The Year and was universally hailed as a solid collection - and songs such as City Of Blinding Lights and Origin Of The Species, not to mention All Because Of You, are positively glittering affairs - the record felt at times like patchwork.

You could almost sense the band standing over you, analyzing its strengths and weaknesses, agonizing over the order of songs - "We need a rocker here, we need to slow it down there, does this track make any sense at all?"

No Line On The Horizon has no such baggage. It doesn't feel 'fussed over.' It arrives fully formed in the way The Joshua Tree did, its presentation complete, the natural order in check. More significantly, it's the first album in eons in which U2 aren't noticeably trying on somebody else's clothes: gone are the blues and gospel experimentations; the obvious attempts at au courant dancefloor jams, too, are nowhere to be found. These days, U2 aren't trying to be anybody but U2.

In that way, they've found what they're looking for.

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