Released Date: February 27, 2009
Produced By: Brian Eno, Steve Lillywhite, Danny Lanois
Engineer: Richard Rainey, Declan Gaffney, CJ Eriksson, Carl Glanville, Tony Mangurian and Dave Emery
Label: Universal – Island Records
Recorded At: HQ, Riad El Yacout in Fez, Platinum Sound Recording Studios in New York, and Olympic Studios in London
No Line on the Horizon is U2’s 12th studio album released 5 years after How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (2004). It marked the longest gap between studio albums in the band’s career to that point.
Recording for the album began in 2007 with producers Steve Lillywhite, Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois joining in as songwriters. From Fez, Morocco, work continued in the band’s own Dublin studio, several studios in the United States, and Olympic Studios in London where it was finally completed in December 2008.
The title song was inspired by the image of Lake Constance, photographed by Japanese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto. The photograph was also used as the cover art. A film directed by photographer Anton Corbijn is also included in several special editions of the album. Corbijn developed the film ‘Linear’ with Bono based on a story about a Parisian motorcycle officer. He described it as “a new way to listen to a record… and to connect to music.”
Although it did not sell as well as anticipated, No Line on the Horizon debuted at No. 1 in 30 countries with 5 million copies sold by June 2009. David Fricke of Rolling Stone considered it the best U2 album since Achtung Baby (1991) while Andrew Mueller in Uncut thought it was their “least immediate album” but might become “one of their most enduring.” Entertainment Weekly remarked that the album “speaks to the zeitgeist the way only U2 can and dare to do.” Many critics, however, were not so convinced. Time called it “unsatisfied,” while others noted it was not as experimental as their previous two albums, as suggested.
Despite the low record sales compared to their previous albums, the supporting U2 360° Tour from 2009 to 2011 sold over $736 million in ticket sales, making it the highest-grossing concert tour in history.
The album was nominated for Best Rock Album at the 2010 Grammy Awards, with two other Grammy nominations for the track ‘I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight.’ No Line on the Horizon was voted best album of the year by Rolling Stone and’ Moment of Surrender’ song of the year.
Songs included on ‘No Line On The Horizon’:
No Line On The Horizon, Magnificent, Moment of Surrender, Unknown Caller, I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight, Get On Your Boots, Stand Up Comedy, Fez — Being Born, White As Snow, Breathe, Cedars Of Lebanon
