why the first bit of U2 at glasto was great but the rest was a bit pedestrian until they did 'Bad'

(originally written at the release of 'No Line On The Horizon' 2009)

And so, the rock behemoth's rock behemoths are back, back , BACK!!! Guaranteed to induce paroxyms of love and loathing in equal measure, U2's return has the usual media deluge and magazine feature orgy that you've come to expect. What all this must mean, or otherwise, to the band themselves is anyone's guess ; hardly needing the exposure to guarantee sales, hardly needing the sales to carry them safely through these murkiest of financial times, the question of 'Why?' is probably higher up the list than 'But is it any good?'. That might be because many people have their answer to the latter question ready mixed, sprung and ready to go like the most finely tuned reflex. Pro or con, the common denominator for both sides is the vehemence of their arguement.

Therefore, as is my wont, I am wading straight into the middle of the lot of them with my contrary head firmly wedged on. I neither unadulteratedly love U2, nor do I comprehensively despise them. I accept they have mirrored, advanced and been emblematic of much that is wrong with the top end of corporate rock'n'roll since they started to encroach on the mainstream around 1982. However, they have also, in my view, produced music as good as- often better than- anything we have seen from acts in their rarified commercial position ; better than we could reasonably expect from the (often self proclaimed) 'biggest band in the world'.

This is pretty much where you'll find the nub of the issue for U2,as far as I can see it. This tag for fans is a self-fulfilling prophesy, but one they mix up with notions of the 'best' band in the world. U2 themselves don't mix this up, they fluctuate from wanting to be one or the other. After the almost martial bombast of the period up to Under A Blood Red Sky, the introduction of Brian Eno to the mix on The Unforgettable Fire seemed to suggest a desire to explore themselves musically rather than merely exploit themselves. Sadly they simply got bigger despite themselves (Curse You Geldof!), and decided to cloud all that was good about The Joshua Tree with the whole Rattle And Hum debacle. A new low in earnest nothingness - but I've often felt the band have not received due credit for at least realising this and doing something about it. The Achtung Baby - Zooropa - Pop era was sometimes messy, but it contains much of their best music, because at least it had some personality, some sense of fun, some sense of self-knowing, however arch and heavy-handedly ironic it was all meant to be. Can you imagine what they would have been like if they had never gone to Berlin?

Actually, I can, because after the general misfiring of the under-cooked Pop album, U2 decided they wanted to become the 'biggest band in the world again', and so we got two albums of U2 on crowd-pleasing autopilot. Not horrible records, but records that contained little that added anything to their canon or to the general environment. It seemed they had done their stint with things of interest, texture, nuance and humour, as if there had been some realisation that such things didn't become a band of their bigness.

And so with the true world order restored, we come to No Line On The Horizon, touted as a return to the experimental, explorative side of U2. Eno's back in the fold (after some abortive work with Rick Rubin), as is Daniel Lanois, although notably they are fully part of the writing core this time, rather than in solely production /advisory roles. So not only are the converted masses expectations raised, those of us who connect with this 'version' of U2 are expectant of putting up, or shutting up.

Initially, putting up seems to be the order of the day. The title track begins proceedings amid swathes of effects and guitars upon an insistent bassline, offering the kind of sonic punch and freshness that Zoo Station did, rather than the 'LOOK AT US! DON'T WE ROCK!' of Vertigo or Beautiful Day. Following on with Magnificent you find yourself thinking 'crikey, so far so good' ; yeah, there's the guitar effect Bill Bailey dubbed 'some celtic bollocks', but rather than being the be all and end all of the song it is merely one part of the overall dynamic, complementing the wandering bass and the deepening keyboard layers. Completing the opening salvo is Moment Of Surrender, the big ballad ; I don't really care about the typical image of U2, as I don't think, when they hit it right, that anyone does this with the adroitness they do - ok, no-one gets it quite as wrong either, but that's where we are. Big, brooding, intense, hitting you in the solar plexus, physically and emotionally and crucially never outstaying its 7 minutes plus ; it holds back just enough to hold you in its gaze.

It isn't all atmos and drama however. Get On Your Boots, despite nicking the verse's melody straight from Costello's Pump It Up employs fuzz guitars and a groove whose pace belies it's easy languidness, exudes that playfulness you felt on Zooropa, and ends up being what the over-zealous Discotheque and Mofo from Pop could have been. Stand Up Comedy then drops in on a Zep-lite riff, U2 sounding as un-U2 like as they have since Lemon. Cedars of Lebanon is another highpoint, offering a sedate, serene ending to the record.

However, the striking thing about these tracks is how they avoid the general meandering purposelessness and unfettered bombast of some of the rest of the album. Unknown Caller is first, but sadly not the last, tune that has more of its genesis in the U2 of All You Can't Leave Behind and ...Atomic Bomb - and once it's in you cant really get shot of it. I'll Go Crazy If I Don't Go Crazy Tonight is all typical Edge guitar, all widescreen, archetypal bigness, and in short not much of a tune. Breathe might begin on rolling, rumbling drums, lightly glammed guitars, and gabbled lyrics but rather limply gives way into BIG U2. White As Snow, despite developing into a more aerial chorus remains somewhat aseptic, ponderous......indolent even - it's half as long as Moment Of Surrender, yet takes twice as much of your life from you.

At then end then the question I'm left with is 'do U2 know which they want to be - big or best?'. Or can they never let the bigness go to the extent they did in the early 90's when they were desperate to escape it. Rather than a deliberate retreat from either their experimental bent or their home constituency, NLHTH tries to meld the two, and thats when it falls down. When tracks have their own space and identity, they work well, even wonderfully. When it feels like that own identity couldn't be found, gaps are filled in with the tried and tested. Something for the fanatics on both sides to grab on to - not enough for either in truth, but whether they will see it like that is another matter.