No Line on the Horizon (song)
Encyclopedia
"No Line on the Horizon" is a song by rock
band U2
; it is the opening and title track on their 2009 album No Line on the Horizon. An alternate version, "No Line on the Horizon 2", was included as a bonus track on some versions of the album. The song was developed during the band's earliest sessions in Fez
, Morocco
, and began with a drum beat by drummer Larry Mullen Jr.
The lyrics were inspired by a photograph of Lake Constance
, titled Boden Sea. Many reviews of the song compared it to the band's other guitar-heavy songs, including "Elevation
", "Vertigo", "Zoo Station
", and "The Fly
".
, Morocco
, and was recorded in one take. "No Line on the Horizon" stemmed from drummer Larry Mullen Jr. experimenting with several different drum beats; producer and co-writer Brian Eno
sampled and manipulated the patterns, and the rest of the band began to play over it. The guitar in "No Line on the Horizon" was developed through a Death by Audio distortion box; the idea to use it was suggested to guitarist The Edge
by Ben Curtis
of the Secret Machines. After hearing the song Curtis noted that it "blew my mind... he's using that pedal in a textural way that it wasn't intended to be used at all."
Lead singer Bono was inspired to write the lyrics after seeing a photograph of Lake Constance
titled Boden Sea; the image had taken by Japan
ese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto
. Bono had the idea of a place "where the sea meets the sky and you can't tell the difference between the two". When it came to recording the song, producer and co-writer Daniel Lanois
stated that "the vocal happened very early on, that whole - a-whoawhoawhoawhoa! - that little hook. The vocal delivery, the vibe was there right from day one." Bono noted that the overlying theme behind the song was infinity, and that the track was inherently optimistic. The Boden Sea image would later become the album's cover art.
By the end of the recording sessions in December 2008, two versions of the track existed; the first was a slower, more atmospheric composition, while the second was faster and less layered. The former was chosen for the album while the latter was renamed "No Line on the Horizon 2" and released as a bonus track on the Japanese, Australian, and iTunes versions of the album, as well as a B-side to the "Get on Your Boots
" single. Along with "Fez – Being Born" and "Get on Your Boots", "No Line on the Horizon" was one of three candidates to open the album. The band eventually decided that "No Line on the Horizon" was the best selection.
described "No Line on the Horizon" as an "Unforgettable Fire-esque slow burner that builds to a euphoric coda", and "No Line on the Horizon 2" as "a punk-y Pixies/Buzzcocks homage that proceeds at a breathless pace." Rolling Stone
called the song a "combination of garage-organ drone, fat guitar distortion and Mullen's parade-ground drumming". Spin
felt that Bono's "whoa-oh's" gave the song a gritty feel.
's The Culture Show
. It was performed at almost every concert during the first two legs of the U2 360° Tour
, with a new acoustic arrangement being played once during the tour's third leg.
film Linear
, based on a story by Corbijn and Bono in which a Paris
ian traffic cop travels across France and the Mediterranean Sea
to visit his girlfriend in Tripoli
. During the sequence, the cop, played by Saïd Taghmaoui
, continues on his journey through the Spanish countryside until pulling into a small town for lunch where the next track, "Fez - Being Born", begins.
". NME
likened the song to "Vertigo" while saying "thanks to The Edge pressing the button marked 'freight train' rather than 'annoying echo' on his guitar, ["No Line on the Horizon"] throbs with a refound passion and remains peppered with new sounds and textures." Uncut
enjoyed the song, saying it "crashes in like a wave over the bows, washes of keyboards retreating to reveal a growling guitar riff retreaded from "The Fly
", and one of U2’s most memorably anthemic choruses." Mojo
, while commenting that the track echoed the band's 1991 song "Zoo Station
", felt that Bono dragged the song down, commenting that he "strain[s] for dramatic tension, laspes horribly into Chris Martin
ese, both in his mannered vocal inflection and screeds of lyrical twaddle." Pitchfork Media
was not impressed with the song, saying that its "hard-nosed verse is torpedoed by its deflating fart of a hook." Time
rated it the third best song of 2009.
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band U2
U2
U2 are an Irish rock band from Dublin. Formed in 1976, the group consists of Bono , The Edge , Adam Clayton , and Larry Mullen, Jr. . U2's early sound was rooted in post-punk but eventually grew to incorporate influences from many genres of popular music...
; it is the opening and title track on their 2009 album No Line on the Horizon. An alternate version, "No Line on the Horizon 2", was included as a bonus track on some versions of the album. The song was developed during the band's earliest sessions in Fez
Fes
Fes or Fez is the second largest city of Morocco, after Casablanca, with a population of approximately 1 million . It is the capital of the Fès-Boulemane region....
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, and began with a drum beat by drummer Larry Mullen Jr.
Larry Mullen Jr.
Lawrence Joseph "Larry" Mullen, Jr. is an Irish musician best known as the drummer for the Irish rock band U2. He is the founder of U2, which he later described as "'The Larry Mullen Band' for about ten minutes, then Bono walked in and blew any chance I had of being in charge." He has worked on...
The lyrics were inspired by a photograph of Lake Constance
Lake Constance
Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...
, titled Boden Sea. Many reviews of the song compared it to the band's other guitar-heavy songs, including "Elevation
Elevation (song)
"Elevation" is the third track and third single release from U2's 2000 album, All That You Can't Leave Behind. Featuring a thunderous beat, a variety of sound effects on the central guitar riff, and an easy rhyming lyric for the audience to shout along with, it was highly effective in its...
", "Vertigo", "Zoo Station
Zoo Station
"Zoo Station" is a song by the rock band U2. It is the opening track from their 1991 album Achtung Baby, a record on which the group reinvented themselves musically by incorporating influences from alternative rock, industrial, and electronic dance music...
", and "The Fly
The Fly (song)
"The Fly" is a song by rock band U2. It is the seventh track from their 1991 album Achtung Baby and it was released as the album's first single on 12 October 1991. "The Fly" introduced a more abrasive sounding U2, as the song featured hip-hop and industrial beats, distorted vocals, and an elaborate...
".
Writing and recording
"No Line on the Horizon" was first developed the recording sessions in FezFes
Fes or Fez is the second largest city of Morocco, after Casablanca, with a population of approximately 1 million . It is the capital of the Fès-Boulemane region....
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, and was recorded in one take. "No Line on the Horizon" stemmed from drummer Larry Mullen Jr. experimenting with several different drum beats; producer and co-writer Brian Eno
Brian Eno
Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno , commonly known as Brian Eno or simply as Eno , is an English musician, composer, record producer, singer and visual artist, known as one of the principal innovators of ambient music.Eno studied at Colchester Institute art school in Essex,...
sampled and manipulated the patterns, and the rest of the band began to play over it. The guitar in "No Line on the Horizon" was developed through a Death by Audio distortion box; the idea to use it was suggested to guitarist The Edge
The Edge
David Howell Evans , more widely known by his stage name The Edge , is a musician best known as the guitarist, backing vocalist, and keyboardist of the Irish rock band U2. A member of the group since its inception, he has recorded 12 studio albums with the band and has released one solo record...
by Ben Curtis
Benjamin Curtis (musician)
Benjamin Curtis is an American guitarist. He is a member of School of Seven Bells, in which he sings and plays instruments in addition to guitar. Benjamin was the guitarist and backing vocalist for the rock band The Secret Machines until March 2007, when, according to the band's website, he left to...
of the Secret Machines. After hearing the song Curtis noted that it "blew my mind... he's using that pedal in a textural way that it wasn't intended to be used at all."
Lead singer Bono was inspired to write the lyrics after seeing a photograph of Lake Constance
Lake Constance
Lake Constance is a lake on the Rhine at the northern foot of the Alps, and consists of three bodies of water: the Obersee , the Untersee , and a connecting stretch of the Rhine, called the Seerhein.The lake is situated in Germany, Switzerland and Austria near the Alps...
titled Boden Sea; the image had taken by Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto
Hiroshi Sugimoto
Hiroshi Sugimoto , born on February 23, 1948, is a Japanese photographer currently dividing his time between Tokyo, Japan and New York City, USA. His catalog is made up of a number of series, each having a distinct theme and similar attributes.-Life and works:Hiroshi Sugimoto was born and raised in...
. Bono had the idea of a place "where the sea meets the sky and you can't tell the difference between the two". When it came to recording the song, producer and co-writer Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois
Daniel Lanois born September 19, 1951 in Hull, Quebec) is a Canadian record producer, guitarist, vocalist, and songwriter. He has released a number of albums of his own work and has produced albums for a wide variety of artists, including Bob Dylan, Neil Young, Peter Gabriel, Emmylou Harris, Willie...
stated that "the vocal happened very early on, that whole - a-whoawhoawhoawhoa! - that little hook. The vocal delivery, the vibe was there right from day one." Bono noted that the overlying theme behind the song was infinity, and that the track was inherently optimistic. The Boden Sea image would later become the album's cover art.
By the end of the recording sessions in December 2008, two versions of the track existed; the first was a slower, more atmospheric composition, while the second was faster and less layered. The former was chosen for the album while the latter was renamed "No Line on the Horizon 2" and released as a bonus track on the Japanese, Australian, and iTunes versions of the album, as well as a B-side to the "Get on Your Boots
Get on Your Boots
"Get On Your Boots" is a song by Irish rock band U2 and the sixth track from their 2009 album No Line on the Horizon. The song was released as the album's first single on 23 January 2009. The physical format was released on 16 February...
" single. Along with "Fez – Being Born" and "Get on Your Boots", "No Line on the Horizon" was one of three candidates to open the album. The band eventually decided that "No Line on the Horizon" was the best selection.
Composition
QQ (magazine)
Q is a popular music magazine published monthly in the United Kingdom.Founders Mark Ellen and David Hepworth were dismayed by the music press of the time, which they felt was ignoring a generation of older music buyers who were buying CDs — then still a new technology...
described "No Line on the Horizon" as an "Unforgettable Fire-esque slow burner that builds to a euphoric coda", and "No Line on the Horizon 2" as "a punk-y Pixies/Buzzcocks homage that proceeds at a breathless pace." Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
called the song a "combination of garage-organ drone, fat guitar distortion and Mullen's parade-ground drumming". Spin
Spin (magazine)
Spin is a music magazine founded in 1985 by publisher Bob Guccione Jr.-History:In its early years, the magazine was noted for its broad music coverage with an emphasis on college-oriented rock music and on the ongoing emergence of hip-hop. The magazine was eclectic and bold, if sometimes haphazard...
felt that Bono's "whoa-oh's" gave the song a gritty feel.
Live performances
"No Line on the Horizon" was first played live during the No Line on the Horizon promotional tour at a filming for the BBCBBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
's The Culture Show
The Culture Show
The Culture Show is a weekly BBC Two Arts magazine programme. It is broadcast in the UK on Thursday nights at 7pm, focusing on the best of the week's arts and culture news, covering books, art, film, architecture, music, visual fashion and the performing arts...
. It was performed at almost every concert during the first two legs of the U2 360° Tour
U2 360° Tour
The U2 360° Tour was a worldwide concert tour by rock band U2. Launched in support of the group's 2009 album No Line on the Horizon, the tour visited stadiums from 2009 through 2011. It was named for a stage configuration that allowed the audience to almost completely surround the stage...
, with a new acoustic arrangement being played once during the tour's third leg.
Appearances in other media
"No Line on the Horizon" appears as the fifth track in the Anton CorbijnAnton Corbijn
Anton Corbijn is a Dutch photographer, music video and film director. He is the creative director behind the visual output of Depeche Mode and U2, having handled the principal promotion and sleeve photography for both for more than a decade...
film Linear
Linear (film)
Linear is a 2009 film directed by Anton Corbijn. The film includes music from U2's 2009 studio album, No Line on the Horizon, and was included on both digital and DVD formats with several editions of the album.-Development:...
, based on a story by Corbijn and Bono in which a Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
ian traffic cop travels across France and the Mediterranean Sea
Mediterranean Sea
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean surrounded by the Mediterranean region and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Anatolia and Europe, on the south by North Africa, and on the east by the Levant...
to visit his girlfriend in Tripoli
Tripoli
Tripoli is the capital and largest city in Libya. It is also known as Western Tripoli , to distinguish it from Tripoli, Lebanon. It is affectionately called The Mermaid of the Mediterranean , describing its turquoise waters and its whitewashed buildings. Tripoli is a Greek name that means "Three...
. During the sequence, the cop, played by Saïd Taghmaoui
Saïd Taghmaoui
Saïd Taghmaoui is a French actor and screenwriter. One of his defining screen roles was that of Saïd in the award winning 1995 French film La Haine directed by Mathieu Kassovitz...
, continues on his journey through the Spanish countryside until pulling into a small town for lunch where the next track, "Fez - Being Born", begins.
Reception
Reception to "No Line on the Horizon" was mixed. Allmusic praised the track, saying that "U2 strike that unmistakable blend of soaring, widescreen sonics and unflinching openhearted emotion that's been their trademark, turning the intimate into something hauntingly universal," also noting that it "resonate[s] deeper and longer than anything on Atomic BombHow to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is the eleventh studio album by Irish rock band U2, released in November 2004. Much like their previous album, All That You Can't Leave Behind, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb was commercially successful and critically acclaimed and maintains a more traditional rock...
". NME
NME
The New Musical Express is a popular music publication in the United Kingdom, published weekly since March 1952. It started as a music newspaper, and gradually moved toward a magazine format during the 1980s, changing from newsprint in 1998. It was the first British paper to include a singles...
likened the song to "Vertigo" while saying "thanks to The Edge pressing the button marked 'freight train' rather than 'annoying echo' on his guitar, ["No Line on the Horizon"] throbs with a refound passion and remains peppered with new sounds and textures." Uncut
UNCUT (magazine)
Uncut magazine, trademarked as UNCUT, is a monthly publication based in London. It is available across the English-speaking world, and focuses on music, but also includes film and books sections...
enjoyed the song, saying it "crashes in like a wave over the bows, washes of keyboards retreating to reveal a growling guitar riff retreaded from "The Fly
The Fly (song)
"The Fly" is a song by rock band U2. It is the seventh track from their 1991 album Achtung Baby and it was released as the album's first single on 12 October 1991. "The Fly" introduced a more abrasive sounding U2, as the song featured hip-hop and industrial beats, distorted vocals, and an elaborate...
", and one of U2’s most memorably anthemic choruses." Mojo
Mojo (magazine)
MOJO is a popular music magazine published initially by Emap, and since January 2008 by Bauer, monthly in the United Kingdom. Following the success of the magazine Q, publishers Emap were looking for a title which would cater for the burgeoning interest in classic rock music...
, while commenting that the track echoed the band's 1991 song "Zoo Station
Zoo Station
"Zoo Station" is a song by the rock band U2. It is the opening track from their 1991 album Achtung Baby, a record on which the group reinvented themselves musically by incorporating influences from alternative rock, industrial, and electronic dance music...
", felt that Bono dragged the song down, commenting that he "strain[s] for dramatic tension, laspes horribly into Chris Martin
Chris Martin
Christopher Anthony John "Chris" Martin is an English song-writer, who is the lead vocalist, pianist and rhythm guitarist of the band Coldplay. He is married to actress Gwyneth Paltrow.-Early life:...
ese, both in his mannered vocal inflection and screeds of lyrical twaddle." Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media
Pitchfork Media, usually known simply as Pitchfork or P4k, is a Chicago-based daily Internet publication established in 1995 that is devoted to music criticism and commentary, music news, and artist interviews. Its focus is on underground and independent music, especially indie rock...
was not impressed with the song, saying that its "hard-nosed verse is torpedoed by its deflating fart of a hook." Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
rated it the third best song of 2009.
Charts
| Chart | Peak |
|---|---|
| Belgium Singles Chart (Wallonia) Ultratop 40 Ultratop 40 singles, often just Ultratop 40, is the weekly chart of best-selling singles in Wallonia and Brussels Capital Region, the french-speaking parts of Belgium. Its equivalent covering the Flanders region is Ultratop 50. Both charts are produced and published by the Ultratop organization... |
38 |