Hack at work.
Killing Bono
"The best book I have ever read about trying to make it in the music business" - Elton John
"A fantastic book, which manages the difficult trick of being simultaneously very funny and very sad." - Bob Geldof
"I was Neil McCormick's fan in school. He was much cooler than me, a much better writer and I thought he'd make a much better rock star. I was wrong on one count. He's written a great book" - Bono
U2: No Line On The Horizon - (what Bono really thinks)
Album review, first published Feb 16, 2009
The new U2 album, ‘No Line On The Horizon’ will be released on March 2nd. It is a great record, and greatness is what rock and roll and the world needs right now. From the grittily urgent yet ethereal title track all the way to the philosophically ruminative, spacey coda of ‘Cedars Of Lebanon’ it conjures an extraordinary journey through sound and ideas, a search for soul in a brutal, confusing world, all bound together in narcotic melody and space age pop songs.
“Let me in the sound” is a repeated lyrical motif (showing up in three songs, including current single ‘Get On Your Boots’). The theme of the album is surrender, escaping everyday problems to lose (or perhaps find) yourself in the joy of the moment. For Bono, it clearly represents an escape from the politics of his role as a lobbyist and campaigner into the musical exultation of rock and roll, yet the very notion of escape remains political, if only with a small p. “Every day I have to find the courage to walk out into the street / With arms out, got a love you can’t defeat” is the inspirational bridge in an epic, explosive rock anthem ‘Breathe’, that could be set in Gaza or at your own front door.
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