All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

Rolling Stone

He is still singing about singing, all over No Line on the Horizon, U2's first album in nearly five years and their best, in its textural exploration and tenacious melodic grip, since 1991's "Achtung Baby."

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100

Blender

No Line on the Horizon is U2’s third killer in a row--by now, it’s bizarre to remember that just 10 years ago, everybody thought they were headed toward the dinosaur band tar pits.

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100

Q Magazine

Simply, what this amounts to is the best U2 album since "Achtung Baby. [Apr 2009, p.94]

Entertainment Weekly

No Line on the Horizon offers idealism spliced with new attitude and the same old grace, and is all the better for it.

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The Phoenix

These 11 tunes deliver both the thematic and the sonic hugeness we expect from U2; you only have to proceed about 80 seconds into the opening title track before the Edge is spraying his trademark guitar sparks everywhere and Bono is observing that infinity is a great place to start.

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Hot Press

No Line On The Horizon is a mature, tender, reflective record of great musical variety, depth and beauty that could only have been made by four people who’ve experienced just about everything that life can throw at you.

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Mojo

The result is a collage of several kinds of classic U2 album, one that has the beauty of their panoramic '80s Eno/Lanois recordings plus the synthetic experimentation andd dalliances with pop merriment which revolutionized the band's modus operandi from "Achtung Baby" onwards. [Apr 2009, p.96]

Observer Music Monthly

It starts out blustery and familiar, before gradually revealing an unexpected and almost lovable sense of vulnerability.

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Billboard

Digesting the blend takes some time, but the best moments offer that immediacy, as on the opening punch of the groovy title track and the chiming "Magnificent."

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musicOMH.com

As far as exploration goes, U2 seem to have finally found what they were looking for.

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Hartford Courant

No Line on the Horizon is a considered and nuanced work with significant depth beneath the dense, sometimes thorny exterior. Getting there, though, requires some work.

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Uncut

It’s U2’s least immediate album--but there’s something about it that suggests it may be one of their most enduring.

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Los Angeles Times

No Line on the Horizon partakes of that romance by trying to expose its inner workings. It's risky to expose those delineations; as the band said long ago, it's like trying to throw your arms around the world. But the effort has its payoffs.

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cokemachineglow

Though I’d hardly go as far to call it their best album, which I guess makes U2 irrelevant by Bono’s logic, its best songs can credibly stand alongside their classics, and how many bands can maintain this level of vitality 30 years into their career? I give.

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Prefix Magazine

By this point, it's within their rights to utilize pieces of their past in building a new present for themselves, as long as they don't half-ass it and start turning out inferior remakes of their old tunes. That's not what's going on here, and if anything, No Line is ultimately a more visceral and memorable effort than either of the band's other two 21st century offerings.

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Boston Globe

By unshackling its adventurous side, the band helps Line soar gracefully, at least in part.

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No Ripcord

All in all, a departure from recent forays into overt commercialism that doesn’t always work but provides a little U2 juice to keep the true believers happy for a little bit longer.

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Spin

With coproducers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois explicitly included in the songwriting, it’s an effort to tinker and rough up and refine anew their music’s essence--with nobly sketchy results.

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New Musical Express (NME)

It has the pomp and arrogance of their best work, enough new sounds and interesting new avenues to satisfy the musos and, at its core, is a very good collection of very good songs played very well. A little more silliness would go a long way, though.

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Paste Magazine

On balance, No Line on the Horizon represents what "October" did all those years ago: a decent step forward that nevertheless recalls the past more clearly than it spells out the future.

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Slant Magazine

Such is the album as a whole: a compromise between the experimental and the pedestrian that makes for an excursion almost as tricky as walking a tightrope stretched between two distant towers.

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PopMatters

At the end of the day, No Line on the Horizon is an easy album to dismiss and an even harder disc to love, and some people will be ready to call it a masterpiece just as others are ready to deem it an outright failure.

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The Guardian

A person of a certain disposition might feel the will to live seeping from them at the very thought of a U2 song called Cedars of Lebanon, but it turns out to be one of the album's biggest successes: a beautiful, downbeat coda to a confused and confusing album, one that can't decide whether it's ironic or sincere, experimental or straight-forward, and instead attempts to be all things to all people, with inevitably mixed results.

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All Music Guide

Upon first listen, No Line on the Horizon seems as if it would be a classic grower, an album that makes sense with repeated spins, but that repetition only makes the album more elusive, revealing not that U2 went into the studio with a dense, complicated blueprint, but rather, they had no plan at all.

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Dot Music

For the lovers, this patchy album offering moderate advance on its immediate predecessors will probably suffice. But in truth it's an unmitigated failure to reconcile the sound of their past with a cohesive vision of their future.

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The Onion (A.V. Club)

U2 might try to pass Horizon off as atmospheric, but it’s really just a grab bag of underdeveloped ideas that never seemed to command the band’s full attention.

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Drowned In Sound

Unfortunately, too much of NLOTH sounds staid and uninspired, again maybe due to the changing musical landscape that was going on all around them during the making of the record.

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Pitchfork

The album's ballyhooed experimentation is either terribly misguided or hidden underneath a wash of shameless U2-isms.

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Austin Chronicle

No Line on the Horizon reaches for "The Unforgettable Fire's" post-"War" reinvention but misfires this side of "Pop" without the songs.

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NOW Magazine

The problems that litter No Line fall into two categories: mind-numbing blandness on the part of the band or embarrassing, face-palm-inducing vocal choices by Bono.

What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this album is 8.1 (out of 10) based on 284 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

Johnny G. gave it a1:
This record is absolute rubbish! When I compare it to the landmark and groundbreaking records: Unforgettable Fire, October, War, Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby or Zooropa and even Pop... However, compared to ATYCLB and HTDAAB it looks relatively favourable - but then that's not really saying much is it now??? The vocal yelps and squelches that pass for melodies on the vast majority of the tracks are absolutely horrific! "I'll go crazy if I don't go *CRAZY* tonight"??? "I was punching in the numbers.. at the ATM machine..." ??? What is this drivel??? Ouch... it makes me whince when I listen to this stuff. I had to put on Promenade, Indian Summer Sky, etc... on directly after hearing this record to clean my poor ears out and also to remind me of Bono's once (and still) undeniable power, agility and sensitivity (towards a song) as the worlds leading stadium rock vocalist. The vocals are bad yes, but what is worse are his cheap and corny lyrics!!! Which at best are passe and insincere and at worst totally cliche and utterly bland, meaningless and mind numbingly stupid/downright silly! The guitar work too leaves a lot to be desired... The once sonourous Edge finds himself reaching hamfistedly into his ol' "bag of tricks" and rehashing the once instantly recognisable Edge riffs and sounding like a very very tired and "edgeless" copy of the U2 of the past. They have failed to impress completely on this record. Even more so than the previous 2 abortions of records.. They get a 1 simply for being U2.

Dave M. gave it a9:
There is enough brilliant tracks here to make this a must for U2 fans and a good bet for all others.

Stirling C gave it a9:
The fact that they still possess the ability to make great, original music as they approach their 50s is an achievement in itself, and No Line On The Horizon shows that producing a "new" album of regurgitated 'Pride (In The Name Of Love)'s, 'One's and 'Beautiful Day's is most certainly not on their agenda.

George M gave it a10:
Takes a few listens, but worth it. Maybe not their best, but above average and better than most other 2009 recordings.

LoopsN Riffs gave it a9:
Perhaps not for the faint of mind (or those lacking in patience), but this album rewards repeated listening, and what Robert Fripp called "active listening" (a kind of participation on the part of the listener). The album has an overall mood, but many sub-moods throughout, and so many gorgeous moments. It also boasts one of U2's greatest recorded performances ever, "Moment of Surrender," which is an incredible post-post-modern gospel burner. There are no obvious hits (still not sure if "Get on Your Boots" belongs here), and this album (and it truly is that, a cohesive, long-player as opposed to a collection of singles) is most definitely hampered by the lack of context (liner notes, cover art) that comes with music downloading. This is a work that was meant to be heard in its entirety. It is a challenging work that rewards engagement. If nothing else, find a way to get "Moment of Surrender" into your heart. As U2, like all of us, struggles to come to grips with the disintegration of the music industry, live performance (not just concerts, but live contexts -- a mash-up of opera and dramatic presentation, along with streaming media etc) may be the way to go. The next album may be the rocker they started with Rick Rubin, but I for one am interested in the atmospherics promised by the rumored "Songs of Ascent" that, supposedly, would be culled from the "No Line" sessions. I envy U2 -- they have the freedom to do what they want artistically --they are the world's biggest and greatest independent band.

Dave M gave it a10:
This is an AWESOME album. Without a doubt the album of the year. I cant think of any other band that can put out an album such as this.

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No Line On The Horizon

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