February 27th, 2009.  This date will see the return of one of the definite kings of rock over the last two decades – U2.  The quartet of Bono, the Edge, Clayton, and Mullen, Jr., after five years of touring, recording, producing, and some well-deserved relaxation, are now placing the final touches of their newest effort, named No Line on the Horizon.

U2 launched their career back in 1980 with the release of their debut album Boy, and have since created eleven more to varying degrees of commercial and critical success.  Two of their most lauded works are The Joshua Tree of 1987 and Achtung Baby of 1991, both of which confirmed U2’s place in the upper echelons of the rock industry.

Image credited to: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/53/NoLineU2Promo.jpg

Below, then, is a preview of U2’s latest album.  After great success revisiting their old rock roots through All That You Can’t Leave Behind and How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, No Line of the Horizon endeavours to revitalise U2’s alter ego – their more personal, experimental self exemplified through Achtung Baby, Zooropa, and Pop.  To be officially released on February 15th, this is U2’s first single in five years, titled “Get on Your Boots”.

Try this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZ7zKeYhU_8

Enjoy!

Yes, it is quite late.  The last time I posted here was almost a month ago, on Christmas.  Well, amongst the hurly-burly of three very busy weeks, I have reserved time to come back and blog.  Just before we make our march into 2009, however, let us revisit 2008 with a Top Five Albums / Singles of the Year list.

Seeing that this blog is only in its infant stages, and I haven’t had a chance to release a myriad reviews to match the myriad albums that were released in the year of 2008 (I’ve only released a meagre eleven so far), it’d be unfair to include only those albums that I reviewed.  Therefore, I have opened myself to the vast pool of all of the music that has materialised this year (although I can’t say I have listened to all of it).

Top Five Albums:

1. Death Magnetic (Metallica) – The return of the kings of thrash.  This year was a year of comebacks and although the album wasn’t as great as the quartet’s pre-Black Album efforts – it did leave me wanting at some stages of its duration – Death Magnetic is easily the strongest album I’ve heard this year.  Enough said.
2. Dear Science (TV on the Radio) – Strangely remindful of Radiohead, but far and away from them at the same time.  TV on the Radio here provides the excellently various textures of – dare I say it – something close to Kid A, while still providing the resounding familiarity of the Killers and also delivering a little blend of rap, hip-hop, and art rock – minus the hard-edged profanities and the usual superficialities of the average hip-hop star.  In this way, TVOTR makes N.E.R.D sound like idiots, Nickelback sound like morons, and Coldplay’s Viva la Vida sound like another run-in-the-mill rock album.
3. Fleet Foxes (Fleet Foxes) – Fans of folk rock are awfully rare around here in the place I live in, but Fleet Foxes’ eponymous debut could easily be recognised as a classic in ten years’ time.  Inspired by an infusion of English folk and the Beach Boys, Fleet Foxes have concocted a maddeningly realistic creation of forest enchantments – the most ethereal, real folk album to have materialised in years.  Splendid.
4. Third (Portishead) – Out of nowhere … Portishead comes abound with this gem of an album.  Removed of their trip-hop influences and easily the most inaccessible Portishead album yet, they’ve worked a fairly comprehensive makeover, and had they not undergone an eleven-year hiatus and released Third ten years ago, it would have looked a lot more pedestrian.  But when one listens to the eerily strange, yet remarkable tone of songs like “Machine Gun”, you’ve got to thank God they didn’t.
5. Accelerate (R.E.M.) – R.E.M. finally looks comfortable distilling out rocking tunes out of their imaginations.  One of their best post-Automatic albums (perhaps with the critically acclaimed New Adventures in Hi-Fi), Accelerate is not quite sure to have brought smiles at last to those discontented R.E.M. fans who wanted more of that unorthodox eccentricity of Out of Time or Automatic for the People, but it stands as a commendable model of rock music and had R.E.M. lost a few of their fans, I am sure they gained a couple in return.

Top Five Singles:

1. “Viva la Vida” (Coldplay) – Forgetting to place this song upon this pedestal of sorts would be a sin, not least for the millions of fans who listen to this song addictedly everyday.  The grandeur of the orchestral arrangement, the thunderous beat, the clanging church-bells, and “whoa”’s that manifest the song’s climax are just parts to what makes up an incredibly fixating song.
2. “The Shock of the Lightning” (Oasis) – Most definitely the highlight of what is a somewhat forgettable Oasis album.  Hearkens back to the Oasis of old and easily is the band’s best creation since their descent from the summit of Britpop.  The song features everything: Noel Gallagher’s best penmanship (except some cringeworthy lyrics like “Love is a time machine”), a crunching riff, and a whoop-ass drum solo from Zak Starkey.
3. “Time to Pretend” (MGMT) – It seems that nowadays it’s getting harder and harder to find more conventional songs.  Everyone’s grabbing synthesisers and furiously mixing their creations with an attempt at being called “original” by their critics.  While MGMT doesn’t sound nearly as simple as the tags of “conventional” or “mainstream” suggest, their hit single “Time to Pretend” provides a perfect blend between simplicity and uniqueness.  The synthesised riff is repeated every couple of bars, accounting for its easy comprehensibility, and even throws in a couple “Yeah”s to make it even more interestingly arousing, but we just could not see this song being created in the 70s, among the heavy riffs and solos of so-called “conventional” hard rock, no?
4. “Love Lockdown” (Kanye West) – Kanye West’s first single off of his fourth studio album, 808s & Heartbreak, “Love Lockdown” doesn’t need Kanye’s trademark charisma to be as catchy as all his best singles.  Perhaps the Auto-Tune will have to go on Mr. West’s next effort, but four-and-a-half minutes is not enough to ruin a minimalist, overtly personal gem of a single that is definitely the zenith of what is regrettably Kanye’s worst album yet.
5. “House of Cards / Bodysnatchers” (Radiohead) – Had In Rainbows been released a several months later and all of Radiohead’s well-deserved plaudits for the album been reserved until then, this single would have topped this list, but it still garners a highly respectable place for its sheer beauty.  “Bodysnatchers” sounds like it’s from another planet, but it’s been packaged and translated from alien gobbledygook into a language we’re familiar to – and that is something you have to place a hefty price tag on.