some of us want them to go back to being a political band instead of a band that talks about politics.

• 11OCTT - 11 O'Clock Tick Tock
  
• 40
• 4OJ/FOJ - 4th of July
  
• AC - A Celebration
• ADWM - A Day Without Me
• ADKOB - A Different Kind of Blue
• AMAAW - A Man and a Woman
• ARATHH - A Room at the Heartbreak Hotel
• ASOH - A Sort of Homecoming
• Acrobat
• ADIHFABOM/K1 - Alex Descends Into Hell for a Bottle of Milk/Korova 1
• AATW - All Along the Watchtower
• ABOY - All Because of You
• AIWIY - All I Want Is You
• Always
• AFN - Always Forever Now
• ACD - An Cat Dubh
• AOH - Angel of Harlem
• AD - Another Day
• ATAP - Another Time, Another Place
• AYGWF - Are You Gonna Wait Forever
• AM - Ave Maria
  
  
• Babyface
• Bad
• BT - Bass Trap
• BS - Beach Sequence
• BD - Beautiful Day
• BG - Beautiful Ghost
• BGAB - Big Girls Are Best
• BI - Boomerang I
• BII - Boomerang II
• B(WNOY) - Bottoms (Watashitachi No Ookina Yume)
• B/G - Boy/Girl
• Breathe
• BTBS - Bullet the Blue Sky
  
  
• CHFIL - Can't Help Falling In Love
• COL - Cedars of Lebanon
• C(BPCH) - Christmas (Baby Please Come Home)
• COBL - City Of Blinding Lights
• C(TCAWTL) - Corpse (These Chains Are Way Too Long)
• CFYT - Crumbs From Your Table
  
  
• DGPFYCC - Daddy's Gonna Pay For Your Crashed Car
• DB - Dancing Barefoot
• DS - Dancing Shoes
• DITH - Deep In the Heart
• Desire
• DD - Dirty Day
• Discotheque
• DYFL - Do You Feel Loved
• DTYGTT - Don't Take Your Guns To Town
• DWTIME - Dreaming With Tears In My Eyes
• DM - Drowning Man
  
  
• ES - Electrical Storm
• Elevation
• EAA - Elvis Ate America
• EPAA - Elvis Presley and America
• ED - Endless Deep
• EBTTRT - Even Better than the Real Thing
• EL - Everlasting Love
• Exit
  
  
  
• FAYF - Falling at Your Feet
• FC - Fast Cars
• FBB - Fez – Being Born
• Fire
• FC - Flower Child
• FS - Fortunate Son
  
  
• Gloria
• GOYB - Get On Your Boots
  
• GPII - God Part II
• Gone
• Grace
  
  
• HHSC - Hallelujah Here She Comes
• HIAWG - Happiness is a Warm Gun
• H269 - Hawkmoon 269
• Heartland
• HS - Helter Skelter
• HMTMKMKM - Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me
• HJ - Holy Joe
  
  
• IFD - I Fall Down
• ISHFWILF - I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For
• ITABTAW - I Threw a Brick Through a Window
• TTYW - I Trip Thorugh Your Wires
• IWF - I Will Follow
• IGWSHA - If God Will Send His Angels
• IYWTVD - If You Wear that Velvet Dress
• IGCIIDGCT - I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
• IALW - In a Little While
• IGC - In God's Country
• ISS - Indian Summer Sky
• ITH - Into the Heart
• ITA - Is That All?
• IO - Ito Okashi
  
  
• JS - J Swallow
• JITB - Jack in a Box
• JC - Jesus Christ
  
  
• Kite
  
  
• LWTSH - Lady With The Spinning Head
• LNOE - Last Night On Earth
• Lemon
• Levitate
• LAS - Like a Song...
• LAPOE - Love And Peace Or Else
• LCT - Love Comes Tumbling
• LIB - Love Is Blindness
• LRM - Love Rescue Me
• LYLM - Love You Like Mad
• LT(HOTL) - Luminous Times (Hold On To Love)
  
  
• Magnificent
• Mercy
• Miami
• MD - Miracle Drug
• MS - Miss Sarajevo
• MLK
• Mofo
• MOS - Moment of Surrender
• MOTD - Mothers of the Disappeared
• MW - Mysterious Ways
  
  
• NS - Native Son
• NL - Neon Lights
• NLMG - Never Let Me Go
• NYD - New Year's Day
• NY - New York
• NAD - Night and Day
• NLOTH - No Line On The Horizon
• Numb
  
  
• October
• One
• OMW - One Minute Warning
• OSC - One Step Closer
• OTH - One Tree Hill
• OOTS - Original Of The Species
• OOC - Out of Control
  
  
• PIB - Paint it Black
• POE - Peace On Earth
• PTC - Pete the Chop
• Please
• Plot 180
• PM - Pop Muzik
• PITNOL - Pride (In the Name of Love)
• Promenade
  
  
• RAT - Race Against Time
• RHMT - Red Hill Mining Town
• RL - Red Light
• Rejoice
• RTSS - Running to Stand Still
  
  
• Salome
• SOL - Satellite of Love
• Scarlet
• Seconds
• SATT - Shadows and Tall Trees
• SAMTM - She's a Mystery to Me
• SAG - Silver and Gold
• SSTKC - Sixty Seconds In Kingdom Come
• SD - Slow Dancing
• Slug
• Smile
• SC - So Cruel
• SDABTO - Some Days Are Better Than Others
• SYCMIOYO - Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
• SE - Spanish Eyes
• SUC - Stand Up Comedy
• SATS - Staring at the Sun
• Stateless
• S(FSC) - Stay (Faraway, So Close!)
• SFB - Stories for Boys
• SIASL - Stranger in a Strange Land
• SM - Street Missions
• SIAMYCGOO - Stuck in a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
• SR - Summer Rain
• SBS - Sunday Bloody Sunday
• Surrender
• ST - Sweetest Thing
  
  
• TEC - The Electric Co.
• TFT - The First Time
• TF - The Fly
• TF - The Fool
• TGBHF - The Ground Beneath Her Feet
• THTBA - The Hands That Built America
• TO - The Ocean
• TPM - The Playboy Mansion
• TR - The Refugee
• TTS - The Three Sunrises
• TUF - The Unforgettable Fire
• TW - The Wanderer
• TFLGN - Theme from Let's Go Native
• TFTS - Theme from the Swan
• TTMAD - Things to Make and Do
• Tomorrow
• Touch
• TTATPG (PG) - Trash, Trampoline, and the Party Girl
• Trevor
• TTYW - Trip Through Your Wires
• TTTYAATW - Tryin' to Throw Your Arms Around the World
• Twilight
• THBAO - Two Hearts Beat As One
• TSOHOSOS - Two Shots of Happy, One Shot of Sad
  
  
• U(LMW) - Ultraviolet (Light My Way)
• UM - Unchained Melody
• UCOP - United Colours Of Plutonium
• UC - Unknown Caller
• UTEOTW - Until the End of the World
  
  
• VDL - Van Diemen's Land
• Vertigo
• VD - Viva Davidoff
  
  
• WUDM - Wake Up Dead Man
• WO - Walk On
• WTTW - Walk To the Water
• WILATW - When I Look at the World
• WLCTT - When Love Comes To Town
• WDIAGW - Where Did It All Go Wrong
• WTSHNN - Where the Streets Have No Name
• WAS - White As Snow
• WGRYWH - Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses
• WH - Wild Honey
• WIR - Wild Irish Rose
• WITS - Window In The Skies
• Wire
• WAS - With A Shout
• WOWY - With Or Without You
  
  
• XAW - Xanax And Wine
  
  
• Yahweh
• YBR - Your Blue Room
  
  
• ZS - Zoo Station
• Zooropa

New U2 Album Speaks from Christian Perspective

26 05 2009

Recently we asked the Rev. Julie Golding Page if we could re-post her review of u2’s new “No Line on the Horizon” from the Diocese of Saskatchewan’s website. She graciously said yes, and we share it with you below…

by the Rev. Julie Golding Page

Die-hard U2 fans finally have their wish, after waiting five long years since the release of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. U2’s new album, No Line on the Horizon, is a carefully crafted series of songs about being lost, finding the self in God, becoming disoriented and lost again, and becoming re-oriented to God and the world. Musically, the album continues the U2 tradition of vigorous rock tunes, complete with the classic guitar riffs, but with the addition of Middle Eastern overtones in several songs, giving homage to the band’s time recording in the unusual location of Fez, Morocco.

As usual, U2’s lyrics give a combination of scathing critique and encouraging hope to the Western world. More particularly, the band’s political and religious exhortations are addressed to the USA and, it could be argued, equally to the Christian church.

The title track and first song, “No Line on the Horizon,” begins the album’s journey with a feeling of disorientation or lostness, with no distinguishing marks to provide perspective in modern life. This track is followed up with “Magnificent,” whose driving beat, proliferation of biblical imagery and confident, soaring expression of purpose under God – the Magnificent – make it the album’s closest facsimile to a gospel song and reminiscent of their 1987 hit “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.” U2 lead singer Bono sings to God, “I was born to be with you in this space and time.” Yet this song is not a blithely upbeat denial of the very real disorientation we all feel in our personal lives in the modern world. He continues, “After that and ever after I haven’t had a clue.” This combination of honest confusion and hope in God is what attracts many to U2.

The next two tracks address God’s call to us but in modern idiom, using technological metaphors. “Moment of Surrender” speaks of a moment of clarity and surrender when one goes down on one’s knees and recognizes “vision over visibility” or, in other words, invisible faith over what is physically seen. Love, often used as a placeholder for God, appears in this song and throughout the album. “Unknown Caller” uses the metaphors of computer and telephone to instruct hearers who are “lost” to listen to God: “cease to speak that I may speak. Shush now.” Both songs employ organ music interludes to allow hearers time to ponder, as if in church after an altar call.

Now that the listener has been called by God and had the chance to be made right with him, the album invites participation in the political and religious realities of the world. “Get on Your Boots” and “Stand Up Comedy” are particularly pointed injunctions for Westerners, Americans and the Church to get ready and begin engaging in the world. If there was any doubt about equating the oft-mentioned “love” with God, it is made explicit in “Stand Up Comedy,” which says baldly, “God is love.”

Those who remain unsure of U2’s Christian content will appreciate “White as Snow.” Sharing its melody with “O Come, O Come Emmanuel,” the song is a haunting retelling of the Advent hymn in U2’s vernacular. Bono sings of the great longing for the lamb as white as snow, who brings forgiveness to all – both Westerners and their current arch-enemies, the people of the Middle East, from places like Fez.

These “enemies” are considered thoughtfully in many tracks. The album leaves the listener with this poignant thought: “Choose your enemies carefully…Gonna last with you longer than your friend.”

No Line on the Horizon is satisfying musically for its fusion of rock and Middle Eastern melodies, and lyrically for its astute observations and insistence that political and religious inertia can be overcome. U2’s answer is God. May listeners come to the same conclusion.

Is there a way to tell you I love you,
Is there a way to tell you I care,
Is there a way to show you I miss you,
Is what I think in despair,

But soon the day shall grace our hearts,
When I’ll hold you in my arms,
After we’ve spent these days apart,
And my eyes will spin yarns,

I had dreamt of the unknown,
Feared being alone and lost,
But now I know my stars have shone,
When I have you to call my own ….

Your presence means the world to me,
Your laughter brings a smile to my face,
Your words turn around my tears to glee,
Your love from heart can never erase ….

---

The simple answer would be bring personal accountability back to America.
If you work, you eat.
If you don't, you lose weight, then maybe you'll be thin enough to work.
Too many people feel the government owes them. No one owes you anything.
Work for it.
I have been very poor and very well off at different times in my life. When I was poor, I didn't go out, drink, party, buy things, I worked 2 full time jobs and painted houses on the side, repaired peoples' cars, and helped another guy who was a handyman when I was free.
Too many people sit on their ass and cry how bad they have it.
if those people got off their asses, went to work, and took a burden off of the economy, then we could get rid of our crooked politicians and have a better run country.

Lipstick Girl

It's lipstick girl
lipstick time
and that bitch Blossom
stole her line
Ever since
she was a little girl,
she had this dream
that meant the world
She wanted to know
if she ever met Robert Smith,
if she could ask him
if she could use his lipstick
so she (in a way)
could be closer to him
as she put it on
her lips
And now, twenty years later,
she's in a chain reaction
it's as if her vision
has a strange attraction
So put it on
my dear Cure sis
put it on
and let it blossom on your lips
And maybe one day,
Robert will come to
and realize that Blossom
was you.