Two Lines on the Horizon

U2 has complicated my life again, this time by releasing a new album on March 3rd, the same day Neko Case will release Middle Cyclone. I hope someone will give me one of those "stated income" loans so I can afford all these new CDs, then bundle the loan with millions more like it, leverage them to the hilt, and seed them throughout the global financial system. As a music fan, I am too big to fail.

The reviews for U2's No Line on the Horizon are coming in and they're surprisingly strong, as helpfully clipped from Wikipedia:

• BBC Music (favourable) 2009
• The Daily Telegraph (very favourable) 2009
• Entertainment.ie 2009
• Evening Herald (favourable) 2009
• Irish Independent (favourable) 2009
• Irish Times 2009
• The Observer 2009
• Rolling Stone 2009
• Spin 2009
• The Times 2009

I note the rare five-star review from Rolling Stone, which is sure to provoke sneers inasmuch as openly despising Rolling Stone is part and parcel of being a Serious Fan of Rock.

I'd sneer right along but for the fact that U2 is one of a handful of recording artists for which I am a hopeless tool: they release it, I buy it. I do make exceptions for allegedly enhanced re-releases and 'best of' compilations. I won't even spend someone else's money on those.