One thing is clear - whatever happens, whatever anyone anywhere writes or says about U2's new album, it won't matter one little bit. 'No Line On The Horizon' will undoubtedly sell millions, the tours will be sold out, the singles will flood the airwawes and the videos won't come off MTV and the like. Bono will go on another new crusade or ten, while he and his band will probably need a truck for all the various music and humanitarian awards that will rain down on them yet again. I mean, if that rather boring swamped in rock cliches dead horse 'How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb' managed to sell over 8 million copies and be universally acclaimed, then what can one say for the new album, which is infinitely better and far more interesting and varied. It kicks off with the title track and it delivers and promises more to come. A pretty impressive "launch", but the proceeding flight is exciting only at times, not throughout. With the help of that magic duo Brian Eno/Daniel Lanois U2 have attempted to achieve as pecial mixture of the innovation so evident on 'Achtung Baby' and the passionate melodics of 'The Joshua Tree'. Bono himself made a rather bold statement recently, claiming that "if this isn't our best album, then we're irrelevant". Well Bono, it isn't your best album and it certainly isn't groundbreaking or anything. Not with lyrics like "punching in the numbers at the ATM machine", "stop helping God across the road like a little old lady” and "its not if I believe in love, If love believes in me". Despite this, 'No Line On The Horizon' has its moments - this is, after all, U2 we're talking about here. Tracks like 'Fez – Being Born' (probably the most experimental of the lot), 'Breathe', 'White As Snow' and 'Cedars Of Lebanon' are quite impressive, while 'Magnificent' is a right old tear-jerker. Don't read too much into current single 'Get On Your Boots' - its not indicative of the reat of the album. Overall 'No Line On The Horizon' is a pretty good, if not magnificent, record and it will most certainly inject some much needed cash into a struggling music industry that has been hit badly by the relative failures of high budget current albums by Guns'n'Roses, R.E.M. and, erm, Ashlee Simpson...