Rock - The Biggest Band In The World (and many would argue the best) return with their first studio LP in 5 years, and it will probably be #1 in at least two dozen countries when it drops. Crazy, isn't it, that a band could be so epic? So important to so many people, so good for so long? In over 30 years together, U2 have released eleven albums and not a single bad one in the bunch. The output is at worst, average and at best... well, you've heard 'em, right? So the question is simply one of how good No Line on the Horizon will be, and what it will sound like.

Sean O'Hagan, from the UK's music monthly TheObserver, followed the band for 18 months during the recording process of ...Horizonand has probably heard more of the album than anyone who wasn't involved in making it. O'Hagan writes, "It sees the world's biggest band challenging themselves - and their audience's expectations - in a way that they have not done since the 90s' experimentation of Achtung Baby and Zooropa...a big, overloaded, creatively risky record." The sonic variety of the material is apparent from readingRolling Stone'sfirst impressionsof the album. Some intriguing song descriptions include "blazing, fuzzed-out rocker," "this strikingly experimental song lurches between disparate styles, including near-operatic choral music,Zooropa-style electronics, and churning arena rock,""an instant U2 anthem," "aJoshua Tree-style gospel feel with a hypnotically loping bass line and a syncopated beat," "a swelling soul-pop song, with bright synth sounds influenced by OMD." To this diversity, factor in the influence of three powerhouse producers - Steve Lillywhite, Daniel Lanois, and Brian Eno - and Bono's new lyrical approach: "I just got tired of the first-person so I invented all these characters; a traffic cop, a junkie, a soldier serving in Afghanistan."

Clearly the music on the new albumgoes in many directions, but does it ever converge?Will there be enough besides their proximity to one another to make these disparate songs intoa great album?Bono said of the group's last LP, 2004'sHow To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, "There are no weak songs. But as an album, the whole isn't greater than the sum of its parts, and it fucking annoys me." Surely Bono wouldn't piss himself off twice in a row? We'll just have to wait and see what's on The Horizon.

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U2 - "Get On Your Boots" (From No Line On The Horizon)