Released 27 February 2009 Length 4:09 | Genre Rock Label Island | |
Writer(s) U2 (music), Bono (lyrics) Producer(s) Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno | ||
"Cedars of Lebanon" is a song by the rock band U2. It is the eleventh and final track on their 2009 album No Line on the Horizon. It is sung in the character of a war correspondent who is "squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline" and who "observes "this shitty world" where the aroma of a rose "lingers and then it just goes". The song samples producer Brian Eno's own "Against the Sky" from his 1984 album The Pearl.
Reception
In a review of the album, Jon Pareles of The New York Times called the song "a somber meditation on war, separation and enmity". Comparing the song with "Moment of Surrender" on the same album, NME reviewer Ben Patashnik described "Cedars of Lebanon" as "similarly downbeat but no-less-enthralling", and said that the song "is buoyed by Larry Mullen Jr's martial drumming and a twinkling guitar". The Sydney Morning Herald called the song a "masterful closer", and said that the "backing vocals, ambient noises and restraint seal a deal alongside the atmosphere of philosophical weariness."