Unknown Caller - Reception and Legacy

Reception and Legacy

"Unknown Caller" received mixed reviews from critics. Rolling Stone described The Edge's guitar solo as "a straightforward, elegiac break with a worn, notched edge to his treble tone", while likening Bono's chorus chant of "Shout for joy if you get the chance" to the band's 1979 song "Out of Control", noting that " is still singing about singing." Reviewer Brian Hiatt noted that the song would have worked well on All That You Can't Leave Behind. Q described the song's placement in the opening half of the album as "the U2 of wide-open spaces, of sweeping mountain valleys, and of Edge's signature chiming guitar lines." Mojo felt that bassist Adam Clayton's playing was largely responsible for the song's "evocation of both frigidity and tenderness", noting the transition from the French horn to The Edge's guitar solo was "as exalted as any U2 music gets." Blender felt that Bono "reache Bowie-in-Berlin levels of arty alienation," and labelled the guitar playing in the song the best from the album, while the New York Times believed it would be a "likely arena singalong" live. Uncut likened the song to the band's 1984 single "Pride (In the Name of Love)", describing it as "the most dramatic bait-and-switch on a record riddled with them – a gentle Edge guitar figure and birdsong an unlikely foundation for the gradual erection of a terrifically unabashed stadium epic." Musician Gavin Friday described the song as "a new age 'Bad'", and Hot Press editor Niall Stokes called the song "another U2 classic".

Allmusic was not a fan of the song, stating "when U2, Eno, and Lanois push too hard — the ill-begotten techno-speak overload of "Unknown Caller"... — the ideas collapse like a pyramid of cards... turning it into a murky muddle." NME believed that the lyrics were No Line on the Horizon's greatest weakpoint, citing "Unknown Caller"'s chorus of "Force quit and move to trash" and "Restart and reboot yourself" as being inspired by Bono's computer. Pitchfork Media stated that the song was "a wash of shameless U2-isms," noting that some of the guitar parts were very similar to those of "Walk On".

"Unknown Caller" is the opening track in the Anton Corbijn film Linear, based on a story by Corbijn and Bono where a Parisian traffic cop travels across France and the Mediterranean Sea to visit his girlfriend in Tripoli. The opening sequence shows a scene of Paris at dusk, before moving on to a journey through the city streets. It ends at the traffic cop's home, where the next track, "Breathe", begins. "Unknown Caller" has been used in ESPN television commercials advertising the 2010 FIFA World Cup, along with several other U2 songs.