Next U2 album pushed to early 2009

Thursday, Sep 04, 2008

By Jonathan Cohen

NEW YORK (Billboard) - Initially expected this fall as a fourth-quarter blockbuster, U2's next album has been pushed to early 2009 while the band continues to write and record material.

"I thought a while back we might have the album wrapped by now, but why come up above ground now if there's more priceless stuff to be found?," frontman Bono writes on U2.com (http://www.u2.com).

Of late, the group has been recording in the south of France, having already logged time in Fez and Dublin with longtime collaborators Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Steve Lillywhite.

'We know we have to emerge soon but we also know that people don't want another U2 album unless it is our best ever album," Bono says. "It has to be our most innovative, our most challenging ... or what's the point ?"

Bono says the band now was "50 or 60" new songs to consider for inclusion on the follow-up to 2004's Grammy-winning album of the year "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb."

"The last two records were very personal, with a kind of three piece at their heart, the primary colours of rock -- bass, guitars and drum," he says. "But what we're about now is of the same order as the transition that took us from 'The Joshua Tree' to 'Achtung Baby.'"

Among the songs in the mix are "Get on Your Boots," "For Your Love," "Breathe," "No Line on the Horizon" and the eight-minute "Moment of Surrender."

Reuters/Billboard

U2 Bono pumps up the volume on new songs

Tuesday, Aug 19, 2008

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Rock stars may have to rein in their taste for loud music after a fan overheard U2 frontman Bono listening to tracks from the group's forthcoming album and recorded them before posting the songs on the Internet.

The fan heard the music blaring out of the Irish rocker's holiday home in the south of France, recorded it on his mobile phone and posted four tracks on video-sharing website YouTube, newspapers and music websites reported on Tuesday.

The previously unheard songs had now been removed from the website for copyright reasons but continuned to circulate via email, the Irish Independent newspaper said.

Nobody at U2's record label could immediately be reached for comment on the reports.

The quality of the recording was said to be poor, with the noise of waves and seagulls audible in the background.

(Reporting by Paul Hoskins)