The mystery involving a new studio album from U2 has gotten a little deeper, thanks to the band’s longtime producer Daniel Lanois, via Globe and Mail music reporter Brad Wheeler. In a series of Twitter messages, the writer has been recounting some details Lanois shared with him about the project, the follow-up to the band’s 2009 release, No Line on the Horizon.
Lanois reportedly isn’t involved in the album, but has promised that what he’s heard from the project “sounds ‘amazing’ and ‘big,’ with some Achtung Baby adventurism.”
Here’s where we pump the brakes. Every time a band or their inner circle starts talking about going “back to their roots” or promising grandeur on level with their most recognizable/beloved/successful album, a firm skeptic’s eyebrow must be cocked. We’ve heard it all before.
Back in March we outlined Danger Mouse’s involvement in the sound experiments that have formed the foundation for the next record, and for his part Lanois tells Wheeler he didn’t mind sitting this one out, noting, “I don’t know if I’d survive the experiment.” It is worth noting, however, that some of the tracks are reportedly left over from Lanois’ previous sessions with U2.
Lanois has added the promising detail that Bono’s voice is sounding strong and beautiful on the new material, adding, “He makes me jealous. Those barrel-chested Irish tenors.”
“He’s on it. He’s excited,” bassist Adam Clayton says of Danger Mouse’s involvement. “It’s a great team and feels very liberating at the moment — anything goes. We have an abundance of riches, we could make three or four different records and justify that to ourselves, but to make the best record you can, you have to steer away from the ones you can make easily. We’re really trying to get into territory that we’re not comfortable in. If that makes sense…”
Bono has gone on record as well calling the upcoming album a special one, and vital to the presence of the band in the world today. “They’re mad for it at the moment and they really want to make a new record,” he said of his bandmates. “And they don’t care if it takes 10 years – they don’t care if it never happens again, they just want to get it right. Within the band we’ve been calling it ’10 Reasons To Exist’ – but I will tell you we might have at least six of them.”
Last July, Bono made some promising comments about the band’s creative progress, tantalizing fans with the news that U2 had the “best three weeks in the studio” in over three decades. While insisting that there’s “no sense of entitlement” amongst the band, Bono shared that “We’ve had the best three weeks in the studio since 1979,” he said. “I think they [the other band members] are very aware that U2 have to do something very special to have a reason to exist right now.”
