U2 announces new album ‘No Line on the Horizon’

Mark your calendars! U2.com reports that ‘No Line on the Horizon’, the new studio album from U2, will be released on Monday 2nd March, 2009.

They write:

Written and recorded in various locations, No Line On The Horizon is the group’s 12th studio album and is their first release since the 9 million selling album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, released in late 2004.

Sessions for No Line On The Horizon began last year in Fez, Morocco, continued in the band’s own studio in Dublin, before moving to New York’s Platinum Sound Recording Studios, and finally being completed at Olympic Studios in London.

The album calls on the production talents of long-time collaborators Brian Eno and Danny Lanois, with additional production by Steve Lillywhite.

Billboard runs the story and has a quote from a ‘source’ who heard songs in their early forms: “…amazing and a little out there. I hope they don’t change anything.” (Read more.)

U2’s new album set for ‘early 2009’ release

U2.com reveals the new album won’t see the light of day until next year. The band has decided to continue working on the 50 to 60 new songs they’ve written.

Bono: ‘I’m always the one who underestimates how easy it is to simply ‘put out the songs now’, if it was just up to me they’d be out already! But early next year people will be able to start hearing what we’ve been doing. We want 2009 to be our year, so we’re going to start making an impression very early on …’

Up till now many fans had assumed a 2008 release in time for Christmas. Says Bono: “It has to be our most innovative, our most challenging … or what’s the point?”

Read more at U2.com.

U2 album re-release dates

U2tour.de has pried some information from the German branch of Universal, concerning release dates for various remastered albums.

The upcoming release dates are:

6th june: Boy, October
20th june: War, Under a blood red sky

Keep in mind that these are release dates for Germany, where CDs in general are released on Friday. U2tour.de speculate this could mean 9th/23rd june for the UK, and 10th/24th for the US.

All albums will be released in the following formats:
Single-cd-version, double-cd-deluxe-version, vinyl.

There will also be another DVD, ‘Live at Red Rocks” which is slated some time in July.

Do you hear what I hear?

As in years past we at U2log.com are excited to keep our tradition alive by bringing you some goodies to keep you company through the holiday season and into the new year.

This year we are pleased to share with you some rare gems from our vinyl vault. But before we open the vault we would like to present you with the following message.

It was 20 years ago today:

  • Vicki Iovine introduces A Very Special Christmas, taken from a US cassette promo.
  • An edited version of Christmas (Baby Please Come Home), taken from that same promo.

From the vinyl vault:

  • I Will Follow (Special Edited DJ Version), from a UK 7″ promo.
  • An edited version of Fire, from a UK 7″ promo.
  • An edited version of Gloria, from a UK 7″ promo.
  • An insanely rare edited version of Gloria, from an Argentine 7″ promo.

These downloads will be available for a limited time only. A big thank you goes out to our friend Rajiv Udani for providing some of these rarities!

Merry Christmas!

Trent Reznor does Sunday Bloody Sunday

Nine Inch Nail’s Trent Reznor has teamed up with hip hop poet Saul Williams to produce the fabulously titled album ‘The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of NiggyTardust!’

The album contains a cover of U2’s Sunday Bloody Sunday. You can listen to the song on Williams’ MySpace.

Reznor and Williams have decided to follow into Radiohead’s footsteps by making the album available for free, or for 5 dollars, which ever you decide. You can choose to get either a 192kps MP3 version, a 320kbps MP3 version or lossless FLAC version. Hello! I think I hear a round of applause. “All files are 100% DRM free, and can be played on any device. MP3s are encoded with LAME v3.97 and love.” Amen.

Saul Williams on the choice of song:

I was an exchange student to Brazil when I was 16. Up until that point
in my life the ONLY music I listened to was Hip Hop. That year away
was pivotal, not only because I was at the heights of puberty in
Brazil….but also because it exposed me to more music than I ever
cared to listen to: along with all the Brazillian music which I still
treasure: Sinead O’Conner. Morrisey. New Order. Depeche Mode. And
definitely U2. The first time I heard Sunday Bloody Sunday, I was in a
club in Manaus which is a city in the middle of the Amazon. When I
heard those drums come through the speakers I was hooked. I think they
had played Blue Monday right before it. The kids were going wild. I
remember watching this dude dance, wishing I was as cool as him. That
song stuck with me. I suggested it to Trent as a possible cover
thinking he would hate it as an obvious choice. He loved the idea and
started working on the music immediately. The only music I added to
his composition ( aside from my O O O O Ode to Beyonce…..just
kidding) was the 808s. What’s the use of a hip hop head covering a
famous rock song without using 808s?

Continue reading

U2 Prepping Joshua Tree 20th Anniversary Edition

U2 Joshua Tree

Only 20 years young, U2 are re-releasing The Joshua Tree to celebrate its birthday:

Though the always-exciting format details are still trickling in, we know this: new liner notes abound, and the CD/DVD combo contains five portfolio prints, whatever that might mean. The DVD supposedly sports both film from a July 1987 show at Paris’ Hippodrome and the documentary Outside It’s America, but, again, that’s tentative.

It’s set for release November 20th.

via PitchForkMedia.com