You can tune in to 2XM on DAB digital radio sets in the Greater Dublin area, Cork and Limeric, or online at www.rte.ie/digitalradio.

It’s always hard to tell from random 30-second clips, but early favourites for me are: the title track, Moment of Surrender, Cedars of Lebanon and Fez-Being Born. YMMV.

What are you waiting for? Have a listen and let us know what you think.

U2 have uncovered the sleeve, tracklisting and formats of their new album ‘No Line on the Horizon’ and the single ‘Get On Your Boots’ on their official website.

‘Get On Your Boots’ will be released as a digital download on February 15th and a physical format will follow on February 16th.

The statement on the website continues:

“Produced by Brian Eno, Danny Lanois and Steve Lillywhite, sessions for No Line On The Horizon began in Fez, Morocco, and continued at the band’s Dublin studio, New York’s Platinum Sound Recording Studios, and London’s Olympic Studios.

Released on March 2nd (March 3rd in the US), the album will come in a standard format with 24 page booklet and in digipak format. The digipak includes an extended booklet and the album’s companion film “Linear” by Anton Corbijn. A limited edition 64 page magazine will also be available, featuring the band in conversation with artist Catherine Owens, and new Anton Corbijn photographs. No Line On The Horizon will be released on 180gm vinyl. (More on the formats below)

The album cover artwork is an image of the sea meeting the sky by Japanese artist and photographer Hiroshi Sugimoto.”

Here’s the full track listing:

1. No Line On The Horizon
2. Magnificent
3. Moment of Surrender
4. Unknown Caller
5. I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight
6. Get On Your Boots
7. Stand Up Comedy
8. Fez – Being Born
9. White As Snow
10. Breathe
11. Cedars Of Lebanon

No Line On The Horizon will be available in five formats;

• Standard jewel case – with album CD and 24 page booklet (Amazon)
• Digipak format – limited edition with album CD, 32 page colour booklet and fold out poster. Features access to exclusive downloadable Anton Corbijn film. (Amazon)
• Magazine format – limited edition with album CD, with 64 page magazine. Features access to exclusive downloadable Anton Corbijn film. (Amazon)
• Box format – limited edition bespoke box containing digipak format album CD, DVD of Anton Corbijn’s exclusive film, 64 page hardback book, plus a fold out poster. (Amazon)
• LP vinyl – limited edition with 2 black vinyl discs, gatefold sleeve, and a 16 page booklet. (Amazon)

Radio release

Not mentioned in U2′s press release is the single’s radio premiere, which will take place this Monday (January 19th) at 8.10am GMT on The Colm & Jim-Jim Show on RTÉ 2fm, in Ireland. Dave Fanning will play the new single and he will be talking to Colm and Jim-Jim from 7.30am about ‘previous U2 albums, his relationship with the band and memories of one of the greatest bands in the world today’. You can listen to the show online on RTE.ie.

U2tour.de has details on radio premieres in various European countries.

New on U2.com (subscribers only), a video of Gavin Friday explaining what the symbols on U2′s whiteboard mean. Friday, as U2 fans will know, is the band’s preferred ‘midwife’, and helped deliver U2′s new baby via caesarian.

We’re amused by the note on ‘Moment of Surrender’ at the top of the board. It reads ‘Brian would like to talk about this’. From what we’ve heard, Eno – not a fan of brevity, perhaps – fought for a 9-minute version of the mix, instead of the 7’12″ version the band preferred. That might be what the note referred to.

Here’s a list of what’s written on the board, as deciphered by the U2FL blog:

1. No Line on the Horizon / 4:11 / Finished / Cenzo Mix – The Biz!
2. Get on Your Boots / 3:25 / Nearly finished / A few touches up on new Dec mix
3. Moment of Surrender / 7:12 / Nearly finished (Brian would like to talk about this.) / Bono- Vox > End? Edge – Piano Bass is eating up song? 3rd verse Eno idea
4. Unknown Caller / 6:06 / Finished / Great Just need [más cosas escritas]
5. Magnificent / 5:44 / Nearly finished / New Eno Version – Mix Debate [más cosas escritas]
6. Stand Up (Comedy) / ?:?? / Finished / Steve Mix Poss. tweaks [más cosas escritas]
7. Every Breaking Wave / 4:13 / Priority to finish / Vocals TBC – Possible drums [más cosas escritas]
8. Breathe / 4:42 / Second in priority / Bono – Vox > The ‘Dec’ Mix debate
9. Crazy Tonight / 4:16 / Priority to finish / Vocals – TBC New gtrs to be added. [más cosas escritas]
10. ?orn (Prov.) / 5:58 / Nearly finished / Intro to be decided on? New Eno Edits + treatment
11. Cedars of Lebanon / ?:?? / Finished / * Extended edit debate Needs approval?

Whether this list is what the album’s final tracklisting is going to look like remains to be seen. From what I recall, this footage was shot some time during the last week of November and the first week of December.

Amazon is listing five different versions of U2′s new album ‘No Line on the Horizon’.

Two of the versions mentions a ‘film download’. This should refer to a film the Dutch photographer and director Anton Corbijn shot for the album.

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.)

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.

“‘We wanted to give it some variety. There is some dark, heavy stuff but there are also some lighter things. Some we’ve really had to sweat to get and some just came so easily.” Work-in-progress highlights include “f—k-off live rocker” “Breathe”; “For Your Love,” which Edge says is one of his best-ever riffs; and the aforementioned “Get On Your Boots” (“Eddie Cochran with barbershop harmonies”). Other notable tracks include the eight-minute-long “Moment Of Surrender” and “No Line On The Horizon,” inspired by a distortion box called Death By Audio recommended by ex-Secret Machines guitarist Ben Curtis.”

The article suggests the band is still unsure whether to release the album pre- or post Christmas.

Read the full story at U2france.com.