UPDATE: Here’s Steve Lillywhite talking about No Line on the Horizon at NPR.
If you’re a U2 fan, you’re in for a treat. Fan club members will receive a two-disc set of rarities called U2:Medium, Rare and Remastered.
Here’s the track listing:
(more…)
U2′s upcoming tour is going to be something concertgoers haven’t seen before.
Check it out here. Be sure to use the different “cameras” listed in the corner.
Okay, now that you’ve seen the best, here’s a bonus.
And now, check out Cathleen Falsani’s wonderful meditation on the album.
Okay, one more.
“Every generation gets a chance to change the world
Pity the nation that won’t listen to your boys and girls
Cos the sweetest melody is the one we haven’t heard
Is it true that perfect love drives out all fear?
The right to appear ridiculous is something I hold dear
Oh, but a change of heart comes slow…
It’s not a hill, it’s a mountain
As you start out the climb
Do you believe me, or are you doubting?
We’re gonna make it all the way to the light…”
I’m actually more excited about hearing *this* album, due to Bono’s description (which, as most U2 fans know, usually isn’t, um, precise):
U2 just released its first album since 2004 this week, but the Irish rock band is already planning a quickie follow-up for next year.
The new disc will be called “Songs of Ascent,” and it will be more mellow than the current album, “No Line on the Horizon,” singer Bono says in a cover story in the latest issue of Rolling Stone magazine.
And in the Rolling Stone article:
True to form, Bono already has a plan for the first single from the band’s next album. RS uncovered details of that project, described as “a sister release to No Line on the Horizon, a Zooropa to its Achtung Baby,” which could arrive within the year.
Bono already knows the title — Songs of Ascent — and the first single, a surging anthem called “Every Breaking Wave” that was left off No Line at the last minute. Songs of Ascent will be quieter than No Line; in many ways, it’s that ghost album of hymns and Sufi singing. “We’re making a kind of heartbreaker, a meditative, reflective piece of work, but not indulgent,” Bono says. “It will all have a clear mood, like Kind of Blue. Or A Love Supreme would be a point of reference, for the space it occupies in people’s lives, which is to say, with that album, I almost take my shoes off to listen to it.”
So… there *is* a line on U2′s horizon. And Spider-man’s swinging on it.
Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark is coming, Julie Taymor’s new stage musical, with music and lyrics by Bono and the Edge.
The $40 million effort, reportedly the most expensive Broadway production ever, will make its debut in the Hilton Theatre, the only venue big enough to allow the superhero room to spin his way around the sprawling skyscraper sets while duking it out with various bad guys.
This time, it’s legitimate.
MySpace has made the new U2 album available, in its entirety, for U2 fans worldwide.
And because this isn’t an accident, or an illegal leak, those U2 fans who care about the band’s plans and wishes can listen with a clear conscience.
Me, I’m old-fashioned. I miss the old Release Day tradition, when fans lined up at the store, held the packaging in their hands, opened it up like a Christmas present, and listened TOGETHER, instead of in the isolation of their headphones.
So I’m going to wait until March 3, or whenever the album actually arrives in my hands. But the right to be ridiculous is something I hold dear.
Oh well. It’s out there. It’s a beautiful day. Don’t let it get away.