Dates set for release of new U2 album

IT HAS been a long time coming, but finally a date has been set for the new album from U2.

The Irish release date for the group’s 12th studio album, No Line On The Horizon, is February 27th. The worldwide release is March 3rd.

It is the first collection of new material since late 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb.

The album has had an unusually long gestation period. Initial recordings commenced in September 2006 with US producer Rick Rubin (who was responsible for the renewed critical reappraisal of Johnny Cash and, latterly, Neil Diamond), but it is understood most if not all of these recordings have been shelved. The parting of the ways between U2 and Rubin is said to have been amicable.

Sessions for No Line On The Horizon commenced in 2007, in the band’s own studio in Dublin and thereafter in Fez, Morocco, New York and, in November, London. A hiccup in the release schedule occurred earlier this year when some of the songs made their way on to the internet after Bono played them loudly on his hi-fi system in his south of France home and an eager fan recorded and uploaded them. The sound was of such poor quality, however, no one paid much notice.

The album title refers to, loosely speaking, a Zen image of infinity. “When you’re moving forward, but you’re not sure what you’re heading towards – that moment where the sea and the sky blend into one,” was how the band’s guitarist, The Edge, described it to a UK music magazine.

While the full track listing has not yet been announced, at least three songs – according to music industry bible Billboard – have been mentioned as being on the album: title track Unknown Caller, and Moment Of Surrender, which has been described as a “21st-century, seven-minute-plus grooveathon”.

U2 plan to tour next year in support of the album, but no Irish dates have yet been announced.