U2 Album Coming Out In October, Or On New Year’s Day, Or At Some Other Undetermined Date

Because I’m assisting our Idolators from a location far from the shmancy “Mac” computers at the Idolator flophouse, I don’t have access to the macro that brings up the “the next album from [blank artist] has been delayed until [blank date]” template for quick-posting. So I guess I’ll just have to write this up by hand: According to Bono, the next U2 album–previously scheduled for release later this year, and a major component of UMG’s 2008Q4 business plan–has been delayed to some vague date in “early 2009”.

Maybe the feedback he got from the “leak” of four tracks from the album was not as positive as he expected? Who knows, but reading the statement the U2 frontman published on his band’s official site, I think Bono may be getting ready for a future in American politics. After all, it’s very diplomatic–and full of lies:

‘We’ve hit a rich songwriting vein and we don’t want to stop.’ Bono has been talking to U2.Com about how the songs are shaping up for the new record and plans for 2009 to be their year.

‘This is our chance for us to defy gravity once again,’ explains Bono, calling in from a break in recording sessions in the south of France. ‘We have what it takes, we have the songs, new rhythms and a guitar player who is not ready to re-enter earth’s atmosphere until he’s taken a slice of the moon!

‘It’s been fun, it’s been maddening… there have been injuries and recoveries, no babies born that I know of, but this one is nearly ready for the new year of 2009.’

The band have been writing and recording the follow-up to ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’ since last year, and the feeling is that they’ve hit a creative groove so there are no plans to stop. Everyone, he says, is excited about where the recording is taking them.

‘When we set out on this record it was Larry who came up with the plan not to have a plan.

He put up this idea that wouldn’t it be great just to make music for its own sake, not for the purpose of a live show or on album but just to see what we’re capable of…’

It’s an idea that’s paid off. Following sessions in Morocco, in Dublin and through the summer in France, the band have written ‘fifty or sixty’ tracks. And counting.

‘We’ve hit a rich songwriting vein,’ he explains. ‘It gets a bit dark down here but looks like we’ve found diamonds not coal. I thought a while back we might have the album wrapped by now, but why come up above ground now if there’s more priceless stuff to be found?

For now, they’re keeping a promise they made to themselves when they started writing: ‘We said to each other that if we got to the great place then we wouldn’t stop…’

So the writing and recording continues and while they now know what shape most of the album will take, they’re not leaving the studio just yet.

‘We know we have to emerge soon but we also know that people don’t want another U2 album unless it is our best ever album. It has to be our most innovative, our most challenging… or what’s the point ?’

Sure, Bono insists that the delay is due to the band wanting to make the record freakin’ awesome, but one can’t help but wonder if someone in the UMG hierarchy (Doug Morris? Jermaine Dupri? Pete Wentz’s dog?) heard many of these “fifty or sixty” tracks–and, most importantly, the four tracks that “leaked” earlier this summer–and, upon not hearing any U2-level hits, said “no, this record is too important to our bottom line in these times of ever-decreasing CD sales. Get your arses back in the studio and KEEP WORKING!!!”

We Want 2009 To Be Our Year [U2.com] Next U2 Album Pushed To Early 2009 [Billboard]