The following is a collection of KNOWN information on the
current U2 project. It has been compiled from the U2News
archives and will be constantly updated from now until the
release of the new album.

This file can be viewed at,

http://www.youtwo.net/newalbuminfo.html

If you have information to add to this page, please email
prarit@... or cindy@....


Title:

The title of the new album is unknown. Rumours have
persisted that the title will be Drive (debunked several months
ago), and Rather Go Blind (which was a suggestion for a title
made in a newsgroup). Bono recently said in an interview that
the album still did not have a name, however, that the band did
have a few ideas.

Release Date:

March 20: Paul McGuinness has confirmed that the new album
is due in September (from an interview in The Irish Echo)

March 8: Conflicting reports have surfaced that the album will
be released in September or October. A JAM! report mentions
that the first single from the album may be ready for delivery in
September, while an NME article states that the album will not
be ready until October. Both articles quote sources close to
the band.

Adam Clayton has said in a recent encounter with a fan, that
he expects the album to be completed by June.

During an interview with Irish DJ Dave Fanning, Bono mentioned
that the album would be released mid-September to
mid-October of 2000. Bono and Paul McGuinness have said
repeatedly that U2 would not tour in 2000, and to expect a tour
in early 2001.

Producers:

Brian Eno and Canadian Daniel Lanois, the duo behind
Unforgettable Fire, The Joshua Tree, and Achtung Baby.

Song Titles/Stories about/(Snippets of) Lyrics:

Bulldozer
(Larry says that this song is his favorite so far)

Elevation
(Features Larry Mullen on Bass)

In A Little While
(Bono has mentioned that this song has a Gospel feel to it)

"In a little while/This hurt will be no more/oh Lord"

Kite
(Bono has said that this song is about flying a kite with his
children)

The Ground Beneath Her Feet (may not be on album)

"All my life, I worshipped her.
Her golden voice, her beauty's beat.
How she made us feel,
how she made me real,
and the ground beneath her feet.

And now I can't be sure of anything,
black is white, and cold is heat;
for what I worshipped
stole my love away,
it was the ground beneath her feet.

Go lightly down your darkened way,
go lightly underground,
I'll be down there in another day,
I won't rest until you're found.

Let me love you true, let me rescue you,
let me bring you to where two roads meet.
Oh come back above,
where there's only love,
and the ground's beneath your feet.

My oh my (10 times)

Let me love you true, let me rescue you,
let me bring you to where two roads meet.

Let me love you true, let me rescue you,
let me bring you to where two roads meet.

My oh my (6 times) "

Sun, The Moon and The Stars
(Bono has said that this song is a "summer song")

Stuck In a Moment You Can't Get Out Of
(This song is about Bono and Ali's children's Nanny who
passed away after a fight with cancer)

Tough
(Inspired by Bono's father)

Origin of Species

Untitled (These lyrics were penned by Bono at
a Jubilee 2000 event, in Trafalgar Square, London,
England)

"Never know your place
Slow down to win the race
It's not real estate it's space
It's not karma, it's grace
That will get you where you're going"


Quotes:

"Our problem is that we love starting things and hate finishing
them. 'We have 15 of the best U2 songs ever written, but we
get bored with the technical side of things such as finishing the
lyrics" - Bono, The Sun

The following is from the Bono Online Chat on March 12, 2000.
Bono's replies are presented as "bono_live":

rockstar_79 asks: I've heard that the forthcoming U2 album is a
return to a more acoustic style. Any truth to that, or are you
going to make us wait and see?

bono_live: We have no reverse gears on our tank.
bono_live: So the idea of "a return" to basics is not on the
cards.
bono_live: We advance towards simplicity.
bono_live: We advance towards a stripped down sound.
bono_live: That is the essence of U2.
bono_live: On pop we're interested in assimilating the music we
were all listening to in clubs, at home, at house parties...
bono_live: with the music U2 made as a band.
bono_live: On this record, it's not about assimilation, it's about
differentiation.
bono_live: Stressing the differences between dance music, club
culture, and being in a band.
bono_live: There is stuff that we can do that no DJ can touch.
bono_live: And vica versa.
bono_live: It was a DJ, Howie B, who was listening to us
rehearse on the last tour, who kept reminding us how unique
the band was.
bono_live: ANd how we didn't need to connect with a hip hop or
a dance audience. That within both, there was a U2 audience.
bono_live: That U2 was an original of the species at a time of
karaoke, at a time of parody and pastiche.
bono_live: That gave us the confidence to make this next
record.
bono_live: A record I don't have a name for.
bono_live: But I dare anyone to make a better rock record this
year.
bono_live: What do you think Edge? Edge says, Right on!
bono_live: Daniel Lanois, what do you think? I'm going to put
you onto Daniel Lanois? As Bob Marley would say, he's the
dread at the controls.o
bono_live: Don't ask too personal questions....
bono_live: D. Lanois: Hello! We're here celebrating!
bono_live: I guess we have something to live up to after that
comment! We're well on our way!
bono_live: We certainly are going to give it our best, we have a
lot of inspiration already in play, and now we need to flesh them
out.
bono_live: It's usually a combination of fun and hard work.
bono_live: We've had fun, we have more hard work ahead of us.

yahoomusic: Are you going for a very specific sound on this
album?
bono_live: Personally, I'm very selfish about the approach. I
wanted to make sure we heard Larry on the record.
bono_live: The presence of hand played drums is very important
in these times of canned beats and easy access to them.
bono_live: What's become a rare commodity is the presence of
humanity and the feeling of people in a room playing off each
other.
bono_live: We want to make sure we get that. Of course, the
technology is there and is part of the technologoy.
bono_live: But when you got four people in a room who can give
it hell, we want to get it on the hard drive!

"A bit more back to basics. No Machines." - Paul
McGuinness, Irish Echo

"Typically U2, with white soul, gospel, hardcore, hip hop." -
Bono, Launch

"We're going to finish a record in a few months, and I dare
anyone to make a better rock record this year." - Bono,Il
Messagero

"Definitely our best work to date." - Bono, RTE

"[Oasis and Radiohead are] the other good bands out there."
But added, "They're the boys, but we're the men." - Bono, RTE

"[We are] trying to preserve the recording of the band as a
unit. I'd like to think that we are making the greatest U2 record
we've ever made ... Bono already does think that!" - Adam
Clayton, Propaganda

"It's not plastic. It's not silk. It's heavier than that...It's titanium
soul...It's like a Beatles record, in that every song feels like a
single. They're tunes rather than just ideas. There's no
storytelling or artifice." - Bono, USA Today

"It's really simple, and it's the most raw record - it's just wide
open emotionally...We've got to the point where it doesn't
matter if we push out the borders of embarrassment. There's no
fireworks on it. It's just a really intimate record played by a rock
'n' roll band." - Edge, Heat Magazine(UK)

"It's the sound of four people playing in a room--four people who
have known each other all their lives. You have no choice of
subject matter. You write what's in your heart and on your
mind--unless, of course, it's crap, which means you thought
about it too much." - Bono, Online Chat for Jubilee2000

"It's time to make a record that is very direct and is about
exactly what's going on--however cool or uncool that might be.
It's time, at this point in the week, in the century, in the
millennium, it's time for actually no pose, no poise--just rock,
uncool. That's really what I think we're gonna make. I have this
idea in my head, just to write as if you're dead--because when
you're dead, you know, you don't care what people think and
just go and say what you have to say." - Bono, MTV

"We've decided to write the tunes before we record them this
time. For years we've gone into the studio deliberately not
knowing what we were doing, and I think this time we wanna
make a record as a band, as a quartet. We wanna make a
really uncool record--raw--that sort of feels like we've gotta do.
And we don't wanna be in a crap band, you know, and it's got
to be a great record or we won't be a band." - Bono, Hot Press
Awards
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