Sunday, August 31, 2014

Where the streets have no people, thanks to U2 shoot

DUBLIN city council has confirmed that the Samuel Beckett bridge was closed to the public last weekend for a U2 video shoot.
A senior official at the council said the bridge was inaccessible for almost all of last Sunday to enable filming on a “U2 project” but members of the rock group were not present.
The confirmation follows a week of speculation over the nature of secretive filming on the Liffey bridge last weekend which caused traffic delays. Trucks and black sheets were strategically placed to obscure what was happening from public view. The council refused to divulge the reason for the closure and there were rumours of a project linked to U2’s long-anticipated 13th studio album, an advertisement for Guinness or a video for an unkown band.

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

U2 New Album 2014: ‘Bono Sings Better Than Ever,’ Says Former Band Manager; Classic Hitmakers Back With New Tracks Before December?

It is confirmed! U2 will be releasing a new album this 2014.
After some speculations about the delay of their next album (because they needed more time to sit down with producers Ryan Tedder and Paul Epworth) the band's spokesperson shared a strong pronouncement to Rolling Stone"We've always said an album is expected this year."
Now we are juggling between the September and November release of U2's new album as various sources mark their sole judgments. According to The Sun, "the new album will drop before the end of the year, most likely in November."
As per the Universal Music Venezuela and Universal Music Columbia on the other hand, the album will be coming out in September as they tweet: "The new U2 album will be called 'Sirens' and will be released in September." Such leaked details were since taken down by the band's label.
Another source of the Irish Times also mentioned that a single will be out in September, followed by the announcement of tour dates in December.  
Proving that a new album is now shaping up, U2 was recently caught filming an upcoming single at the Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin as well. With this, a music insider quoted in the Independent says "Here has been talk of them going back to their roots and filming something in the capital for the new album as they love to use Dublin as a backdrop for their music,"
While U2's new album hasn't landed on a definite release date yet, the band's previous manager Paul McGuinness teased that their songs may have a different feel this time but Bono's singing prowess hasn't changed a bit: "It's great. It's very different from what they have done so far but still sounds like U2. Bono sings better than ever. As he gets older his voice is even more interesting."
What genre are they now working on? Are they going to take us back to the classics "With or Without You", "Ordinary Love", "Sunday Bloody Sunday", and "Beautiful Day"? Or will they continue incorporating pop music influences?
The band's last release was in 2009, No Line on the Horizon, which also came out 5 years after How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. The sales soared high after its release but eventually declined.  
Watch out for more updates about U2's new album this 2014.

Friday, August 15, 2014

Daniel Lanois: U2's new album 'amazing'

Like U2’s legion of fans, Daniel Lanois is also eagerly anticipating the release of the Irish band's long-delayed 13th studio album.
But the seven-time Grammy-winning producer, who isn't in the fold this time around, says people can expect a top-notch record (rumoured to be produced by Danger Mouse) when it finally sees the light of day.
"Bono played me the new record a year ago, and I heard some amazing things then," Lanois told QMI Agency. "I can only imagine what they've done between then and now. I can't wait to hear it myself."
The as-yet-untitled album was originally scheduled for an April release, before it was bumped to summer. According to the Irish Times, there are rumblings that a new crop of tunes may be out in September or October.
Lanois suggests there is a big reason for the slow pace of the group: "They are very smart people with great expectations from themselves, and they've probably gotten to a place that's striking and powerful."
He admits that he's happy that he's not hammering it out in the studio with them.
"I'm glad I didn't do the record this time around because I don't think I would have survived," he laughed. "And they might not have survived either."

Thursday, August 14, 2014

U2 Buzz: New Album Out Sooner Than Expected?

According to a new report from the Irish TimesU2 may be planning to unveil their new album ahead of schedule – or at least earlier than most expected.
Highlights from the piece:
…music industry source now predicts that there’ll be a “single in September, album September-October, tour announced December, first date April next year.
More from the unnamed insider:
“The album has been actually been finished for a few months, but a decision was taken not to release during the summer months because of holidays etc. There was one last, frantic scramble earlier this year to get a big single, so they got Adele’s writer-producer, Paul Epworth, into the studio.”
The band’s former manager Paul McGuiness is a fan of the new material, according to that same source – who quotes McGuinness as saying:
“It’s great. It’s very different from what they have done so far but still sounds like U2. Bono sings better than ever. As he gets older his voice is even more interesting,” he said at a music conference in May.
source : http://www.rockcellarmagazine.com/

Monday, August 11, 2014

U2: Stuck in a moment [new album info]

It has been five years since U2’s last album, and their new one still isn’t quite ready. That hasn’t stopped Bono playing it to passing holidaymakers. What’s going on?


Poor Bono. There he is in his home in southern France last month, playing U2’s unreleased new album at full volume on his stereo while, quite possibly, singing along into a hairbrush in front of the mirror. On the beach in front of the home someone just happens to be standing with an audio recorder. The overheard songs get put on a U2 fan site, the band’s label instructs lawyers to remove them, and the kerfuffle gets splashed across the music press.
The dreadful bad luck is that just before U2 released their last album, No Line on the Horizon, five years ago, someone else just happened to be standing on the same beach in front of the same home with an audio recorder while Bono was blasting out that as-then-unreleased album on his stereo. The overheard songs got put up on a U2 fan site, the band’s label instructed lawyers to remove them, and the kerfuffle got splashed across the music press.
The fan-site link to last month’s leaked music says the track recorded on the beach wasSong for Someone (which Bono has already confirmed will be on the new album). It goes on to say that the beach was full of people at the time and that Bono was playing the song “really loud . . . It seems like he’s trying to tell us something – that the new album is coming soon.”
Goodness.
The person who recorded the No Line on the Horizon tracks said at the time, “Every evening he starts playing these new songs really loud. The whole beach was listening, and he knew that. I sometimes think that Bono deliberately turns up the music just to stir up the fan base a little.”
Going by U2 precedent, when leaked beach songs hit the internet, a new album is imminent. Just two weeks ago the band’s label, Universal, tweeted on one of its South American accounts, “The new U2 album will be called ‘Sirens’ and will be released in September.” Universal has since deleted the tweet.
The album seems to have been coming forever. In June 2012, talking on The Late Late Show, Bono said that “the new album is going incredibly quickly. We’ve got great stuff. We’ve just had the best three weeks in the studio. Three weeks is all it should take.” Since then a “definite” release date of September 2013 has come and gone, as have many subsequent dates.

Single scramble

But a music industry source now predicts that there’ll be a “single in September, album September-October, tour announced December, first date April next year.
“The album has been actually been finished for a few months, but a decision was taken not to release during the summer months because of holidays etc. There was one last, frantic scramble earlier this year to get a big single, so they got Adele’s writer-producer, Paul Epworth, into the studio.”
The band are understood to have signed off on the album and tour schedule, but they have had last-minute changes of mind before.
One person who has heard the new album is Paul McGuinness, U2’s former manager. “It’s great. It’s very different from what they have done so far but still sounds like U2. Bono sings better than ever. As he gets older his voice is even more interesting,” he said at a music conference in May.