“I would expect a new U2 album sooner than anybody thinks,” McGuinness told the Irish Times. “I would guess early 2011, before the next leg of the American tour, which starts in May.”
McGuinness’ comments echo Bono’s sentiments from his Rolling Stone interview back in August. When asked about playing rescheduled shows in North America next summer, Bono said “That's going to be great. We'll maybe have a new album – I think we probably will. So it's kind of wonderful. Those people are going to have tickets to a whole new show with new songs. It's going to be very exciting next year.”
U2 have been debuting new songs live in the past few months, including "Mercy," "Every Breaking Wave," and "Boy Falls From The Sky." The album has been provisionally titled "Songs of Ascent."
“We have 'Songs of Ascent,' which is the meditative work that was meant to complement “No Line on the Horizon,” said Bono. “We've got a rock album. We also have a club-sounding album. And then we have the Spider-Man (musical) stuff.”
“Across those four, there are 25-30 songs. Now we have to decide how we go about releasing them?” ponders Bono. “Do we release them in their groups? Chris Martin (of Coldplay) called me and said, "I hear you've got all these albums going. I have a great idea. Why not just pick the best songs from all of them and put them out now?" And I'm like, "Hmm . . . " (strokes his chin).
Bono and co. are almost left with too many options. “Because we don't think like that. It's a bit mad. In that sense, we're not as 21st Century as we think we are, because we'd be putting out more new songs online, involving our audience in the choice – if we were really modern. We're just sitting here arguing about them, except no one else knows about them.”
U2 – Every Breaking Wave
Olympia Stadium – Helsinki, FI – August 21, 2010
U2 – Mercy
Letzigrund Stadium - Zurich, Switzerland – September 12, 2010
U2 – Boy Falls From The Sky
Estadio Cidade - Coimbra, Portugal – October 3, 2010
