Lanois Promises 'Innovative' Songs on New U2 Album
"Twenty years ago, producer Daniel Lanois teamed with U2 on the band's landmark album, The Joshua Tree. Two decades later, Lanois is back in the studio with the Rock and Roll Hall of Famers, working on their forthcoming album, due this year.
"I'm doing some writing with [Brian] Eno and U2," Lanois tells Spinner of the effort. "We're gonna knock out another record that's promising to be a fantastically innovative collection of songs. I'm excited about that."
As for what the new songs will offer, Lanois says that some hints may be gleaned from the music they've been listening to of late. "We've been referencing Jimi Hendrix records recently," Lanois says. "I was interested in the drum feels and that track 'Crosstown Traffic' has an incredible drum performance. When [we were] working a couple of weeks back, we wanted to hear some of that Mitch Mitchell drumming."
Lanois also revels in his collaboration with Eno, also a former U2 collaborator and who appears in Lanois' film, Here Is What Is. "I play really well with Eno," Lanois says. "In a manner of minutes we've got something happening in the room that's special -- even without talking about it. We just pick up our instruments and we're there. I might have an idea, Eno might have an idea, somebody else has an idea, and as we jockey them around, momentum builds up and there's some kind of a whirlwind. We just thank our lucky stars that we have that chemistry within us."
Thanks!! Very useful, Im glad more and more info and news on the album is popping up every day. That looks great (although I don't like that stuff about the Trance influences...). And, the most important, it looks TRUE.
PS. Wasn't Lanois on the Unforgettable Fire before the Joshua album?
"...A wide, frozen lake spreads out next to the salt-whitened Utah freeway, and Bono points out the gauzy sundown, the sun slipping beneath white clouds that blend with snowy mountaintops in the distance.
"Can I interrupt this broadcast?" he says. "There's an amazing moment in Ireland, where we live, when the sea and the sky can have the same color and the line of the horizon disappears. And I look at these mountains, and it's just about to happen here."
He reaches beneath the seat and pulls out a CD case, withdrawing a hand-labeled disc. "I have just the right song for it … if I can find it."
He slips the CD into the player and heavy distortion fills the car. It's a song called No Line on the Horizon, which the band is developing for their next album. "It came out of a new distortion box that my guitar tech got," The Edge says.
"This is a little full on!" Bono shouts. "But it's worth it, just to get a flavor of this. It's only a demo."
The song is rough, weaving between brutal guitar blasts underscoring the mellow title refrain. "These are just first drafts," Bono explains. He slips in another CD, this one U2's version of a lively Irish folk ditty about folk singer Ronnie Drew, one of the founders of The Dubliners.
Bono sings along with his own voice from the speakers, stopping to point out when Sinead O'Connor and Andrea Coor come in to sing the chorus: "Here's to you … Ronnie Drew …"
The bandmates say they conceived it as a way to cheer up the 73-year-old Drew, who is ailing with cancer. They may put it out as a single in the next few months.
Since the recordings are still in the embryonic phase, it's not clear what direction the band will be headed with their next collection of songs..."
Andrea Corr? Nice progress: The Coconuts >> Andrea Corr
It does sound good...what does it mean by "distortion"? Something like the guitar on The Fly?
And..."These are just first drafts," ...first drafts of the now almost ready song or first drafts and that's all?! I mean are they still in the "first drafts" or the "embryonic phase" ?
Come on boys...move those fat asses!!
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"I used to write words separate from U2. I believed that rock'n'roll wasn't the place for words. I didn't really begin spending a lot of time on lyrics until halfway into Eighties."
- Bono
That looks great (although I don't like that stuff about the Trance influences...). And, the most important, it looks TRUE. 
