Name / Working Title: Unknown
Producers: Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Steve Lillwhite, Rick Rubin (?)
Released: Unknown
Distribution methods: Unknown.
Track List: Unknown.
Cover: Unknown.
Possible songs
Mercy
Stand Up
Breathe
North Star
For Your Love
One Bird
Get On Your Boots
Moment of Surrender
No Line On The Horizon
Unknown Title (Six O'Clock)
If I Could Live My Life Again
Love Is All We Have Left
Lead Me In The Way I Should Go
You Can't Give Away Your Heart
Timeline
September 21, 2005: Edge tells U2.com that there's plenty of possibilities and is writing all the time, particularly on GarageBand.
December 3, 2005: Bono talks about the next album to Q Magazine and that a new album will be out in 2006.
January 26, 2006: Bono talks to AP about being in a great, innovation and experimenting with hip-hop.
May 23, 2006: Bono told Brian Williams of the NBC about his trip to Africa, and the band have about eight songs, and recited a verse.
There's no midnight please.
You're just on your knees.
There is a harbor in a safe port.
What was is now not.
There was no price to pay.
Thank you for the day.
May 26, 2006: Bono talks to Larry Elliot about plans by U2 to meet in the studio soon, and that's he's been taking piano lessons while campaiging at the same time.
July 4, 2006: U2.com sends subscribers a news update about recording some new songs in the studio.
August, 2006: Various reports suggest U2 will be in the studio in September with Jacknife Lee producing, and the team of Rick Rubin and Greg Fidelman mixing tracks at Abbey Road Studios.
August 22, 2006: Bono speaks to a Bosnian TV reporter at the Sarajevo Film Festival about a new U2 album in 2007.
September 5, 2006: U2 arrive at Abbey Road studios in London to begin three weeks of recording with Rick Rubin.
September 17, 2006: Edge tells Time Magazine, when asked, if there is a new U2 album coming, to which he replies it is nowhere near, but they're having fun, that the songs are in a different spirit. He adds quickly, that they don't want to spend ages making this album, but it is early days yet.
September 26, 2006: MTV News interviews Edge in New York City and says U2 plan to continue working on some new songs with Rubin, but no date is set. Says Edge, they've been having fun so why stop now?
November 5, 2006: Bono is interviewed by the Sydney Morning Herald (SMH.com.au) and believes they've hit the vein and a new album hopefully is not too far away.
December 6, 2006: Edge is featured in Q Magazine for January 2007 and is still unsure about a possible release date, but it will be a very melodic record and a new-found appreciation for pure melody is what they're all interested in at the moment, citing the Eagles and The Bee Gees as ''amazing''. He also goes on to add they have five or six songs in good shape worth releasing.
December 25, 2006: In a pre-recorded message to promote U218 Singles, on Jo Whiley's BBC Radio 1 show, Bono says the compilations are to mark the end of something. When asked about being a rock band and continuing in that form, he says maybe the rock has to get harder, maybe it has to go, but won't stay where it is.
March 29, 2007: Edge spoke to RS Magazine and says they're working on new songs, getting lost in the music, and calls the Rubin sessions ''fascinating stuff'', and when asked about getting back together with Eno and Lanois, he responds with ''you might be surprised how quickly that happens.''
April 21, 2007: At a MusicRising auction in New York, Edge spoke about the band's new work with ABCnews.com. He says it's very liberating and without any particular ambition, and may end up with two or three albums at the end of it.
May 8, 2007: An Italian fan over at U2place.com forums says he saw Daniel Lanois outside the U2 studios, and spoke with Bono. Bono tells this fan that Mercy will be included on the next album, and still doesn't know how it was leaked onto the Internet.
May 30, 2007: A USA Today blog post regarding Bono's reaction to new US Government funding proposals for AIDS in Africa says Bono is with his band, U2 in Morocco recording songs.
June 16, 2007: U2.com reports about the Morocco sessions, and percussionists and fiddlers have participated in the sessions. Two songs are also spoken about:
"One track they've been working up sounds like a soul song with distinctly Arabic rhythms. Another is an epic story-telling piece which seems to run for seven or eight minutes."
June 18, 2007: TelQuel Newspaper in Morocco reports U2 worked on ''about 100 songs'' in Fez. It also claims that two titles on the band's whiteboard are entitled For Your Love and One Bird.
July 26, 2007: Adam tells U2.com that they came up with about 30 or 40 pieces during the sesssions, and believes a record is in there, even if they're missing one or two songs of a certain nature.
October 7, 2007: Steve Averill of Four5One Ireland, who spoke at "Music Ireland" in Dublin that one album is a Passengers-type project with Eno and Lanois, and the second is a proper U2 album.
December 1, 2007: An interview with The Independent sees Bono speaking about the new album:
"World music this is not," he says, though U2 fans will "feel the difference". Polyrhythmic is the word he chooses with a self-deprecating laugh. "U2 in dancefloor shock. Normally when you play a U2 tune, it clears the dancefloor. And that may not be true of this. There's some trance influences. But there's some very hardcore guitar coming out of The Edge. Real molten metal. It's not like anything we've ever done before, and we don't think it sounds like anything anyone else has done either."
January 2, 2008: Daniel Lanois says the record is "promising to be a fantastically innovative collection of songs", and they've been listening to Jimi Hendrix records, specifically for drum inspiration, not for guitar inspiration.
January 19, 2008: Bono and Edge at Sundance play a new song called "No Line On The Horizon." in the car with Anthony Breznican. He says "heavy distortion fills the car," and adds "the song is rough, weaving between brutal guitar blasts underscoring the mellow title refrain."
January 26, 2008: HotPress says the new record is likely to emerge in October.
January 29, 2008: Speaking at Midem, Paul McGuiness says the new U2 album will be out in October 2008.
February 18, 2008: Eno and Lanois are back in the studio in Dublin. Lanois tells the Toronto Sun "It's very much hand-played but it's also electro."
February 20, 2008: At the European premiere of U2:3D, Bono said the record will be "radical and uncompromising." When asked to elaborate, he said:
"Who needs another U2 album unless it's a really great piece of rock 'n' roll? You young people better watch out! We have to do something really extraordinary to be able to get out of bed these days. If I told you [about the album] I'd have to kill you. And if I did tell you they'd probably have to kill me too."
March 25, 2008: Daniel Lanois told Canadian radio station CKTB that U2 want the album out this fall, and described the sessions:
"It's going well. Very inventive, a lot of hopes and dreams in the room. (Singer) Bono's a hell of a fighter, and as long as he's got me in there, I'll fight along with him, you know. It's just quality, innovation, better songs, choruses that will communicate in a stadium setting."
May 19, 2008: HotPress reports U2 are moving the sessions to France for a while, and quotes Joe O'Herlihy, who says they want to have something in the come September / October.
May 21, 2008: Fans see U2 at Hanover Quay Studios late at night, and believe Joe O'Herlihy's comments to HotPress were made a few weeks back, because they've been seen at both Morocco and France.
June 4, 2008: On RTE Radio Lanois says the album should be finished in about 3-4 weeks. They're just finishing the vocals and believes it is one of the great, innovative albums from U2.
June 28, 2008: U2 have apparently finished the album (or have they) and Lanois tells Le Journal de Montreal that it's going to be different in several ways, but will push the sound arena like Achtung Baby did.
July 6, 2008: Steve Lillywhite, according to the Sunday Mirror, tells DJ Tony Fenton the album is their best ever.
July 21, 2008: Universal Music registers nolineonthehorizon.com which is reportedly a song title or the new album name, sparking flurry amongst online forums.
August 11, 2008: According to the Evening Herald Ireland, the first single is called Sexy Boots.
September 1, 2008: Q Magazine has an interview with Edge (another one!) about work on the new album, and while not directly attributed to him, says "opinion is divided whether the album will make a pre- or post-Christmas release.", and several song titles are discussed.
September 3, 2008: Bono disappoints by telling U2.com the album won't be out until early 2009.
"We've hit a rich songwriting vein. 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? ... I'm always the one who underestimates how easy it is to simply 'put out the songs now.' If it was just up to me they'd be out already! But early next year people will be able to start hearing what we've been doing. We want 2009 to be our year, so we're going to start making an impression very early on."
October 22, 2008: Bono tells Reuters he's written a new song called Stand Up, inspired by the Stand Up And Take Action anti-poverty events of October 17-19.
October 24, 2008: Daniel Lanois describes the new record in a Canada.com article.
"It's very sophisticated, rhythmically," said a coy Lanois. "I'm talking high-grade and wicked. We've gotten to a place, a combination of myself and (Brian) Eno, I think we've just done something that's never been done before. The president of the company is singing like a bird."
November 4, 2008: Lanois tells the Canadian Press the new record is fantastically innovative and some of their best work, adding he doesn't know when they'll be done, joining them for 10 more days of work. "It has broken new sonic ground, and I think Bono's lyrics and vocal performances are better than ever. I'm glad to see he's stepping up and talking about what's on his mind."
November 11, 2008: Lanois tells Andrew Hoshkiw of ChartAttack.com he's going to England to finish mixing the new U2 record, after his last show in Boston.
That looks great (although I don't like that stuff about the Trance influences...). And, the most important, it looks TRUE. 
