“Lanois tells me Bono dropped by his house in LA, and that the new U2 album sounds ‘amazing’ and ‘big’ with some Achtung Baby adventurism,” reads the first dispatch.
He then adds: “On Danger Mouse, who’s producing the new U2 disc, Lanois smiled as he said, ‘It’ll be a character-building experiment for him,’” and, “He says he’s familiar with a couple of the new U2 tracks, as he’d worked on them himself previously. ‘They’re back on the burner.’”
Wheeler concludes by reporting: “Lanois is okay with sitting out this U2 album – ‘I don’t know if I’d survive the experiment.’”
Talking to Hot Press recently, Adam Clayton confided: “We very much want to have a record out by the end of this year. September, October, November; that kind of time. We’re working with Dangermouse who’s a smart guy. He’s on it; he’s excited. It’s a great team and feels very liberating at the moment – anything goes.
“We have an abundance of riches,” he continued. “We could make three or four different records and justify that to ourselves, but to make the best record you can, you have to steer away from the ones you can make easily. We’re really trying to get into territory that we’re not comfortable in. If that makes sense…”
If it didn’t then, it looks like it will in the autumn!