U2 Have 'Three Albums Almost Finished'

Posted on Aug 23rd 2010 11:00AM by Andrew Kerr
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Roberto Serra, Iguana Press/Getty Images

U2 are close to completing not one but three new albums, Bono has revealed. But as yet the band can't decide how to go about releasing them.

According to the singer, "We have 'Songs of Ascent', which is the meditative work that was meant to complement [last year's] 'No Line on the Horizon'. We've got a rock album. We also have a club-sounding album. And then we have the Spider-Man [musical] stuff," he told Rolling Stone magazine.

Coldplay's Chris Martin has offered advice to solve the problem, Bono explained. "Across those four, there are 25 to 30 songs. Now we have to decide how we go about releasing them? Do we release them in their groups? Chris Martin 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 ... "

Embracing new ways of thinking when it comes to getting their music to the public isn't easy for the band, "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."

In the interview Bono admitted 'No Line on the Horizon' was "not very accessible, lyrically or musically" and that it was a "really difficult record." He said, "I would have to admit that. If I was a teenager, it would be like a European movie – it's art house."

Since recovering from back surgery the frontman is determined to give fans a unique live experience, "Have we got what it takes to make this experience one that people will remember for the rest of their lives? Or is it going to be four over-rewarded musicians playing in a football stadium?" he asked. However any doubts in the singer's mind were soon dismissed, "We're alchemists. We turn s--- into gold. We turn it into a communion."