U2’s last album of original music, Songs of Experience was released in December 2017. That album arrived just over three years after the prior album. It has been seven and a half years now since the release of Songs of Experience, and fans are anxiously awaiting what comes next. We’re getting a lot of questions, and we’ve taken the time to update the list of quotes about the new album progress below. They are separated by year, and in each year, they run from the earliest quotes to the most recent.
Since the last album was released, U2 did two tours. An arena tour in 2018 which finished up in Berlin late in the year. In 2019 they returned to the Joshua Tree 30 stage, for a tour of New Zealand, Australia, and throughout Asia, including a number of first time visits to some countries. That tour wrapped up in late 2019. Covid hit shortly after, stranding members of U2 on separate continents. As the world was starting to open up again, Larry Mullen took an extended period away from the band to he multiple surgeries to correct damages from years of drumming. Bono has been busy, with his autobiography, a tour to support the book, and a residency in New York City which was later turned into the “Stories of Surrender” film. The band, minus Mullen, played a 40 show residency to open the Las Vegas Sphere in 2023 and 2024.
There has been a trickle of new material during that time. “Ahimsa” was released in 2019 with A.R. Rahman, to celebrate U2’s first concert in India. It was accompanied by an EP of remixed songs. “Your Song Sed My Life” appeared in the film Sing 2 and Bono also appeared in the film, voicing a character. “Atomic City” was released in 2023, recorded with Larry Mullen, to tie into the Las Vegas residency. There’s been two album projects in that time as well. Songs of Surrender in 2023 saw U2 recreating 40 of their classic songs, started as a solo project by The Edge during the Covid lockdowns. More recently, How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb was released with a number of older tracks from the Atomic Bomb sessions, newly polished up and completed. Bono himself has released another EP of recreated U2 songs, taken from his solo show, and Larry Mullen has recently released two songs which he contributed to the Left Behind film soundtrack. Bono and The Edge also contributed an original song “Forty Foot Man” over the end credits to the concert special / documentary A Sort of Homecoming: Bono and The Edge with Did Letterman.
In August 2024, all four members of the band returned to studio to begin the process of completing a new album in earnest. Work had been done on various projects prior, but our understanding is that the August 2024 sessions took the band back to scratch, and brought the four members of U2 together to figure out what they want to release next. In mid-November they had 3-4 songs complete for the new project from the first sessions, and additional sessions started in late November. The Edge, in early December, teased a song near completion, but this song, we’re told was charity song, was eventually passed on for release. Additional sessions followed in late January, which ran off and on until May when Bono started promotion for Stories of Surrender. The band is due to reconvene in a couple of weeks to continue work on the album. You can read through the comments from the band and their collaborators below, made during this period for more insight into the current state of the project.
Larry Mullen is back in studio with the band. Mullen’s first surgeries were in early 2023, and he worked with the band on “Atomic City” after those. Additional surgeries followed in 2024, and he’s been healing since that time. He recently shared with the BBC at the end of May, “It was difficult being away because of injury, so I’m thrilled to be back in a creative environment.” Mullen later shares, “When I was away from the band, I missed it, but I didn’t realise how much I missed it.”
In November it came to light that U2 were working on multiple projects. One, described as four men in a room, was a fresh start on material with the band working with Jacknife Lee. The other project had started as a Bono / Edge solo jaunt, and was being described as “Sci-Fi Irish Folk”, and was being done with Brian Eno and Jacknife Lee. It appears that the two projects he been folded together, as Edge had suggested they may. Recent interviews he revealed the band is currently working with Brian Eno on the new U2 album.
When will a new album be ready? Previously reliable sources he shared U2 had told their label not to expect anything to be ready before this Fall which would suggest a release next year at the earliest. To date nothing has been delivered to the label, and with timelines to physically produce an album, 2025 is unlikely if they want a physical product on shelves. Adam Clayton has provided the most detailed answers on when we might see an album, sharing earlier this year, “we’ll look at it and decide on a release date in early next year [2026]. But I’m not saying there’s a release date yet, because we’re not at that position. If we can do it, that’s what we want.” His comments in May, shared “The only thing I can say is it’s a work in progress. We do not he a deadline as such. But I would hope by the end of the year we’d he some information to share, and perhaps we could suggest something for next year.” Adam’s comments also referenced the band’s upcoming 50th anniversary, “Whilst we might not be able to align an album or a tour to celebrate that moment, I’m sure we’ll be opening a bottle of champagne on the day.” Reading between the lines, it looks as if U2 are pushing for releasing something early next year, if they can get something finished, with a possible announcement at the end of this year.
But first they he to finish the album. Bono’s comments in May? “It should be 10 songs, but I don’t he a timeline on that. And they don’t either.” He’s also suggested there may be plans in place if the album doesn’t come together. He does lee the door open for releasing some of it earlier, perhaps an EP, “We want to release some of this album. Why it might take more than a week to come out. We want to play some of it live. We’ve promised ourselves that since our first album. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could just play this live? Maybe even play it live first, and then put out the album. That’s another thought we’re playing with.” (Although it is worth noting that at this point we he no information about any live performance plans, and U2’s crew are not on hold at this point for any performances, so it doesn’t appear anything concrete has been done towards a tour at this point. A handful of one-off performances wouldn’t be out of the question though, on a smaller scale than a full tour.)
If we had to hazard a guess, we’d guess a late 2026 release, followed by a 2027 tour at this point based on Bono and Adam’s most recent comments. Maybe a few limited promotional type appearances, or one-off shows, to test the waters in 2026, but nothing has been booked yet. We shall see what the months ahead bring, and how much work the band are able to get done when they return to the studio in the weeks to come. To release something early in 2026, the band would need to complete that work by November, so there is time left. To do a big tour in 2027, planning would be underway now, and we are not hearing anything about plans, nor are crew under contract for anything at the moment.
It does appear the “Songs of” titles will be stopped for this next release. Bono has shared in a couple of interviews at this point that he’s ready to move on from those titles and is ready to look forward in new directions.
Where can you find additional information about the new release?
Our 2020 Demos section details quotes about songs that he been spoken about in relation to the new album. Our Upcoming Releases section goes information about other upcoming projects. Quotes about the Album Progress, 2025Early comments in 2025 suggested the band would release something soon (we’ve been told a charity single, but those plans didn’t work out.) Early discussions mentioned Jacknife Lee working on the project, but later discussions he almost exclusively mentioned Brian Eno at this point, although both had been mentioned in one report. Larry is back with the band, and doing well. Adam Clayton suggests a 2026 release date for a new album, and a tour to follow.
2025-01-05: The Edge appeared on the Sodajerker podcast and shared, “We’re working on a lot of new songs. There might be a new U2 song happening very soon, which you’ll hear about, I can’t say anything more than that.” (The song in question was a charity-type single we are told, and in the end was not released.) 2025-03-07: In a podcast recorded in late January, Adam Clayton joined the hosts of “Is Breakfast Included”, sharing “We’re going to get back in there in a few weeks and work up to the summer. Once we’ve got our stuff in order, we’ll look at it and decide on a release date in early next year. But I’m not saying there’s a release date yet, because we’re not at that position. If we can do it, that’s what we want. That’s our ambition.” 2025-04-18: The Edge joined U2 X-Radio host Jenny Huston to share, “We’re always looking to the next project. We’re really focused on new stuff. During lockdown that’s what I did. I went into my studio room and just played and worked up some new music. So I had like 100 potential songs in the works. So this period is really dedicated to writing and recording songs so we’re in the right headspace I think is what I’m getting at.” The Edge also shared, “We’re very excited. We’ve so much material to choose from. We’re sort of choosing the best ideas, the best songs, our problem is narrowing it down. So we’re playing around with underlying themes that will help us I think. It’s the spine. Once we he the thematic spine of the lyrics and the ideas, then we can sort of fit the songs into that over arching story and we’re at that phase where it’s time to really start going with the certain songs and putting others to one side. Not that they’re not good also. But we want this to be a really cohesive collection. And we’re also very excited about getting in the room together as a band and playing, sometimes as a four piece, sometimes a three piece, we want the recordings to he the band sound, the band chemistry in it. So that’s kind of a focus as well. Which is great. Our band is kind of limited in some ways, but really has a lot of character. When we play together, when we’re making music, it just sounds like us, it’s a remarkable thing, no matter where the songs started out in terms of early recordings or demos, when we play together there’s a certain U2 thing that happens.” (We’ve been told that Bono has had to miss sessions due to promotional duties for “Stories of Surrender”.) 2025-04-18: Other highlights from Edge’s conversation with Jenny Huston on U2 X-Radio included, “It’s important that you go in with a strong point of view. The point of view is what we’re kind of developing now, as the songs are coming into focus. That’s what everyone may not understand every aspect of it, but they can sense it. Our audience, they kind of understand intuitively that there’s ideas behind this, beyond just the initial impression that they get, there’s a resonance beyond that. So it’s important. It’s in our history, always those records, those ideas, that we look back and go yeah ‘we hit on something there, that was a good set of ideas, and a good direction for us’, and then if it hasn’t quite come together we also notice that. So It’s a crucial moment. But we’re hing a lot of fun. We’re working together in the studio in various parts of the world with Jacknife Lee at the controls. We don’t he anything finished yet, so it’s too early to start telling people what it is, but we’re making good progress.” He also shares “I think one song doesn’t feel substantial enough, but if you got a collection of songs that allows you to move into a new territory musically and thematically I think it permissions a lot of creativity and inspiration. That often will feed not just the album itself, but then the tour that will inevitably follow. You start to be able to think about how these songs will look in a live context, what’s the presentation going to be like, down to what kind of shoes will I be wearing?” 2025-05-01: Speaking with RTE, Adam Clayton shares, “The only thing I can say is it’s a work in progress. We do not he a deadline as such. But I would hope by the end of the year we’d he some information to share, and perhaps we could suggest something for next year.” Asked if the band was working on “Sci-Fi Irish folk music with Brian Eno” Adam replies, “That sounds about right. I think we’re heading off in that direction.” He also shares an update about Larry Mullen’s condition, “He’s absolutely back behind his kit. He’s got his sticks out. He’s great. He’s great. Better than ever,” and also shares that Larry didn’t want to do the Sphere shows if he couldn’t be at full strength and the band told him “get right, get fixed. We’ll keep your seat warm for you.” 2025-05-10: Speaking with The Observer it is shared that Brian Eno is working with the band on their new album. Bono shares, “We’re busy writing another reason to exist as a band. I still find Brian an extraordinary inspiration and I’m sure he still finds me quite frustrating. But I know he will keep on defending our right to be ecstatic in our music.” Bono also talks about his activism and recently stepping back from it, “Let me put it this way: I won’t go to my gre thinking I wasted my time in terms of my activism. I might, however, go to my gre thinking there was that one U2 song I let go of, when it was so close and I went out the back door before it was finished.” And he ends the interview talking about returning to looking forward instead of back, “Yeah, we he been involved in some nostalgia. But I would say, you he to know where you came from in order to be more effective in the present and the future. That’s the case in a different way with the book, the stage play and now the film. I he a record of it all, but now, I he to move back into the future, which is where U2 always lived.” 2025-05-10: In conversation with Corriere Della Serra Bono shares “Larry has recovered from his back injury. He, Edge and Adam are 100 meters from where I am now and are making amazing music, as if their lives depended on it…And that’s because music, like football, is not a matter of life and death, it’s much more important. In recent years we he experimented a lot. Edge and I immersed ourselves in a folk world that we had been following for some time. Then we worked on some things with Brian Eno and when we make music he and I always end up in another place…” 2025-05-14 : Bono shares with Deadline: “Turn up the volume, I say. I promise you this, we’re working on something quite extraordinary at the moment, Edge, Adam, Larry and myself, so we’re not going to let you down.” 2025-05-16: Asked about the delay between albums, and the fans getting restless Bono shares with Rolling Stone, “Well, they’re right. And nostalgia is not to be tolerated for too long, but sometimes you’ve got to deal with the past in order to get to the future and to the present. To get back to now is our desire. Get back to this moment we’re in. We’ve been recording. And it sounds like the future to me. We had to go through some stuff, and we’re at the other end of it.” He also updates on Larry Mullen, “We’ve been playing in the room together, the four of us. And I can tell you he is completely through whatever storm of injury he has been through. His playing is at its most innovative. He’s just all about the band. He doesn’t want to talk about anything else, which is kind of amazing.” He also shares, “by the way, being a band in a room where each individual musician has a role that’s singular and collective is so rare because music is assembled these days. And even some of our music we he assembled, and we’ll do that again, but to try and capture a moment of a rock & roll band in full flight is at the heart of this record that we’re making that we’ve recorded, but we are not finished.” Asked if Bono knows when the album might be released the reply is a simple “No”. 2025-05-19: Bono tells USA Today, “I think I’m done now singing about my dead ma and my dead da, all the dead people I was close to. Edge says, ‘Nostalgia is a thing of the past, Bono.’ And I agree. U2 are getting ready for the future and this is, well, a privilege to be given a chance to record this most intimate story that, in a way, the band wrote. Edge wrote this story. Larry, Adam, (wife) Ali wrote this story, not just my father and mother. So now it’s time to face the future and dance.” He also speaks about Larry, sharing he’s “back from his injuries, that’s for sure, I’ve never seen him play like this. He’s at his most innovative, I would say.” Of the others he shares that The Edge is “determined to take the guitar into the future” and that the band has to make another album “just to get Adam off Gardeners’ World.” The article mentions there’s no timeline for the new album. 2025-05-22: After the Ivor Novello awards, Larry Mullen shares with the BBC, “It was difficult being away because of injury, so I’m thrilled to be back in a creative environment, even if I’m not 100% there and I’ve got some bits falling off. It’s just the most extraordinary thing, when I was away from the band, I missed it, but I didn’t realise how much I missed it.” 2025-05-22: Bono was also interviewed after the Ivor Novello awards, and shared, “It was just the four of us in a room, trying a new song and going, ‘What’s that feeling? Oh right, that’s chemistry.’ We had it when we were 17. We’ve had it over the years but you lose it sometimes. The way music is assembled these days is not friendly to that chemistry. But isn’t it strange that it’s just got to the moment when just bass, drums, guitar and a loudmouth singer sounds like an original idea. That’s where we’re at in 2025.” 2025-05-24: In a lengthy interview with Brendan O’Connor on RTE, Bono shares, “I can’t wait for the next U2 album. And I know some of the songs. I’m very excited about it. I’m excited about the future. Perhaps dealing with the past gets you to the present. We he to get back to now, in order to think about the songs of the future.” He continues, “It sounds like four of us in a room at times. And at other times it sounds like something I’ve never heard before. The opening song, if it stays the opening song, is called ‘Go’ it’s an extraordinary introduction, I would want to be at that gig, I certainly want to be in that band.” Bono also updates on Larry’s progress with recovery sharing he’s “more interested in being in the studio for long hours. Just going over his parts. Realizing that’s how he speaks. He was very funny at the Ivors, very deadpan humour and all that, but his real conversation is the way he plays. I was saying are we ok? Are we ok here? And he goes ‘yeah. I feel amazing.’” Bono also speaks about a possible early release of some of the music from the album, “We want to release some of this album. Why it might take more than a week to come out. We want to play some of it live. We’ve promised ourselves that since our first album. Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could just play this live? Maybe even play it live first, and then put out the album. That’s another thought we’re playing with.” This leads to O’Connor asking if they he a release date for the album and Bono shares, “That’s what I’m saying. We don’t know.” Bono is then asked if it will be out next year and replies “I don’t know.” 2025-05-27: Bono appears on Jimmy Kimmel, Live! and tells Kimmel, “We’ve been in the studio and you know, I think you’ve sometimes got to deal with the past to get to the present, in order to make the sound of the future, which is what we want to do. It’s the sound of, I would say, four men who feel like their lives depend on it…and I remind them, they do! You know, nobody needs a new U2 album unless it’s an extraordinary one. And I’m feeling very strong about it.” He also shares that the album will be filled with “Songs for the kitchen, songs for the speedway, the garage, you know, for every part of your life. Songs to make up to, songs to break up to. U2 makes a very unique sound when we play together, and I think, yeah, the sound of a room is what we’re going for.” 2025-05-28: Bono appears on the cover of Esquire and reveals within, “We were a little broken, There was a period of reflection where we had to figure out, do we he anything to offer?” Bono shares that the answer was yes. “We’ve got a band unlike any other—good or bad—but unlike any other. You he a guitar player who’s clearly otherworldly, you he a drummer who has returned from agony who is now in ecstasy, and Adam Clayton, who is the only member of U2 with enough courage to he an almost handlebar mustache at this point.” Bono shares that the band is working with Brian Eno, and he can’t believe how good it sounds. “Everyone in the band seems desperate for it. It’s like their lives depend on it. And, as I tell them, they do.” Bono shares he will consider the album successful “if it provides us with a reason to lee home. You want to he some very good reasons to lee home.” And shares his hopes that the fans are “going to still be there for us. We’ve pushed them to their elastic limit over the years. And now it’s a long time that we’ve been away. But I still think that we can create a soundtrack for people who want to take on the world.” 2025-06-17: The press tour surrounding “Stories of Surrender” wrapped up with a podcast with Zane Lowe. Bono tells Zane, “I’ve been in the studio, I’ve heard these men. They’re remarkable musicians and… Larry has been staying late, working on his parts. Edge last time, he said ‘I he 300 songs!’ I said ‘They’re not songs, Edge. They’re just guitar parts.’ He said ‘Well, I he 25 great songs’. I said, “Actually, yeah, we’ve worked on probably 25, but 15. They he to be whittled down. I don’t like long albums, so we he to get it. It should be 10 songs, but I don’t he a timeline on that. And they don’t either.” Bono talks about his voice, “At some point you he to let go of those demons. And I feel like I’m walking a little different now. I feel free-er and I feel like my voice has come into something different. I feel like my voice has got to a place where I’ve never been before and I thank the project of writing the memoir and the play and the book and the film all the rest of it for getting all that out, ready for the future and the sound of the future.” He finishes talking about Brian Eno working with the band, “There’s something about Brian Eno being in the room. He has been and there’s something about the room itself, and by that I mean great rock and roll records, you feel the room. A lot of music is made on the grid now, so you can tighten things up. The Beatles tighten things up in their own way, they stuck together, different takes and whatever. It’s great for electronic music but you know the Black Keys or whatever, they’re amazing at keeping things loose, but Rock and Roll has gotten quite tight. We got quite tight for Songs of Innocence / Songs of Experience. Then I thought I want to feel the room. I want to feel the way these musicians bump up against each other. With Nirvana you feel that. Wunderhorse. Cause you hear them in the room. So that’ll be part of our future, it doesn’t he to be all of it, because there’s moments when you want to disappear into sounds that you’ve never heard before, but this, but at the heart of our band it is three musicians and a salesman.” Quotes about the Album Progress, 2024During 2024 talk consisted of discussion of a few projects, one a sci-fi Irish folk album was being worked on with Brian Eno and Jacknife Lee, and would potentially feature a number of Irish guest artists. The Edge even compared it to a Passengers 2. The second album was the sound of four men in a room and was the U2 project. The Edge was hopeful that the two would be combined (and at this point it appears that they he.)
2024-09: Adam Clayton tells Zane Lowe: “If all the world is a loop, I think we’ve kind of got to the point where we’ve pushed things as far as we can in terms of adding extra things into the band. Now we kind of want to go back, and kind of take the layers off, and get down to what the band does really well. Which is to play live in a room. There’s a freshness to that now, and i don’t know if there’s many bands that can still make records that way. That’s what we want to explore.” 2024-09: The Edge shares with Zane Lowe: “Music made in real time in a room with musicians interacting with one other – it just has a narrative, a sonic narrative, which you just cannot create using a different approach — using layering, drum loops or whatever — I love that as well. Don’t get me wrong I’m not a purist in any sense. I feel that the culture shifts and morphs based on what feels fresh, what’s been overplayed, what’s been underplayed. I do feel music that’s been made in real-time has been underserved. It’s starting to feel really fresh again. We’re in a good place to make an album like that, because that’s what we started out doing.” 2024-10-24: Gin Friday tells the Irish Times: “They’re working on an album. They’ll disappear into the making of it, the writing of it. I’m much more involved when something is happening, so when they come back I’ll be called in.” 2024-10-31: Bono tells Record Collector magazine: “Edge has likened Re-Assemble to a throwdown, in terms of where U2 might go next…Fresh paint…you he to be fit to play first touch football…I want to hear the sound of our band in a room…to feel a performance get away from us and be better for that…I experienced it last month with Larry, Adam and Edge, and I want more.” 2024-10-31: Bono tells Record Collector magazine: “I think of ‘City of Blinding Lights’ as the first song of innocence…with the exception of No Line on the Horizon that period continued for 20 years – Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience, they’re all retrospective. It has stopped, you’ll be pleased to hear…You’ll never he to listen to me raging and whinging about my mother or father ever again…Though I do he this opera coming out, haha!” 2024-11-05: The Edge tells the Toronto Star: “And then there are some other more experimental projects that Bono and I are working on — there’s this sort of Irish sci-fi folk thing that we’re kind of playing around with, which may end up on the next U2 album. We’re not sure yet, but we’re excited about that.” Later he also mentions, “And then I’m fascinated with the folk revival happening in Ireland and North America, artists like Hozier. There seems to be something new and fresh about that music.” 2024-11-08: Larry Mullen tells Deadline: “I’m recovering. It’s just slow. And yeah, I’m anxious to get back, and this was a very good way back in. You know, there’s, there’s plans to go back into the studio and that. So, yeah, it’s exciting, but it is slow.” 2024-11-11: The Edge told Rolling Stone: “We’ve done a session with Larry. We’re going to do another one in a couple of weeks, and we’re hing a great time. So yeah, obviously we don’t want to be over-doing it, but yes, it’s going great and he is in great form. It’s lovely to spend time with him in the studio in a creative environment.” 2024-11-11: The Edge tells Rolling Stone: “We can’t really think much about the tour. There’s been some conversations about what we might do. But for us, again, as I was saying earlier on, it’s like how one album seems to respond to what has happened before. So I think we’ll respond in some way to what we’ve just done, which is the Sphere, with something quite different. But what that is, we’re not really sure just yet.” 2024-11-11: The Edge tells Rolling Stone: “We’re working away with Jacknife [Lee] and I’m really enjoying working with him. And we he other sessions booked for potential different projects, which will probably all end up being folded into the U2 project, but we are working with other people and enjoying that. We’re really at that phase of just experimenting, letting the music tell us what to do. It’s just a lot of fun right now.” 2024-11-14: The Edge tells the Los Angeles Times: “I wouldn’t rule out doing something for the Sphere in the future. But we’re itching to get back to regular concerts. Next thing we he to do is a new record, of course. This project was a celebration of Achtung Baby, so we’re anxious to do something that’s about new work. We’re already actively developing new material for what will become a U2 album in the future, and we’ll be back to touring. As much as we loved being able to rely on the sound being great every night, there’s a great momentum to being on the road. And seeing local fans, as opposed to relying on them coming to us – it’s different. We miss it.” 2024-11-20: Bono shares with Did Fricke on SiriusXM: “I’m with Edge on the lyricism that’s required to negotiate these modern times. I’m presently listening to epic Irish ballads. I’m listening to folk music. And the lyricism of that. I’m really. It was really hard for us to see, to live with Shane McGowan’s departure, knowing what a gift he had. His punk roots. His lyricism. His understanding, and indeed the Pogues’ in general understanding of a great riff, and a directness. The lyricism is not an invitation to vagaries.” 2024-11-20: The Edge shares with Did Fricke on SiriusXM: “It’s very much where our heads are at right now. This music made in real time, by a band in a room. All things add an inherent value that you just cannot achieve, other than being a band, and other than being a band that’s recording in real time. But the tightness, the discipline of the ideas is really a throw down.” 2024-11-20: Bono shares with Did Fricke on SiriusXM: “If we’re looking for revelry and revery, we’ve a lot more work to do in U2. That is an inspiration for us. How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb in its directness, in its present tense-ness. You’re in a room with this band. And I think that won’t inform all of our music. But I think we’ve come out of a period of experimentation with electronic music, which we still love and adore, there’s always going to be a place in us for that. But right now we’re all about the moment, and if you’re in the moment, if you’re living in it, you he to be really fit for it, there’s no hiding. So that’s where Edge, Adam, and Larry are. And everyone feels as strongly as I do about this.” 2024-11-20: Bono, speaking with Did Fricke, shares on SiriusXM: “That was a through line and set us off…Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience, they are all retrospective. This bomb that went off set us for the first time looking into what made us who we are. I think that period, with the exception of No Line on the Horizon, that period has been continuous for 20 years, and has stopped you’ll be pleased to hear. Cause, you will never he to hear me sing about my mother or father ever again. OK?” 2024-11-21: Adam Clayton told Virgin Radio: “During the time we were in the Sphere, Larry had some surgeries. He has made a full recovery. We recorded some songs with him after the summer. So we he started the process of the next record. We’re not sure when we’re going to be finished, we’re not sure when its going to be released. But we’re doing some more work this month, at the end of November, and in the beginning of December we going to be back in the studio. I think by the middle of next year, we’ll he a very good idea of how many songs we he to finish, and when we want to release it. And then a tour will follow on from that. We feel like, it was very hard for our European fans that we were playing shows in Las Vegas. We realize that for most fans that’s a very, very expensive ticket. And that’s a long way to trel. We know that we he to make it up to our European fans when we come out and tour next time.” 2024-11-21: Adam Clayton shares on RTL Radio: “When we know what that record is we’ll go out and tour it. I don’t know which year. It may be 2026, it may be 2027.” 2024-11-22: Steve Lillywhite told The NY Post: “They’ve been in the studio, and apparently they’re all excited by how it’s going.” 2024-11-23: The Edge shares “We are producing material without hing to think about deadlines, exploring possibilities, working with different collaborators under the guidance of Jacknife Lee, a producer we’ve worked with for some time.” 2024-11-23: The Edge tells O Globo that some of these collaborators include Cormac Begley, Colm Mac Con Iomaire and Dermot Sheedy. Begley plays the concertina, Mac Con Iomaire plays fiddle, and Sheedy is on bodhrán. Colm Mac Con Iomaire joined Bono and The Edge for the A Sort of Homecoming special, where they performed U2 songs with other Irish artists and Jacknife Lee and Kate Ellis. 2024-11-23: The Edge shares: “Since albums like October and War we hen’t really looked at the Irish influence. Since then we’ve gained an outside perspective and become more aware of the uniqueness of Irish Music. Now it seems like a new place for us to go. It could yield a U2 album, a side project like Passengers. We’re not thinking too much about where it will lead.” 2024-11-23: The Edge speaking with Billy Sloan on BBC Scotland shares: “Right now there’s a bunch of projects in line, there’s a new U2 album that we are working on, that’s what we are working on with Adam and Larry. There’s a kind of mad sci-fi Irish folk project that Bono and I are working on. Various different solo recordings, that we he no idea where they will go. And don’t need to at this point. We’re enjoying the opportunity to just create. We can think about where these songs belong after the fact. It’s all for us a part of the curiosity that’s always driven us, I don’t think that’s ever going to let up.” 2024-11-23: The Edge speaking with Billy Sloan on BBC Radio Scotland shares: “Right now there’s a bunch of projects in line, there’s a new U2 album that we are working on, that’s what we are working on with Adam and Larry. There’s a kind of mad sci-fi Irish folk project that Bono and I are working on. Various different solo recordings, that we he no idea where they will go. And don’t need to at this point. We’re enjoying the opportunity to just create. We can think about where these songs belong after the fact. It’s all for us a part of the curiosity that’s always driven us, I don’t think that’s ever going to let up.” 2024-11-23: The Edge also shares with Billy Sloan on BBC Radio Scotland: “We were in the studio with Larry a couple of weeks ago. We are going to be in the studio with him in another week or two. He’s taking it one step at a time, he doesn’t want to over do things. He’s playing well and enjoying it. It’s great hing him back in the studio. There’s a chemistry when the four of us play together that’s unmistakable. We’re delighted to he Larry back.” 2024-11-23: The Edge tells Radio-Canada: “We are working a lot on new songs at the moment. We did a couple of weeks with Larry and Adam a month ago. We’re going to do a couple of weeks with them in three weeks. But also Bono and I are also working on some side projects, that could end up being part of the U2 album, we’re not sure yet. We’re calling it a sci-fi-folk record. We’re working with some really fantastic Irish traditional musicians. It’s really the groundwork for where things will go next for us. I think we got fascinated with the intimacy that the Sphere venue allowed us because of the sound system. Literally things that we’d never consider to do in the live context, were suddenly possible and we really reveled in that kind of simple arrangement. We’ll see. But we’re hing so much fun. We’re writing so much material. And we’re just excited to see where it leads us. The songs are always the boss.” 2024-11-23: The Edge tells O Globo: “The next thing you’ll hear about from U2 is a new studio album. After which we’ll see what the tour will be like. There’s never 100% certainty. We’ve spent a few weeks in the studio playing with Larry. He’s recovering well, taking it easy, one step at a time. We’re not asking him to do too much, but I think he’s playing really well. And enjoying playing, which is important.” 2024-11-25: The Edge tells Jo Whiley on BBC Radio 2, “We were in the studio the other day just working on some crazy new music. He’s good. We’re at that great phase where we don’t he to overthink it we’re just making music and loving that process. We’ll figure out where things belong after. There’s a couple of different projects.” He then talks about recording with Larry for the new U2 album and his recovery, “Bono and I are working on some crazy sci-fi Irish folk music. Which could end up becoming part of the U2 album. We’re not sure yet. We’ll see. Part of our kind of process is to just go so wildly away from off track, and the process of bringing things back on track is kind of how you get some unique sounding music.” 2024-11-25: Asking for more information on where the Sci-Fi Irish folk material might end up, The Edge also tells Jo Whiley, “We he Brian Eno involved, and a bunch of…some beautiful Irish musicians, some incredibly talented…Colm Mac Con Iomaire who is this fiddle player, and Dermot Sheehy who is this bodhrán player, they came in the other day. They’re astonishing players. We’re excited about that.” 2024-11-25: The Edge speaks with Tracy Clifford on 2FM and shares: “Larry is doing good. He’s taking things one step at the time. Which is the correct thing to do. We’re playing a little bit with him in the studio. He’s playing great. We’re enjoying being all together for the first time in quite a while. It’s great to get Larry back in the studio.” 2024-11-25: The Edge tells Jo Whiley, “We’re at that great phase where we don’t he to over think it, we’re just making music and loving that process and then we’ll figure out where things belong afterwards, so there’s a couple of different projects. Definitely U2, with Larry, which is wonderful. We’ve got him in the studio… he’s good, he’s taking it easy, but he’s back in the saddle on the drums, doing some recording with us, and so we’ll be doing a bit more of that before the end of the year.” 2024-11-26: Adam Clayton shares on RTL: “We are recording, we are in and out of the studio. We really want to get a record of new songs to our audience. When we know what that record is, we’ll go out and tour it. I don’t know which year. It may be 2026, it may be 2027. It depends. First of all we had to find out if Larry could play. We found out that Larry can play. We went into studio with him, we did 3-4 weeks at the end of the summer. We he 3-4 songs from that, which is really, really, good. We are going back in 2 weeks time to do more recording with Larry. I think before Christmas we’ll he 6-7 songs to consider. We’ll finish those songs off, and then we’ll he a record to release, the end of the year [2025], or the beginning of the next year [2026], I’m not sure how long it will take…” 2024-11-27: Adam Clayton tells Triple M: “I wish i had a crystal ball that could tell me that. I think we’re just going to work away on it. We’ve done a couple of months, no…actually not, we’ve done about a month on it already. We’re going to do another month in the next few weeks. We’ll probably do another month early next year. Then we’ll know what we’ve got. It’s a little bit like the mining process. You kind of start digging until you he a few songs. You say ok, what would fit well with that, where are we going with this. And that’s where we are in the process.” (He was asked where they were in the process of finishing a new album.) 2024-11-30: Adam Clayton tells RTÉ: “Larry’s taken a lot of advice. He’s gone through a lot of physical re-education and all those sorts of things to get him into the sort of condition he’d like to be in to be able to perform again. We’re taking it one step at a time. He has done some studio work with us, and he’s going to do more studio work with us, and we hope that leads to a completed album with Larry playing drums on it.” 2024-11-30: Adam Clayton also tells RTÉ: “I am excited about going into the studio with the other three members of U2 because I think, yet again, that none of us would be in the studio if we didn’t think we had something to offer. I think we’re ready. I think we know a lot more about what we do and a lot more about ourselves to make a record that we think represents where we are and what our view is on the way things are. That’s why we make records. And we think we’re in a pretty good position to do that right now.” 2024-12-12: Larry Mullen told Times Radio: “I imagine we will be recording next year. I would hope that we would tour at sometime in 2026. I don’t think it will be what we normally do. I would hope it would be something different. But I’m excited to get back in some capacity.” Quotes about the Album Progress, 2023The Edge and Bono are still talking about a Rock and Roll style album, wanting it to be loud. Bono is continuing to mention Songs of Ascent as well.
2023-02: “We are turning the amps on. I certainly think the rock that we all grew up with as 165- and 17-year-olds, that rawness of those Patti Smith, Iggy Pop records…that kind of power is something we would love to connect back into.” (Adam Clayton, Mojo Magazine) 2023-02: “Well, ‘Songs of Ascent’ is a much more meditative, spiritual record. This will be ‘Songs For Fighting’, I’d say (laughs).” (Adam Clayton, Mojo Magazine) 2023-03: “I don’t think there’s any chance of the future drying up! I’ve been working on [other] new stuff in parallel that’s much more vital and requires a U2 band sound to fulfill it.” (Edge, The Telegraph Newspaper) 2023-03: “I’m not sure U2 are going to turn into AC/DC exactly. I’ll still be trying to find ways to use the instrument that are new and unfamiliar. But I’m absolutely convinced that the guitar is going to be front and centre within mainstream music culture in a year or two, and I want to be part of that revival.” (Edge, The Telegraph Newspaper) 2023-03: “So every time I think of quitting, I kind of reinvent U2. We all know that we shine brighter by being in proximity to each other,” he continues. “That’s why it’s going to be very difficult to break up U2 – simply because it works so well for us all.” (Edge, The Telegraph Newspaper) 2023-03: The Los Angeles Times asks, “The band has mentioned two new albums in progress: Songs of Ascent and something Bono calls a “noisy, uncompromising, unreasonable guitar album.” What’s the difference between the two?” and Bono replies, “Songs of Ascent is a reflective, lyrical album, very different from the unreasonable guitar record, which is not to say they might not end up mating. We didn’t want to put either album out before we could play live, so we were waiting for our drummer to heal.” 2023-09: The Edge shares with CBS Mornings, “We’re at the song development phase. Nothing has been recorded other than ‘Atomic City’ but we’ve got some great tunes.” 2023-10: The Edge shares with Apple Music, “New tunes. There’s a lot that we he ready, some that need a bit of dusting off, but will be ready soon.” Quotes about the Album Progress, 2022 2022-10: “We he almost finished this album called Songs of Ascent, which we’re not putting out. We’re going to put out a rock ‘n’ roll album.” Bono also shares, ‘A noisy, uncompromising, unreasonable guitar album’ is what is planned, “In among that unreasonableness, it is likely that I will put the part of me, the anger that hasn’t been managed to good use.” (Bono, The New York Times) 2022-10: “The band wants to make an ‘uncompromising, balls-to-the-wall, transcendent rock’n‘roll album, with unreasonable guitars, like properly aggressive as the times deserve” and spoke about wanting to recreate the band’s live experience in the studio, and that they want to start recording the final album by the end of the year. Bono also shared he believed the band he their best album in them still, but getting it out might “cost us a lot.” (Bono, The Irish Times) 2022-10: “Now we need the firepower of rock ‘n’ roll back. I don’t know who is going to make our [expletive]-off rock ‘n’ roll album. You almost want an AC/DC, you want Mutt Lange. The approach. The discipline. The songwriting discipline. That’s what we want.” (Bono, The New York Times) 2022-10: My phone here is packed with new songs. We were tempted to put them out – out of competition. But we felt that the material was so strong that it deserved time to make sure people heard about them as well as heard them. When we’re in the room together with Larry and Adam, it’s great. I’ll play you one. This is a great one. Honestly, there’s about 20 of them finished. This is my fourite at the moment. It’s called ‘The Bard’s Last Breath.’ We almost finished this album called Songs of Ascent which we’re not putting out. We’re going to put out a rock ‘n’ roll album. So we’re not putting this out, but I’m telling you it’s awesome.” Upon further questions Bono clarified the album is NOT scrapped, “Didn’t scrap it, just held it. It’s called Songs of Ascent.”(Bono, The New York Times) 2022-10: Bono shares some lyrics, “It’s a matter of degrees, but the bard was never pleased to wake up in the morning/And he said, ‘Rise, rise, the sun will rise and will set / It will rise, rise, and it hurries to forget.’ / He said ‘Rise! Rise! All are leing just not yet.’ / He said, ‘Rise! Rise! With his very last breath.” (The Bard’s Last Breath) and “You make me smile, It’s been a while, You put a smile, Back on my face, back on my face.” (Smile) Bono calls “The Bard’s Last Breath” a song of pure joy, and calls “Smile”, “a very cool, Beatle-y thing, a ridiculous pop sort of Rubber Soul isn’t it?” (Bono, The New York Times) Quotes about the Album Progress, 2021At this point, coming out of Covid, the band seem to he some ideas put together, but don’t he a plan. Adam suggests that they are aiming for an album in 2023, and a world tour to follow. At this point the band would be unaware of Larry Mullen’s upcoming need for surgery.
2021-01: “I’m working on a lot of new songs at the moment. We he a bunch that are…we hen’t figured out what to do with them yet. For me the lockdown has been quite a creative period for me.” (The Edge with Daniel Lanois, U2 X-Radio) 2021-05: Steve Lillywhite revealed he’s been speaking with U2 regarding new music they’ve been working on in studio in London at that time. Lillywhite said the band are quite excited about the material. (Steve Lillywhite, Talk Radio) 2021-07: “But at the same time, we he ambitions, once we can see a reason to put out another record. There are songs being siloed that will be brought out when we are ready to do a record.” (Adam Clayton, Rockonteurs Podcast) 2021-11: “We he new songs and we’re hoping to release an album in a couple of years, but we can’t talk much about it yet. I will just say that some of the tracks fill us with pride.” (Adam Clayton, O Globo) 2021-11: “The band is locked in the tower of song and working away on a bunch of new things. I’m just hing so much fun writing and not necessarily hing to think about where it’s going to go.” (The Edge, Rolling Stone) (He also revealed the band had not yet settled on a producer) 2021-11: “It’s nice to work without a purpose. Which is to say, it’s not like somebody is coming up and saying we he to he a U2 album or we he to he a U2 tour. We’ve been talking, and are excited to work together again. In the next few weeks there will be some recording.” (Bono, The Today Show) 2021-12: “At 50 we said to ourselves that there were good reasons to stay together and to continue working together. We he a great history after all. Today we are all in our 60s and we can’t wait to enter a new chapter in our history. We are working to rearrange some of our tracks in acoustic versions, to reveal new emotions. In addition, we are preparing new songs, for an album which should be released in 2023. And if circumstances allow it, we will go on a world tour at that time. It’s been a long time since we last performed in public.” (Adam Clayton, Le Figaro) Quotes about the Album Progress, 2020 2020-07: “I’m always working on new songs. I’ve not stopped since we came off the road, so yes. The question, I suppose, is whether we he a plan to finish or release it. Not so far. But there’s a lot of exciting music being created.” (The Edge, Rolling Stone) 2020-07: Asked if they were working on new material, Adam Clayton shared, “We are. There’s always something on the go, as I’m sure Edge mentioned. We did some recording last year that got us some really great starting points and complete songs. There’s an album ready to go, we’re just not quite sure when we want to press that button. When I say ready to go, I mean ready to be completed. Let’s put it that way.” Rolling Stone clarified, “So the songs are written, but you he to record them and get them right?” and Adam replied “Exactly.” Adam also went back to the idea that this new album being developed is not Songs of Ascent but something new, “It’s very, very fresh. We’ve cut everything quite quickly. We’re coming to things in a shorthand way. The feedback we get from that is pretty good. We want to be quick, down and dirty with the next one.” (Adam Clayton, Rolling Stone) 2020-09: “I was actually working on some new songs with Bono and I had a decision, am I going to go to Dublin or am I going to head to California where my wife was, so I opted to head for the wife which I think was the right call. Cause literally within two days they’d shut all flights into America, so I snuck in and spent the first part of lockdown with Morleigh in California, and then came to Dublin for early May and was in Dublin for a while.” (The Edge with Jo Whiley, BBC Radio Two) Quotes about the Album Progress, 2019 2019-09: “I spoke to them just last week. We will work together on some new pieces when I am in Los Angeles. I think it’s their intention to make a record completely different from the last two. It will be easier. You know, it’s like a pendulum. When you make a very produced album, with so many instruments in it, the next project you want it to be more sparse, and you wonder, what if the disc had the sound of four musicians playing in a room?” (Ryan Tedder, Rockol, Link) 2019-10: “We he this beautiful, ecstatic album called Songs of Ascent, I don’t know if we’ll finish it soon or if it will take forever – it’s about forever – that’s its subject – Songs of Ascent are 15 psalms, they’re named after the 15 steps from the women’s chamber up to the Temple of Jerusalem. It’s an old idea. I’m obsessed with Did, King Did in the bible, who turns out was right bollocks, but he was kind of an interesting figure, he was brutally honest with God at all times, even about himself being a bollocks. I’d love to do that.” He also made it clear the band might work on other projects first. (Cry Power Podcast) 2019-10: “I’d also love to do just a straightforward-fuck-off-rock-and-roll album with this band. Because on this last tour, they’ve got to a place, I mean they’ve been there before, I think they’ve always had greatness in them, but we do a lot of very good in between the great. I felt like I just caught up to them on this last tour. And there were moments on the circular stage, the e-stage, on the Experience and Innocence tour, and they hit some powerful stuff. I’d like to find songs that could contain that fire.” (Bono, Cry Power Podcast) 2019-11: Dallas Schoo, guitar tech for the Edge, told fans at an event in Australia, organized by Naomi Dinnen, that U2 were making a new album, and he thought fans would like it. Quotes about the Album Progress, 2017: 2017-12: “We’ve certainly got lots of leftover pieces, but by the time we come to make another record, I’m sure we’ll start from scratch.” (Adam Clayton, Chris Evans Show, BBC Radio 2) Quotes about Live Performances: 2024-11-11: The Edge also shares with Rolling Stone: “We’re looking forward to getting out and seeing our fans and going to where they are. I think that would be an important thing rather than them treling to us. That helps on some levels cutting out some of the carbon emissions of touring, but I think we can find a way to cut back on carbon and still manage to get on the road and see hour fans where they are.” 2024-11-25: The Edge speaks with Tracy Clifford on RTÉ 2FM and shares: “Well we absolutely loved the Sphere run. But we do miss meeting our fans where they are at geographically. So We’re not giving up on the idea of going on the road. But I think we’re all feeling, like we need, like every act, We need to find a way to tour that’s sustainable as possible.” 2024-11-26: Adam Clayton appearing on Triple M in Australia shared: “We knew it was hard on our audience that many would he to trel to Las Vegas to see the band. People doing the world tour from Oz also had us do that. We want to be a little bit more democratic, we want to visit people in their home states, countries and towns.” 2024-11-30: When asked by RTÉ whether or not the tour will start in Europe he replies, “It’s currently the plan but I hate to jump the gun because it raises expectations. I am excited about going into the studio with the other three members of U2 because I think, yet again, that none of us would be in the studio if we didn’t think we had something to offer.” 2024-12-12: Larry Mullen in an interview with Times Radio shares: “I imagine we will be recording next year. I would hope that we would tour at sometime in 2026. I don’t think it will be what we normally do. I would hope it would be something different. But I’m excited to get back in some capacity.” (We believe the last comment is in reference to doing something different with the tour plans.) 2025-05-24: Bono shared with Brendan O’Connor, “Could we turn up somewhere unexpected? Yes. But announcing a big [tour], you know, you can’t do more mega…you can’t do a more sci-fi extraganza than Sphere. So we he to figure out a new way of being on the road and meeting our audience and all of that.”Will this be the last tour? The Edge seems to think the band will be around for a while. Larry confirmed that he did he those surgeries so he could continue his career as a drummer on the long term.
2024-10-31: Edge tells Record Collector magazine: “As long as we’re still enjoying it and feeling inspired, as long as we’re surprising ourselves and the fans with work that has vitality and experimentation and creativity. I’ve still got the same drive and ambition and focus to continue. Will we still want to be playing ‘I Will Follow’ and running around the stage doing ‘Vertigo’ at 85? Maybe.” 2024-11-23: Billy Sloan asks Edge if he sees himself touring in 20 years, The Edge replies: “I he no doubt we will. I he no intention of retiring. Music is not just what I do professionally, it’s my recreation, i do it for fun. When I’m off the road, or not in the studio with the band, I’m at home writing songs and working on music. I would never ever want to think about not doing that. I’m sure the others are the same. Obviously, physical limitations being excepted, that might be the only reason why we might not be touring as hard as we he in the past.” 2024-12-04: In many people’s Spotify wrapped, Adam Clayton popped up to share: “We’re certainly not slowing down anytime soon!”
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