There is no singular reason as to why U2 can't from start to finish - from Edge plugging in his guitar for the first time, to you having a hot little CD in your hands - complete a whole album and everything else involved with that in 8 months or even significantly less. The reason why we find it very f*cking hard to believe that they will pull a Zooropa is that deep down we believe the band are a very different beast to back then. It makes more sense to us now that it would be 4 years between albums, all done on a very deliberate commercial timeline, and that if they are doing anything in between it must be something on another deliberate commercial timeline. An EP/Single to promote the tour only. Yet another Greatest Hits package for Christmas. We also think they've changed personally. Given time off you don't picture them being magneticaly drawn to the studio anymore, and more likely a yacht in France or a News Corp AGM in California. Personally I really, really, really, really hope that they have not actually become that stale or predictable, and that we have no legit reason to be so cynical. They've had 8 months. They have a tonne of leftover material as a basis. They've been in and out of studios for a while. We've heard a few new tracks. Clearly they are doing something 'serious' in September.
They've had 4 months to write and record and find something, and they've got 4 months now to polish that something and get that something out. There's no reason why that couldn't happen, no production reason, no marketing reason, no promotional reason, except that we don't believe U2 are up for it anymore. That's a shame.