Chris Thomas left in Fall '03, replaced by Lillywhite in Spring '04.
So which songs were already around before Thomas left?
Vertigo-known as Native Son
Sometimes YCMIOYO-written for Bob Hewsons funeral, possibly coupled with ATYCLB leftover 'Tough'
Love And Peace or Else-ATYCLB leftover
COBL-Pop leftover
ABOY-mentioned as far back as early 2003
One Step CLoser-the idea behind this song is old, who knows how old the actual music was, I am guessing it was worked on with Thomas at least some
Yahweh-has been talked about for over a year
OOTS-ATYCLB leftover
that's 8 of the 11 album tracks.
Of course, it's possible that they hadn't worked on COBL until Lillywhite came in, who knows?
The tracks that are apparently the newest are Crumbs, Miracle Drug, and a Man and a Woman.
I've read on this board someone said AMAAW is a ATYCLB leftover as it appeared on one of pictures of the working boards from that session. I think Miracle Drug has been around for while too, just my speculation. . Crumbs was made when they were all drunk failry recently according to Blender.
Anyhow, what I'm getting at is that all of the material seems to have been around for awhile. They probably just re-recorded a lot of it, added some new sounds, changed some lyrics etc.
I doubt any of that Thomas stuff will see the light of day, it will just become part of the mythology of the "lost U2 songs".