Tracklisting (possible based on the U2.com clip).
1 - Magnificent
2 - Every Breaking Wave
3 - Moment of Surrender
4 - Unknown Caller
5 - Crazy Tonight
6 - Get On Your Boots
7 - Stand Up (Comedy)
8 - Breathe
9 - ??orn
10 - No Line on the Horizon
11 - Cedars of Lebanon
1 - Magnificent // 5:44 // Nearly finished // New Eno Version - Mix Debate [a lot of other stuff written]
Slow building anthem with the ambience of the Unforgettable Fire and laced with the wide eyed wonder of U2's earlier albums. Edge here is at his most dynamic. Features the line:"Only love can reset your mind".
"Only love can leave such a mark," Bono roars on what sounds like an instant U2 anthem. Will.i.am has already done what Bono calls "the most extraordinary" remix of the tune.
2 - Every Breaking Wave // 4:13 // Priority to finish // Vocals TBC - Possible drums [a lot of other stuff written]
Lillywhite cues up the track, a slow burning track called Every Breaking Wave that gradually builds to a climax brimming with passion and intensity. Bono begins to sing rocking forward and backwards on his studio chair............he performs a note perfect vocal that employs the movement of the ocean as a
metaphor for the human struggle, before building to the plaintive line "I dont know if I'm that strong". Two takes and 10 minutes later its done. Key line "Every Sailor knows that the Sea/Is a friend made enemy"
A swelling soul-pop song, with bright synth sounds influenced by OMD and, Bono says, "early electronica." "You don't hear indie bands doing blue-eyed soul [like this]," he adds.
3 - Moment of Surrender // 7:12 // Nearly finished (Brian would like to talk about this.) // Bono - Vox > End? Edge - Piano Bass is eating up song? 3rd verse Eno idea
Georgiously melodic 7 minute song that already has the air of the U2 classic about it, with lyrics about dark stars and existential crises:"I did not notice the passers-by/And they did not notice me". Recorded in one take. This album's One.
This seven-minute-long track is one of the album's most ambitious, merging a Joshua Tree-style gospel feel with a hypnotically loping bass line and a syncopated beat.
4 - Unknown Caller // 6:06 // Finished // Great Just need [something]
Opens with the sound of birdsong recorded live in Fez. A middle eastern flavoured percussion loop drives this tale about a man"at the end of his rope" whose phone bizarrely begins texting him random instructions: "Reboot yourself","Password, enter here","You're free to go".
Dallas Schoo describes the song as "one of Edge's major solos in his life - you wont hear better than that on any other song".
This midtempo track could have fit on All That You Can't Leave Behind. "The idea is that the narrator is in an altered state, and his phone starts talking to him," says the Edge.
5 - Crazy Tonight // 4:16 // Priority to finish // Vocals - TBC New gtrs to be added. [something]
Upbeat pop track with distinct echoes of 60's era Phil Spector, particularly the moment when its chorus disappears into a wash of reverb. Centres around the line: "I'll go crazy If I dont go crazy tonight",
Bono - "Which sounds like a T=shirt slogan to me" notes the singer. Brian Eno said that Crazy Tonight was in a bad way which surprised Larry.
"It's kind of like this album's 'Beautiful Day' — it has that kind of joy to it," Bono says. With the refrain "I know I'll go crazy/If I don't go crazy tonight," it's the band's most unabashed pop tune since "Sweetest Thing."
6 - Get on Your Boots // 3:25 // Nearly finished // A few touches up on new Dec mix
Formerly titled Sexy Boots this demented electro grunge employs a proto-rockn'roll riff, but propelled into the future, with a hip-hop twist in the middle. Feature bono in flirtacious, self depreciating mode: "I dont wanna talk about wars between nations".
The likely first single, this blazing, fuzzed-out rocker picks up where "Vertigo" left off. "It started just with me playing and Larry drumming," the Edge recalls. "And we took it from there."
7 - Stand Up (Comedy) // ?:?? // Finished // Steve Mix Poss. tweaks [a lot of other stuff written]
Rousing groove-based rocker with shades of Led Zep and Cream. Edge mentions that they're trying to keep Stand Up in a rough state and not overproduce it by putting it through Pro-Tools which cleans up imperfections.
Edge - "Stand Up is just a great gutsy performance from everyone. Stand Up is a swaggering rock and roll song with a real groove.........there's some dirt in what your playing...............Yes, its totally unreasonable. If you're going to do a big guitar song I think you need to push it all the way. It started with a Moroccan rhythm and gone rock n roll."
Another hard rock tune, powered by an unexpectedly slinky groove and a riff that lands between the Beatles' "Come Together" and Led Zep's "Heartbreaker." Edge recently hung out with Jimmy Page and Jack White for the upcoming documentary It Might Get Loud, and their penchant for blues-based rock rubbed off: "I was just fascinated with seeing how Jimmy played those riffs so simply, and with Jack as well," he says.
8 - Breathe // 4:42 // Second in priority // Bono - Vox > The 'Dec' Mix debate
Arabic cello gives way to joyful chorus. Brian Eno says this is U2's best ever song. It's 8pm and Eno, Bono and Will.i.am are on Olympic Studio 1 writing a cello part for a song called Breathe that U2 - a touch ambitiously - are only beginning to record in ths final fortnight, never mind mix.............the singer belts out a rollicking vocal featuring door-to-door salesman, a cockatoo and a chorus that begins "Step out into the street.......sing your heart out".
9 - ?orn (Prov.) // 5:58 // Nearly finished // Intro to be decided on? New Eno Edits + treatment
10 - No Line on the Horizon // 4:11 // Finished // Cenzo Mix - The Biz!
Began life as a slow paced Eno-esque ambient treatment, before being dramatically reworked in the Olympic Sessions into an abrasive punk-rock tune akin to Vertigo, with its "No! Line!" chorus chant.
Bono - "It's the Buzzcocks meets Bow Wow Wow", reckons Bono.,
The title track's relentless groove began as a group improvisation. "It's very raw and very to the point," says the Edge. "It's like rock & roll 2009."
11 - Cedars of Lebanon // ?:?? // Finished // * Extended edit debate Needs approval?
Daniel lanois instigated closer that finds Bono imagining himself as a weary, lovelorn war correspondent "squeezing complicated lives into a simple headline". Ends with the possibly telling line "Choose your enemies carefully cos they will define you"
"On this album, you can feel what is going on in the world at the window, scratching at the windowpane," says Bono, who sings this atmospheric ballad from the point of view of a war correspondent.