"Edi", a member of the u2sound-forum wrote this post today:
"I was in berlin too, and the day after the show (when I got to meet bono and edge - I gave edge my bands cd's!!), i met dallas walking around the city (he was going to get some food) and we got to chat for 10 minutes. Unfortunately I wasnt alone, so I didnt get to ask him strictly techincal questions, but I asked him about the fuzz tone on ultraviolet and he said it's the harmonic transformer (not the fuzz gun as it appeared on a recent interview), and he said that edge prefers magnificent with the les paul, except for the solo, where he prefers the sound of the country gent. He also said that lanois called him to work with robert plant, but he had to turn it down because edge has just written a new song and wanted to go in the studio the same night to start working on it. The new album is technically ready, but the band are not happy with the people reaction over the new songs (he specified that edge is particularly sad when he sees people not getting into breathe as that's his favourite track), and so they want to reconsider some production aspects for the new songs, as well as throwing in a few newer ones.
And finally he said that he's working on a new prototype guitar for the edge, and once it's finished they'll sell the license to a guitar brand to build it for the market, but he's not going to reveal anything about it till it's finished. I suspect it might have something to do with matt bellamy's guitars from muse....!"
It's more or less what we were saying, they have the album more or less ready but want to add some hits to it. I'm not sure that's a good idea in principle (that's the problem I have with NLOTH, where beautiful atmospheric songs are interrupted by songs that attempt to be hits and break the flow of the amazingly good album).
However, I am really happy that they are working on a new album and that it would conceivably come out before the next tour. NLOTH (despite my misgivings) is the best thing they have done in ages, and I really want to hear SOA.
Ideally I would love it if they would release the hit versions of the songs and then an additional CD with the ambient stuff for the fans.