Give us Songs of Ascent (hopefully better than NLOTH). Finish the Rubin material (which doesn't sound exciting in the least, since "Window" came from those sessions). Get the Spiderman thing done (which I pray Larry is able to talk the band down from doing a full-band album out of this. Any ounce that's left of U2's "coolness" will die the day we see "Spiderman: The Musical by U2" in stores). Get it all out of the way and then do something truly experimental and heavier, like the U2 of the 90's that was actually cool to like and kind of badass; ya know, the U2 material that helps me argue with people that they actually are a "Rock Band"; no more of this heartwarming, saving the world through music baloney. Of course, by the time the three discussed projects are out of the way, they will all be pushing 60 years old. Whatever they do, I will give it a chance. They are still my favorite band.
As far as them still keeping the album as a whole in mind. I don't buy it. NLOTH, and to an extent HTDAAB, are the only two U2 albums I can say really don't feel like they have a solid "identity" or "mood/atmosphere" to them. The year 2000 is the last time I feel like they had their eyes on making an "album" instead of "let's just pick the songs we like and maybe they'll end up fitting together somehow"
Okay, I've had two long posts. I'll shut up for a little while now.