U2 Assembling an Album for '06? | With or Without a Tour?

From antiMusic.com

Special report from Trent McMartin

Since being released in November of 2004, U2's latest record How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb has gone on to sell over 9 million copies, spawned three hit singles (two of them reached number 1 in the UK), and has been the subject of countless positive reviews.

There are rumours circling the Internet of a possible U2 album to be released in spring or summer 2006. Feeding these rumours, Bono was quoted in Rolling Stone late last year as saying "I think there will be a record in 2006. Because we're on it now. But I don't think it's a healthy state of mind to imagine that this band should go on and on. Everyone in it asks very hard questions about its continuing." As reported, U2 left various tracks off How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb that did not fit in with the overall sound of the record. Many of these songs were rumoured to be more aggressive in nature, which may explain early explanations of the album being guitar driven.

In the Rolling Stone interview, Bono talked about the sessions of How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. "There's a certain hit you want to get off a song, and we weren't getting it from the material. It happens. And that's the problem. We're addicted to that feeling. We could have had an album out [earlier], and it would have been pretty damn good. You would have really liked it, because it was a rock & roll album. But we have to sing these songs for the rest of our lives, and they have to work on so many levels." Bono then went on to say "Two years -- it's a song a month. There are twenty-four songs that came out of the sessions. Eleven of them are on the album." (How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb)

The Vertigo tour kicked off in San Diego on March 28th and is expected to go well into 2006 so right now there are no plans to go into the studio to record. Most likely a new record would surface in 2007 but the possibility of a new U2 record in 2006 cannot be ruled out entirely. In 1993, during a break in the massive ZOO TV tour, U2 recorded what was to be Zooropa. The album was released only a year and half after their groundbreaking album Achtung Baby.