ince the news broke a few weeks ago that Songs of Ascent is the next U2 album — due out (probably) in 2010 – several bloggers have started to unpack the title and wonder what’s in store for us listeners. So what I’m writing about here isn’t breaking news.

While trying to not get too ahead of ourselves as we anticipate the songs we haven’t heard, we could prepare our future powers of reception. There are a few things I think the band would like us to know. Three!

One: If it’s not already in you, get some jazz in ya’. Bono cited Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue and John Coltrane’s A Love Supreme as points of reference for where they are aiming with this next album.