New York: By now you heard that that Steve has been in Singapore for a music festival and bumped into to our friend Alan Cross who happened to be at the conference too. Alan posted on his blog:
No, the name of the single was not released nor can we speculate which song Steve happened to be mixing.
Humm what could it be?
Anyway we will all have to wait and see
Hot Press
U2 producer Steve Lillywhite has accused The Irish Times of misquoting him, in the headline on an article which appeared in the run-up to his appearance at The Music Show.
The news story was headlined “Producer admits last U2 album was a failure” — but the man who produced Boy, October and War, and later co-produced both How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb and No Line On The Horizon for the band, with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, insists that this is not what he said.
“I never called U2 a failure,” he told the audience at the panel ‘Are Producers The Real Stars?,’ where he appeared alongside Van Morrison and Waterboys producer Mick Glossop and Julie Feeney.
“It was said that I said No Line On The Horizon was a failure. That is a complete misquote, I never said the word ‘failure’ to that journalist.”
In fact the words do not appear in quotes in the article and so the headline — presumably tagged on during production — is totally unrepresentative of what was written by Irish Times reporter, Ronan McGreevy.
“I just wanted to clarify what I said (here),” Lillywhite continued. “I was saying that with albums like The Joshua Tree, which is set in the desert, the album and the sound invokes this mood as a whole, you just feel it. I just said that I didn’t think No Line On The Horizon did that as well. It was meant to invoke the whole feel of north Africa, of Morocco, and I didn’t think that was achieved as well as on other albums, where the atmosphere hits you. I would never call any of U2’s work a failure, and I did not.”
A sub-headline on the news story says that the album sold only “a fraction” of previous albums, by which one would normally understand that sales were well down on previous efforts. In fact the record has gone to No. 1 in at least 14 countries. outperforming even Achtung Baby. Its sales of over 5 million copies, against the 9 million sold by its predecessor How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb have to be seen in the wider context of shrinking record sales — and so represent a relatively good result for the band in a diminishing market.
Lillywhite is currently seeking a retraction from the newspaper.
“You’d expect better of The Irish Times,” he said afterwards. “They’re supposed to be a newspaper of record.”
© 2010 Hot Press
I was thinking today that we should really dig deeper into this U2 release. So here are the details I have found. Sources: Around the world -
ALBUM NAME: No Line On The Horizon
PRODUCER(s): Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, with additional production by Steve Lillywhite
ALBUM RELEASE DATE:
• March 2: Worldwide
• March 3: North America
• February 27: Germany, Austria, Ireland
FORMATS: The album will come in five different formats:
• Audio CD ($13.98 list price)
Description: "This version is the standard album CD in a plastic jewel case w /24 page color booklet."
• Vinyl (2 LP) ($17.98 list price)
Description: "This version is 2 vinyl discs in a folding sleeve with 16-page oversized booklet."
• Limited edition Digi-pack version (CD/Poster/Film Download) ($35.98 list price)
Description: "This version features the album CD in a cardboard folded sleeve w/ a 36-page color booklet and fold-out poster, as well as a new film from Anton Corbijn featuring the music of U2, available as exclusive downloadable content."
• Limited edition Magazine version (CD/Magazine/Film Download) ($49.98 list price)
Description: "This version features the album CD in a special 60-page soft cover magazine-style book as well as a new film from Anton Corbijn featuring the music of U2, available as exclusive downloadable content."
• Limited edition: Box Set version (CD/Poster/Book/DVD) ($95.98 list price)
Description: "This version is a deluxe limited-edition-collector’s item: packaged in a special box, album CD in a cardboard folded sleeve w/ 36 page color booklet and fold out poster. Box also includes 60-page hard cover book plus an additional fold-out poster and a DVD of the new film from Anton Corbijn featuring the music of U2 in a slip case cover."
Q magazine's album preview mentions the following songs, some of which are new and some previously mentioned:
• "Magnificent" ("classic U2isms" ... "atmospheric sweep")
• "Crazy Tonight" (will.i.am worked on this one)
• "Stand Up" ("swaggering" ... "coruscated Edge guitar work")
• "Get Your Boots On" ("a heaving electro-rocker")
• "Winter" ("about a soldier in an unspecified war zone")
• "Unknown Caller" ("stately")
• "Moment of Surrender" ("a strident seven-minute epic recorded in a single take")
• "Breathe" (Eno loves this song)
• "No Line On The Horizon" (there were two versions being considered at the time)
• "Every Breaking Wave" (Bono: "We might be on to something special there.")