Despite the release of new track, “Invisible,” during the Super Bowl, it looks like U2 won”t have an album out in 2014, after all.
At least that”s the word from Billboard, which reveals that the band is going back into the studio with OneRepublic”s Ryan Tedder and Paul Epworth, best known for his work with Adele.
The band heavily campaigned for its Oscar-nominated song, “Ordinary Love” from “Mandela- Long Walk to Freedom,” and had previously noted that writing the song took them out of their studio groove for the album, their first since 2009″s “No Line On the Horizon.” (Trivia note: There were five years between “Line” and U2″s 2004 album “How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb,” the band”s longest stretch. However, if Billboard is right and we don”t see a new U2 until 2015, this will be the longest amount of time between sets for the Irish band).
The group has been working with Danger Mouse as producer, and Billboard says he is still the “central producer.” At what point do we think they”ll bring in Steve Lillywhite to close out the project?
Part of the issue seems to be that the band is struggling to figure out way to stay relevant. Bono has mentioned to the press several times that the band was “really close to the edge of relevance,” most recently telling The Hollywood Reporter, “to be relevant is a lot harder than to be successful.”
“Invisible,” what many believed to be the first single from the new set, peaked at No. 15 on Billboard”s Rock Songs chart.
Billboard also says a tour that would have started in September will now shift to Summer 2015.