No Line On The Horizon

U2's 12th album is finally here: No Line On The Horizon. And I just downloaded it from Amazon for $3.99...are you freaking kidding me?! $3.99?! Wow! Not sure how much longer that deal will be there, but snag it while you can!

Here's a bit of the bands take on the new disc:

'We'd invited Eno and Lanois to come in as writers. It was a big step up for us to say, 'We wanna open the thing up and that will determine the direction.' From the first session Larry was performing on an electronic drum kit. Normally Larry drums so hard, it's very hard to spend hours working stuff up when you've got all this bang and clatter. But the electronic kit made him play in a certain way. So the music came from a different place.'
Adam

'Initially, the idea was to do this esoteric thing and have a few hits there as well. It's kind of morphed into something else. I think there is experimentation in there... it's just a different animal. It's not quite what people would expect a U2 experimental thing would be. I mean, if you think of Zooropa, or Passengers, this is not that. This has got a lot of weight... I think it's some of the best music we've ever written.'
Larry on recording in Morocco

'I want people to listen to it as opposed to just buying it. I want this to be an album people go back to, and really get into, in-depth. Like all the records I love... I think we've learnt a few things over the years... I think it could be a bringing to bear of all those eureka moments from the past. And I think it could be our best album.'
Edge

'...I allowed myself to wear the clothes of characters that wandered into my imagination. So the guy in (new song) 'Cedars of Lebanon' is a war correspondent. I meet a lot of them in my other life. And I have a lot of empathy because I'd probably be one (laughs). And then there's this song that is called 'Tripoli' at the moment, which is this guy on a motorcycle, a Moroccan French cop, who's going awol. He drives through France and Spain down to this village outside of Cadiz where you can actually see the fires of Africa burning...'
Bono On Writing in the Third Person

Backgrounder

No Line On The Horizon, released on Saturday Feb 27th In Ireland and in the rest of the world two days later, is the group's 12th studio album and their first release since the How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, in late 2004. Sessions for the album began in 2007 in Fez, Morocco, where longtime producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois joined U2 as songwriting partners. Sessions continued in the band's own studio in Dublin, moved to New York's Platinum Sound Recording Studios before production was completed in December 2008 at Olympic Studios in London. As well as the production talents of long-time collaborators Brian Eno and Danny Lanois, additional production was by Steve Lillywhite.

Check out this helpful and thoughtful review of the album by The Wall Street Journal's Marketing and Media department.