The Sun (UK) has leaked a story about a wayward U2 fan who happened to be passing by Bono’s quaint little villa in Eze along France’s Côte d’Azur and just so happened to hear the philanthropic crooner’s voice booming from within just loud enough to get a cut of the track and put it all over YouTube today.  

The track (as yet unnamed) and the YouTube footage that contained it was quickly muted off the video under the lock, “This video contains an audio track that has not been authorized by all copyright holders. The audio has been disabled.”

According to the wizards, the leaked tune was a cut off U2’s 12th full-length album entitled (or rumored to be, at least) No Line on the Horizon. The band’s follow-up to 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is set to be released on November 14^th and will add yet another chapter in U2’s illustrious affair with the likes of Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois, the renowned musical architects for piecing together atmospheric, sonic landscapes of sound and electronic sorcery.  

According to Lanois (from a recent statement to Rolling Stone Magazine), “…the record’s kind of making itself.” Various sources have confirmed a suggested tracklisting including “No Line on the Horizon,” “Moment of Surrender,” “For Your Love,” “Love Is All We Have Left,” “The Cedars of Lebanon,” “If I Could Live My Life Again,” “One Bird,” and the first single, “Sexy Boots.” The album has been described as having trance influences and the sort of musical variety that you’d expect to hear on the dance floor. In a 2007 article in Q Magazine, Bono confirmed, “There’s some trance influence, but there’s some very hardcore guitar coming out of The Edge. Real molten metal. It’s not like anything we’ve ever done before, and we don’t think it sounds like anything anyone else has done either.”

Due to the fact that I was fortunate enough to have grown up with two older brothers with an amazing cassette tape collection, I’ve been hearing U2’s music since before I could develop a conscious thought in my stunted little toddler brain. And when I hear Bono exercising a few vague whimsies about dance floors and trance or when I read “music experts” prematurely waving the flag that this is “U2’s finest work to date,” I get a knot in my stomach that reminds me that, for the betterment of my health, I need to abstain from scavenging through the web, music journals, or calling my “connected” friends for the latest “fix” on what Bono and the boys are up to these days. Otherwise, the sheer volume of my ludicrous expectations for any upcoming U2 album undoubtedly sets me up for a horrid case of miserable disappointment (I’ll confess here that I wasn’t a huge fan of “Vertigo”.)

However, for better or for worse, I still find myself (despite my reservations) holding onto hope and baited anticipation that the next U2 album will come close to a fingernail shaving of whatever it was the band was experimenting with when they wrestled masterpieces like The Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby out from the hands of the almighty rock gods. 

Granted, I realize some of you are skeptical and consider my hopes for this next album absurd and downright ridiculous and, to some extent, I’d probably agree with you. But U2 (perhaps more than any other band in the last 30 years) has given us a sound and a voice with a musical plane upon which nearly the entire human race can stand on and, for once, look each in the eyes from the same point of view. Aside from all the humanitarian contributions and activism, U2 is an unavoidable force not just in our culture, but the culture of this entire planet. They’ve literally become an entertainment juggernaut with more power and influence than (I think) is healthy for a good rock and roll band, much less any band to have to handle. Nevertheless, U2 continues to plug in their instruments and venture out into the farthest reaches of the sound they’ve created for themselves and shared with all of us. 

We’ll have to wait till November to discover where they’re taking us next.

Popularity: 4% [?]