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U2 Album Leaked Weeks Before Official Release

February 18, 2009

U2 Album Leaked

LOS ANGELES (RushPRnews) 02/18/09-It was bound to happen. The last few weeks before a big name release, so many things can go wrong between the studio and the store. Through subterfuge, malice, over-excitement, negligence or accident, the digital files that make up an album will somehow escape. With “No Line on the Horizon,” it was just a matter of time before the machine cracked.
I’m told that “No Line” first appeared online about a week ago at the Napster Mobile site, but since few people know that this site exists, nothing much happen.

Then at about 4am ET today, an Australian site called Getmusic somehow put the album up for sale. Was that intentional or an accident? It doesn’t matter. Fans found it and now the entire finished album is spreading across the universe at the speed of light.



I have a copy (don’t ask) and I’m listening to it now.

On Monday I posted a transcription of the "band rules" that are posted on the wall of Coldplay's rehearsal space in London. One rule that flummoxed just about everyone was number 10. I quote:

10. Think about what you do with charity account. Set up something small but really enabling and constructive. Ref j oliver fifteen

I had no idea what that meant until Geek reader David Clark sent me an email. He writes:

Hey Alan
I was just reading your explore music blog about the rules that coldplay has on its wall in their recording space. I saw this one [the aforementioned Rule 10]

You said you needed help deciphering. I believe he is referring to Jamie Oliver, the chef. He opened a restaurant called Fifteen. He wanted to open a top class restaurant while also giving a chance to help unpriveleged kids gain valuable skills to lead a productive life. Here is their website: http://www.fifteen.net/Pages/default.aspx

Hope that helps.
David Clark

Yes, David it does. Thanks a bunch!

“No Line on the Horizon,” Track-by-Track

8:44am, Wednesday, February 18, 2009

One Saturday in November 2004, about two weeks before “How to Dismantle and Atomic Bomb” was scheduled to be released, an email popped into my inbox.

Although it appeared to have come from someplace in eastern Europe, it was probably anonymized in a million places.

“Want the new U2?” it said. “Here it is.”

I scrubbed the attached file with every anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-malware program I had. Then I opened it. And there it was. I later learned from Bono himself that there had been a breach of security at the CD pressing plant.

A similar thing happened this morning just after 8am ET. I’m listening to the final and finished version of the album as I type this.

Apparently, there was a leak through an Australian online music store called Get Music at around 4am ET today.

For a brief time, they apparently made the album available for sale. Whether it was a human or software error is now irrelevant. I’ve got twelve fresh U2 songs playing in iTunes right now.

The mix sounds finished and the running order is exactly what we’ve been told it would be.

Let’s go through the album.

Here’s what I can tell you. Keep in mind, though, that this is strictly stream-of-consciousness/first impression stuff.

No Line on the Horizon: Last week, an alternate take was making the rounds.

The album version sounds much better to my ears than what we first heard. Bono doesn’t seem strain to hit the high notes in the verses and actually adds a bit of a growl to his delivery.

The Edge’s guitars sound bigger and more robust in this mix, especially once the second version. I can’t help thinking that this song would have found a nice home on Achtung Baby.

It could have been the first single, but since it’s a mid-tempo song, it’s probably best as a second or third single.
Deciphering Coldplay's Band Rules

Album Cover Artwork Coincidence

There’s been much nashing of teeth over the artwork chosen for U2's No Lone on the Horizon. An American electronic artist named Taylor Deupree has a point when he says that there are similarities between No Line and his 2006 album Specification. Fifteen.

But let’s get deeper into this. Both covers have their roots in a photograph by a Japanese artist named Hiroshi Sugimoto. However, Specification Fifteen was created with Sugimoto when he staged at retrospective at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington.

Taylor and his partner, fellow electronic artist, Richard Chartier, says that this all “feels a bit cheap.”

But take it from me: musically, you will never, ever confuse the two.

Concert Listing

Wednesday 2/18

Brad Paisley- Regina- Brandt Centre
Beast- Victoria- Lucky Bar
The Airborne Toxic Event- Vancouver- Richards On Richards

Thursday 2/19

The Helio Sequence- Vancouver- Biltmore Cabaret
Kardinal Offishall- Langley- Citrus Nightclub
Bell Orchestre - Besnard Lakes & Beast- Vancouver- Commodore Ballroom
Brad Paisley- Saskatoon- Credit Union Centre

Friday 2/20

Eagles Of Death Metal- Toronto- Phoenix Concert Theatre
Modernboys Moderngirls- Ottawa- Zaphod Beeblebrox
Witch- Toronto- Horseshoe Tavern
Blondie- Richmond- River Rock Show Theatre
Brad Paisley- Edmonton- Rexall Place
David Byrne - Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno- Vancouver- Queen Elizabeth Theatre

Saturday 2/21

Blitzen Trapper- Toronto- Horseshoe Tavern
Thievery Corporation- Toronto- Kool Haus
The Trews- Kingston- AJ’s Alehouse
Beast- Calgary- Sait’s The Gateway
Veil Of Maya/After The Burial/Abacabb- Toronto Reverb
Arkells/The Waking Eyes- Edmonton- Starlite Room
Ra Ra Riot- Vancouver- Richards On Richards
Creedence Clearwater Revisited- Windsor- The Colosseum at Caesars Windsor
Brad Paisley- Calgary- Pengrowth Saddledome
Lights- Toronto- Phoenix Concert Theatre
Kardinal Offishall- Vancouver- Commodore Ballroom

Sunday 2/22

Ra Ra Riot/Cut Off Your Hands- Victoria- Lucky Bar
Veil Of Maya/After The Burial/Abacabb- Hamilton- The Casbah
Ben Kweller- Toronto- Mod Club Theatre
Ten Second Epic- Edmonton- Starlite Room
Beast- Edmonton- The Pawn Shop
David Byrne - Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno- Edmonton- Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium

If you have any comments or suggestions about anything to do with ExploreMusic (on-air or online), please feel free to send them to me at alan@exploremusic.com

Alan Cross is the host of the radio edition of ExploreMusic as well as The Ongoing History of New Music. He’s also the senior program director at Splice Interactive and the Chief Curator of Exploremusic.

Visit
Alan's Music Geek Blog

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