The National logo, global utilities Primary navigation main content Stephen Dalton US perform at the Brit awards at Earls Court in London last week.
Their new album is out on Monday. The launch of a U2 album always feels bigger than a mere musical event and inevitably stirs up fierce critical friction. They are currently marking 33 years together, and nobody else in the history of rock has remained so successful for so long, infiltrated so completely the corridors of global power, or generated such extremes of love and hate as the mouthy Irish supergroup. Whether you find them inspiring, annoying or simply ridiculous, U2 are unquestionably a unique phenomenon. Their 12th studio album, No Line on the Horizon, consumed half a decade and four producers during its long and troubled gestation. Recording sessions in Morocco, France, New York, Dublin and London stretched from months into years: a marathon that might have broken or bankrupted a lesser band. In between studio duties, the singer Bono picked up an honorary British knighthood, a Nobel Peace Prize nomination and bitter criticism for his warm dealings with Tony Blair and George W Bush. Ever the political chameleons, U2 also played at President Barack Obama’s inaugural rally in January, probably the most prestigious free advert for a new album ever.
U2 are notorious for tinkering with albums right up until the eve of release, and the latest suffered a string of dramas and setbacks. Last August, a Dutch fan posted low-grade recordings of four tracks on the internet. He had caught Bono playing them on the stereo at his villa on the French Riviera, and recorded them on his mobile phone. More seriously, last weekend the Swedish file-sharing site The Pirate Bay began leaking high-quality copies of the full album nine days before its international release on Monday. U2 and their management have always taken a firm stance against illegal downloading but, ironically, the source of this leak seems to have been an Australian website run by the band’s label, Universal.