Sunshine, sunshine

I love the way U2 finds ways to bring their music to people in such a holistic manner by engaging different kinds of artists. Good marketing maybe, but there is this sincerity that’s unmistakable:

Anton Corbijn has been helping to define U2 since 1982, producing iconic photographic images that capture the sound and feeling of each new album. Think of the band in the snow for ‘War’, in the desert for ‘The Joshua Tree’ or at the departure gate for ‘All That You Can’t Leave Behind’ and you are thinking of an Anton Corbijn shot. For the new album U2 asked Corbijn not just to take the pictures but also to make a film to accompany ‘No Line On The Horizon’. The result is ‘Linear’: not a music video but a companion piece that takes themes from the songs and turns them into a mesmerising road trip. – U2.com

Bono confessed that he loved Sugimoto’s seascape photographs and began quizzing the artist about the work. “He started taking notes as I talked,” Sugimoto recalled. Those notes became the foundation for the new album’s title track. Last year, during a visit to Dublin, Sugimoto heard the first demo tape, and a few months later was told by Bono that U2 wanted to use the Boden Sea image on the album jacket. Bono agreed on an “artist-to-artist” barter whereby Sugimoto could use the “No Line on the Horizon” song in any project he wanted in the future. Sugimoto says he still hasn’t made up his mind about how to use the song — which he says he likes, but liked even better in its “more hard rock” demo stage. - Hiroshi Sugimoto’s No Cash Deal With U2

Recently, Unknown Caller has been a favourite of mine in No Line, it’s a very U2 track — there is Bono’s gift for self-reflexivity in his lyrics of bittersweet triumphant, but it all ultimately belongs to The Edge, and wot an epic he does at that! Very glorious altogether. The song — of which can be interpreted to be a conversation between God and man — pretty much speaks to me now as I’ve just been greatly released and am rebooting into a new phase that’s making me very excitable, but I’ve def learn the tough way to stay still, be still and let things roll in His timing!

You know your name so punch it in
Hear me, cease to speak that I may speak 
Shush now 
Then don’t move or say a thing
- Unknown Caller