After enjoying a most refreshing Easter break, U2 is back at their studio in Dublin in order to prepare for their next album. At the helm of this project are producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois. Fans are on the verge of begging for the album to be released this year. The album has yet to be given a title, but there’s still time to decide and it is expected that U2’s 2009 concert tour with organizers Live Nation will tide fans over till then.

In related news, U2 is set to release remastered and re-edited versions of their first three albums: “Boy” (1980), “October” (1981) as well as “War” (1983). Universal Music will reissue these albums on B-sides, 180 gram vinyls and in double CD format. Also included are rare unreleased tracks and live versions of their concerts.

U2 is also touted to play at the Slane rock concert come 2009 along with other renowned acts such as the Verve and Led Zeppelin.

U2’s third album “War” is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year and the producer of the album Steve Lilywhite is talking about his experience with the band while making the album. Steve remembers that he was hesitant to take up the third album with U2 as he has already done “Boy” and “October” with them and believed that it was good for the band to work with different producers. After, the bad performance of “October” they needed to come back and was well supported by Chris Blackwell. Steve remembers that the band members were more focused in the “War’ sessions and Bono wanted Edge to be more sharp and aggressive.

Steve said that, he tried to make War as different as possible from the two earlier albums as it was the same band and same singers. Steve is proud that he was able to do the Remix of “New Year’s Day” within 15 minutes. Steve has high regards for Bono and his ability to market his band. He believes that U2 has the power of making use of their inadequacies to their advantage. War, one of the best albums produced by U2, contained all the major ingredients for success of an album like commitment, passion and the power of music.

U2 was bold enough to release its third album “War” in 1983 which was in total contrast to the hip hop and pop music that were created by various artists then. They came up with an album that had a set of sound tracks which reflected serious political issues and there are many people who still believe that this was the album that converted the Christian punk band U2 into a political rock band. The songs of the album War still haunts many people and it is still a popular album all over the world. The War album did not win any Grammy’s, but won in six categories in the Hot Press Readers poll and also got the Brit Award for the “Best Live Act”.
The song “New Year’s Day” from the album found the 2nd position on the Billboard Rock Track chart and it came up to the 53rd position in the Billboard 100 countdown. The popular singles from the War album are: “New Year’s Day” and “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and these songs are even now played by U2 in rock concerts, tours and awards functions. The album is slated for a re-release in May this year and this album has certainly made a mark in the pop culture history.