New U2 on the Horizon for March

Finally, we've got a release date for the new U2 album, the band's 12th, and it drops just in time for St. Patrick's Day on Tuesday, March 3.

Titled "No Line on the Horizon," U2 fans of all different stripes will be able to select among five different ways to purchase the new music, from high-end to bare bones. You'll be able to get your basic CD, and a double-vinyl edition which will suit many old-schoolers (like yours truly), but for those with a bit of spare cash to throw around the band will also offer a digi-pack version ($36) in a cardboard folded sleeve with a 36-page booklet, a fold-out poster and a download of a U2 film.

Then there's the magazine version ($49.98), which comes in a CD enclosed in a 60-page soft cover magazine with the downloadable film.

For those who really want to add to the band's coffers, the box set, priced at $96, comes complete with the CD, a 60-page hard cover book, a second poster and the film on DVD.

The album itself? Q magazine in the U.K. reports that the band has collaborated with will.i.am of the Black Eyed Peas. Among the new original tracks are titles like "Magnificent," "Stand Up," "Winter," "Breathe," "Every Breaking Wave" and "Crazy Tonight."

According to Q, the band put the finishing touches on "Horizon" during marathon sessions in a London studio last month.

Though they experimented with American uber producer Rick Rubin when they first went into the studio way back in October of 2006, they stuck with the tried and true U2 producers Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois to shepherd the finished product to its conclusion.

"We learned a lot from Rick," Bono told Q. "He's head over heels in love with the concept of the song. But our feeling was, you don't go to rock 'n' roll just for the songs. We wanted songs that would take us into a different world.

"And because Brian and Dan are experimental in their niches, the opportunity to bring some experimentation into the pop consciousness is so exciting to them. And to us."

The magazine's editors were treated to a preview of "Horizon," and liked what they heard. "(It) is more in keeping with the spirit of 1991's "Achtung Baby," which is to say, a bolder, more testing collection," reports the U.K. music bible.

"The material itself runs a gamut from the classic U2-isms of 'Magnificent,' which echoes "The Unforgettable Fire's" opening track 'A Sort of Homecoming' in its atmospheric sweep, to the straight up pop of 'Crazy Tonight' ... and the swaggering 'Stand Up,' wherein U2 get in touch with their, hitherto unheard, funky selves - albeit propelled by some coruscating Edge guitar work, a signature feature of a number of the tracks."

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Nster.com