For some background: From U2.songs.com (2020-01-08):
So what are U2 up to now? Hopefully taking a bit of time to rest following the tour that took them through New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, Japan, South Korea, The Philippines and India. We are told they will take some time off the road at this point and will work on new music before going out on tour again. And that they hope to have a new album done by the next time they tour. Two albums are possibilities at this point, with Bono continuing to talk about Songs of Ascent while the rest of the band seems to be looking towards other possibilities. Although even Bono seems open to doing something new, talking about a rock album recently as well.
One album being discussed would be completing the long delayed Songs of Ascent originally developed as a second half to the songs on No Line on the Horizon and later held back. The album has been mentioned a number of times over the years since, and it has been confirmed that there is still an album there, as recently as Bono’s appearance on Hozier’s “Cry Power†podcast where he said, “We have this beautiful, ecstatic album called Songs of Ascent, I don’t know if we’ll finish it soon or if it will take forever – it’s about forever – that’s its subject – Songs of Ascent are 15 psalms, they’re named after the 15 steps from the women’s chamber up to the Temple of Jerusalem. It’s an old idea. I’m obsessed with David, King David in the bible, who turns out was right bollocks, but he was kind of an interesting figure, he was brutally honest with God at all times, even about himself being a bollocks. I’d love to do that.â€
The other would be a rock album, which would not see the band revisit Songs of Ascent at this time. Adam Clayton has said of a new album, “We’ve certainly got lots of leftover pieces, but by the time we come to make another record, I’m sure we’ll start from scratch.†and The Edge has said “There’s lots of ideas for the next records, but I think a bit of time off just to listen to music and to really feed our creative instincts is in order.†As the Experience and Innocence tour drew to a close in 2018 Bono stated that he’d “like to make a balls to the wall rock album.†Bono in the podcast with Hozier in 2019 brought up the rock album as well saying, “I’d also love to do just a straightforward-fuck-off-rock-and-roll album with this band. Because on this last tour, they’ve got to a place, I mean they’ve been there before, I think they’ve always had greatness in them, but we do a lot of very good in between the great. I felt like I just caught up to them on this last tour. And there were moments on the circular stage, the e-stage, on the Experience and Innocence tour, and they hit some powerful stuff. I’d like to find songs that could contain that fire.â€
A few collaborators have also chimed in. Ryan Tedder sounds like he will work with the band on the new album, saying in September 2019, “I spoke to them just last week. We will work together on some new pieces when I am in Los Angeles. I think it’s their intention to make a record completely different from the last two. It will be easier. You know, it’s like a pendulum. When you make a very produced album, with so many instruments in it, the next project you want it to be more sparse, and you wonder, what if the disc had the sound of four musicians playing in a room?†It is likely that the album Tedder references would be the new album leaning towards rock, and not Songs of Ascent.