U2 admit choosing songs for their album is an "ordeal".
The ‘One’ rockers have been working hard on the follow-up to 2014’s ‘Songs of Innocence’ and though they are not short of material, it will be a challenge to narrow down what they have to the tracks that will make the final cut.
Bassist Adam Clayton said:" We’ve an abundance of great ideas and it’s really about identifying what to finish and how to finish it."
The Edge added: "That’s the gift and the curse of this record.
"The ordeal is getting all four members to agree on the same dozen songs."
The group have never been shy about speaking up on political issues, but with controversial candidate Donald Trump about to be inaugurated as US president and the UK agreeing to leave the European Union, the band insist they don’t feel a "responsibility" to raise the issues in their work – but still want to "have a go".
The Edge said: "I don’t know if we feel a responsibility so much.
"Just that there are moments where you just feel like, ‘Wow, someone has got to write a great song about this and hopefully it will be us, so let’s have a go.’
"Coming out of the post-punk era, we were inspired by The Clash, Patti Smith, Television – innovators who also had one foot in the worlds of poetry and literature and the other in political activism. That’s deeply embedded in our band.
"One of the reasons we write a song is to crystallise something of significance for ourselves and, hopefully, other people."
However, Adam is unsure whether rock music is now the right platform on which to take a stand because the political climate is so complicated.
He told Q magazine: "I think the world has changed a bit. I’m not sure that within the culture that music is the best medium any more.
"There’s so much noise out there anyway, people saying this, that and the other, that I think music is a little bit insecure as regards what its role is in these situations."
U2 struggling with song selection
