Hasta La Ideas

Deluxe editions of U2’s new album, No Line On The Horizon are accompanied by Linear, a specially commissioned film by Anton Corbijn. “It is not an extended music video or a U2 documentary, it’s a new way to listen to a record – a new way to use film to connect to music,” claims Corbijn.

The idea is that, as many people will be listening to the album on a computer or MP3 player with video screen, they can choose to listen and watch the film at the same time. This extract is from the section that is accompanied by the track Breathe.

The film “follows a character from Paris through France and Spain to reach Cadiz before we eventually say goodbye to him trying to row to Africa,” explains Corbijn. Musically, it has a different running order to the album and an extra track, Winter, while the album track, I’ll Go Crazy If I Don’t Go Crazy Tonight does not feature in Corbijn’s film.

The idea of the companion film was apparently developed during the making of the album. “The thinking is that as a lot of people buy music from the internet and are likely to hear this on a computer or mp3 player, their listening pleasure could be heightened by visuals. It is not essential to the record – you can either watch it or ignore it,” says Corbijn.

The lavish deluxe edition comes in a box with the Linear DVD, a poster and a book of Corbijn’s photographs