Music mogul Jay-Z thinks he may be partially to blame for the delay of U2’s new album Songs of Ascent, reports Spinner. The disc was originally slated for release in 2010, and recently Amazon’s German website removed the May 27 release date.
The rapper described the chain of events to The Sun, "One night I ran into Bono and he told me he’d read an interview I’d done. The writer had asked me about a U2 record [‘No Line on the Horizon’] that had just been released and I said something about the pressure a group like that must be under just to meet their own standards.
"[Bono] said the quote had really gotten to him and he decided to go back to the studio, even though the album was already done, and keep reworking it till he thought it was as good as it could possibly be," said Jay-Z, who opened a run of shows in Australia and New Zealand for U2 late last year.
While fans await the new album, the group’s 360 Tour of North America – which was delayed a year by Bono’s debilitating back injury last spring – will launch in Mexico City on May 11.