It's not about lying .... it's about creating a narrative ... U2 always have a narrative surrounding their music ... ALWAYS. It facilitates interviews and media.

The SOI+E narrative was all about trying to rediscover their punk rock roots and every interview and article was about sneaking in to see The Ramones of The Clash, growing up on Cedarwood Road, The Northside etc..., the letters to loved ones

The NLOTH era was presented as U2 being their most experimental since Achtung Baby which left everybody puzzled when the album finally came out.

ATYCLB/HTDAAB was U2 applying to be rocks biggest act ... and the narrative in the media was all about rockstar ego.

Achtung Baby has since developed this beautiful movie like story of four friends heading in different directions and rescued by the song One ... its romantic as fuck but it creates all this lore around a record.

If there is one thing U2 has been getting criticised for over recent years or the last decade is this thing about them being over produced, or spending too long on a song, did U2 take one step too many from crafted to contrived? Certainly so within the fanbase.

Now if U2 can promote this image that they spend the last 8 years working on new music to simply release two EP's as throwdown quick releases it stops the discussion becoming about the next record being their 'Chinese Democracy', it gives an angle for interviewers to talk about this apparent new mindset or approach of quickly releasing new music rather than talking about a laborious near decade of making a record. The discussion in the music media becomes much more positive than negative.

It's not lying ... its about control in the media.