If he was that bothered, there's plenty of ways of getting the music out to fans quicker so it's not "dated" to him. They could always release digital singles well in advance of the album and set the tour dates regardless, as it's not as if a new album makes the tickets fly off the shelves, and the band themselves give up on the new tracks after a few weeks anyway.

Surely most songs are at least a year old from the time of writing until the album comes out anyway? Certainly are for a tour so this wouldn't be any departure for the norm.