• ' Released: 6 September 2017 ( 2017-09-06) • 'Get Out of Your Own Way' Released: 19 December 2017 ( 2017-12-19) Songs of Experience is the fourteenth by Irish band. Released on 1 December 2017, it was produced by and with,, Jolyon Thomas,,,, and Declan Gaffney. The album is intended to be a to U2's previous record, (2014). Whereas its predecessor explored the group members' adolescence in Ireland in the 1970s, Songs of Experience thematically is a collection of letters written by lead vocalist to people and places closest to his heart. Songs of Experience was first conceived during the Songs of Innocence sessions and initially started with Bono writing songs while recuperating from a serious November 2014 bicycle accident. U2 began work on the album in earnest during the 2015, with the band members individually collaborating with the producers while on the road.
The sessions continued into 2016 and mostly wrapped up by the end of the year. The group had planned to release the album in the fourth quarter, but after the shift of global politics in a direction, highlighted by the UK's and the, they chose to put the record on hold and reassess its tone. With the extra time, U2 re-recorded many of the songs as a group while and exploring different production techniques.
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Bono rewrote his lyrics to reflect the political climate as well as a 'brush with mortality' that he experienced in late 2016. The album was ultimately completed during. Compared to Songs of Innocence 's pervasive no-cost release through the, promotion for Songs of Experience was more understated, using several postal mail letters to fans to tease the album prior to its release. The record received mixed reviews from critics, many of whom believed it tread old ground for the band. Due in part to bundling with ticket purchases for the 2018 Experience + Innocence Tour, the album debuted at number one in the United States, making U2 the first group to top the country's chart in four consecutive decades.
In the United Kingdom, it peaked at number five. Contents • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Background [ ] On 9 September 2014, U2 announced their thirteenth studio album,, at an product launch event, and released it digitally the same day to all customers at no cost. The release made the album available to over 500 million iTunes customers in what Apple CEO called 'the largest album release of all time.' Apple reportedly paid and U2 a lump sum for a five-week exclusivity period in which to distribute the album and spent US$100 million on a promotional campaign.
Produced by with,, Declan Gaffney, and, Songs of Innocence recalls the group members' youth in Ireland, touching on childhood experiences, loves and losses, while paying tribute to their musical inspirations. Lead vocalist described it as 'the most personal album we've written'. The record received mixed reviews and drew criticism for its digital release strategy; it was automatically added to users' iTunes libraries, which for many, triggered an unprompted download to their electronic devices. Chris Richards of called the release 'rock-and-roll as dystopian junk mail'. Within a few hours of Songs of Innocence 's release, Bono posted a note on U2's website indicating a companion release would follow: 'If you like Songs of Innocence, stay with us for Songs of Experience.
It should be ready soon enough. Although I know I've said that before.' U2 embarked on the in May 2015, visiting arenas in North America and Europe from May through December. The band originally began the tour with the intent to stage it in two phases, one with material primarily taken from Songs of Innocence and one with material that would eventually be from Songs of Experience. The group structured their concerts around a loose autobiographical narrative of 'innocence' passing into 'experience', with a fixed set of songs for the first half of each show and a varying second half, separated by an intermission—a first for U2 concerts. The stage spanned the length of the venue floor and comprised three sections: a rectangular main stage, a smaller circular, and a connecting walkway. The centerpiece of the set was a 96-foot-long (29 m) double-sided video screen that featured an interior catwalk, allowing the band members to perform amidst the video projections.
U2's sound system was moved to the venue ceilings and arranged in an oval array, in hopes of improving acoustics by evenly distributing sound throughout the arena. In total, the tour grossed US$152.2 million from 1.29 million tickets sold. Writing and recording [ ] According to guitarist, the band realised early during the Songs of Innocence sessions that they were working on what would become two separate albums. In a 12 October 2014 interview with, Bono recited lyrics to an in-progress song called 'The Morning After Innocence' (which later became 'The Little Things That Give You Away'), in which the song's protagonist asks his younger self for help.
On 16 November 2014, Bono was injured in a 'high energy bicycle accident' in in New York City. He suffered fractures of his shoulder blade,,, and pinky finger, requiring five hours of surgery at /'s Emergency Department. Bono said he was uncertain that he would ever be able to play guitar again. During his recuperation, he wrote new songs, sometimes using another guitarist to play chords he was unable to.
Bono said his accident benefited the album, explaining, 'The gift of it was that I had time to write while in the mentality that you get to at the end of an album.' The Edge said, 'At the very end of an album you're at the height of your powers in terms of writing, arranging and performing.
It's a shame that you have to stop then and start the other phase of what we do, which is playing live. This time we haven't really stopped. Bono is trying to capitalize on that momentum and that sharpness.' While touring with his electronic music duo in Russia, musician received an offer to produce for U2.
The following week, he flew to to join the group for what he described as a 'two-week tryout'. Barlow was surprised by how receptive the band members were to his ideas and how quickly they trusted him, particularly Bono.
Crysis Rygel High Texture Mod Install. After the session in Monaco, Barlow was asked to join the group in Vancouver for six weeks from April–May 2015 for another trial period as they rehearsed for the Innocence + Experience Tour at the. Producer Jolyon Thomas also joined them as the band used a mobile recording studio. Among the in-progress songs previewed to during rehearsals were 'Red Flag Day', 'Civilisation', and 'Instrument Flying'.
Prior to the tour's opening show on 14 May, the Edge said it was possible that the group would finish the album by the end of the year: 'I guess it really depends whether we feel it is worth pushing for within the ten weeks that we have at the end of this tour.' Comparing the group's in-progress material to their 1993 album, which was completed between legs of their, the Edge said the Songs of Experience songs were 'a lot more developed'. After his time with the group in Vancouver, Barlow was officially given the job of producer. The group continued to work on the album in their free time on tour. Barlow mostly collaborated with the band members individually for minutes at a time due to their schedules and because the size of the dressing rooms on tour did not afford the band enough space to work together. The producer described the process as 'piecing individual pieces of a jigsaw puzzle'.
Barlow would end up spending two years working with U2 in approximately ten countries, sometimes for months at a time. By his estimation, only 10 percent of his work took place in actual recording studios—most of it was done in dressing rooms, hotel rooms, and mansions. Through October 2015, the band had written approximately 18 songs, from which they planned to select 12.
Around this time, the Edge wrote a new song provisionally titled 'Tightrope'. A cover story in that month also mentioned the tracks 'Much More Better' and 'The Little Things That Give You Away'. In November 2015, the Edge told that the group hoped to complete the album in early 2016 and release it by the end of that year. After finishing the Innocence + Experience Tour in December 2015, the band dedicated themselves to working on Songs of Experience throughout 2016. In a February 2016 issue of Q, the Edge estimated that their existing songs could be completed in four-to-six weeks but said that they needed to write additional material. In the story, Bono discussed two new songs, 'Landlady' and 'Where the Shadows Fall'.
In March, the group worked on the record with Thomas in a rented mansion in, an affluent seaside suburb of Dublin. They outfitted the house with a makeshift recording studio and jammed in the parlor overlooking the bay. Mullen used a second drum kit positioned in an echoing stairwell. However, while working on the album in Los Angeles late that month, the Edge indicated that it was not near completion: 'It's really hard to say at this point when it will be done. We're definitely still in the weeds here.
We're not booking the pressing plant, so to speak, just yet.' He said that he had worked on 50 pieces of music individually, 20 of which the group were excited to work on. He further added, 'We are trying to really be brutal with the material and only focus on the things that we're really convinced are the best ideas. I would say we're now at the point of starting to really edit down to the core collection of songs that will make the record. Things are still in their rough state, but sounding really great.' The guitarist said that '80 percent of [the record] was started before 2016, but most of it was written in the early part of 2016'. 9x Serial Kya Dill Mein Hai Last Episode there.
In May, musician, reprising his role as co-producer from U2's previous record, said, 'I've never seen them this focused,' while describing their in-progress material as their most exciting since 2000's. Tedder also mentioned that the album was mostly new material and that only one or two songs from the Songs of Innocence sessions had survived. The following month, the Edge said the band were 'busting [their] ass' to release the album by the end of 2016. While attending a wedding in Valencia in August 2016, the band spoke to fans about the album's progress; bassist told fans to expect something within six months, while Bono, when asked about the Innocence + Experience Tour, said, 'the second part of the tour is for 2017. You might see a few things in September or October though.' Picked up on these comments and reported that an album launch in September or October 2016 was possible to coincide with the band's 40th anniversary, and that the Innocence + Experience Tour would resume in March 2017. At the end of August, the song ' debuted in the form of an remix by Norwegian DJ during his performance at the Cloud 9 Festival.
Delay and rework [ ] The group had planned to release Songs of Experience in the fourth quarter of 2016, but they ultimately decided to delay it; after the shift of global politics in a direction, highlighted by the UK's and the, the band wanted to reassess the tone of the album. The Edge said, 'we suddenly realized that the world we were about to release it into had changed. So we gave ourselves a moment to reflect if this was a good idea, and concluded it might be better to wait for a minute.
To pause, see what was going on in the world, see if the album we had just finished was what we wanted to say.' Bono said, 'the new songs were about ready to go, and then the world changed. We just had one of those moments where you go, 'Let's step back from this for a second.'
It is a very personal album, and it's not gonna become a political album overnight. But it has to now go through the filter of what's happened in the rest of the world.' According to the Edge, most of the resulting changes to the songs were lyrical and some were very subtle, emphasising or better expressing an idea.
He also indicated that the group might write one or two new songs with their extra time. The group were also interested in exploring different production techniques and for their songs.
Clayton said they wanted to tweak the songs' after dissatisfaction with those from Songs of Innocence: 'There wasn't clarity to some of the mixes and we needed to be a little bit more inventive sonically. I mean, that record, when we performed it live, the songs became very, very masculine and very tough and we didn't really capture that on the record.' Bono echoed these sentiments, saying that Songs of Innocence lacked 'coherence in production'. As a result, in autumn 2016, the Edge, Clayton, and Mullen (and Bono for the final few days) convened in a rehearsal space to perform the songs together 'with half an eye and ear to how they might be performed in a live concert setting'.
The group were hoping to find arrangements that would work live and on record, so as to avoid their habit of recording, releasing, and ultimately rearranging songs when preparing for a tour. In an interview with in September, Bono affirmed a tour would take place in 2017 but was non-committal on a release date for the album.
In October 2016, Tedder mentioned that he had been working with U2 on the record for a year, and said that there would be 'really good remixes that are going to kick an entirely new door wide open for U2 fans'. In a video released on Christmas in December, the band announced that Songs of Experience would be released in 2017. Lead singer Bono experienced a 'brush with mortality' in late 2016, which affected the album's lyrical direction. As the sessions continued, Bono had what the Edge called a 'brush with mortality'. Reported that sometime in late 2016 between Christmas and New Year's Day, Bono had a near-death experience; he declined to elaborate any further on what happened. As a result of the episode, he decided to rework the album's lyrics. He followed the advice of Irish poet to write as if he were dead, which the Edge said 'frees you of having to.
Be delicate or be anything other than a pure expression of your essence'. As a result, Bono wrote the lyrics as a series of letters to people and places closest to his heart. He said, 'I know U2 go into every album like it's their last one but even more this time I wanted the people around me that I loved to know exactly how I felt.' He also borrowed an idea from poet to compare oneself as an innocent person to who they become through experience. U2 felt that their chemistry was not adequately represented on the album's recordings. Many of the individual parts, particularly Mullen's drums and Clayton's bass parts, had been recorded separately, and in the band's opinion, they lacked the energy that could be captured from a live band. Having re-rehearsed their in-progress material, in March 2017, U2 entered in New York with their long-time producer to re-record the songs as a group.
Bono called Lillywhite the 'best guy for recording us in the studio with the band playing live'. The group were satisfied with the results, as they found a synthesis of their 'raw band performances' with from previous recorded versions.
The Edge called it 'the best of the band chemistry mixed in with the best of the 21st-century production technology.' In May 2017, U2 began performing 'The Little Things That Give You Away' during, making it the first new song from the album that they debuted.
In an April 2017 cover story for, Clayton said there were 15 or 16 songs that were contenders for the album, which they still hoped to whittle down to 12. The story mentioned new songs titled 'The Showman', 'Summer of Love', and 'The Best Thing About You Is Me' [ ]. After embarking on in May 2017, U2 debuted 'The Little Things That Give You Away' live. During an interview with Hot Press on the second date of the tour, Bono mentioned a new song entitled 'American Soul', which had been sampled by for his song '.
Later that month, when asked about Songs of Experience, Bono remained non-committal on a release date, saying, 'I thought it was done last year.' He admitted that spending additional time working on the album had improved it, but said that 'if you left it to Edge he'd still be remixing it next year.'
He later said that by putting the finishing touches on the album while touring, the music was imbued with a directness that would have been missing if they had been working in the studio for three years. In September 2017, the Edge said the band had agreed upon the album's track listing, running order, and mixes, indicating that it was 'absolutely ready to go beside the last polish', such as small mixing tweaks or lyrical changes. Barlow said that Bono was making lyric changes up to the last second before. Artwork and title [ ] The photo on the, taken by the band's long-time photographer, depicts Bono's son Eli and the Edge's daughter Sian holding hands. The album's title, along with that of the group's previous record, Songs of Innocence, are taken from William Blake's collection of poems. Release and promotion [ ] On 23 May 2017, U2 appeared on and performed 'The Little Things That Give You Away'. In August, reported that 'You're the Best Thing About Me' would be released as the first single from Songs of Experience, and that the album would be released on 1 December.
On 21 August 2017, several U2 fans in the United States received cryptic letters via teasing a new release from the band. The letters contained text mentioning Blake's Songs of Innocence and of Experience, with a silhouette of Bono's son and the Edge's daughter from the album cover blocking out most of the text except for a few words, revealing the message, 'Blackout. The bottom of the letters said 'U2 will announce' but blacked-out the release title and date. Many of the recipients of the letter were in the path of. On 29 August, the band posted a short video clip online of a new song 'The Blackout' and announced that the song would premiere in full the following day on; the band also announced that 'You're the Best Thing About Me' would be released as Songs of Experience 's first single on 6 September. On 30 August, the band unveiled a video showing a live performance of 'The Blackout'. The following week, on 6 September, 'You're the Best Thing About Me' was released, and published an article on the album, stating it would be released on 1 December.
On 7 September, the band performed 'You're the Best Thing About Me' on before debuting it live at a concert in Indianapolis three days later on the Joshua Tree Tour 2017. In late October, fans once again received mysterious postal mail letters, this time containing the Songs of Experience track listing blacked-out except for one song.
On 1 November, the band officially announced details of the album's release: a 1 December release date was confirmed, the album artwork was unveiled, and the release formats were announced; additionally, the tracks 'Get Out of Your Own Way' and 'The Blackout' were released, and 2018 North American tour dates for the Experience + Innocence Tour were announced. The tour will make use of Ticketmaster's Verified Fan platform for combating, making U2 the first group to do so for an entire tour.
Every ticket purchased for the tour will include a copy of Songs of Experience. The album will be released in three formats: compact disc, vinyl record, and digital download. Deluxe editions will include up to four bonus tracks. The group performed at in London on 11 November prior to them receiving the Global Icon Award for the.
On 17 November, the song 'American Soul' was released. On 24 November, the group released a 12-inch of 'The Blackout' for. Released in partnership with, the single includes the album version of the song and a remix by Jacknife Lee. During the week of the album's release, U2 took part in several promotions.
Produced online radio programming about the band called The U2 Experience; the content, which was available for the two days prior to the album's release date, included songs from across the band's career, interviews, and live recordings from the Joshua Tree Tour 2017. Similarly, produced a mini-documentary about the group called U2 in America that was made available as part of a playlist of their songs. On the day of release, Bono made an appearance on the American football television program, and the band briefly performed on a sidewalk underneath the in New York City. U2 was the musical guest on American sketch comedy television series on 2 December, with fellow countryperson hosting.
Five days after the album's release, Bono and the Edge traveled and gave a short performance on a station platform. Aired an hour-long television special about the band on 19 December, U2 at the BBC. The programme featured performances and interview segments. Critical reception [ ] Professional ratings Aggregate scores Source Rating 5.8/10 64/100 Review scores Source Rating C– 5.3/10 Songs of Experience has received mixed reviews.
At, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 64 based on 27 reviews. Of found that the band are 'old masters at pomping up whatever the kids are buying', comparing portions of the album to songs by and. The review concluded, 'U2 have built a stadium rock cruise liner they've zero interest in rocking, and '.Experience' is 50 minutes of very plain sailing indeed.' David Sackllah of said the album too often 'finds the band retreading well-worn material'. He said that the lyrical rewrites to reflect the political climate resulted in the album being 'full of references that can feel shoehorned in'. Calum Marsh of said that Songs of Experience is 'the shameless effort of four men in their late 50s to muster a contemporary, youthful sound.' The review criticized Bono's lyrics for their platitudes and attempts to tackle political subjects, saying, 'Despite the blatant bid to sound modish and rejuvenated, U2 cannot help in certain respects but sound the same.'
Andy Gill of said, 'Rarely has a band of such stature sounded quite so enervated and bereft of inspiration as U2 do here'. The review said the band had been 'reduced to hackneyed cheap tricks and tired old truisms barely worth the chords they're strung on – which are themselves the limpest melodies of their career.'
James McNair of called Songs of Experience an 'infinitely more satisfying beast than its patchy predecessor' and 'U2's strongest album this century'. He praised the record for its hooks and for its final songs, on which he felt Bono was at his most vulnerable. Andrew Perry of said the album 'will likely go down as a late-career classic'. The review lauded the group for their ability to evoke a range of moods and sounds: 'U2 have dug deep, yet they remain both postmodern and unpredictable.
Able to assume many sounds and voices; to invoke their early-'80s innocence, but also none-more-experienced, masters of every inch of their game'. Of said that the album is filled with 'big meaty hooks matched by singalong aphorisms'. He was complimentary of the group for melding their personal conflict with the positivity of their music, saying the album demonstrates them at 'their most mature and assured, playing songs of passion and purpose, shot through and enlivened with a piercing bolt of desperation'. Of said the group's reflection on their mortality provides an 'urgency [that] binds and propels the mosaic jump of Experience'. Fricke praised the group for offering glimpses of their past work, saying, 'The mounting effect is a charge of dynamic moods and a still-certain mission'. In their end-of-year rankings, Rolling Stone named Songs of Experience the third-best album and 'Lights of Home' the fifth-best song of 2017. 'The Blackout' appeared in ' list of the 54 best songs of the year.
Commercial performance [ ] Songs of Experience debuted at number one in the US on the with 186,000 earned in its first week, 180,000 of which were sales. It was the band's eighth number-one album in the US, the third-most of any group, and made them the first group to attain number-one albums in the US in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s, and 2010s. It was the largest sales week of any rock album in the US in 2017. The record debuted at number one on the with 24,000 copies sold among 25,000 album-equivalent units, making it U2's sixth album to top the country's chart during the era. On the, the record debuted at number five with 40,669 copies sold in its first week.
Track listing [ ] All lyrics written by Bono; all music composed by U2, except where noted. Standard edition No. Title Music Producer Length 1. 'Love Is All We Have Left' 2:41 2. 'Lights of Home'.