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[RoKKeR]

Album Artwork:

Worldwide Release (Official)

iTunes White Label Art

Track Listing:

Description:

U2's thirteenth studio album, Songs of Innocence, has roots in the band's early and lifelong influences, including the Ramones, Bob Dylan, and The Clash. It pays homage to U2's formative years in Dublin and their transformative pilgrimage to California. It's a collection of songwriting and music made possible only by shared time and life experiences. A fuzzed-out guitar surges through "The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)." The band delivers a beautiful to Bono's mother, "Iris (Hold Me Close)," and paints a portrait of the icon's hometown on "Cedarwood Road." Soulful keys are peppered throughout Songs of Innocence, a hallmark of producer/multi-instrumentalist Danger Mouse, however the band's epic signature sound still comes roaring through: expansive guitars, driving drums, head-bobbing bass, and soaring vocals.

Partnership with Apple and Free iTunes Release

Apple and U2 are giving the new album Songs of Innocence to over 500 million iTunes customers worldwide. Never before have so many people owned one album, let alone on the day of its release. Songs of Innocence is exclusively on iTunes. (until October 13th) And it's already in your music library. It's available from your Purchased page on iTunes now. And soon you can go to the Music app on your iOS device and your iTunes music library on your Mac or PC, and find Songs of Innocence under the artist or album tab. Your music is in iCloud, just tap the track to start listening or tap the cloud icon to download.

Production and Recording:
Songs of Innocence was recorded in Dublin, London, New York and Los Angeles and is produced by Danger Mouse, along with Paul Epworth, Ryan Tedder, Declan Gaffney and Flood. The album closes with 'The Troubles' featuring the distinctive vocals of Swedish indie singer-songwriter Lykke Li.

Physical and Official Release
On October 13th the physical release of Songs of Innocence comes with a 24-page booklet. A deluxe, gatefold double album, contains an acoustic session of songs from the album and four additional tracks: Lucifer's Hands, The Crystal Ballroom, The Troubles (Alternative version) and Sleep Like a Baby Tonight (Alternative Perspective Mix by Tchad Blake)

Reviews:
Will update this section when I have more time/more reviews are made available.

Other Media:

'The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)' Single Artwork

Apple - "Echos" (TV ad featuring U2 and the lead single, 'The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)'

'Songs of Experience' Announced
In a post written by Bono on U2.com, he announced that 'Songs of Experience', a follow up to 'Songs of Innocence' is coming soon from the band. The full excerpt is as follows:

We’re collaborating with Apple on some cool stuff over the next couple of years, innovations that will transform the way music is listened to and viewed. We’ll keep you posted. 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…

--OT is a work in progress, will keep it updated with any news that trickles out in the coming weeks and months leading up to the official, worldwide release. Thanks all!--

 

[Jotamide]

Can't say no to free. Even if I don't like modern U2.

 

[Ben Morales]

Went in with very low expectations and was pleasantly surprised by this album.

 

[Gouty]

Pleased as punch. Been waiting and waiting and waiting for something out of these guys after NLOTH.

What a surprise!

 

[Shorty11857]

Overall album is a lot better than I expected, none of the songs are bad and the second half is really song. The final three especially are great and the Lykke Li song is fantastic

 

[wetflame]

I said this in the Apple thread, but this is a good deal for U2. All this exposure, makes them look relevant again and most importantly no one can claim their album they've been working on for years is a flop. It's what they need after having gone so long without a hit.

 

[CreeperBlocks]

I'm listening to it now. It's not bad. They still have it after all these years. I never understood the hate for this band.U2 are rock legends.

 

[Gouty]

I'm listening to it now. It's not bad. They still have it after all these years. I never understood the hate for this band. U2 are rock legends.

This and the whole "relevancy" topic that always comes up with them. Nobody talks about relevancy with any of the other old guard. Robert Plant put out a record today as well and nobody says shit, he just does his thing and people take it or leave it. Petty, Springsteen, Dylan, Prince, McCartney; people say whether or not they like the music but theres never discussion about its relevancy.

 

[Shorty11857]

This and the whole "relevancy" topic that always comes up with them. Nobody talks about relevancy with any of the other old guard. Robert Plant put out a record today as well and nobody says shit, he just does his thing and people take it or leave it. Petty, Springsteen, Dylan, Prince, McCartney; people say whether or not they like the music but theres never discussion about its relevancy.

To be fair U2 are much more interested in being relevant than those other artists, honestly a lot of their worse choices over the last few years have been from trying to stay relevant and popular and overthinking everything

 

[B-Dubs]

This and the whole "relevancy" topic that always comes up with them. Nobody talks about relevancy with any of the other old guard. Robert Plant put out a record today as well and nobody says shit, he just does his thing and people take it or leave it. Petty, Springsteen, Dylan, Prince, McCartney; people say whether or not they like the music but theres never discussion about its relevancy.

U2 themselves are the ones bringing it up though. That's why it becomes a thing.

It's a pretty good album and I'm interested to see what the other songs coming out in October are like. We'll probably see a full version of Invisible among other things.

To be fair U2 are much more interested in being relevant than those other artists, honestly a lot of their worse choices over the last few years have been from trying to stay relevant and popular and overthinking everything

Yup, the rumor as to why this album took so long is that they were looking for a radio single. Word is that if they didn't bother with that it would have come out a long time ago.

 

[Rran]

damn I totally did not expect to enjoy this album as much as I am

 

[kmag]

U2 themselves are the ones bringing it up though. That's why it becomes a thing.

It's a pretty good album and I'm interested to see what the other songs coming out in October are like. We'll probably see a full version of Invisible among other things.



Yup, the rumor as to why this album took so long is that they were looking for a radio single. Word is that if they didn't bother with that it would have come out a long time ago.

To fair to them, I think they're shit scared of becoming a greatest hits jukebox live like the Stones are. They could tour every couple of years make millions but they at least wait to put something out to tour. Even on 360, the NLOTH songs and most nights they played at least 5 got a pretty good response.

 

[Kandinsky]

Loved the whole thing, but I'm biased as U2 is my favorite band. Do we know when are they announcing their tour plans?.

 

[Travo]

I can't find this to download. . Could it be heavy download traffic keeping it from appearing?

 

[B-Dubs]

To fair to them, I think they're shit scared of becoming a greatest hits jukebox live like the Stones are. They could tour every couple of years make millions but they at least wait to put something out to tour. Even on 360, the NLOTH songs and most nights they played at least 5 got a pretty good response.

Well they've come out and said exactly that before :lol

It's great that they're 30 years or so into their career and still care about that sort of thing, but they've probably got to chill out with that a little bit. The Danger Mouse tracks on the album are awesome, I can only imagine what the others he did sound like. Maybe they suck, maybe they don't, who knows? They just need to learn to take risks again. Hopefully a good response to those tracks will convince them to loosen up a bit and experiment a bit more. They're probably still freaked out over the response to Pop. :lol

 

[Tigress]

I can't find this to download. . Could it be heavy download traffic keeping it from appearing?

If you are in one of the supported countries it is already purchased, you just need to download it.

 

[ghostjoke]

To fair to them, I think they're shit scared of becoming a greatest hits jukebox live like the Stones are. They could tour every couple of years make millions but they at least wait to put something out to tour. Even on 360, the NLOTH songs and most nights they played at least 5 got a pretty good response.

They also played lesser known songs like Ultra Violet/Zooropa/Scarlet. Seems like they're trying to mix things up like they always have, new and old, well known and unknown. Hell they even performed the unreleased Mercy a few times, here's hoping Songs of Experience will have a studio version.

 

[Travo]

If you are in one of the supported countries it is already purchased, you just need to download it.

Yeah, I'm following the directions to find it either under 'Artists' or 'Albums' and it's no where to be found.

 

[helloresolven]

Yeah, I'm following the directions to find it either under 'Artists' or 'Albums' and it's no where to be found.

On a PC/Mac? Make sure, in iTunes under Preferences > Store, "Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases" is checked.

Or just visit https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/songs-of-innocence/id915794155 ?

 

[Alphahawk]

Yeah, I'm following the directions to find it either under 'Artists' or 'Albums' and it's no where to be found.

It is confusing. I had quite a bit of trouble myself. The best thing to do is to go to the itunes album page and click on one of the songs to redownload. Then when that song downloads, go to it and click "complete this album".

 

[Tugatrix]

I'm enjoying this album first songs much more than their last album which is good, No Line didn't convince me that much

 

[U2NUMB]

Gotta say this is the deepest album they have had in over a decade. After 3 full times through it I like it more and more. So excited that we are getting even more new stuff soon!

 

[betlbum2]

Different U2, but I love it. I even heard some Theremin! Shit it's free too and it's not a shit album. Very pleased.

 

[Travo]

Finally got it. It took a bit of working around things, but hey, free U2!

 

[Moozo]

Finally got it. It took a bit of working around things, but hey, free U2!

How did you get it to work? Mine is showing Purchased but no sign of it in the library and no way to trigger the download

 

[HighAmperage]

How did you get it to work? Mine is showing Purchased but no sign of it in the library and no way to trigger the download

Same here. I'm still on 11.1, guess I'll update. The samples sound good--haven't cared much about them in a long time but there seems to be a more direct and interesting melodic sense than I've heard from them in quite some time.

 

[Psykoboy2]

Gigantic fan of U2. Now I'm wondering if they'll do a tour after the second album releases or split it like they did with Achtung & Zooropa.

 

[Dambrosi]

How did you get it to work? Mine is showing Purchased but no sign of it in the library and no way to trigger the download

Same here. I'm still on 11.1, guess I'll update. The samples sound good--haven't cared much about them in a long time but there seems to be a more direct and interesting melodic sense than I've heard from them in quite some time.

As said in this very thread:

On a PC/Mac? Make sure, in iTunes under Preferences > Store, "Show iTunes in the Cloud purchases" is checked.

Or just visit https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/so...ce/id915794155 ?

This ish ain't bad so far. It's been years since i heard a U2 track, so i'm happy to see they're still knocking out good music.

 

[Cheddahz]

It's cool that Apple is giving away this album, but for crying outloud, please don't just add it to my account

That's not really all that cool

 

[Discotheque]

this is way better than their last 3 albums for sure. but half of it sounds like corny dad-rock that they're known for now and the other half is interesting

admirable effort, will keep some of these tracks on my hard drive.

edit: actually in a little while is prolly their best song before this album came out.

 

[studyguy]

I got home, my girlfriend has an iphone.

First thing she told me is Apple gave her some songs from an old band and how she could return it for credit.

 

[Mau ®]

Is it me, or is this their best album of the last two decades?!

 

[RoKKeR]

Is it me, or is this their best album of the last two decades?!

Well, two decades would include Pop, All That You Can't Leave Behind, How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, and No Line on the Horizon, so...

...maybe? Could very well be.

I'm going to need a lot more time with it to slot it somewhat accurately in my ever-changing list of "best U2 albums" but it's trending towards the top and not the bottom, which I love.

It's pretty damn good. Been listening all day and there are still moments in songs that make me smile.

Gigantic fan of U2. Now I'm wondering if they'll do a tour after the second album releases or split it like they did with Achtung & Zooropa.

It's looking that way. I really don't think Bono would have mentioned Songs of Experience and titled the next album saying it will be ready soon if it wasn't going to correspond with an upcoming tour.

But then again Bono lies, so who knows haha

 

[B-Dubs]

Well, two decades would include Pop, All That You Can't Leave Behind, How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, and No Line on the Horizon, so...

...maybe? Could very well be.

I'm going to need a lot more time with it to slot it somewhat accurately in my ever-changing list of "best U2 albums" but it's trending towards the top and not the bottom, which I love.

It's pretty damn good. Been listening all day and there are still moments in songs that make me smile.



It's looking that way. I really don't think Bono would have mentioned Songs of Experience and titled the next album saying it will be ready soon if it wasn't going to correspond with an upcoming tour.

But then again Bono lies, so who knows haha

I dunno, they've been William Blake fans at least as far back as The Joshua Tree--the deluxe edition rerelease even has them putting "Songs of Experience" to music. We'll be getting an album names Songs of Experience at some point, who knows when though.

 

[TCRS]

listening to it right now, this is pretty good.

 

[Buttonbasher]

Raised by Wolves is my favorite track.

Surprisingly good album!

 

[injurai]

this is way better than their last 3 albums for sure. but half of it sounds like corny dad-rock that they're known for now and the other half is interesting

admirable effort, will keep some of these tracks on my hard drive.

edit: actually in a little while is prolly their best song before this album came out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb4dIvomCwI

 

[echoshifting]

Listening to it right now and enjoying it, but adding this to everyone's library automatically is a pretty weird messaging choice for Apple

 

[HarryDemeanor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zb4dIvomCwI

The Village People end is always the best part.

 

[teruterubozu]

The Troubles is the only thing that sounds new and experimental, all the rest is standard post-Pop U2. I hate the way The Edge has taken a backseat in U2 these days, just too much fucking Bono.

 

[betlbum2]

I wonder how many actual downloads they will have for this album. It's gotta be the largest of all time. Songs of innocence is pretty good.

 

[Fleet_of_Foot]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but this is maddening.

The album shows as "Purchased." I have the "Show iTunes in the cloud purchases" box checked. I have the latest version of iTunes. I have iTunes Match, which is updated. And this damn album is not showing up, in my library, OR on my iPhone which obviously also has iTunes Match.

Where the hell is it? I don't even like U2 that much and don't care about the album but now it's just the principle of the matter.

 

[linsivvi]

I don't know what I'm doing wrong but this is maddening.

The album shows as "Purchased." I have the "Show iTunes in the cloud purchases" box checked. I have the latest version of iTunes. I have iTunes Match, which is updated. And this damn album is not showing up, in my library, OR on my iPhone which obviously also has iTunes Match.

Where the hell is it? I don't even like U2 that much and don't care about the album but now it's just the principle of the matter.

Just download it from somewhere else and import it back to iTunes. Not worth it to waste time on technical problems.

 

[linsivvi]

Well, two decades would include Pop, All That You Can't Leave Behind, How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, and No Line on the Horizon, so...

...maybe? Could very well be.

All That You Can't Leave Behind is better in my opinion.

 

[chris121580]

This is great stuff. Pleasantly surprised by this album. Will sound especially great in the fall as U2 always does

 

[bakedpony]

U2 is back!!!

 

[DeadTrees]

The Troubles is the only thing that sounds new and experimental, all the rest is standard post-Pop U2.

Yep, it's the same album that they've been releasing since 2000 or so. The only question left is why nearly every song has four or five credited keyboard players.

 

[U2NUMB]

I had no idea they first played "Every Breaking Wave" 4 years ago live...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0HwoCTlMeWc#t=63

 

[Alphahawk]

I wonder if we're going to get a music video for "The Miracle"

I still think "Every Breaking Wave" would of made a better first single, but I suppose U2 didn't want to lead with a song that was leftover from their last album.

 

[Mononoke]

Love the first 6 tracks, not a big fan of the last 5. I agree it's better than their last 3 albums (although I think No Line on the Horizon has some great stand alone tracks).