U2 Raw, Naked and Intimate

A throw back to the eighties with new album images offers a rare view into Larry’s shy world. U2 say the album cover reflects "the new songs and their inspiration in the early years of U2 as teenagers in Dublin."

According to a statement on U2.com, the artwork by British fashion photographer and film director Glen Luchford, "resonates with the band's iconic 1980 debut album Boy - and the album War, three years later." 

Both of those albums featured the face of Peter Rowen, the younger brother of Guggi, Bono's childhood friend growing up on Cedarwood Road in Dublin.

Their music has always been about community, family, faith and friends this new project reflects a very intimate side that should stand on its own. Bono said, “With this record we were looking for the raw, naked and personal, to strip everything back” and the images on the album reflect the innocence and the unique relationship of a parent and child.

The photo shoot with Larry and his son was really an experiment however; everyone loved it because of its visual metaphor and thought this was a prefect image to use on the album.

"If you know the album, you will see the themes in the visual language, how 'holding on to your own innocence is a lot harder than holding on to someone else's" said Bono.

The release date has been set for October13th  and will be available in three formats, with exclusive bonus material including two new studio tracks, two alternative versions, and a 6-song acoustic session. 

The Boys in Dublin

LZuni

LZuni

The boys happen to be in Dublin for a Rolling Stones cover shoot.  We are not sure if they stopped in for a few pints at the Guinness Storehouse however we do know that they borrowed a couple of boxer dogs from folks passing by.

Its just over a week ago that the largest album release ever which soon will be available to 119 countries was released.  The blow back was a bit much, some of the younger apple device owners had no clue who U2 was nor did they want to even check it out.  

During Bono’s Radio 2 interview, he said he was happy with the results of the number of listeners and that its pretty cool to have a 38 million people to get your music all at once.

LZuni

LZuni

Bono also went on to say no one has deleted more U2 songs than U2 as well as pointed out  "All I can say is that there's a lot of blood, sweat and tears which went into your junk mail."

U2's marketing machine continues to promote this album and is looking to have a big release in a few weeks.

We know that the announcement of tour dates will follow shortly and we even have a few locations that the boys are sure to be putting on a brand new show.

U2 Next Project 2015

Not that we put any stake in this rubbish that the next album called "Songs Of Experience"  could be release a year from now. However noise around the blog world suggests that the boys project is not as ready as one would have thought.  Frankly its just noise. right now lets kick back and enjoy the release we have and await the announcement of a tour in 2015. U2's marketing machine is in full effect right now with the boys doing lots of interviews and within those interviews we may get some sense of what is next for the boys.  

U2's Second Bite at the Apple

Speaking via Billboard, Bono revealed they are working on a new interactive digital music file format which will encourage fans to buy albums again.

"I think it’s going to get very exciting for the music business," he said, adding that the project will be "an audiovisual interactive format for music that can’t be pirated and will bring back album artwork in the most powerful way, where you can play with the lyrics and get behind the songs when you’re sitting on the subway with your iPad or on these big flat screens. You can see photography like you’ve never seen it before."

According to TIME magazine, Bono hopes that less well-known artists and others in the industry who can't make money from live performance in the way that U2 does will benefit.

- See more at: http://www.independent.ie/entertainment/music/music-news/u2-have-another-new-album-and-project-with-apple-in-the-works-30599894.html#sthash.N9XEwxfu.dpuf

Who the F is U2 ?

Some snotty nose kid from St Louis just screamed out “Who the F is U2” because on they are over packed can not handle another download, iPhone they just auto downloaded the complete album.

The boys from Dublin released their album to Apple and they pushed it right out the door to over 500 million iTunes customers free of charge.

Apple fans that had carefully curated their music collections were confused and dismayed when U2 appeared, in poltergeist-like fashion, in their libraries.

The Guardian released this little gem for those that could care less about U2

  1. Make it the basis of an ice bucket-style charity challenge, in which you film yourself having the songs unceremoniously dumped into your ears, to raise awareness of whatever Bono is bleating about at the moment.
  2. Section off a room in your house and pipe the album into it, which you can probably do nowadays via Wi-Fi or something, on a continuous 24-hour-a-day loop. You can then use this as a sort of “sonic naughty step” for your children.
  3. When you are feeling low or uninspired, simply take a moment to look at the Songs of Innocence icon and its play count of zero, and remind yourself that things could always be worse.
  4.  Use it as a legal justification to mercilessly troll Bono across all major social media platforms. He may not want to receive your annoying, offensive material, but, hey, he started it.
  5. Use one of the standout songs, assuming there is one, as a custom ringtone for incoming calls from anyone you don’t like.
  6. Use it as a conversation starter with other iPhone 6 owners in social situations. If you have both heard it, you should be able to get a good half an hour to an hour about how ghastly it is and how it actually sounds nothing at all like Kraftwerk.
  7. Suggest to Apple that if it can do this with a U2 album, then it should be able to provide exclusive access to things we actually need, such as Candy Crush Saga ripoffs and promotional codes for Millie’s Cookies.
  8. See if you can, via a Twitter campaign, persuade one of the other mobile phone giants to attempt a similar endeavour with someone actually half-decent.
  9. Have the compositional notes to all the songs printed on rice paper, and then track down Apple CEO Tim Cook so you can literally forcefeed Songs of Innocence back to him.
  10. Listen to it all the way through, several times, before forming a ... Ha ha ha! Only kidding!

Meantime hard core fans are screaming when is the tour going to start ? Ah can't please everyone.

Songs Of Innocence (Behind the Scenes)

In the two minute clip, Bono opens up with some rather prophetic statements about the band’s new work. “These songs were always destined,” he’s heard to remark as they tune up instruments.

“But rather than it being paint by number where it’s very disciplined and prescribed.

I always think of the zen artists – they spend all their time mixing the ink.

And it’s those last few minutes where those gestures are recorded. That’s the way all our albums go.”

The video depicts the band’s tight space, playing with hard guitar lines, different vocal styles and discussing how imagination and art work together.

And even though the studio looks like a rather poorly lit place, rest-assured Bono doesn’t lose his sunglasses.