Postive Vibes New U2 Album Arrives

"People who can't stand U2's earnest, heal-the-world side may want to turn elsewhere right now. The word "love," unironic and high-minded, recurs all over "Songs of Experience," the band's long-gestating sequel to its 2014 album, "Songs of Innocence." Where "Songs of Innocence" was full of youthful biographical specifics, both euphoric and grim, from the group's lead singer and main lyricist, Bono, "Songs of Experience" has an adult's broader, more general perspective. It favors lessons and archetypes, not stories…"
Jon Pareles, NEW YORK TIMES, 'U2 Releases 'Songs of Experience. Cynicism Not Included.'

"Songs of Experience will likely go down as a late-career classic. Unlike its predecessors, it carries some memorable, stadium-ready tunes, initially signposted by You're The Best Thing About me - their best comeback single since 2000's Beautiful Day…. U2 have dug deep, yet they remain both postmodern and unpredictable. Able to assume many sounds and voices; to invoke their early-80's innocence but also none-more-experienced, masters of every inch of their game…. from here, U2 can rebuild with confidence."
Andrew Perry, Q MAGAZINE, Bringing It All Back Home ****

"Textbook anthem Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way… is plainly a parent-to-child letter of reassurance; an important unburdening for someone recently spooked, and another key component in U2's strongest album this century."
James McNair, MOJO, 'The Letters of Paul' ****
 
 "As the title makes plain, Songs of Experience is not the work of young men. It showcases U2 at their most mature and assured, playing songs of passion and purpose, shot through and enlivened with a piercing bolt of desperation. "The Showman gives you front row to his heart / Making a spectacle of falling apart," Bono sings with defiant humor on The Showman, and it is this spectacle that makes Experience so compelling. A little battered by time and bloodied by events, U2 remain defiantly unbowed, as determined as ever to make mass market music that really matters."
Neil McCormick, DAILY TELEGRAPH, 'U2's Songs of Experience is full of desperation and meaty hooks in equal measure' ****

"Behind those tinted shades…there is still a superb blue-eyed soul singer. And next to him, The Edge is several guitarists in one: if he's not murmuring in your ear, he's roaring like Jimmy Page or taking a step back to join Larry Mullen and Adam Clayton, the most resolute of rhythm sections. After 41 years, U2's secret is their unity, just about the greatest strength a band can have. They're like an old friend now - you take them warts and all, you ride out their midlife crisis, and after spending time with them, you feel uplifted."
Tim De Lisle, MAIL ON SUNDAY, Album of the Week, '…the melodic, punchy tunes soon get under your skin.' ****

"Like its 2014 predecessor, U2's "Songs of Experience" is the product of a difficult and drawn-out recording process. Much more so than "Songs of Innocence," however, U2 has made an exciting, stage-ready album that doesn't blush or blink in its use of the band's signature sounds — The Edge's chiming guitar, Adam Clayton's trebly, adhesive bass, Larry Mullen Jr.'s sharp and responsive drums and Bono's heart-on-his-vocal-cords singing…"
Pablo Gordini, ASSOCIATED PRESS, 'U2's 'Songs of Experience' is a thrilling listen'
  
"...The penultimate track is 'Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way' another multi-layered beauty of a ballad. Sounds like a choir doing harmonies to Bono's soaring vocals and yet another strong grower.  This is truly a cracker of an album on first, second and third listens. Living with it for an extended spell will determine whether it hits the heights of a Joshua Tree, an Achtung Baby or the cruelly underrated Pop."
Eric Lalor, JOE.ie, 'Songs of Experience by U2 ranks alongside the band's greatest work.'

Published / U2.com/ Press Clips/

U2's Next Release Scheduled For 2016

Nick Walker/ U2TOURFANS

New York: U2 fans will have to wait a bit longer for the next album however not as long as this last album. Bono announced that the "Songs of Experience" will be released in 2016.  Its the follow up to the 2014 release "Songs of Innocence" which all Itunes account holders got as a gift for free.

"Songs of Experience" is pretty much baked and ready however the band will invest the time in fine tuning the next release and 2016 will allow the band to tour with new music and change up the current set list with additional tunes.

Expect the U2 marketing machines to really come up with something different and most likely not a download.

U2: The Relevancy of Relevancy

I realize this may upset a few of the hardcore fans of U2. I happen to be one of them. Bono has talked extensively on the subject of whether U2 is still relevant. Sadly, the answer appears to be a resounding ‘no’.

From the negative reception to U2’s ‘gift’ of Songs of Innocence to what basically amounts to minimal radio play of “The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)”, is there a way to think anything less? A brief look at YouTube statistics tells the same story. U2’s “Miracle” has under two million plays. By comparison, Foo Fighter’s recent “Something From Nothing” (a song that was not huge for them) had 5.5 million views. And as much as any band would love to have a couple of million views, where U2 is concerned, that basically qualifies as being completely ignored.

Many fans will point to the upcoming Innocence + Experience tour. If they are so irrelevant, how come they selling out dates all over the world? I can point to The Rolling Stones who tour and fill major venues as a prime example. What’s the last new Stones song you can think of that made the charts? That’s right, you can’t (they haven’t had a U.S. chart single since the remix of “Sympathy For The Devil” in 2003 and that only got as high as number 97)!

Towards the end of last year the band started playing a beautiful version of “Every Breaking Wave” on their various show appearances. It was far more powerful live than the version that was released on Songs of Innocence. This week they’ve released the song as a single with a re-recorded version that is much closer to what we saw live. Hear it here. You can tell this is a reaction to the lack of resonance the album has received to date. Will this version hit the mark? I think it’s a beautiful song. I think it will be a killer live. But even this new recording is lacking. It doesn’t have the power of the performances we’ve seen. It is controlled where the live version appears more raw. Where’s the cracking in Bono’s voice? I am not sure why they seem so afraid to release something that isn’t perfect. Perfect and clean does not equal power and connection.

I’ve seen a lot of fans screaming for them to loosen up their live performances. People want less pre-recorded and time-limited and more raw, real, less rehearsed and more open and flexible shows. It is no different for their releases. I’d rather hear Bono fall apart, lose it for a moment in a recording than be perfectly controlled. And for a band that has been so high and decided that perfection, as in 5+ years to release an album, was required, maybe they’ve missed the point. Their early albums were full of those moments where they don’t get it perfect. They cared less about the sound quality and more about the performance. As the later years transpire, it seems they’ve tried to do both. That translates to well-written, well-played and well-recorded. What I think has been missing for many years now in their records is raw emotion. And when I say that I mean that both musically and vocally. It comes out more live but their albums, while interesting, often innovative, lack the oomph.

Where’s the pain of “Sunday, Bloody Sunday”? Where’s the truth that lies within “With or Without You”? Where’s the political anger underneath “Mothers of the Disappeared”? We live in an increasingly desperate time. We see rights taken away bit by bit while the bricks of democracy get removed without anyone caring. We the growing distance between the ‘haves’ who want it all and the rest of us who haven’t made significant progress in years. We see angry young men blowing themselves up for a questionable cause. We see education being diminished at home and abroad. We see hatred and racism and sexism and genderism every day. So let me ask you this: Is the fact that the band is so very rich, so very comfortable, taken the edge off? No matter how hard they work and rework their songs, does the lack of boiling blood at the state of world take them a step back from the masses? Is corporate U2 now the enemy? For all Bono’s declarations of them still being ‘punk rock’, does anyone believe that?

Unless Songs of Experience is something of a surprise that provides both anger and raw passion, I wouldn’t expect much to change. How many times has Bono said in the last few releases how ‘angry’ Edge is and how it is coming out in his playing? I haven’t seen that, have you? I see a band in full control. I see a band that has decided for years that ‘perfect’ is their goal. And I think if you ask anyone who cares, they’d really prefer out of control…

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The author: Larry Lootsteen Music is life and I love to write about all things music. Independent music blogger. Writer in general. I am a big fan of alternative and indie music but there's no genre I haven't found something to life.

New Year Brings New Music and More

The year is coming to a close and this surely was an interesting year.  We have had our share of rumor stories, release dates, tour dates and push back dates and yet it all seemed to work out in the end. 

The album release was interesting, who would have thought about releasing an album for free worldwide on iTunes would have caused such a stir among music fans.

Next we had a scheduled appearance on "The Tonight Show" canceled because Bono was tooling around Central Park and no one seemed to notice. The Edge said it was  because he was disguised as a Hasidic Jew.

Which later was proven untrue.  This week filming the next video, it seemed a bit to noisy for the locals and yet production remained on schedule.   Now we heard that Songs of Experience  will be released early next year. No idea how they plan to release it.

We at U2TOURFANS have been busy too. We have redesigned our website to be more of an interactive place for fans to be able to engage in community interaction with other fans. We launched our forum community both versions now available. The community is rather small right now however we do expect it to grow.  We also made a call out for our tour street team to support the shows coming up. You still have time to sign up and be apart of the fun.   Our tour pages have been built and ready to publish tour news by location. 

We do have to announce that we have reached a major mile stone. We have had over 10 Million interactive U2 fans engaged during the year. This was outstanding ! Finally we have been working on something pretty big for next year.  We believe this will put all our properties together in a single easy to use environment.  We have made some new partners over the years and we believe that we are ready to launch the next phase of U2TOURFANS.  We hope you come along for the ride.  

Cheers Mates,  May the season be a blessing to you and your family and may you find joy and peace within each tune you play.

Next U2 Album in 18 Months

U2 plan to release a new album in just 18 months. Titled 'Songs of Experience', lined up for next release.

Bassist Adam Clayton told the new issue of Rolling Stone magazine: ''We're hoping 'Songs of Experience' will be less about intimacy and more about a celebration of sorts.''

Clayton's band mate Bono has also revealed an album called 'Songs of Ascent' - a record he previously claimed would be the follow-up to 2009's 'No Line on the Horizon' - could still be released as part of a trilogy of themed LPs.

The singer said: '''Songs of Ascent' will come. And there are some beautiful songs.''

The band also revealed they scrapped a completed version of 'Songs of Innocence' entirely produced by Danger Mouse because it didn't sound how a U2 record should sound, and instead changed some tracks with Ryan Tedder, Paul Epworth, Declan Gaffney and Flood.

U2 Songs of Innocence and Experience

U2 released their 13th studio album yesterday (gosh we had hoped for the title Lucky 13) “Songs of Innocence” considered a surprise release and a super surprise “free” download. 

The marketing machines have really gone back and pulled out some old tricks for this one. However, that is not of interest to most U2 fans.

What really matters is the music! Yea I could use the terms “gestation” “delay” “lack of focus” however who really gives a crap about that when the music has arrived to us via iTunes just waiting for us to download.

Gene Simmons said Rock is dead, well U2 most not have gotten the funeral notice; this album is brilliant, fluid, bold and most of all fresh with tip of the hat to the past. Lets call this a reconnection to their past and to future audiences.

Bono and Edge created visions of a punk rock era and provided some balance for those that have yet to embrace the concept of punk rock.

Keeping it simple as to grab the attention of the youth today and U2’s attempt to remain relevant may cause some U2; fans to think that void commercialism and stay true to their roots. 

U2 is not a band that stands on past performances and while no tour dates announced surely we will see the boys across the world in 2015. 

Time will tell if Bono has met his goal to stay relevant and if fans embrace “Songs of Innocence”. I at first glance believe that we got our chance to see lighting in a bottle again. I am sure to have more to say about this over the next few weeks.  Bono did drop us a note updating on the next album to be released called " Songs of Experience"

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…