Irish rock band U2 has announced that they will release two new albums as follow-ups to the iTunes release, “Songs of Innocence”, to complete a trilogy.
In new Rolling Stone article, U2’s front man Bono said the other two albums would be titled, “Songs of Experience” and “Songs of Ascent”.
What is the band thinking for direction within these two newly announced albums?
“We’re hoping “Songs of Experience” will be less about intimacy,” said bassist Adam Clayton, “and more about a celebration of sorts.” Bono added that “Songs of Ascent” ‘will come’ and that it contains ‘beautiful songs.’
Originally, “Songs of Innocence” was to be released last year and had featured production from Danger Mouse; however, it lacked “the hallmarks of our work – the big music,’” according to The Edge. So, the band brought in One Republic’s Ryan Tedder, to produce the album. Outside of One Republic, Teder is best known for his work with Adele. And, according to Rolling Stone, Bono told him, “This is how we work. You’re going to do whatever you do and get it as good as you can and then more than likely your stuff is going to get messed with by somebody else.’
Despite the year’s delay, the album was successfully released last month to the world via iTunes.
In a press release Bon expressed his excitement about the album’s release,
“From the very beginning U2 have always wanted our music to reach as many people as possible, the clue is in our name I suppose—so today is kind of mind-blowing to us. The most personal album we’ve written could be shared with half a billion people… by hitting send. If only songwriting was that easy. It’s exciting and humbling to think that people who don’t know U2 or listen to rock music for that matter might check us out. Working with Apple is always a blast. They only want to do things that haven’t been done before—that’s a thrill to be part of.”
And, while the band and Apple were excited about the release and their newfound partnership, a lot of people around the world were not thrilled to see new U2 album on their iTunes account, even if it was free. And, this backlash compelled iTunes to unveil a website all about removing the album from the iTunes Library.
In the Rolling Stone interview, Bono explained – using an analogy – that he didn’t understand that the album would download automatically for some Apple users. “It’s like we put a bottle of milk in people’s fridge that they weren’t asking for,” he says. “It is a gross invasion!” He smiles. “But it was kind of an accident. The milk was supposed to be in the cloud. It was supposed to be on the front doorstep.”
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