Songs of Experience (U2 album)
Songs of Experience is the fourteenth studio album by Irish rock band U2. Released on 1 December 2017, it was produced by Jacknife Lee and Ryan Tedder with Steve Lillywhite, Andy Barlow, Jolyon Thomas, Brent Kutzle, Paul Epworth, Danger Mouse, and Declan Gaffney. The album is intended to be a companion piece to U2's previous record, Songs of Innocence. 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 Bono to people and places closest to his heart. The album features guest appearances from several musical acts, including Haim, Kendrick Lamar, and Lady Gaga.
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 Innocence + Experience Tour, 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 conservative direction, highlighted by the UK's Brexit referendum and the 2016 US presidential election, 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 remixing and exploring different production techniques. Bono rewrote his lyrics to reflect the political climate as well as his "brush with mortality" after undergoing open-heart surgery in December 2016. The album was ultimately completed during the Joshua Tree Tour 2017.
Compared to Songs of Innocences pervasive no-cost release through the iTunes Store, promotion for Songs of Experience was more traditional and understated. Several postal letters were mailed to fans to tease the album, while exclusive content was produced for digital platforms such as Amazon Music, Spotify, and Apple Music. Numerous promotional singles and remixes of tracks were released, including the lead single "You're the Best Thing About Me". The album received generally mixed reviews from critics, many of whom believed it trod 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. Songs of Experience was the sixth-best-selling album globally in 2017, selling 1.3 million copies. U2 supported the album with the Experience + Innocence Tour, a sequel to their 2015 tour.
Background
On 9 September 2014, U2 announced their thirteenth studio album, Songs of Innocence, at an Apple product launch event, and released it digitally the same day to all iTunes Store customers at no cost. The release made the album available to over 500 million iTunes customers in what Apple CEO Tim Cook called "the largest album release of all time." Apple reportedly paid Universal Music Group 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 Danger Mouse with Paul Epworth, Ryan Tedder, Declan Gaffney, and Flood, 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 Bono 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 The Washington Post called the release "rock-and-roll as dystopian junk mail". Within a few hours of Songs of Innocences 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 Innocence + Experience Tour 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 B-stage, and a connecting walkway. The centerpiece of the set was a 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 Edge, 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 The Observer, Bono recited lyrics to an in-progress song called "The Morning After Innocence", 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 Central Park in New York City. He suffered fractures of his shoulder blade, humerus, orbit, and pinky finger, requiring five hours of surgery at NewYork–Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center'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 Songs of Experience, 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," referring to the period following the completion of Songs of Innocence. 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 in Russia with his electronic music duo Lamb, musician Andy Barlow received an offer to produce for U2. The following week, he flew to Monaco 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. One of the first tasks that Barlow was given was helping the band advance "The Little Things That You Give You Away" past the idea stage, something that numerous producers before him had failed to do. 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 Pacific Coliseum. Producer Jolyon Thomas also joined them as the band used a mobile recording studio. Among the in-progress songs previewed to The New York Times during rehearsals were "Red Flag Day", "Civilisation", and "Instrument Flying". Prior to the tour's opening show on 14 May, the Edge speculated that the band could complete the album by the end of the year if they committed themselves during their limited downtime after the tour. Comparing the group's in-progress material to their 1993 album Zooropa, which was recorded between legs of their Zoo TV Tour, the Edge said the Songs of Experience songs were "a lot more developed".
After his time with U2 in Vancouver, Barlow was officially given the job of producer. The group continued to work on the album in their free time on the Innocence + Experience Tour. Whereas Bono usually favoured waiting until the conclusion of a tour to work on an album, this time he wanted to write and record in small increments on the road; he theorised that by doing this, they would already have "the shape and feel" of the album when it came time to dedicate themselves to completing it, thereby reducing the pressure they faced. 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". Ultimately, Barlow spent 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 Q that month also mentioned the tracks "Much More Better" and "The Little Things That Give You Away". In November 2015, the Edge told Hot Press 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. The group convened with Barlow in Los Angeles at the recording studio of producer Rick Rubin, marking their first opportunity to record together as a group for the album, aside from time spent together in Dublin during the tour. 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 Victorian mansion in Killiney, an affluent seaside suburb of Dublin. They outfitted the house with a makeshift recording studio and jammed in the parlour 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 pursue. 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 was started before 2016, but most of it was written in the early part of 2016".
In May, musician Ryan Tedder, reprising his role as co-producer of Songs of Innocence, said, "I've never seen them this focused," while describing their in-progress material as their most exciting since 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind. Tedder also mentioned that the album was mostly new material and that only one or two songs from the Innocence sessions had survived. The following month, the Edge said the band were "busting 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 Adam Clayton 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." The Irish Times 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, a new U2 song, "You're the Best Thing About Me", debuted in the form of an electronic dance remix by Norwegian DJ Kygo during his performance at the Cloud 9 Festival.