Maps of Music

Songs of Experience (2017)

Where the lyrics of Songs of Experience take you, and where it was really made.

The producer estimated that only 10 percent of his work on this album happened in real recording studios; most of it was done in dressing rooms, hotel rooms, and mansions.

Key places

Re-recording as a band in New York (2017)

Recording site Electric Lady Studios — In March 2017 the band re-recorded many of the songs as a group at Electric Lady Studios in New York, working with producer Steve Lillywhite. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Makeshift studio in a Killiney mansion (2016)

Recording site Strathmore House — In March 2016 the band worked on the album with Jolyon Thomas in a rented Victorian mansion in Killiney, a seaside suburb of Dublin, which they fitted with a makeshift studio. Google Maps · Apple Maps

How to get there: See the map for directions.

Album story

Overview

• Songs of Experience: fourteenth studio album by Irish rock band U2
• Released 1 December 2017
• Produced by Jacknife Lee and Ryan Tedder with Steve Lillywhite, Andy Barlow, Jolyon Thomas, Brent Kutzle, Paul Epworth, Danger Mouse, and Declan Gaffney
• Intended as a companion piece to U2's previous album, Songs of Innocence (2014)
• Songs of Innocence explored the members' adolescence in Ireland in the 1970s; this album is a collection of letters written by lead vocalist Bono to people and places closest to his heart
• Guest appearances include Haim, Kendrick Lamar, and Lady Gaga

Background

• First conceived during the Songs of Innocence sessions, when Bono began writing songs while recuperating from a serious November 2014 bicycle accident
• Work began in earnest during the 2015 Innocence + Experience Tour, with band members collaborating individually with producers on the road
• Sessions continued into 2016 and mostly wrapped up by the end of that year
• The planned fourth-quarter 2016 release was put on hold after the shift in global politics, highlighted by the UK's Brexit referendum and the 2016 US presidential election
• The band re-recorded many songs as a group while remixing and exploring different production techniques
• Bono rewrote lyrics to reflect the political climate and his brush with mortality after open-heart surgery in December 2016
• The album was ultimately completed during the Joshua Tree Tour 2017

Recording

• Andy Barlow, who had been touring in Russia with his electronic music duo Lamb, received an offer to produce for U2 and was later officially given the job of producer
• In March 2016 the group worked in a rented Victorian mansion in Killiney, a seaside suburb of Dublin, where they set up a makeshift recording studio
• In March 2017 the band re-recorded the songs as a group at Electric Lady Studios in New York with Steve Lillywhite
• Barlow estimated that only 10 percent of his work took place in actual recording studios

Cover

• Photo taken by longtime band photographer Anton Corbijn, showing Bono's son Eli and the Edge's daughter Sian holding hands
• Eli and Sian are barefoot, meant to signify youthful innocence; Sian wears a US M1 military helmet, meant to symbolise the harsh realities of the world
• Packaging designed by Shaughn McGrath, with AMP Visual handling design, art direction, and marketing

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Tracklist

Sources: musicbrainz.org

Artist

Formation

• U2 are an Irish rock band formed in Dublin in 1976 by teenage pupils of Mount Temple Comprehensive School.
• Members: Bono (lead vocals), the Edge (guitar, keyboards, vocals), Adam Clayton (bass), Larry Mullen Jr. (drums).
• The band was first named Feedback, then The Hype, and in March 1978 took the name U2.
• They won the Pop Group '78 talent contest in Limerick and signed with Island Records in 1980.

Career

• Debut album Boy (1980); War (1983) was their first UK number-one album.
• The Joshua Tree (1987) made them international stars and was their greatest critical and commercial success, selling about 25 million copies.
• The band reinvented their sound in the 1990s with Achtung Baby (1991) and the Zoo TV Tour.
• Their 2009–2011 360° Tour held records for the highest-grossing concert tour until 2019.
• In 2023 they released Songs of Surrender and began the U2:UV Achtung Baby Live residency at Sphere in Las Vegas.
• Estimated record sales: about 170 million worldwide; 22 Grammy Awards; Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees (2005).

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Reception

At release

• Received generally mixed reviews from critics
• Metacritic average of 63 based on 28 reviews
• Mark Beaumont of NME found the band are "old masters at pomping up whatever the kids are buying"
• NME concluded the album is "50 minutes of very plain sailing indeed"
• David Sackllah of Consequence of Sound said the album too often finds the band retreading well-worn material
• Sackllah said the political lyrical rewrites felt shoehorned in
• Calum Marsh of Pitchfork criticised Bono's lyrics for their platitudes and political attempts
• Andy Gill of The Independent said the band sounded enervated and bereft of inspiration
• James McNair of Mojo called it an "infinitely more satisfying beast than its patchy predecessor" and U2's strongest album this century
• Andrew Perry of Q said the album will likely go down as a late-career classic
• Neil McCormick of The Daily Telegraph praised the album's big meaty hooks and the band's maturity
• David Fricke of Rolling Stone said the group's reflection on mortality provides an urgency that binds the album
• Alexis Petridis of The Guardian said the album was better than either of its predecessors and frequently fantastic

Records

• Debuted at number one on the US Billboard 200 with 186,000 album-equivalent units in its first week, 180,000 of them sales
• Eighth number-one album in the US for the band, and the largest sales week of any rock album in the US in 2017
• Bundling with tickets for the Experience + Innocence Tour helped the debut
• Entered the Canadian Albums Chart at number one with 25,000 album-equivalent units
• UK Albums Chart opened at number five with 40,669 copies sold in its first week
• Debuted at number one in Ireland and reached number one in the Netherlands
• Sixth-best-selling album globally in 2017, with 1.3 million copies sold
• Rolling Stone named it the third-best album of 2017 in its end-of-year rankings
• Nominated for Top Rock Album at the 2018 Billboard Music Awards

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

Trivia

• The album's title, like that of Songs of Innocence, comes from William Blake's collection of poems Songs of Innocence and of Experience.
• The album art was first shown in May 2017 on the stage video screen at the opening concert of the Joshua Tree Tour 2017.
• In August 2017, fans in the United States received cryptic postal letters teasing the release, with a silhouette from the album cover blocking most of the text.
• The Blackout video was viewed more than 2 million times in 24 hours.
• Bono revealed in his 2022 memoir Surrender: 40 Songs, One Story that he had open-heart surgery due to a blister in his aorta, linked to a bicuspid aortic valve.
• The guitar outro chant from Songs of Innocence's Iris (Hold Me Close) reappears in Lights of Home.

Sources: en.wikipedia.org

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