Songs of Experience Updates: October 30

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2017-10-30)

Cover and Formats

We’ve been able to confirm artwork for three different versions of the album:

Extra Deluxe Box Set

Regular Vinyl (2-Disc)

Deluxe CD

Two editions on CD are listed. A deluxe version and a regular version. Both are listed as single CD releases in communications to retailers. The regular edition will come in jewel case packaging, while the deluxe version will come with a custom sleeve and have additional songs beyond what is on the regular version. The regular CD will retail around 19 Euro, and the deluxe around 21 Euro.

The regular vinyl version is two 12-inch discs, and will be released in a gatefold picture sleeve. The vinyl will be pressed on 180gram vinyl. The regular vinyl pressing will retail around 32 Euro.

There will also be a deluxe box set, released in a bespoke box which will hold all of the contents. Although we were originally told the box would hold three vinyl, photos of the item suggest it will be two blue vinyl 12-inch records, and a CD. From the photo above it looks like the box will also contain a newspaper titled “Songs of Experience” with a headline ‘This is no Time Not to Be Alive” as well as a poster of Sian from the cover of “You’re The Best Thing About Me”. The box was expected to retail around 43 Euro, and when it was listed on Amazon a few weeks ago, it was listed for 43.03 Euro. That listing has now been removed.

There will also be digital versions, both a regular and a deluxe version issued.

In a recent interview, Bono revealed that not all of the bonus tracks would be new songs, as one song with a “Rock version” on the main album, would be present on the deluxe version as a “String version”.

Track Listing

Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton have done a number of interviews since the release of “You’re The Best Thing About Me” in September. The following are the tracks that have been mentioned in that time.

American Soul
Get Out of Your Own Way
Landlady
Love is All We Have Left
Love is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way
Red Flag Day
Summer of Love
The Blackout
The Lights of Home
The Little Things That Give You Away
The Showman
You’re The Best Thing About Me

That’s 12 songs. The Edge has confirmed there will be twelve songs on the album in an interview in Mexico City in early October. We took a deeper look into these songs in an article a few weeks back. At that time “Red Flag Day” had yet to be mentioned.

Two additional songs have been mentioned:

“The Book of Your Heart” (Appearing on the deluxe version according to Bono on Sirius XM)
“There is a Light” (Identified in the Q Magazine as being the final track, and as being a letter to Bono’s sons. The listening session for Q Magazine was done in mid-August, so we expect this title may have been an older one.)

Track Arrangement

“Love is All We Have Left” is identified as being the initial track in two different interviews now. All along Bono has said “The Little Things That Give You Away” is the final song on the album, but in the Q Magazine article, “There is a Light” is mentioned as the final track on the album. The lyrics to “The Little Things” includes the line, “A light had been turned on” so perhaps they are one and the same?

In the “Written in My Soul” interview, it was identified that “Get Out Of Your Own Way,” “American Soul,” and “Summer of Love” form a trio of songs and will be on the album in that order. “The Showman” was also identified as the second to last track on the album.

Album Promotion

Although not fully announced yet, the album promotion seems to be starting.

Universal Music posted an opportunity to pre-save your “Songs of Experience” album in Spotify, including a nice photo of U2 at sunset on the beach. This will save the album in your Spotify list, so the day of release you will start to hear the songs automatically without having to remember to add them.
Last night during The World Series on Fox, a number of U2 songs were used during the broadcast including “You’re The Best Thing About Me (U2 vs Kygo) and more surprising, the studio version of “The Blackout” twice during the broadcast. As the latter has not yet been released we expect this is part of the planned promotion for the album. “Desire,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Beautiful Day” were also heard.

Guests on the Album

Kendrick Lamar will be heard on the album in the introduction to “American Soul” as a “lunatic preacher.” His performance will fill the space between the end of “Get Out Of Your Own Way” and “American Soul”. Pop band Haim will also appear on the backing lyrics to the song “The Lights of Home” and it’s been further revealed that “The Lights of Home” samples Haim’s track, “My Song 5”. In early demos, a female voice could also be heard in teh background of “Love is All We Have Left” but it remains to be seen if this is present in the final mix. In our recent “History Mix“ we looked at these guest appearances as well as others.

Release Date

Q Magazine revealed that the release date would be December 1, 2017. A listing for the box set made in error at Amazon in Italy also listed December 1, 2017 and continues to list that date. Although this listing has now been taken down, orders placed using the listing while it was up have not been cancelled. The New York Times said December 1. We have been sharing the date December 1, 2017 since June of this year. The Record Store Day announcement also listed December 1. We aren’t sure why it has not been announced yet, but expect an announcement soon.

Bono and Adam Clayton have both agreed with journalists when asked about the December 1, 2017 date that it is correct. The Edge has also confirmed the album will be out before the end of 2017 but has not yet confirmed the date as the other two have. When asked about December 1 on WMMR he replied, “The exact release date is still a little bit up in the air, but you aren’t far off there.” and later on BBC2 he confirmed, “We’ve finished the album, its going to be out this year, we’re very very excited about that.”

Singles

“You’re The Best Thing About Me” is the first single, and is still actively being promoted at radio. There have now been five versions of the video released (with one containing errors that has been retracted). A sixth version of the video filmed in Amsterdam this summer remains unreleased. There are four different versions of the song that have been released, the “Acoustic Version” and “U2 Vs. Kygo” versions have both been released for sale along with the version called the “Album Version”. A fourth version of the song, the “Sci-Fi Soul Mix“, mixed by Jacknife Lee was released for radio promotion, but has not been commercially released at this time.

Record Store Day will hold a Black Friday event again this November, and it was highly rumoured that the band would contribute a limited release of “You’re The Best Thing About Me” to this event. Although not part of the initial Record Store Day announcement, it has since been announced that there will be two vinyl pressings. One will be a very limited version of “The Blackout” in colour vinyl, and the other a version in black vinyl that will be pressed in larger quantities. The B-Side will be a remix of “The Blackout” by Jacknife Lee. For more information see our discography entry for this release. “The Blackout” was released as a video, and the studio version of the song has been heard druing the World Series broadcast as backing music in the introduction.

The next single was identified in the Mexican press as “Get Out of Your Own Way”. While in Mexico City earlier this month, the band filmed a video for the song on the rooftop of a building in the city. The video has a strong Mexican theme. In an interview with Reforma, The Edge said, “We are going to show a vibrant Mexico, one that is unique and fascinating.” From what we have seen the video would tie in nicely with Mexican celebrations of “The Day of the Dead” at the start of November. We are told that a second single will be released very soon.

Album Announcement

In September we were able to tell you that “We are told that the full details should come out on Friday, October 20th or thereabouts.” We now believe that was in reference to the announcements sent to retailers last week about the different formats which are expected for the album. There has still been no formal announcement of a new album release. We do expect that the album will be announced any day.

Album Promo Tour

Confirmed:

Bono and Adam to perform with Kygo at the NRJ Awards, November 4, 2017 in Cannes France

Rumoured:

Bono and Adam to perform with Kygo at the Los40 Awards, November 10, 2017 in Madrid Spain [All three are confirmed to attend, however a performance has not been announced]
Saturday Night Live in New York on December 2 is rumoured but has not been announced. See our story for more information about this.

Resuming the Experience and Innocence Tour

In a recent posting on an Interscope promotional site, it was announced that the band would feature on a “Nationwide HEADLINE TOUR: 2018”. Prior to Friday that information was not part of that information page. Interscope is the USA label, and information provided on that page refers to the USA territory, so “nationwide” in this case would refer to a tour of North America. As they are responsible for the US, they may not mention dates outside the USA even if they had information on them.

See the image below for the page as it was visible when the tour information was present:

IMAGE: Interscope Promotional Site (October 20, 2017)

Further in the recent interview with Q Magazine, it was revealed that the band would resume the tour in late-spring / early-summer 2018.

We are now told that the tour is expected to resume in May 2017, and tickets should be on sale prior to Christmas.

All of our news about the new album and singles are being collected in one location, available at the linked image below.

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