Listen: U2 ‘Songs of Experience’ Album

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Update (Aug. 30): U2 today posted the full video for “The Blackout,” a song from their upcoming album Songs of Experience. Previously, they’d only teased it with a 16-second excerpt. The band also promises the release of the first single from the album, “You’re the Best Thing About Me,” on Sept. 6.

Watch “The Blackout” here…

The Blackout

‘The Blackout’, just for you. From upcoming album Songs of Experience.
Tune in now.
First single, ‘You’re The Best Thing About Me’ coming Sept. 6th
#U2TheBlackout #U2SongsofExperience “In the darkness where we learn to see”

Posted by U2 on Wednesday, August 30, 2017

Here’s our original item on the Songs of Experience album…

Back in 2014, U2 stirred up the Internet with their free surprise release, Songs of Innocence. The album was “gifted” by Apple and automatically put in the cloud for all users of iTunes worldwide. There was a huge backlash towards the group for being presumptuous and a “cloud” of distrust among even diehard Apple loyalists over what users felt was an unwanted, albeit free, invasion.

This graphic showed up on U2’s social media platforms on August 29, 2017

“Oops,” Bono acknowledged. “I’m sorry about that. This beautiful idea, we kind of got carried away with it.”

Since then, the iconic band has been regularly teasing audiences with a follow up album. Fans had hoped the album, to be called Songs of Experience, would be issued in time for their 2015 iNNOCENCE + eXPERIENCE tour.

In a June 2016 interview with Billboard, the band’s guitarist, The Edge, talked about the timetable for the new album. “We are still busting our ass to try to get it out this year. That’s our plan right now and exactly when, we’re not sure. This is the working assumption. This is our ambition. It could change, but we’re really doing our best to get it out this year.”

That obviously didn’t happen. But yesterday (August 29), the band took to social media and finally confirmed some details, and today they followed up with the video.

It’ll be three years in between albums. Songs of Innocence was released on September 9, 2014.