Songs of Innocence (U2 album)
Songs of Innocence is the thirteenth studio album by Irish rock band U2, released on 9 September 2014. It was produced by Danger Mouse, with additional production from Paul Epworth, Ryan Tedder, Declan Gaffney, and Flood. The album was announced at an Apple Inc. product launch event and released the same day to all iTunes Store customers at no cost. It was exclusive to iTunes, iTunes Radio, and Beats Music until 13 October 2014, when it received a physical release on Island and Interscope Records.[2] The digital release made the record available to more than 500 million iTunes customers, for what Apple CEO Tim Cook marketed as "the largest album release of all time".
Songs of Innocence
9 September 2014
2009–2014
- Electric Lady (New York City)
- Pull (New York City)
- The Church (London)
- Assault & Battery (London)
- Shangri-La (Malibu)
- The Woodshed (Los Angeles)
- Strathmore House (Killiney)
48:11
- Danger Mouse
- Paul Epworth (add.)
- Ryan Tedder (add.)
- Declan Gaffney (add.)
- Flood (add.)
After the relatively lukewarm commercial performance of their previous record, No Line on the Horizon (2009), lead singer Bono expressed uncertainty about the band's ability to remain musically relevant. During the five-and-a-half-year gestation period for Songs of Innocence—the longest gap between albums of their career—the group reportedly worked on several projects with multiple producers, including an aborted companion to their previous record called Songs of Ascent. However, they struggled to complete an album to their satisfaction and continually delayed a release. After working with Danger Mouse for two years, the group collaborated with Flood, Epworth, and Tedder to complete Songs of Innocence. Thematically, it revisits the group members' youth in Ireland in the 1970s, touching on childhood memories, loves, and losses, while paying tribute to musical inspirations Ramones and the Clash. Bono described it as "the most personal album we've written".
The lead single "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)" was featured in an Apple television advertisement as part of a promotional campaign for the band on which the company reportedly spent US$100 million. Approximately 81 million iTunes users listened to the album in its first month of release, 26 million of whom downloaded the entire record. Songs of Innocence received generally mixed reviews and drew criticism for its digital release; the album was automatically added to users' iTunes accounts, which for many triggered an unprompted download to their electronic devices. Upon its commercial release, Songs of Innocence sold just 101,000 copies in North America and charted for just eight and nine weeks in the US and UK, respectively. The group's press tour for the album was interrupted after Bono was seriously injured in a bicycle accident. The record received a Grammy Award nomination for Best Rock Album. U2 supported the album with the successful Innocence + Experience Tour in 2015, and followed it up with a companion record, Songs of Experience, in 2017.
Background[edit]
In February 2009, U2 released their 12th studio album, No Line on the Horizon. The album received generally favourable reviews and debuted at number one in more than 30 countries,[3] but its sales of 5 million units were comparatively low by U2 standards and it did not contain a hit single.[4] Having spent time in Fez, Morocco, recording and absorbing exotic musical influences, the group intended the record to be more experimental than their previous two.[5] However, critics found it to be more conventional than expected. During the five-and-a-half-year gestation period for Songs of Innocence, lead singer Bono expressed uncertainty on several occasions that U2 could remain relevant musically after the relatively lukewarm commercial performance of No Line on the Horizon.[6]
Composition[edit]
According to music journalist Jon Pareles, Songs of Innocence features U2 strictly playing rock music, particularly arena rock, whose elaborate production "puts a higher gloss, and sometimes a heavier fuzz tone, on the band's instantly recognizable sound".[55] Thematically, Songs of Innocence revisits the group members' youth in Ireland in the 1970s, touching on childhood memories, loves, and losses, while paying tribute to their musical inspirations. Bono described it as "the most personal album we've written".[56] In an interview with Gus Wenner of Rolling Stone, he said, "Let's try to figure out why we wanted to be in a band, the relationships around the band, our friendships, our lovers, our family. The whole album is first journeys—first journeys geographically, spiritually, sexually."[57] He said that he felt challenged to write about more personal themes and why he wanted to be in a rock band after producer Jimmy Iovine told him, "The person you need to be to make the album that you wanna make is a long way from where you live."[53] Rolling Stone deemed Songs of Innocence as having the feeling of a concept album, a notion that Bono rejected, although he did opine it was lyrically cohesive in a way the group's other records were not.[57] For the album, the group revisited adolescent musical influences, such as punk rock band Ramones and electronic music group Kraftwerk, for inspiration.[58]
Opening track "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)" pays tribute to Joey Ramone, the Ramones' lead singer who was particularly influential on Bono.[59] During their teenage years, U2 snuck into a Ramones concert,[60] and the experience of watching Joey perform made Bono feel less self-conscious about his own singing.[57] "Every Breaking Wave" is about the difficulty of "giv[ing] yourself completely to another person", with lyrical characters who are "addicted to sort of failure and rebirth".[38] "California (There Is No End to Love)" recalls the group's first visit to Los Angeles and how the city contrasted with their native Dublin.[59] "Song for Someone" is a love song Bono wrote for his wife Ali Hewson, who he met during their teenage years.[61] "Iris (Hold Me Close)" is written about Bono's mother, Iris, who died after suffering a cerebral aneurysm at her father's funeral when Bono was 14 years old. The lyrics liken her influence over her son to a star that died long ago but whose light is still reaching earth.[62] Bono rewrote the song's lyrics after reading a letter that journalist James Foley wrote in captivity to his family prior to his being killed by ISIS; the letters made Bono realize that "we will all be remembered by the least-profound moments. The simplest moments."[38]
The lyrics for "Volcano" are written from the perspective of a younger Bono addressing his modern-day self; he said, "It's this young guy going, 'The fuck happened to you?'"[54] The Edge composed the song's bass intro.[38] "Raised by Wolves" is about the Dublin and Monaghan bombings of 1974, which killed 33 people but were narrowly avoided by Bono that day.[39] The song is written from the perspective of Andy Rowen (brother of Bono's childhood friend Guggi), whose presence at the bombings would later drive him into heroin addiction, a subject also addressed in U2's 1984 song "Bad".[62] "Cedarwood Road" reminisces about the street in Dublin on which Bono lived during his youth.[59] The cherry blossom tree referenced in the lyrics was from the Rowen family garden.[63] "Sleep Like a Baby Tonight", written about a pedophile priest,[55] was described by Q's Tom Doyle as featuring "deceptively lullaby-like... synth pulses" reminiscent of Kraftwerk.[62] Their album The Man-Machine was gifted by Bono to Ali when they were dating as teenagers and is name-checked in "Iris (Hold Me Close)" in the line, "But it was you who made me your man/Machine".[64] "This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now" takes musical cues from one of the group's childhood inspirations, the Clash;[57] according to the liner notes, the song is dedicated to the Clash's guitarist/vocalist Joe Strummer.[65] The lyrics were inspired by Bono's realisation that he had found a new family and home in the form of U2, having felt like his childhood house was no longer home after his mother's death.[66] The closing track, "The Troubles", was described by Bono as "an uncomfortable song about domestic violence".[67]
The deluxe editions of the album feature two additional songs. "Lucifer's Hands" is based on an instrumental piece titled "Return of the Stingray Guitar" that U2 debuted live in 2010 and performed as the opening song at each of their 32 concerts that year.[68][69][70] "The Crystal Ballroom" is written about the former Dublin nightclub of the same name (later known as McGonagle's) where the band frequently performed in their early years. Lyrically, Bono imagines himself on-stage at the venue witnessing his parents dancing in the audience.[63]
Packaging and title[edit]
The album art for iTunes copies of the album was created by MAD Agency London to resemble white label packaging commonly used for promotional LP record pressings. The artwork, an "anti-cover design", is a homage to the vinyl promo release format that was popular during the late 1970s and early 1980s, a period referenced by U2 on the album.[71]
Physical copies of the album feature different packaging with a cover image of drummer Larry Mullen Jr. protectively embracing his then-18-year-old son while both are shirtless.[39][72] The image was taken by photographer Glen Luchford initially as an experiment,[72][73] but the group thought it worked as a visual metaphor for the album and its theme of "how holding on to your own innocence is a lot harder than holding on to someone else's".[72] Bono said, "With this record we were looking for the raw, naked and personal, to strip everything back."[74] According to Bono, the tattoo on Mullen's upper arm is based on Native American mythology of the Pawnee tribe and is a symbol of protecting innocence.[40] The cover parallels those of the band's earlier albums, Boy (1980) and War (1983), which featured the face of a young boy, Peter Rowen, the younger brother of Guggi.[74]
The album's title, along with that of the group's 2017 follow-up, Songs of Experience, are taken from William Blake's collection of poems Songs of Innocence and of Experience.[75]
Commercial performance[edit]
The album's no-cost availability on iTunes delayed its eligibility for placement on music charts until its 13 October commercial release, which was widely expected to reduce its sales. In the UK, Songs of Innocence sold 15,998 copies in its first week and debuted at number six on the UK Albums Chart, U2's lowest debut in the country in 33 years;[157][158] it spent only nine weeks on the chart.[159] In the US, the album charted for just eight weeks on the Billboard 200,[160][161] debuting at number nine and selling 28,000 copies in its first week.[162] According to Nielsen Soundscan, 101,000 copies of the record have been sold in North America,[163] while 66,003 copies sold in the UK through December 2017, according to data from the Official Charts Company.[164] In the band's native Ireland, the album debuted at number two on the Irish Albums Chart.[165] In Canada, the album debuted at number five on the Canadian Albums Chart, selling 4,600 copies in its first week before dropping off the chart.[166][167] Songs of Innocence became U2's first album to not reach number one in Ireland or Canada since The Unforgettable Fire in 1984. The album reached number one in Croatia,[168] Czech Republic,[169] France,[170] Italy,[171] the Netherlands,[172] Poland,[173] and Spain.[174]
Legacy[edit]
In 2016, David Sackllah of Consequence of Sound said, "U2 and Apple deserve credit for thinking ambitiously, but they overestimated the band's relevance with fans, and many felt like the automatic download constituted an invasion of privacy."[183] In end-of-decade retrospectives, Rolling Stone[184] and Billboard included the album's no-cost iTunes release on their lists of the top music moments that defined the decade; Billboard said: "The failed strategy showed the perils of embedding music within technology so deeply (and so quasi-literally), and today, most Apple subscribers couldn't tell you a thing about Songs of Innocence besides the backlash."[185] Ed Power of The Telegraph labeled the promotion "the most idiotic launch in rock history" and attributed it to two factors: the determination of Apple CEO Tim Cook to "prove himself worthy of the groovy tech guru mantle he had inherited from his far more charismatic predecessor, the late Steve Jobs", and U2's "obsess[ion] with being the biggest band in the world".[186] In 2022, Rolling Stone ranked the album's iTunes release the 9th-worst decision in music history; journalist Andy Greene wrote that the band's mentality of "thinking big" served them well earlier in their career but that they overstepped in making the album "show up for free to every single Apple user's personal devices. We're talking about a non-insignificant percent of planet Earth here, and it was quickly revealed that not everyone who owned a phone was by definition a U2 fan. The backlash was swift and brutal, especially since Songs of Innocence wasn't exactly another Joshua Tree or Achtung Baby in terms of quality."[187]
In a 2019 reassessment of Songs of Innocence, Uproxx critic Steven Hyden said that he had overreacted in his original review and that after revisiting the album, he believed it was the band's best work since Zooropa in 1993. Reflecting on the iTunes release, he still thought it was a misguided idea, blaming it on U2's "fail[ure] to grasp a fundamental truth of modern consumer culture: People now care way more about their phones than any individual album". Hyden called it "the biggest music-related PR disaster of the decade", but argued that the backlash against U2 was ultimately unwarranted given how media consumption habits changed in the following years: "technology, along with listener habits, also moved on. Just five years later, the idea of curating a music collection on your phone is kind of quaint for the average listener. In the streaming era, every album appears on your phone, week after week." Hyden believed that it was naive of people to criticise the band for potentially heralding in a "slippery slope" of "soft-rock doomsday scenarios", yet still expect their own listening habits on streaming services such as Spotify or Apple Music to be private: "As listeners, we freely give this information away, with only faint recognition that this data is also commodified and sold to advertisers and marketers."[188]
Notes
Adapted from the liner notes.[192]
U2
Additional performers
Technical
Footnotes
Bibliography
