Songs of Innocence: Official TV Spot

Universal Music

After U2's "Songs Of Innocence" was made available for over half a billion iTunes Music Store customers on September 9, 2014, the new studio album from Bono and Co. will now appear as a standard and deluxe version.

"Songs Of Innocence" is U2's most personal work: It includes seventies rock with the first influences of the band, featured beyond punk rock of the early eighties, but also ambient music. It also provides information about how and why the band originally came together. The first single "The Miracle (Of Joey Ramone)" deals with the Ramones frontman Joey Ramone, who died in 2001. Bono and Joey admired not only the music of the other, but were also good friends.

The album revolves around the home of the band and their families, but also about relationships and discoveries. It was recorded in Dublin, London, New York and Los Angeles, after it was produced by Danger Mouse, Paul Epworth, OneRepublic's Ryan Tedder, Declan Gaffney and Flood.

In addition to the 11 tracks on the standard CD, the Deluxe contains a total of 21 songs, including the acoustic versions of selected album tracks and four bonus tracks. The double vinyl includes 11 tracks of standard and one bonus track.

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"Lucifer's Hands" and "The Crystal Ballroom"

The "controversial" album "Songs Of Innocence", the newest musical record of the Irish band U2 which shocked the market last month  with will be released next week, in physical format.

The novelty is that  the album l will come  with some extra songs and two unreleased acoustic versions that did not make the official tracklist of the disc. They are "Lucifer's Hands" and "The Crystal Ballroom".

Although good, the tracks seem not to have the same approach of  the other eleven . Perhaps, that's why they  were left out. 

To listen to the two tracks, click here.

Bono Charity Says Rich Donor Countries Failed To Meet Aid Targets Last Year

U2 lead singer and anti-poverty campaigner Bono reaches out to shake hands with elders during a visit to the cotton-growing town of Dafara, 40 miles from Mali's capital Bamako May 22, 2006, during a six-nation tour of Africa. Reuters

Most of the world’s rich donor countries failed to meet their development aid targets last year, according to a report released Monday by The One Campaign (ONE), co-founded by Irish rock star Bono. Further, only one third of the money that was given went to the poorest countries.

The report comes as officials representing the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's Development Assistance Committee (DAC) meet in Paris this week to discuss next year's aid budgets and goals.

After two years of decline, aid by members of the DAC increased 5.3 percent to a record $131.2 billion in 2013, the annual aid report said. But only a third went to the least developed countries, most located in sub-Saharan Africa, despite strong support for a goal that 50 percent of all aid would go to those nations, ONE said.

Seventeen of 28 DAC countries increased their development aid budgets, but despite the increases, their aid amounted to 0.29 percent of their wealth, less than half the U.N.'s target for aid spending at 0.7 percent of a nation’s wealth, the report said.

Britain became the first country last year among the Group of 7 industrialized nations to meet the U.N. target. Japan, Germany and Norway also hiked their aid budgets, while France, Canada, Australia and the Netherlands cut their aid budgets. The U.S. spent 0.19 percent of national wealth on international development last year.

African governments could also spend more on programs to fight extreme poverty, ONE said. Only six out of 43 sub-Saharan African countries met their own spending goals on health, and only eight met goals on agriculture, ONE said. That’s a loss of about $54.8 billion on health in the region between 2010 and 2012 if all sub-Saharan African nations had kept promises.

“There is enormous potential in African countries for governments to generate more of their own resources for development, and eventually to move beyond dependence on aid,” the report said. “This includes both raising a greater amount of tax revenues and spending that money effectively, transparently and accountably to fight poverty. In the near term, aid can play a valuable role in this process by helping countries to reform their tax systems and budgeting practices.”

DAC member nations should explicitly recommit to spending 0.7 percent of their wealth on development aid, agree on a more precise definition of what assistance qualifies as aid and improve transparency of their cooperation by publishing more and timely data on their aid, the report said. And African governments should broaden their tax bases with progressive fiscal policies and reduce corruption with such practices as disclosing payments to mining and oil and gas companies, ONE said. 

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'Comfortable In Their Skin.'

A month after its surprise release and some of the monthly music magazines have published their reviews of Songs of Innocence.

The band deliver a career high says Tom Doyle in the new edition of Mojo Magazine. 

'Songs of Innocence reconnects U2 with the strident, searching, wide awake band of their nascency, reminding not only us but themselves of their against-the-odds beginnings. The result is their best and most thematically complete album since Achtung Baby. By turning towards their past, U2 have found their way back to the future.'

'The long gestation of this album,' writes David Hands in Total Guitar, 'Seems at odds with a band who sound more comfortable in their skin than on 2009's patchy No Line On The Horizon.' 

'Where do you go when you've conquered the world several times over?' asks Dorien Lynskey in Q Magazine. 'Answer: home'. 

 From the autobiographical precision of the writing, flow all the  album's strengths and narrative momentum. 'Forget the release-day hullabaloo. It's this renewed sense of purpose that makes Songs Of Innocence an unexpected coup.'


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U2 tracks fail to pass Bono test

Bono has revealed the Irish rockers have recorded "several" albums in the last five years but scrapped them because they were not good enough to release.

The singer said the band had spent two years working on their latest album, Songs Of Innocence, which was given away to 500 million iTunes customers last month in a deal with technology giant Apple.

He told Q Magazine: "Rumour has it we haven't made a U2 album in the last five years. We have. We just didn't release them because we were waiting for something that would be as good as the best we've ever done. That was the standard. Or else, why bother?"

The new album was released to mark the launch of the iPhone 6, but did not go down well with everyone and Apple had to create a tool that allowed customers to delete the tracks.
Bono said he was still "against free music" despite the deal, telling Q: "We're not giving it away. Apple are giving it away. This is really important."

 http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/

U2: That Album. The Inside Story

“To be able to put this out there into half a billion iTunes accounts says something to me. It’s very dangerous and I like the balls of it.” In an exclusive interview, Bono,  Edge and Adam Clayton discuss the creation of new album Songs Of Innocence and the global reaction to giving it away to music fans via Apple… whether you liked it or not.

More on this , click here. And to read the complete article, Q magazine

http://www.qthemusic.com/

"Songs of Experience" : 70 % Done!

U2 have completed ''70 per cent'' of their 14th studio album.

The Irish rockers recently released their 13th LP, 'Songs of Innocence', but bassist Adam Clayton has revealed the group are nearly ready to go on their next release, 'Songs of Experience', insisting it should be ''relatively easy'' to finish.

Speaking in the new issue of Q magazine, he said: ''I think we've probably got 70 per cent of the material that we think will go onto it.

''The 30 per cent that we're missing I think we'll be able to generate relatively easily."

''But the amount of energy it will take to refine the perspective of those songs is hard to predict.''

The band - also made up of Bono, The Edge and Larry Mullen, Jr. - caused controversy when they released 'Songs of Innocence' through Apple which saw it automatically land into the iTunes library of millions of people, but Adam admitted the group will be opting for a different delivery method next time.

He added: ''Y'know what, depending on how long it takes to be completed, there may be a whole new delivery method invented by then ... I think we just have to wait and see."

''There'll be a bit of water under the bridge before we get to that point. But yeah, I think it would be a bit predictable to do the same thing."

''And y'know, the law may have changed by then and we'll have to find some other way of doing it.''

Contactmusic

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