u2 songs of experience tour

U2 kicked off ‘Experience + Innocence’ tour with special show 6 years ago

S ix years ago, U2 kicked off their “Experience + Innocence” tour, a sequel to 2015’s “Innocence + Experience” tour. It began in grand fashion and is one of the band’s most memorable tour openers ever.

I didn’t get to catch the tour until it hit Philadelphia in mid-June — a graduation gift at the time. However, listening to the show proves that the band took a big swing. Of course, being a sequel to 2015’s “Innocence” tour was a tall task. The show masterfully blended Bono’s autobiographical Songs of Innocence with the band’s biggest hits.

But after touring The Joshua Tree in full on the 2017 anniversary tour, U2 decided against playing the album at all. That meant “With or Without You” and “Where the Streets Have No Name” would not be played, opening the setlist for surprises.

And that’s exactly what they did. U2’s “Experience” tour opened in Tulsa, Oklahoma and featured a variety of deep cuts and resurfaced songs.

What songs U2 played on the “Experience + Innocence” tour opener

The show began in a grand sci-fi fashion. An MRI of a brain is showed on the gigantic LED screen that spans the length of the arena floor. “Breathe in, breathe in, exhale,” a voice says overtop of the display.

Slowly, Bono descends as the LED screen opens. He sings Songs of Experience’s opening track, “Love Is All We Have Left,” with a vocal backing track. The band then kicks in to “The Blackout,” another song from the album, as well as “Lights of Home.”

During the latter song, the LED screen creates a slanted catwalk. Bono begins walking to the stars before going to the B-stage for the “free yourself to be yourself, if only you could see yourself” refrains, a line borrowed from Songs of Innocence’s “ Iris (Hold Me Close) .”

After the euphoric “Beautiful Day” came the show’s first surprise. U2 played “All Because of You,” a rocker from their 2005 album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. It was the first time since 2006 that the band played it.

They then played their iconic hit “I Will Follow” before dusting off another deep cut, “The Ocean,” from the same album, Boy, the band’s debut album. The song is primarily used as a segue into the Songs of Innocence portion of the show.

“Tonight’s show is a very personal story,” Bono begins. “Could be Larry’s [Mullen Jr.], could be Adam’s [Clayton], could be Edge’s. All of you [have] people and places that mean more to you than can be explained.”

Songs of Innocence

“Iris” then kicks off a sequence of songs familiar to U2 fans. However, it did slightly differ from the 2015 shows. The first pre-chorus is cut out of the song, getting right to the point with its first chorus. “Cedarwood Road,” “Song for Someone,” the stripped-down “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” “Raised by Wolves,” and “Until the End of the World” followed.

The same visuals were kept for these songs, with Bono walking down his childhood road and writing a song to his wife being displayed on the LED screen. One part I loved about this particular show was how they introduced and played “Song for Someone.”

“Here I am, back in my bedroom, practicing my guitar hoping one day to be good enough to be in a band,” Bono said. “Getting ready to go out. I’m gonna find that someone else that I will need to be whole… I know this girl, Alison Stewart — I’m gonna give her guitar lessons. It’s gonna cost her the rest of her life.”

Bono then sings the love song. The Edge puts a little twist on the guitar solo, which added a new element to it. Sadly, this was one of the songs dropped from the setlist after the show.

The intermission featured a remix of “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” performed by Gavin Friday . A comic book-style animated short shows U2 reaching their peak stardom. It’s an amazing visual and their most creative intermission.

The second act called “Vertigo” 

The second act of U2’s “Experience” show began with “Elevation” and “Vertigo.” They then played “Desire,” however, it was a new version of the song. The Edge’s guitar had more shimmer than usual, and it sounded like the performances from the band’s “ZooTV” tour decades prior.

They followed that up with the first ever performance of Achtung Baby’s “Acrobat.” While they rehearsed it ahead of the “ZooTV” tour, the song never made an appearance during a concert.

The pure intensity of the song shook the Wells Fargo Center when I caught the show. I imagine that the live debut had a similar impact on the BOK Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

“Political blindness” 

A tuned-down acoustic rendition of “You’re the Best Thing About Me” followed. Another surprise was then played. Bono and The Edge played an acoustic version of “Staring at the Sun” from Pop. The song hadn’t been played during a concert since 2001 and Bono claims it’s about “stubbornness” and “political blindness” while introducing the song.

“Pride (In the Name of Love)” is then played. While it sounds similar to the band’s other live performances, it opens with Larry Mullen Jr.’s drums. When I saw the show, I just remember thinking they were playing “God Part II,” which would have been an even bigger shocker than any of the other deep cuts dusted off.

U2 then plays two more tracks that go hand-in-hand from Songs of Experience, “Get Out of Your Own Way” and “American Soul.” Like the album version, the songs are tied together with Kendrick Lamar’s Beatitudes. A gigantic American flag serves as the backdrop as the band plays an intense rendition of “American Soul.”

The band then went into “City of Blinding Lights.” If you can’t play “Where the Streets Have No Name,” this was a great audible as a crowd-pleasing anthem.

U2 then took a brief break before an encore that featured “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.” Fans may take the song for granted after the band has played the song 40 times at the Sphere, but they were clearly rusty, as the song hadn’t been played since 2006.

“One” then followed, which was a no-brainer. “Love Is Bigger Than Anything In Its Way” and “13 (There Is a Light)” closed out the show. The former is one of the band’s best “One”-like anthems and a great singalong.

Bono closed out “13 (There Is a Light)” by walking by himself to the B-stage. A miniature replica of his childhood Cedarwood Road home is sitting there. Bono opens the roof to reveal a yellow lightbulb — the same one that would swing above U2 during the early portion of their “Innocence” tour sets.

How the “Experience + Innocence” tour changed over time

Tulsa got the best “Experience + Innocence” tour show of the entire 60-show run. The setlist would drastically change over the two legs of the tour.

U2 would slowly phase out the Songs of Innocence set. It would eventually only consist of “Iris,” “Cedarwood Road,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday,” and “Until the End of the World.”

The move makes sense, as U2 generally doesn’t play 27 songs a night. Over time, the setlist became refined. In Europe, U2 began dusting off more Achtung Baby songs, playing “Zoo Station” and “The Fly, “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses,” and “Stay (Faraway, So Close!).”

This sequence would replace the Songs of Innocence suite. But at the end of the day, none of that would have happened if U2 didn’t open with this special show in Tulsa.

Like ClutchPoints’ content? Be sure to follow us.

The post U2 kicked off ‘Experience + Innocence’ tour with special show 6 years ago appeared first on ClutchPoints .

• Statistics Stats
• You are here:

Setlist Playlist: U2's Experience + Innocence Tour

• On Tour Now
• Last updated: 30 Oct 2018, 21:27:09
• Published: 30 Oct 2018, 21:27:09
• Written by: Hannah Cotter
• Photography by: Charles McQuillan
• Categories: Tour Guide On Tour Now Tagged: U2 eXPERIENCE + iNNOCENCE Tour

U2 is on the road in support of their latest project, 2017's Songs of Experience.

Like its sister record, 2014's Songs of Innocence, Songs of Experience centers around a person's ability to grow up and adjust to whatever life throws their way. Both records take titles from William Blake's 1789 collection of poems, "Songs of Innocence and Experience," that juxtapose the relationship between one of the most complex human binaries: good vs. evil.

Comprising of two legs and 60 dates, the Experience + Innocence Tour kicked off on May 2nd in Tulsa, Oklahoma and hit major North American cities throughout July before heading overseas for a European leg. It is expected to wrap up on November 13th in Berlin, Germany. Most of the shows have been clocking in around 3 hours with a 22 to 24-song setlist each night.

The shows themselves are deeply nostalgic yet very plugged in and politically charged. They also feature an elevated cage that allows the band to walk over the audience as images are projected on its sides. Bono's son, Elijah Hewson, and The Edge's daughter, Sian Evans, are featured on the album's cover art and also appear in visuals throughout the show, alongside footage from the band's early days.

Since revisiting their wildly popular 1987 album, The Joshua Tree, last year with a reunion tour that grossed $317 million (making it the highest grossing tour that year), the band has been retracing its steps, recycling the genius from their older songs and incorporating it into the new in a modernized way.

Despite touring in support of their newest album, only seven Experience songs make the 22-song setlist. The band instead focuses on their older and more solid material.

Songs like "Beautiful Day," "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "New Year's Day" gave U2 legs. They're some of their most iconic and well-known sounds that everyone– even those who don't follow the band– know and love. But why did these specific songs from Experience make the cut for the live shows? What significance do tracks like "Lights of Home" have, where they can sit comfortably between some of the greatest songs ever written?

I wanted to dive into why I think the band chose these certain songs for the tour. (Before you continue reading, make sure to follow our setlist study guide on Spotify!)

"Summer of Love"

One of the album's most politically-charged songs, "Summer of Love" features Lady Gaga on backing vocals and lyrics inspired by the story of a gardener in Aleppo during the Syrian Civil War. The Edge explained the song's origin in an interview : "One of the jumping-off points was a CNN story about the gardener of Aleppo. It's about this guy who ran a garden in Aleppo that he kept going through the entire war," he said.

"It was a political statement to the entire world that he kept this garden going. He was this deeply philosophical character and to him it was an act of defiance to grow flowers in the middle of Aleppo. He actually wound up getting killed in an air raid, so it was a very sad ending, but Bono was really inspired by his defiance."

The chorus specifically outlines the story:

"I've been thinking about the West Coast/ Not the one that everyone knows/ In the rubble of Aleppo/ Flowers blooming in the shadows/ For a summer of love."

Despite its dark subject matter, the song became quite popular around the time of its release and U2 even put out a four-song EP with remixes of the songs the following June.

Take a listen to Robin Schulz's below:

"Lights of Home"

After being involved in a near-death bicycle accident in 2014, Bono feared he'd never be able to play the guitar again. A lot of the songs on the album were written following the incident. The song directly addresses the experience with lines like:

"I shouldn't be here 'cause I should be dead/ I can see lights in front of me."

Take a listen:

The guitar riff in "Lights of Home" is based off of the bass breakdown in Haim's "My Song 5." U2 actually recruited the Haim girls to lend their voices to the song's chorus.

"Sampling stuff is great freedom," Bono said .

"Freedom to have fun. To make it a playground again where you have access to a wider pallet of colors."

"You're the Best Thing About Me"

The lead single from Songs of Experience, "You're the Best Thing About Me" is a love song for Bono's wife, Ali, and came after he had a nightmare about destroying their relationship.

“I’ll be crying out, how bad can a good time be?/ Shooting off my mouth, that’s another great thing about me/ I have everything, but I feel like nothing at all."

It first debuted as a remix at Kygo's own Cloud 9 festival. Peep the video below.

Its official video has some heavy political undertones. Check it out:

"Get Out of Your Own Way"

This song has somewhat of a double meaning, both addressing Bono's daughter and the United States' political crisis following the 2016 election. To his daughter, who must've suffered a heartbreak of sorts, Bono sings:

“Love hurts/ Now you’re the girl who’s left with no words/ Your heart’s a balloon but then it bursts/ It doesn’t take a cannon, just a pin.”

But then, the song's lyrics also include lines about “the face of liberty” cracking after a “[smack] in the mouth,” and the music video (below) depicts an animated Donald Trump overlooking a marching Ku Klux Klan.

“Fight back,” Bono instructs.

Musically, the song sounds similar to "Beautiful Day."

"Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way"

One of the album's promotional singles, this song features Andrew Taggart of the Chainsmokers on keys and is another nod to Bono's children about the power of love.

Check out the music video:

Remixes of this song helped it reach No. 1 on the Billboard Dance Club Songs chart.

Here's Beck's take on the song:

"The Blackout"

On the eve of the eclipse in August 2017, U2 fans received a strange piece of mail.

Four months before the album came out, fans received this cryptic message with lyrics to the song, leaving some blacked out by the image that was later revealed as the album cover.

The song alludes to the eclipse, but also appeals to the power of the people.

“When the lights go out, throw yourself about/ In the darkness where we learn to see/ When the lights go out, don’t you ever doubt/ The light that we can really be.”

"13 (There is a Light)"

The album's closing song, "13 (There is a Light)" is a piano-based lullaby addressing younger generations, urging them to "summon the strength to face uncertain times."

The song reprises the chorus from Songs of Innocence's "Song for Someone," and had originally been a consideration to close that album instead of this one.

"We were never gonna do more than 12 songs and the idea was to try to hide it at the end," Bono said.

"You could do that with a CD, but you can’t really do it with streaming. Apparently, hiding things is quite an old-fashioned idea…. Then we said... we’re gonna do our 13th track. And we’ll call it 13 because it’s kind of about a teenage boy. We had two ideas for it. The idea was to write for the teenage girl that you fell in love with, and then for her children." 

The band has a few hometown shows left before concluding the tour in Berlin. Make sure to visit their website for tour details, and check out the remaining dates below.

U2's Experience + Innocence Tour dates:

November 5 – Dublin – 3Arena

November 6 – Dublin – 3Arena                       

November 9 – Dublin – 3Arena

November 10 – Dublin – 3Arena

November 13 – Berlin – Mercedes-Benz Arena

Latest News

Setlist History: Brian Wilson's First Show Without The Beach Boys

Today is Billy Joel's Birthday

Live Debut: Ariana Grande Performs Songs From "Eternal Sunshine"

Marquee Memories: Cold War Kids

Most played songs.

• I Will Follow ( 1060 )
• Pride (In the Name of Love) ( 1026 )
• Sunday Bloody Sunday ( 948 )
• Where the Streets Have No Name ( 945 )
• With or Without You ( 879 )

More U2 statistics

Gigs seen live by

25,002 people have seen U2 live.

PBuren acsetlist Kappy22 msnkilroy bringcitrus humanofballads garettnell Bulikt Hogun33 Urockstar107 the_kid_721 billmoriarty henryrush BodhoVox tadfirmusic rafa3000 colasuon texasmcse LordEldritch zarate4666 nuni0315 krkot11 fquinto JC34 sexiesadie chrishayes958 andrealaureano johnsma9 judowolverine robrory BJK42 miche88 Michken marte79 jackepsteen nuke126 Hanalei DJJDMurphy noidreqd U2Dave halesmail carlile karpediem LorenR ron_robichaud drsandcastle XLBYGUCDN JAMCFP prnaylor nycguy524

Showing only 50 most recent

More from U2

• More Setlists
• Artist Statistics
• Add setlist
• Setlist Insider See the artists dive into their own setlist data.
• Live Debuts Witness the first time a song is performed live.
• Setlist.fm Exclusives Videos, photos and interviews - see it here first.
• Covers Better than the original? You decide.
• Guest Appearances Keeping track of the on-stage cameos.
• Setlist History Looking back on moments in music history.
• Tour Dates How to catch your faves: The who, what, where and when.
• Festivals News about the multi-artist, multi-day extravaganzas.
• General News Other music-related news.
• May 7, 2024
• May 6, 2024
• May 5, 2024
• May 4, 2024
• May 3, 2024
• May 2, 2024
• FAQ | Help | About
• Terms of Service
• Ad Choices | Privacy Policy
• Feature requests
• Songtexte.com

U2’s Adam Clayton Talks ‘Joshua Tree’ Tour, ‘Songs of Experience’

By Andy Greene

Andy Greene

Thirty years ago, the wild success of The Joshua Tree transformed U2 into the biggest band on the planet. Radio hits “With or Without You,” “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “Where The Streets Have No Name” catapulted them from arenas into stadiums and found then hobnobbing with Frank Sinatra, appearing on the cover of Time magazine and sharing the stage with Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen and B.B. King. “Certainly looking back on playing the tour at that time, it should have been an extraordinarily, freeing, joyful opportunity,” says bassist Adam Clayton . “But it was actually quite a tough time trying to deliver those songs under the pressure of growing from an arena act to a stadium act. I, for one, don’t remember enjoying it very much.”

He’ll probably enjoy it more this summer when U2 take The Joshua Tree on a victory lap three decades down the line. “I think this summer run is almost an opportunity to take it back,” he says, “and look at those songs and look at what was going on then and see where we are now.” We spoke to Clayton about the impetus for the tour, how the show will be structured, if fans can expect to hear rarities and what’s happening with Songs of Experience .

I know that the Innocence + Experience Tour was originally slated to go into 2016. What happened? Well, the idea was really that we wanted to make sure we focused on the [ Songs of ] Experience album. By the time we finished the Innocence tour and came full circle to focus on the album, it was clear we weren’t going to be able to flip it really quickly into the Experience side of the material and put it right back out on tour. As a challenge that was, “OK, we’re going to have to look at this differently.” Also, in the course of that year, some kind of strange political movements seemed to start happening. First of all, there was Brexit in the U.K., which was just a signal that things were changing. I’m not sure how people took it. Then, quite quickly on the back of it, was the rise of Trumpism. And that was like, “Oh, OK, there’s something going on here. There’s maybe something we missed and we need to start watching this.” That sort of encouraged us to go away from trying to finish the record too quickly without being able to factor in some of the things this is telling us.

Editor’s picks

Every awful thing trump has promised to do in a second term, the 250 greatest guitarists of all time, the 500 greatest albums of all time, the 50 worst decisions in movie history.

I think it’s interesting to be able to go back to the Joshua Tree record because when we put that record out and when we were working on it, it was a bleak world in terms of America and the U.K. You had a Thatcher-ite government in the U.K. that was trying to destroy the coal-mining business and set up a different kind of economy in the U.K. In the U.S. you had Reaganomics and the kind of imperial power inserting itself into Central American politics and some pretty bad deeds going on from drug money funding arms for that war. That was an interesting setting, but … looking back from 30 years, the story that it tells me the most is how much I’ve changed and how much I need to look at good, liberal values and how the world is really looking and what I accept from the news and what I want from politics now from someone that is less likely to be standing at the barricade. I’m all in favor of new artists coming up to be people that make a lot of noise, but I’m happy to still be a part of the movement.

I know the first thought was to maybe do one American Joshua Tree show and one in Europe. How did that grow into a whole tour? Well, one of the early ideas was that perhaps, because the Experience tour when we get back out to it will be an indoor tour that’s focused on the production we had pioneered on the Innocence tour, it was going to be that production taken further. But we thought, “Well, maybe in honor of The Joshua Tree we could go back out there and do shows that are much more rooted in what that experience was about.” That’s because when we took the Joshua Tree show out a couple of interesting things happened. That was a tour that started in arenas and in the course of the year-long progress of that album, since that was back in the very, very old days where when you put out an album, it sold and there was word of mouth and it got bigger and eventually it got to Number One on the charts and everyone knew it. So when that happened we were forced to go from arenas out into stadiums, and that was a huge, huge step for a bunch of Irish guys who were 25, 26 and had just put our back into this thing called U2 and it had been a five-, six-, seven-year sort of journey for us, a pilgrimage in many ways.

The Edge Breaks Down U2's Upcoming 'Joshua Tree' Tour

When we went outdoors in the stadiums, we didn’t have any tricks. We didn’t know how to do it. We steered away from video reinforcement, which was just happening at the time. We thought it would, in some ways, dilute the music. We had a fervent belief that the music was absolutely adequate and big enough to fill a stadium, so it was really a challenge to us. It also meant that every night Bono had to really put himself out there to try and connect to people. In some ways, that was a thankless task. You can’t win in a stadium. No matter how good the songs are, you’re still just a speck on the stage and you’re still dependent on the PA system. That was very, very frustrating.

I spoke to Edge a few weeks ago. He wasn’t sure the show was going to start with “Streets” and go right into the album. How do you see that happening? We haven’t really sat down and worked out the dynamics of it yet, but I suspect it would sit as the crown in the show. I think we would definitely want to open with perhaps something that is not dissimilar to the Songs of Innocence run [where we did our early 1980s songs] and get people in the mood for this thing that’s coming and you give some sense of history of where it came from. Then it’ll be a scene change. … This is my guess. We won’t know until we start playing it around quite a bit. We will either start with “Streets,” or end with it, I might think, but there will be a scene change. Whether or not we go completely in sequence, we’ve yet to work out. But I think it’ll be the beginning of the traditional musical journey that we’ve always referred to in that period where the songs will take us through a version of America that certainly seemed true and possible at that time. In many ways, perhaps that was the very end of the period of thinking of America as wholesome and benevolent. Really, things have changed quite a bit from that point on. It’s going to be hard to see how the country goes back to where it would like to be.

I imagine one challenge in playing it in sequence is the four most famous songs are the first four. Then there’s seven straight that are lesser-known to a mass audience. Doing them all in a row could be a challenge in a stadium. Do you worry about that? Umm … I think we really have to wait and see. I think anyone that’s coming to that show clearly knows that record well. What we would need to figure out is whether that’s a suite of songs [and] with our new knowledge of 30 years hence we could breathe life into them in a different way, or whether we kind of bundle them together with some other songs that are thematically in keeping with those. Again, I wish I could be more positive with that, but we aren’t that far down the line. We have the aspiration, but we haven’t quite figured out how it’ll happen. But it will happen and we always toy around and experiment until it feels right.

That fans are super psyched to hear “Exit,” “Red Hill Mining Town” and “Trip Through Your Wires.” These are songs that haven’t been played in 30 years, or even ever in one case. “Trip Through Your Wires” I think we were pretty good at playing during the original Joshua Tree tour. I think “In God’s Country” was in that set, but “Red Hill Mining Town” was never played live during that period. It fell into the midtempo malaise and I think we can now figure out ways to get around that.

Might you play any Songs of Experience songs during the show? It would be very much my wish that we could play something from Experience as part of the show, maybe one or two songs. Again, I caution that by saying we really have to see the arc of this show and we have to figure out whether those Experience songs would work well in a stadium in this context, but I’d love to see some of that material out there and people being familiar with it before the album comes out.

Broadly speaking, it must be hard to make a set list since there’s so many albums and certain audience members that just know the big hits, and then there’s the hardcore fans craving deep cuts. Satisfying them both at once must be difficult. It is difficult. You very quickly realize when you’re up there that there are those two types of songs. There are the songs with broad, mass appeal that people respond to in an instinctive ways. I suppose that’s what hit songs are. Then there’s, as you say, the more intellectual side of what I’d call the “bedroom songs” that people have a personal, intimate relationship with, but they don’t share that with the rest of the world. I think we always try and walk the line between having those great emotional moments that are much more about what’s happening in the crowd. The song unleashes the experience that people are having in the crowd, and then those other songs that one can pull back to the stage and they’re about the music that’s happening on the stage and the audience can participate in that.

I told the Edge the two songs the fans are always talking about are “Acrobat” and “Drowning Man.” You’ve never done either of them. Do you think they’ll ever be played? We rehearsed up a version of “Drowning Man” for the 360° tour. I think we rehearsed it up until the moment we were rehearsing in stadiums. I think some of the fan chatter said that. I think in the end it seemed like really an obscure song to submit a stadium audience to [ laughs ]. But it has something. It really does have something. What we were doing with it was quite interesting, but you instinctively know that’s not going to carry in a stadium. It could carry in a club situation because it is … that’s right off War . It probably isn’t that well-known, but it is a beautiful piece of music, really evocative. Perhaps there is a way to put it in.

How about “Acrobat?” “Acrobat” is a funny one. There’s a lot of anger. Again, I think when we were originally planning that tour it was just one song too many off Achtung Baby , but perhaps there is a way of bringing it back in. Perhaps not for this tour. I guess we’re going to have to align everything, to a degree, that is pre –Joshua Tree and then Joshua Tree . Then after Joshua Tree , perhaps Achtung Baby would be too big a gauge, but who knows how it’ll pan out once we start planning two-and-a-half hours in a stadium.

Do you ever talk about doing a fan show in a theater or club that’s advertised as just the obscure songs? The thing is, if we were looking for innovative, different ideas to reconnect with our audience, I think all these things are valid. But we’re still very much kind of plowing ahead with new material and that’s our focus. This was just an opportunity to step sideways and honor Joshua Tree . I think when everyone saw it as something we could move forward with, there was great momentum and excitement within the band, but I think this is a step that is not really part of our language. It’s just unique that we’re choosing this year to do this.

Do you think if you put out “With or Without You” as a single today, it would be a big hit, or has radio changed so much it wouldn’t work? I think you could put it out. I think you’d have to Melodyne the vocal. I think you’d have to squeeze and program the rhythm tracks. Eventually you’d get something that sounds familiar on the radio and it would research well, and you might get a bit of traction and it might be a hit. But I think if you put it out just as it is, it would get lost in the noise and bubble of that particular sound that’s popular at the moment.

Is it possible for a rock band 40 years in to score a hit in the climate where most pop artists are in their early twenties? You know, I do believe that it is possible. I don’t know what the particular formula is, but I’ve never been more aware of any other time that no matter where I am in the world, and I don’t know why it is, I keep hearing Fleetwood Mac tracks. I’m going, “Why is it those songs have got such big, strong legs?” Of course, they were poppy in their day. They were very universal in terms of the lyric, but there was something about the sound that wasn’t necessarily the classic sound of that period. They had their own unique sound and it seems to have survived the pop music of the day.

Yeah. I think “Every Breaking Wave” is among your greatest songs. Had it been released in a different time it would probably have been a huge hit. It just seems like this is a different world now . Yeah, it is. The emotional connection with songs [is] different because people don’t think of them as parts of albums. They don’t think of them as lifestyle. They don’t see them as identifying who they are. We live in a world where these songs are dropped and they get passed around and they validate people in a different way.

Do you think Songs of Experience will be out next year? The end of this year? We all very much feel like it needs to be the end of this year. It’s not on any schedule anywhere, anything like that. We’re going to get back to that later this year and polish it off and finish it off a bit more. But we think we’re there with it. It’s not like the switch to do these Joshua Tree shows was because we needed a lot of time. It was just because it’s pretty much in the bag. We can still work on it throughout this year, all the little nips and tucks that we want to do. It’ll be a pleasure to get out there and play these Joshua Tree songs. In some ways, the experience of playing those Joshua Tree shows and those songs this summer, inevitably, couldn’t help [but] have some impact on what that record ultimately becomes when we finish work on it.

The word “nostalgia” is being tossed around in relation to this tour. How do you feel about that? [ Let’s out an agonized groan. ] It’s not something we would be interested in. The reason the audience is there and buys the ticket may be to look back and say, “Wasn’t that great? Wasn’t that a great period? Weren’t we the generation that changed things?” You can’t do anything about that. Some people may do that. I think I mentioned at the beginning of the piece, it’s probably much more important to use that as a starting point of what the last 30 years have done to us all. Who are we now? How can we continue to act as members of the community and society and make changes and choices for the future?

Do you see yourselves still being in the group when you’re in your seventies like the Stones and the Who? [ Laughs ] I can’t answer that. Maybe they couldn’t either. I think it’s fantastic that Pete [Townshend] and Roger [Daltrey] are still out there doing shows in their seventies. I would say if you’re in your seventies, it’s usually the most fun to be onstage with a rock & roll band if that opportunity is available for you, but I don’t know if that is something you can plan for. I don’t know. I don’t know where we’ll be in our seventies. I don’t know which one of us will be in our seventies.

It’s a miracle that U2 have been the same four guys for 40 years. Almost no group can claim that. We’ve had a very solid, stable lineup. Hopefully it’ll stay that way.

'Word Salad': Andrew Huberman's Cannabis Claims Slammed by Experts

Brian wilson placed in conservatorship as daughters win consultation rights, barron trump is officially entering politics, why grown-ass women love the idea of 'the idea of you'.

I feel like with Songs of Ascent and everything you’ve done during the Songs of Innocence and Songs of Experience sessions there’s so many songs the fans have never got a chance to hear, maybe even a hundred or so. Do you think those songs are ever going to come out on box sets or anything? Again, I never want to say never. Very often, the things that don’t get completed is because we start out with a very broad palette and then again we do focus on the fact that what rock & roll is and what we do are a somewhat narrow palette. You have to focus in on that to be relevant and to be part of the discussion. So we can wander off into the ether and make nice, jazzy, progressive, atmospheric music – it doesn’t necessarily reflect what U2 should be doing and how we should be connecting with our people out there.

Do you ever fee like the band is fighting gravity? So few bands have ever done work 40 years in that’s connected with a mass audience. At the same time, rock is no longer at the center of the culture. That’s a lot to work against. Ummm … yeah. There are different rules and criteria for the operation. I kind of feel like the technology of how this all works has changed a lot over the years. If you look at the big bands of the 1940s, those bands got cut down to quartets and quintets after the war because there just wasn’t the money around to pay for big bands or pay for petrols and buses. Then you came into the period where the electric instruments made that it very few people could make a big sound and entertain people. We’re now in a situation because the current music business, because sales in the real sense don’t exist, you can’t support bands like you used to be able to in terms of economics. Actually singers are now finding, often with computers, that they can make a sound in the digital world and make a voice fit well on it in a special way. They don’t have the overhead of a band in the studio or anything. So yeah, the economic forces have changed it a lot.

I also think that in that period of the 1960s there was the counterculture and information was translated through that youth movement and that counterculture movement through music and ideas. The Internet has completely changed that. People relate to each other in a different way and they communicate in different ways. It has more sophistication in so many different ways. We are, to use your term, somewhat swimming against the tide, but I’m hoping that some of those values … I don’t know if we can do this again in that sort of way. It will change. The future is going to be different, and who knows what comes with it?

U2 are going on a summer tour that will feature a complete performance of their landmark 1987 album ‘The Joshua Tree.’

Dennis Thompson, MC5 Drummer and Last Surviving Original Member, Dead at 75

• By Jon Blistein

Butch Vig on His Friendly Rivalry With Steve Albini: 'He'd Stick These Little Jabs in Me'

• APPRECIATION
• By David Browne

See Taylor Swift Perform 'Fortnight,' 'But Daddy I Love Him' at The Eras Tour in Paris

• By Maya Georgi

Baby, Baby, Baby: Justin and Hailey Bieber Are Expecting Their First Child Together

• Bieber Baby
• By Larisha Paul
• 'Best Possible Care'
• By Nancy Dillon

Most Popular

Emily blunt says she's 'absolutely' wanted to throw up after kissing certain actors during filming: 'i've definitely not enjoyed some of it.', jerry seinfeld's 'unfrosted' divides critics: "one of decade's worst movies", serena williams' ethereal white swimsuit photoshoot shows the way she’s exercising after baby no. 2, no a’s in attendance: oakland trails a whopping 553 u.s. teams, you might also like, will fx move ‘shogun’ to drama series, upending several major emmy races, exclusive: a smaller, revived century 21 talks one year back in business, the best yoga mats for any practice, according to instructors, indiewire earns record 9 southern california journalism award nominations, including best news website, dick’s sporting goods ink retail deals with celtics, red sox.

Rolling Stone is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Rolling Stone, LLC. All rights reserved.

Verify it's you

Please log in.

Find anything you save across the site in your account

Songs of Experience

By Calum Marsh

December 4, 2017

In the late 1980s, en route to Memphis on the mission that would be dubiously immortalized by the documentary U2: Rattle and Hum , Bono hitched a ride with a stranger whose car stereo dashed his spirits. The young driver had been listening to Def Leppard ’s Mutt Lange-produced glam-metal opus Hysteria —and it sounded magnificent. Bono was awed. When at last it dawned on the driver who exactly he’d picked up, he switched out the Def Leppard tape for some vintage U2 . By comparison, it couldn’t help but sound dull. “I think we were a little out of touch,” Bono reflected later, having heard what U2 lacked. “We weren’t as great as we figured we were.”

It is hard to believe that U2 were galvanized to write Achtung Baby! by a chance encounter with “Pour Some Sugar on Me” on cassette. But then that’s U2: Their art is fundamentally, inveterately emulous. The pursuit of relevance seems above all what motivates them to create. What are they doing, really, when time and again they endeavor to reinvent themselves, if not trying to remain fashionable—or, more precisely, to stave off obsolescence? In 1989, drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. told Bono he worried the band was “turning into the world’s most expensive jukebox.” The band could not abide it. “They became so bored playing U2’s greatest hits that one night they went out and played the whole set backward,” Bill Flanagan writes in his biography U2 at the End of the World . “It didn’t seem to make any difference.” It’s this inclination toward boredom and restlessness that has always secretly been U2’s animating force.

The fear of seeming “a little out of touch”: Nearly 30 years after Bono declared on stage that the band had to “go away and dream it all up again,” this is still the prime creative catalyst. And on Songs of Experience , U2’s 14th studio album, the anxiety is more apparent than ever. Bono, it seems, has been spending a lot of time around a lot of strangers’ car stereos, and what he’s concluded U2 lacks he’s undertaken resolutely to embrace. Behold the album’s many hallmarks of the modern: There are contributions by Kendrick Lamar (“American Soul”) and Haim (“Lights of Home”), and there are flourishes that conspicuously recall the xx (“Red Flag Day”) and Arcade Fire (“Get Out of Your Own Way”). Opening track “Love Is All We Have Left” invokes a distinctly Justin Vernon -ish vocoder, an homage we might dub “Bono Iver.” And “Summer of Love”—on which Bono croons “I been thinkin’ ‘bout the West Coast/Not the one that everyone knows”—suggests someone just discovered Born to Die .

Bono and the Edge have said that lately, innovation has been less evident in rock music than elsewhere—in “R&B, hip-hop, and pop,” according to a profile of the band in the New York Times . This academic interest in other genres is manifest across Songs of Experience . It’s clear in the subwoofer-trashing bass that undergirds “The Blackout,” the liveliest Adam Clayton has sounded in ages. It’s clear in the thick slabs of lurid distortion that course through “American Soul,” which last appeared, in much different form, as “XXX” on Kendrick’s DAMN. And it’s clear in the sumptuous, waterlogged beat that concludes the final track, “13 (There Is a Light),” reminiscent of Noah “40” Shebib and his legions of imitators. These are brazen attempts to capture the zeitgeist, even by U2’s standards. Their combined effect is dire: Songs of Experience is the shameless effort of four men in their late 50s to muster a contemporary, youthful sound.

Of course, the band’s aspirations toward relevance are tempered by a competing pursuit: Here they strive, as usual, to guarantee longevity. They want to seem in touch; they also want to canonize another classic. This, one presumes, accounts for the inclusion of more familiar-sounding U2 barn-burners such as “Love Is Bigger Than Anything in its Way,” which sounds almost exactly like one expects a U2 song with that title would, and lead single “You’re the Best Thing About Me,” which has already failed to take hold of the popular imagination.

“The problem with rock now is that it’s trying to be cool,” Bono said recently. “But clear thoughts and big melodies—if they come from a true place, they not only capture the instant, they become eternal in a way.” The Edge, meanwhile, said the band was concerned with whether these songs would “be played by people in a bar in 25 years.” Well, Songs of Experience does not much “capture the instant,” hunger to as it might, and it is safe to assume that while, say, “Pride (In the Name of Love)” or “New Year’s Day” have proven something like timeless, “Red Flag Day” and “The Showman (Little More Better)” will fall rather short of eternal. “How long must we sing this song?” Bono asked on “Sunday Bloody Sunday”—and they’ve been obliged to sing it nightly since 1983. With these songs, about a single tour should do.

Despite the blatant bid to sound modish and rejuvenated, U2 cannot help in certain respects but sound the same. Bono still writes Bono-brand howlers: He still lapses into prosaic platitudes (“Are you tough enough to be kind?/Do you know your heart has its own mind?”), moony cliche (“Free yourself to be yourself/If only you could see yourself”), and arena-rock patois (“You! Are! Rock’n’roll!”—the “you” there is America, naturally). Politics are addressed in earnest, to ludicrously ill-judged effect. Which is more vicariously embarrassing: the stretch of “Red Flag Day” that contrasts a tryst on the beaches of the Mediterranean with the deaths of Syrian refugees (“Baby let’s get in the water… so many lost in the sea last night”), or the portmanteau punchline that ends “American Soul,” which is simply: “ refujesus ”?

It is tempting to praise Songs of Experience on the basis of its mawkish wholeheartedness. It does indeed seem like the product of considerable toil: This thing has been in progress for something like three years now, and between its revisions, reconstructions, and post-election rewritings, it plainly benefits from more attention and effort than any U2 album since All That You Can’t Leave Behind . But it’s precisely this manifest ambition that makes Songs of Experience dispiriting. The music itself isn’t any better merely because this time around the band actually cares; all the industrious fervor amounts to meager flailing. It’s one thing to fail when you’re phoning it in: You leave hope that you could pull it off if only you tried. It’s quite another to fail when you’re giving it everything.

By signing up you agree to our User Agreement (including the class action waiver and arbitration provisions ), our Privacy Policy & Cookie Statement and to receive marketing and account-related emails from Pitchfork. You can unsubscribe at any time. This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

We will keep fighting for all libraries - stand with us!

Internet Archive Audio

• This Just In
• Grateful Dead
• Old Time Radio
• 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings
• Audio Books & Poetry
• Computers, Technology and Science
• Music, Arts & Culture
• News & Public Affairs
• Spirituality & Religion
• Radio News Archive

• Flickr Commons
• Occupy Wall Street Flickr
• NASA Images
• Solar System Collection
• Ames Research Center

• All Software
• Old School Emulation
• MS-DOS Games
• Historical Software
• Classic PC Games
• Software Library
• Kodi Archive and Support File
• Vintage Software
• CD-ROM Software
• CD-ROM Software Library
• Software Sites
• Tucows Software Library
• Shareware CD-ROMs
• Software Capsules Compilation
• CD-ROM Images
• ZX Spectrum
• DOOM Level CD

• Smithsonian Libraries
• FEDLINK (US)
• Lincoln Collection
• American Libraries
• Canadian Libraries
• Universal Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Children's Library
• Biodiversity Heritage Library
• Books by Language
• Additional Collections

• Prelinger Archives
• Democracy Now!
• Occupy Wall Street
• TV NSA Clip Library
• Animation & Cartoons
• Arts & Music
• Computers & Technology
• Cultural & Academic Films
• Ephemeral Films
• Sports Videos
• Videogame Videos
• Youth Media

Search the history of over 866 billion web pages on the Internet.

Mobile Apps

• Wayback Machine (iOS)
• Wayback Machine (Android)

Browser Extensions

Archive-it subscription.

• Explore the Collections
• Build Collections

Save Page Now

Capture a web page as it appears now for use as a trusted citation in the future.

Please enter a valid web address

• Donate Donate icon An illustration of a heart shape

U2 Innocence + Experience Tour Collection

Audio with external links item preview.

Share or Embed This Item

Flag this item for.

• Graphic Violence
• Explicit Sexual Content
• Hate Speech
• Misinformation/Disinformation
• Marketing/Phishing/Advertising
• Misleading/Inaccurate/Missing Metadata

plus-circle Add Review comment Reviews

9,241 Views

12 Favorites

DOWNLOAD OPTIONS

In collections.

Uploaded by DKL3 on May 21, 2016

SIMILAR ITEMS (based on metadata)

Advertisement

U2 announces full album details, tour dates

U2's 'Songs of Experience' is out December 1. (All rights reserved)

U2 has announced details of its hotly anticipated album "Songs of Experience," which is due out December 1, and revealed that it will be supported by a North American tour kicking off next spring.

"Songs of Experience," the band's 14th studio album, is inspired by advice given to lead singer Bono to "write as if you're dead" and is being called "a collection of songs in the form of intimate letters to places and people close to the singer's heart."

On Wednesday, U2 revealed the album's track listing, with 13 tracks included on the album and four bonus tracks added to the deluxe version.

Those who pre-order the album will get three instant downloads: the previously released tracks "You're the Best Thing About Me" and "The Blackout," as well as a brand-new track, "Get Out of Your Own Way," which features a spoken word contribution from Kendrick Lamar and is also available to stream now.

The band has also revealed they'll head out on tour in North America in support of the album, with shows so far scheduled through late June. Dates can be found at www.u2.com/tour .

Finally, the artwork for the album has been unveiled, shot by photographer and longtime collaboraor Anton Corbijn and featuring Eli Hewson and Sian Evans, the teenage children of the band's members.

Find out more about the album at www.u2.com .

Related Stories

• U2 takes in New York in new video
• U2 cancels concert in St. Louis amid protests
• U2's Bono meets French President Macron to discuss poverty

Related Links

• 'Songs of Experience' album and tour details on U2.com

More Entertainment Stories

Justin and Hailey Bieber are expecting their first child together

How social media has amplified and accelerated Drake and Kendrick Lamar's rap battle

Miss Teen USA steps down just days after Miss USA's resignation

Spanish court shelves latest tax probe of Shakira following prosecutors' recommendation

Judge finds Beach Boys' Brian Wilson needs conservatorship because of mental decline

Books about Indigenous life shortlisted for Amazon Canada First Novel Award

Que. students accuse teacher of profiting off their artwork

Car thefts in Canada: Insurance companies face criticism

$50K reward offered in case of missing Barrie, Ont. woman

Ctvnews.ca top stories.

Pearson gold heist suspect arrested after flying into Toronto from India

From outer space? Sask. farmers baffled after discovering strange wreckage in field

Debate on abortion rights erupts on Parliament Hill, Poilievre vows he won't legislate

Ontario family receives massive hospital bill as part of LTC law, refuses to pay

Here are the ultraprocessed foods you most need to avoid, according to a 30-year study

B.C. man used Bobcat as 'weapon' while chasing away homeless people, judge says

WATCH: Rare Bronze Age relics stolen from U.K. museum

Video shows scale of huge fire at mail distribution centre

Boeing 767 makes emergency landing after gear failure

U2: Songs Of Experience [Album Review]

Brian Q. Newcomb | December 1, 2017 December 1, 2017 | Reviews

U2 Songs Of Experience Interscope Records [2017]

• Recent Posts

• Ryan Adams: Heatwave | Star Sign | 1985 | Sword & Stone [Album Review] - February 13, 2024
• Sarah Jarosz: Polaroid Lovers [Album Review] - January 31, 2024
• Green Day: Saviors [Album Review] - January 26, 2024

The Friday Fire Track: Olden Yolk – “Takes One To Know One”

Future islands: the far field [album review], 1 thought on “u2: songs of experience [album review]”.

The key tracks for me on this album are The Blackout, American Soul and Red Flag Day. TheBlackout isBono at his best and I lov The Edge’s guitar and the bass and drums just finish it of for me. American Soul is one of the many songs that has Larry’s drumming at its best and Edge’s gritty guitar and of course Adam’s bass. Red Flag Day to me is everyone at its best. Brilliant

Leave a Comment

Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment.

• Rock's Best Four-Album Runs
• Van Halen's Sad HOF Induction
• 'Let It Be''s 'Downer Incident'
• 50 Greatest Power Ballads
• What Doomed Heart Lineup
• Songs Almost Ruined Classic LPs

U2 Cut ‘Joshua Tree’ Songs, Bring Back MacPhisto on Opening Night

The last time U2 went on tour, they revisited their landmark Joshua Tree album. On their current trek, they appear more interested in looking back on other corners of their classic catalog — and reviving one of frontman Bono 's old alter egos.

Opening their Experience + Innocence Tour at Tulsa's BOK Center last night, the band pivoted away from The Joshua Tree , eliminating anything off that album — including some of their biggest hits — from the set list in favor of a blend of older songs and newer material. One of the deepest cuts, the Achtung Baby track "Acrobat," made its live debut while ushering in the return of Bono's early '90s "Mr. MacPhisto" persona.

As Bono made clear with his stage patter, MacPhisto's comeback isn't just a nostalgic callback, it's a statement. "I haven't seen this guy in quite a while," he told the crowd. "I've been a busy little devil. But you've made it all so much easier for me these days. ... The truth is dead and the KKK are out on the streets of Charlottesville without their silly costumes. Who would have thought? When you don't believe that I exist, that's when I do my best work."

"Acrobat" was far from the only number making a rare stage appearance in Tulsa. As Rolling Stone 's report points out, a number of songs worked their way into the set after prolonged absences, including "Staring at the Sun" and "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses." In between, the band placed a pronounced emphasis on new numbers like set opener "Love Is All We Have Left" and "Lights of Home," both from 2017's Songs of Experience .

From here, the band is scheduled to remain on the road throughout the United States through mid-summer, at which point they're due for a brief break before resuming the tour in Berlin on Aug. 31. U2's European dates run through early November — check out the full list and find ticketing information at their official site , and look over the Tulsa set list below.

U2, BOK Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma, 5/2/18 "Love Is All We Have Left" "The Blackout" "Lights of Home" "Beautiful Day" "All Because of You" "I Will Follow" "The Ocean" "Iris (Hold Me Close)" "Cedarwood Road" "Song for Someone" "Sunday Bloody Sunday" "Raised by Wolves" "Until the End of the World" "Vertigo" "Desire" "Acrobat" "You're the Best Thing About Me" "Staring at the Sun" "Pride (In the Name of Love)" "Get Out of Your Own Way" "American Soul" "XXX" "City of Blinding Lights" "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" "One" "Love Is Bigger Than Anything in Its Way" "13 (There Is a Light)"

More From Ultimate Classic Rock

• Hearts + Minds
• Sign Up / Sign In

• Terms + Conditions
• Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

• Manage Account
• Share this article on Facebook
• Share this article on Twitter
• Share this article on Flipboard
• Share this article on Pinit
• + additional share options added
• Share this article on Reddit
• Share this article on Linkedin
• Share this article on Whatsapp
• Share this article on Email
• Print this article
• Share this article on Comment
• Share this article on Tumblr

U2 Scores Eighth No. 1 Album on Billboard 200 Chart With ‘Songs of Experience’

U2 achieves its eighth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as the rock band's new 'Songs of Experience' debuts atop the tally.

By Keith Caulfield

Keith Caulfield

U2 achieves its eighth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart, as the rock band’s new Songs of Experience debuts atop the tally. The set bows with 186,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Dec. 7, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 180,000 were in traditional album sales.

Songs of Experience nets the biggest week for a rock album in 2017, both in terms of overall units, as well as album sales. The last rock set to log a larger frame was Metallica ’s Hardwired… To Self-Destruct , which launched at No. 1 on the Dec. 10, 2016-dated chart with 291,000 units, of which 282,000 were in album sales.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on  multi-metric consumption , which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new Dec. 23-dated chart (where  Songs of Experience debuts at No. 1) will be posted in full on Billboard’s websites on Tuesday (Dec. 12).

U2 Reveal Details Of New Album 'Songs Of Experience' and Announce 2018 North American Tour

Songs of Experience ’s debut benefits from a concert ticket/album bundle sale redemption promotion in association with the act’s 2018 Experience + Innocence Tour, which begins in May.

Songs of Experience  is a companion album to the band’s last studio effort, 2014’s  Songs of Innocence . The latter title was initially released as a free download exclusively through Apple’s iTunes program on Sept. 9, 2014, but was not eligible to chart until it was commercially released on Oct. 14. In its first tracking week of sales, it sold 28,000 copies, and debuted and peaked at No. 9 on the Billboard 200.

U2 last topped the Billboard 200 with 2009’s  No Line on the Horizon , which bowed with 484,000 copies sold in its first week, according to Nielsen Music. (The Billboard 200 transitioned to a consumption units-ranked tally in late 2014.)

U2's Joshua Tree 2017 Tour Wraps With $316 Million Earned

In total, U2 has now led the Billboard 200 with Songs of Experience ,  No Line on the Horizon ,  How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (2004), Pop (1997), Zooropa (1993), Achtung Baby (1991), the Rattle and Hum  soundtrack (1988) and The Joshua Tree (1987).

Songs of Experience is also the seventh rock album to lead the Billboard 200 in 2017, following The Killers ’ Wonderful Wonderful , Foo Fighters ’  Concrete and Gold , LCD Soundsystem ’s  American Dream ,  Brand New ’s  Science Fiction , Arcade Fire’s  Everything Now and  Linkin Park ’s  One More Light . (In all of 2016, 10 rock sets led the list.)

Also, among all acts with the most No. 1s in the history of the Billboard 200 chart, U2 is now tied with Kenny Chesney and Madonna for the sixth-most leaders (and third-most among groups). Ahead of them are The Beatles (with 19), JAY-Z (14), Bruce Springsteen and Barbra Streisand (each with 11), Elvis Presley (10), and Garth Brooks and The Rolling Stones (both with nine). U2 is also just the fourth act — and only group — to have earned No. 1s in the 1980s, 1990s, 2000s and 2010s, following Janet Jackson , Springsteen and Streisand.

U2 Is the 'Best' With Record-Breaking 13th No. 1 on Adult Alternative Songs Chart

Songs of Experience  was led by the single “You’re the Best Thing About Me,” which reached No. 5 on the Hot Rock Songs tally in September, spent seven weeks at No. 1 on the Adult Alternative Songs airplay chart (the act’s  record-breaking  13th leader on the tally) and hit No. 21 on the Alternative Songs airplay chart (the band’s  record-extending  42nd entry).

At No. 2 on the new Billboard 200, Chris Stapleton bows with his second studio effort of 2017, From a Room: Volume 2 . It starts with 125,000 units, of which 116,000 were in pure album sales. It follows From a Room: Volume 1 , which also opened (and peaked) at No. 2 (on the list dated May 27), with 219,000 units, of which 202,000 were in traditional album sales.

Stapleton is the first country act to notch two top-two charting albums in a calendar year on the Billboard 200 since 2013. That year, Luke Bryan claimed a pair of No. 1s with Spring Break… Here to Party and Crash My Party .

Taylor Swift Schools the Music Industry Once Again, While Streaming Services Wring Their Hands

Taylor Swift ’s Reputation slides to No. 3 on the new Billboard 200, after three weeks at No. 1. In its fourth week, the set collected 112,000 units (down 24 percent), with 70,000 of that figure in album sales (down 47 percent). The album’s SEA units rally by 344 percent (to 34,000 units) following the entire set’s release to streaming services on Dec. 1. Previously, only the album’s four pre-release tracks were available to stream.

Ed Sheeran ’s ÷ ( Divide ) climbs one rung to No. 4 with 68,000 units (up 64 percent), with gains in album sales (19,000; 17 percent), TEA units (22,000; up 163 percent) and SEA units (27,000 units; up 61 percent). The set gains in the wake of the Nov. 30 release of the album’s new remix of its song “Perfect,” which is now a duet with Beyoncé .

Pentatonix ’s A Pentatonix Christmas dips from No. 2 to No. 5 with 66,000 units (down 5 percent), while Demi Lovato ’s Tell Me You Love Me (which debuted at its No. 3 peak in October) vaults from No. 21 to No. 6 with 63,000 units (up 168 percent), of which 46,000 were in traditional album sales (up 340 percent). Lovato’s album sales benefit from a concert ticket/album bundle sale redemption promotion with Lovato’s upcoming tour with DJ Khaled .

Pentatonix's 10 Best Christmas Songs

Sam Smith ’s The Thrill of It All falls from No. 3 to No. 7 on the Billboard 200 with 47,000 units (down 24 percent), while Michael Bublé ’s Christmas climbs from No. 9 to No. 8 with 42,000 units (up 24 percent).

Miguel ’s new War & Leisure bows at No. 9 with 40,000 units (16,000 in album sales), marking the R&B singer-songwriter’s third top 10 effort. He previously visited the region with Wildheart (No. 2 in 2015) and Kaleidoscope Dream (No. 3 in 2012). Like U2 and Lovato, Miguel also generated sales from a ticket/album bundle promotion for his upcoming tour.

Rounding out the top 10 is Garth Brooks ’ The Anthology: Part I, The First Five Years , which falls from No. 4 to No. 10 with 40,000 units (down 30 percent).

Daily newsletters straight to your inbox

More From Pro

Portia sabin on this year’s music biz conference: ‘ai is the big one’ .

• By Ed Christman

WME’s Jay Williams Wins Billboard Country Power Players’ Choice Award

• By Jessica Nicholson

Supreme Court Rules Against Warner Music In Producer’s Battle Over Flo Rida Song

• By Bill Donahue

How Adult R&B Became a Young Person’s Game On the Airwaves

• By Elias Leight

Neil Portnow’s Rape Accuser Moves to Drop Case Amid Dispute With Lawyers Over Name Reveal

Billboard is a part of Penske Media Corporation. © 2024 Billboard Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

optional screen reader

Charts expand charts menu.

• Billboard Hot 100™
• Billboard 200™
• Hits Of The World™
• TikTok Billboard Top 50
• Song Breaker
• Year-End Charts
• Decade-End Charts

Music Expand music menu

• R&B/Hip-Hop

Videos Expand videos menu

Culture expand culture menu, media expand media menu, business expand business menu.

• Business News
• Record Labels
• View All Pro

Pro Tools Expand pro-tools menu

• Songwriters & Producers
• Artist Index
• Royalty Calculator
• Market Watch
• Industry Events Calendar

Billboard Español Expand billboard-espanol menu

• Cultura y Entretenimiento

Get Up Anthems by Tres Expand get-up-anthems-by-tres menu

Honda music expand honda-music menu.

Your browser is ancient! Upgrade to a different browser or install Google Chrome Frame to experience this site.

Songs of Experience: Your Answers (Part One)

Original story by aaron j. sams (2019-01-11).

In early 2018, a month after Songs of Experience had been released we asked our audience a number of questions about the album. They included questions about the album itself, what formats you had purchased, and how you were listening to it. We asked questions about how it ranked among your favourite U2 albums. Many of you told us that the album was too new to give it a such ratings, but our intention was always to go back and ask the questions again. In December 2018, after the completion of the Experience + Innocence tour, we felt it was a good time to ask again. The album had been out for a year, many of us have had a chance to see the songs live, or at least to listen along on the internet to a few live shows. We’ve had singles, and videos, and remixes, lots and lots of remixes. We’ll reveal some of the newer results below, and in some cases will use the original results for comparison. We received over 1000 responses on each set of questions.

The original results come from a series of questions we asked and you answered in January of last year. These are marked “January 2018” in the article below. The new results come from a series of questions we asked last month, and are marked “December 2018” in the article. The results for each question are sorted so that the highest answer is the top in the chart below each graph. But this means that the colours used for each song may shift throughout the article, so pay attention to the legends as you go through the results. The biggest piece of the pie will always match with the answer that is highlighted at the top of the responses, which are listed below each graph.

We will reveal the answers in two stages, this first article will deal with some of the questions we asked about songs. Later this month we will reveal some of your answers about the album itself and how it compares to other albums, as well as looking at the singles and the videos from the album.

Our first question about the songs from Songs of Experience is what was your favourite from the new album. These are results from December 2018, after the tour had ended, and after a year of listening to these songs. The songs were not ranked by those answering the question, we have only asked you to identify what is your favourite song on the album.

The three songs most identified as favourites are “The Little Things That Give You Away,” “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way,” and “Red Flag Day.” Of the three, only “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” was released as a single from this album. It is also the only song of the three that was played each night on the tour. “Red Flag Day” was played sporadically throughout the tour, and “The Little Things That Give You Away” was not played on the current tour, but it had been played sporadically on “The Joshua Tree Tour.” Over 1/4 of the respondents to the poll chose “The Little Things That Give You Away” as favorite song. And over half of respondents picked one of these three songs as a favorite.

What songs got chosen as a favourite least often? “American Soul” with 0.4% of the vote seems to be the least likely song to be chosen as a favourite. “The Showman (Little More Better)” and “You’re The Best Thing About Me” were also rarely chosen as a favourite.

How does this compare to the previous years results?

This chart above looks at the January 2018 results on the left, after the album had just been released, and compares them to the more recent December 2018 results on the right. You can see that there hasn’t been a lot of shift in the numbers of 12 months. It appears that the same songs are chosen as favourites now as were chosen last year. And the three songs that got chosen as favourites in December, had only increased in the number of people choosing them as a favourite.

The graph above looks at the change in the vote between January 2018 and December 2018. A positive result means the song is more favoured now than it was in early 2018. A negative number means the song is less likely to be picked as a favourite now than it was in 2018. “The Blackout” has gained the most votes as a favourite over that time, as have “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” and “Red Flag Day”. As time has gone on these songs have gained more votes. “The Blackout” was probably helped along by the prominent placement at the start of the show in both legs of the tour. Perhaps more surprising though is “Summer of Love” is now less likely to be chosen as a favourite, and has lost more votes than any other song. The song was not played live throughout the US tour stops, but had been introduced as a single and was played each night in Europe. “Lights of Home” has also lost some votes as a favourite.

The above results ask what your favourite song, and a lack of votes for the song does not mean that it is unloved, it just means that the song is not a song that jumps out as a favourite on the album. To look at what songs didn’t work on the album, we also asked the opposite question, what was your least favourite song on Songs of Experience .

So it appears that there are two songs that are quite far ahead of the rest when you were asked to name your “least favourite” song on the album. “American Soul” came in first. Not only is it the least chosen song when asked to pick your favourites, over 25% of you identified the song as your least favourite. “The Showman (Little More Better)” also comes in high, with 22.7% identifying it as a least favourite song. “You’re the Best Thing About Me” comes in third, as the third chosen least favourite song, but at a much lower percentage at 8.5%.

“The Showman (Little More Better)” was not performed during the tour other than some snippets of the song read aloud in the introduction to “You’re The Best Thing About Me” and has never received a lot of attention on the album. “American Soul” is perhaps more surprising, as the song was promoted with two videos, used in a number of sportscasts for promotion, and released to radio in the UK. The song also was heavily featured in the first leg of the tour, being used for the moment where the American flag rose behind the stage.

Once again looking back at the January results (left) done just a month after release and before the tour, compared to the more recent questions (right) we can see some shifts that are interesting. “American Soul” and “The Showman (Little More Better)” were both identified the most in both surveys as a least favourite song. The current results had “You’re the Best Thing About Me” coming in as the third most identified song as least favourite, but back in January when the album was fresh, that song was behind “13 (There is A Light),” “Landlady,” and “Love is All We Have Left” just after the album came out.

This graph looks at the change in results from January to more recent in the choices of least favourite” song. In this graph a negative number is a good thing, it means that less people are choosing it as least favourite now than they were last January. A positive number is negative, it means more people are choosing it as a least favourite now. “13 (There is A Light),” “The Blackout,” and “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” have lost the most least favourite votes. All three were spotlight songs on the tour, which may have helped change opinions on the song.

“American Soul” really suffers, 5.5% more people are now choosing it as a least favourite than they did last year. Opinion on the song has shifted and has become less favourable over time. Other songs seeing this less favourable shift include “The Showman (Little More Better)” and “You’re The Best Thing About Me”.

A month after the album was released, and before any information was known about rehearsals of the tour, we asked the song you thought would be the perfect opening for the concert. The results above are from those questions a year ago. We wanted to look back and say good job! You guys nailed the opening songs for the album. The three songs that were chosen, that made up 75% of the vote were “The Blackout,” “Love is All We Have Left,” and “Lights of Home”. The three songs that opened the North American tour were in a different order, but they were these three songs. “Love is All We Have Left” moved to the background on the second leg of the tour, still in the mix under the Charlie Chaplin speech, but far more muted than in the North American leg. On both the North American and European leg, this song was used as a pre-recorded track, with only some lyrics being sung live by Bono in performance.

We also asked you for the song you thought would be perfect for closing, before the tour started, and before rehearsals. Again, the tracks identified as perfect closers were “Love Is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” and “13 (There is A Light)” which were the final two songs used on the tour. Over 50% of you chose one of these two songs as a good closer. A number of fans expressed throughout the tour that they would have preferred the show to end with “Love Is Bigger Than Anything in its Way.” The third most chosen song was “The Little Things that Give You Away” which had been used a number of nights on The Joshua Tree 2017 tour, but was not played on the more recent tour at all.

Another question we asked last year was which one song did you not want to hear live. This was asked before the tour started to get a feeling for what songs people were looking forward to. At the time the results included “The Showman (Little More Better),” “American Soul” and “Landlady” at the top of the list of songs you didn’t want to hear in concert. “Landlady” had not made the top three in songs that people identified as least favourite, but it did show up here. (Although it wasn’t far behind coming in at number four on that question – see above.)

With the tour over, we couldn’t ask the same question. But we did take a look at what was played and what people didn’t like about the show.

The first question was “What song did you enjoy least in concert?” We asked people to vote whether they saw the songs in concert, or if they just listened at home. There was also an option to list that you had not yet heard any live shows. The song most identified as the song enjoyed least in concert was “You’re the Best Thing About Me” with 20% of respondents choosing that song. You may have identified “American Soul” as your least favourite song, but it was “You’re the Best Thing About Me” that you enjoyed least at the show. “American Soul,” not a favourite in either poll, not surprisingly comes in second of this question. And “Love is All We Have Left” which was more pre-recorded than it was live, was identified third in the poll.

Songs identified least among least favourites? “Red Flag Day,” “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” and “The Blackout,” which indeed did all seem to be favorites at the shows I attended among the crowd.

Although it was your least favourite song live, “You’re The Best Thing About Me” doesn’t show up until fourth in this question, asking which song do you not want to hear on future tours. Maybe we’re holding out hope that they’ll do it full band or even break out a more upbeat remixed version on later tours to redeem this one? No surprises here, “American Soul” is the song most chosen that people would pick if they had to choose a song to not hear live in the future. Close behind was “The Showman (Little More Better)” which was never played on this tour. That one surprises me a bit, as usually there’s some love for songs that have not yet been played (cough cough “Acrobat”) but it seems that you are content not to hear this one, and also not to hear “Book of Your Heart,” which also was not performed on this tour.

Three to go. We thought we’d save some of the positive results for the end and look at the answers about favourite tracks in a live setting. The first chart above is from last January’s results, before the tour, and before rehearsals. We had asked what song people were looking forward to seeing live. The answers? “The Blackout,” “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” and “Red Flag Day” combined got 50% of the vote a year ago. Two of these were played every night on tour, and were crowd pleasers, witnessed by the energy during “The Blackout” and the crowd sing along for “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way.” “Red Flag Day” was played a small number of times on each leg, before being abandoned completely part way through the second leg in Europe.

Asked after the tour ended what song you enjoyed the most from the new album in a live setting, the overwhelming answer was “The Blackout” at 28.4%. Clearly people enjoyed that song on the tour. “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” comes in at second with 18.7% of the votes. Surprising perhaps, the third favourite song? “The Little Things That Give You Away” got 11.7% of the vote here, based on the performances of that song on The Joshua Tree 2017 tour. “Red Flag Day” was the third song that was played on the more recent tour. Perhaps had it been played more often it would have made it to the top three overall.

Finally, asked after the tour ended, what song you would want U2 to play on their next tour, you identified “The Little Things That Give You Away” as your number one choice with 23.2% of the votes. The song is clearly a favourite among fans, and they would like to hear more. Fans also chose “Love is Bigger Than Anything in its Way” and “Red Flag Day” which were played on the current tour to continue on to what the band does next. If the current rumours turn out to be true, and the band is considering a 2019 tour of Australia, Asia and Africa, perhaps they’ll include “The Little Things That Give You Away”.

We’ll have the second part of your answers about the album, and singles in the next couple of weeks. But we would like to take the opportunity to thank everyone who participated in our first and second round of questions.

Related Articles:

• 2018-01-28: Songs of Experience : Your Answers (The Album) Part One
• 2018-01-28: Songs of Experience : Your Answers (The Songs) Part Two