U2's new album released for FREE on iTunes, the largest release ever!

[PopBitch 1,218]

Why didn't anyone tell me?  Songs of Innocence.  It was announced today, there today for free.
Just giving it away.
 

U2 surprised the world today by releasing Songs of Innocence, their first album in five years, as a gift from Apple, available for free immediately to anyone with iTunes. The band made the announcement with Apple CEO Tim Cook at a Cupertino press conference for the new iPhone 6, capping the event with a performance of the album's first single, "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)." After a standing ovation, Cook said, "Wasn't that the most incredible single you ever heard? We would love a whole album of that."

"The question is now, how do we get it to as many people as possible, because that's what our band is all about," Bono said. "I do believe you have over half a billion subscribers to iTunes, so  could you get this to them?" "If we gave it away for free," Cook replied. And five seconds later, the album was  unleashed in the largest album release of all time.
 
"We wanted to make a very personal album," Bono told Rolling Stone's Gus Wenner the day before the press conference in an exclusive interview. "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, s-xually. And that's hard. But we went there."
 
The band worked on Innocence for two years with producer Danger Mouse (a.k.a. Brian Burton), then brought in additional help: Flood, their collaborator since 1987's The Joshua Tree, plus Adele producers Paul Epworth and Ryan Tedder. "I think having them around really helped," says Bono, "Some of the music out there now that people call pop, it's not pop – it's just truly great. And we wanted to have the discipline of the Beatles or the Stones in the Sixties, when you had real songs. There's nowhere to hide in them: clear thoughts, clear melodies."
 
Read more here:

 
To begin, the band went back to its roots: Bono says the group listened to the music they loved in the Seventies, from punk rock to Bowie, glam rock, early electronica and Joy Division. The album kicks off with "The Miracle (of Joey Ramone)," a loping pop song laced with distinctly punk-ish power chords. "I found my voice through Joey Ramone," says Bono, "because I wasn't the obvious punk-rock singer, or even rock singer. I sang like a girl  which I'm into now, but when I was 17 or 18, I wasn't sure. And I heard Joey Ramone, who sang like a girl, and that was my way in."
 
The driving, reggae-tinged "This Is Where You Can Reach Me Now," is a tribute to the Clash, with slinky guitars from the Edge that nod to Sandinista!. "After we saw the Clash, it was a sort of blueprint for U2," says Bono. "We knew we couldn't possibly hope to be as cool, and that's proven to be true, but we did think we could get behind a sort of social justice agenda."

There is also an intensely personal song about Bono's mother, Iris Hewson, who died when he was 14. "Forty years ago, my mother fell at her own father's funeral, and I never spoke with her again," he says. "Rage always follows grief, and I had a lot of it, and I still have, but I channeled it into music and I still do. I have very few memories of my mother, and I put a few of them in a song called 'Iris.'"
 
The most joyous track on Songs of Innocence is "California (There Is No End to Love)," which unexpectedly nods to the Beach Boys in its intro. "It's like the sun itself," says Bono. "It's about our first trip to Los Angeles." The darkest track, meanwhile, is "Raised by Wolves," which tells of a deadly car bombing in Dublin. "It was a real incident that happened in our country where three car bombs were set to go off at the same time in Dublin on a Friday night, 5:30," says Bono, "On any other Friday I would have been at this record shop, just down the corner, but I cycled to school that day."
 
At times Songs of Innocence feels almost like a concept album about Bono's early years – there's even a track named after the street where the singer grew up, "Cedarwood Road." "It has a lyrical cohesion that I think is unique amongst U2 albums," says Bono, "I don't want it to be a concept album, but the songs come from a place. Edge laughed and said this is our Quadrophenia. We could be so lucky."
 
Read more: http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/u2-surprise-album-songs-of-innocence-apple-itunes-free-20140909#ixzz3Crqu5KO7
Follow us: @rollingstone on Twitter | RollingStone on Facebook

 

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/u2-surprise-album-songs-of-innocence-apple-itunes-free-20140909

[TroubleClef 0]

yea, I saw this. I DLed it but haven't really listened to it yet!

[Essence 148]

500 million people own it as of today

 

Biggest album release in the history of music (technically)

[LordDisick 1]

i saw this on my purchased list earlier

[Azor Ahai 18,861]

I don't have an Apple Id because I dont have a credit card so

[Yepiz92 127]

I didn't buy it, I was scrolling through my music and it was already there.

[Henry 2,374]

I saw this in my music library awhile after the apple Keynote....Is it any good? 

[angelduuh 211]

I didn't buy it, I was scrolling through my music and it was already there.

[Benji 20,113]

It freaked me out when I seen it in my library randomly

 

Is it any good?

 

 

 

 

 

Oh and *cough* Music not the bling *cough*

[Monster2015 1,109]

Ahh so they were the suprise artist iTunes was talking about! Nice!

[PopBitch 1,218]

I saw this in my music library awhile after the apple Keynote....Is it any good? 

It's not fearless and innovative like all of their early music, but it's GOOOOD.  It's kind of reflective and even airy and happy in places.  It seems to have better energy and flow than their last album.  I am not to the end yet, so have to get through it all.   I'm a huge, huge U2 fan, so it's hard for me to be objective until a few listens because I am just so happy right now and in total shock.

[Coop 14,968]

It's not fearless and innovative like all of their early music, but it's GOOOOD.  It's kind of reflective and even airy and happy in places.  I am not to the end yet, so have to get through it all.   I'm a huge, huge U2 fan, so it's hard for me to be objective until a few listens because I am just so happy right now and in total shock.

Thanks for letting us know

Gonna download it now :)

[TimisaMonster 31,073]

Everyone pulling a Beyonce....I knew it would become the new way of releasing albums and getting rush immediate sales for the first week

[Jonna Lee 384]

HOLY FUXCK YES IOOMSFJBHSHJSADGVJGFVJDFADGASVF FREEE ALBUM FINALLY START THAT REVOLUTION U2

[PopBitch 1,218]

Everyone pulling a Beyonce....I knew it would become the new way of releasing albums and getting rush immediate sales for the first week

This is free.  They are giving it away for over a month.