U2

U2 return with their hotly anticipated new studio album Songs of Experience. The Island Records priority release completes a stellar year for the Dublin band, following their return to stadiums with the critically acclaimed, sold out The Joshua Tree Tour 2017.

Recorded in Dublin, New York and Los Angeles, Songs of Experience was completed earlier this year with its subject matter influenced by Brendan Kennelly's* advice to Bono, to "…write as if you're dead". The result is a collection of songs in the form of intimate letters to places and people close to the singer's heart: family, friends, fans and indeed himself.

Songs Of Experience is the companion release to 2014's Songs Of Innocence, the two titles drawing inspiration from a collection of poems, Songs of Innocence and Experience, by the 18th century English mystic and poet William Blake.

The deluxe box-set includes the album on 180-gram translucent cyan-blue vinyl, a 12-page newspaper, CD, poster and "rigid box." The vinyl is also housed in a gatefold jacket, with "two printed inner sleeves and a six panel oversized booklet."