U2 – Songs of Innocence (sealed 2 vinyl UK import )

Songs of Innocence is the thirteenth studio album by Irish rock band U2, released on 9 September 2014. It was produced by Danger Mouse, with additional production from Paul Epworth, Ryan Tedder, Declan Gaffney, and Flood. The album was announced at an Apple Inc. product launch event and released the same day to all iTunes Store customers at no cost. It was exclusive to iTunes, iTunes Radio, and Beats Music until 13 October 2014, when it received a physical release on Island and Interscope Records. The digital release made the record available to more than 500 million iTunes customers, for what Apple CEO Tim Cook marketed as “the largest album release of all time”. According to music journalist Jon Pareles, Songs of Innocence features U2 strictly playing rock music, particularly arena rock, whose elaborate production “puts a higher gloss, and sometimes a heavier fuzz tone, on the band’s instantly recognizable sound”. Thematically, Songs of Innocence revisits the group members’ youth in Ireland in the 1970s, touching on childhood memories, loves, and losses, while paying tribute to their musical inspirations. Bono described it as “the most personal album we’ve written”. In an interview with Gus Wenner of Rolling Stone, he said, “Let’s try to figure out why we wanted to be in a band, the relationships around the band, our friendships, our lovers, our family. The whole album is first journeys—first journeys geographically, spiritually, sexually.”  He said that he felt challenged to write about more personal themes and why he wanted to be in a rock band after producer Jimmy Iovine told him, “The person you need to be to make the album that you wanna make is a long way from where you live.” Rolling Stone deemed Songs of Innocence as having the feeling of a concept album, a notion that Bono rejected, although he did opine it was lyrically cohesive in a way the group’s other records were not. For the album, the group revisited adolescent musical influences, such as punk rock band Ramones and electronic music group Kraftwerk, for inspiration. –  Mint