Songs of Experience Release Date

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2017-09-08)

One question we still have after the promotional push of “You’re The Best Thing About Me” is when is the album, Songs of Experience, being released? We were told the date would be December 1, 2017, way back in June and we shared that with you on June 4 with a small teaser image.

The day of the single release, an interview in the New York Times revealed that the date was currently set for December 1, 2017. But U2.Com is still not announcing a final date, and the radio interviews didn’t exactly clear things up. So what did the band say during those interviews?

Many are asking the question because of the appearance on The Tonight Show where Jimmy Fallon asked, “And the album is, it’s coming out isn’t it?” The replies? Edge and Bono played it for a bit of humour:

Bono: “Ask him.” Edge: “Yep. It’s coming out.” Bono: “I’m always saying it’s coming out. And you think it is too? And Edge reels it back in.” Edge: “It’s coming out. It’s definitely coming out.” Bono: “Qwest, he wants to EQ it as it’s going into the shops!” Edge: “But it is definitely finished. It’s finished. It is. I swear it is.”

But the day before in a number of radio interviews they addressed the subject in a slightly more serious environment. KROQ started right out with the question for Bono, “So the new album Songs of Experience comes out on December 1? Correct?” and Bono without hesitation confirms “Yes indeed. Yes sir.” Bono also spoke to KBCO, where he was again asked, “Happy to announce the new U2 album Songs of Experience continuing the William Blake theme, out December 1 Bono?” and Bono replies, “Yes it is. We need something exciting to take us out of this mess we are in.” The interviewer on KBCO mentions the December 1 date again later in the interview, and Bono does not suggest any changes to that date.

But the Edge threw that up in the air a bit on WMMR, when asked “The new album which we think will be out December 1—but that’s not confirmed—called Songs of Experience, is it December 1 the release date?” And The Edge doesn’t confirm a date but rather says, “The exact release date is still a little bit up in the air, but you aren’t far off there.” He expanded on those comments in an interview with BBC 2:

We’ve finished the album, its going to be out this year, we’re very very excited about that. I think we went in with a couple of really clear ideas, one, we wanted the songs themselves to be really bulletproof, we wanted from the beginning to the end of the record that it would be wall to wall tunes and classic songs we would have in our set and playing live. I think we pulled that off. One of our biggest problems was actually deciding what songs we were going to showcase, what were going to be the singles, because every single song was a contender.

The Edge also spoke with The Edge, a Toronto radio station, “Actually it will be towards the end of the year that the album will be out. “You’re the Best Thing About Me” was the first official single that’s going to radio.”

Adam Clayton was also asked about the date during an interview with 94.9, in which he was asked, “So what are you most excited about with the new project, once it hits streets—I think Dec. 1—is that what i heard for a release date?” and Adam replies, “That’s what people keep telling me so I’m happy to go with that yeah. you know it’s a dark art, the science of releasing records these days.”

The New York Times suggests the date is December 1, 2017. Bono agrees with several interviewers that that will be the release date. The Edge confirms that the album is coming before the end of 2017, but is suggesting the exact date may still change, but it will be close to December 1. At this point its safe to say the album will be coming in December, and the band is in full swing on promotion.

And what does U2.Com say? “Songs of Experience will be available on CD, vinyl and digital download, with the release date and pre-order details to be announced soon.” So stand by. We’ll have a date soon. If they do intend to deliver a physical release in December the album needs to be delivered about six weeks prior to that, which means they have until mid-October to make any further tweaks they might want to make.

We are tracking all of the radio interviews as we find them here, should you want to listen to these for yourself.

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