Close X
Friday, January 10, 2025
ADVT 
Hollywood

U2 offers new album free on iTunes

Darpan News Desk IANS, 10 Sep, 2014 08:08 AM
    Irish rock music group U2 surprised those present at the Apple event in Cupertino, California, with the announcement that their new album "Songs of Innocence" is now available for free download on iTunes.
     
    Bono, the leader and vocalist of U2, announced the new album after performing the song "The Miracle” (of Joey Ramone) on stage at the Flint Centre in Cupertino where Apple Tuesday launched its first smart watch (iWatch) and the two latest iPhone models.
     
    U2's first album in five years includes 11 songs and is available in 119 countries through iTunes, iTunes Radio and Beats Music, a company that Apple acquired in August.
     
    "The music is very involved in Apple's DNA, it is at the centre of all our products," said Apple CEO Tim Cook during his joint appearance with Bono.
     
    "I do believe you have over half a billion subscribers to iTunes, so - could you get this to them," Bono asked Cook, who replied that there was no problem and it could be downloaded for "free".
     
    Five seconds later the album made its debut.
     
    "It's the biggest launch of a record of all times," Cook claimed.
     
    The album will be available exclusively from Apple platforms until Oct 13.
     
    "The album has roots of the first and the strongest influences of the band including the Ramones, Bob Dylan and The Clash," reads a text that accompanies the new album on iTunes.
     
    It also explains how it pays tribute to U2's formative years in Dublin and its transformative pilgrimage to California.
     
    In an interview with Rolling Stone magazine that was published Tuesday on its website, Bono said that the band wanted to make a "very personal" album.
     
    "The album is about first travels, first geographic, spiritual, sexual travels. And that is difficult" to address, said Bono, and added that despite the challenges they decided to explore this space.
     
    The band worked on this album for two years with the producer Danger Mouse.
     
    "We wanted to have the discipline of the Beatles or the Stones in the Seventies, when the songs were real. There is no way of hiding in them, the thoughts are clear, the melodies are clear," Bono said.
     
    The album includes a very personal song about Bono's mother, Iris Hewson, who died when he was 14 years old.
     
    "Forty years ago, my mother fell dead at her own father's funeral, and I never spoke with her again," Bono told the Rolling Stone.
     
    "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'," explained Bono.
     
    According to Rolling Stone, the happiest song on the album is "California (There is no end to love)" in which the band recalls its first trip to the US state.
     
    At the other extreme is "Raised by Wolves" that tells the story of a 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 evening at 5.30 (p.m.)," said Bono.
     
    The album also includes a song with the name of the street where Bono was born, Cedarwood Road. 

    MORE Hollywood ARTICLES

    Would avoid strictness: Zoe Saldana on parenting

    Would avoid strictness: Zoe Saldana on parenting
    "Avatar" fame actress Zoe Saldana says she will raise her children in a way similar to her own upbringing, but won't be as strict as her mother....

    Would avoid strictness: Zoe Saldana on parenting

    Ed Sheeran won't move base to the US

    Ed Sheeran won't move base to the US
    Singer Ed Sheeran has revealed that he has no plans to settle in the US permanently as he feels like a "fish out of water in America"....

    Ed Sheeran won't move base to the US

    Justin Bieber jealous of Cara Delevingne

    Justin Bieber jealous of Cara Delevingne
    Troubled pop star Justin Bieber is jealous over ex-girlfriend Selena Gomez's growing closeness with model Cara Delevingne....

    Justin Bieber jealous of Cara Delevingne

    Shakira pregnant again?

    Shakira pregnant again?
    Shakira and her soccer player partner Gerard Piqué already have 19-month-old son Milan together and are said to be overjoyed about the prospect of...

    Shakira pregnant again?

    Danielle O'Hara's husband accused of cheating

    Danielle O'Hara's husband accused of cheating
    Model Danielle O'Hara's footballer husband Jamie accused of cheating on her with a nightclub blonde...

    Danielle O'Hara's husband accused of cheating

    Finally, Kerry Washington on Twitter

    Finally, Kerry Washington on Twitter
    Kerry Washington has joined Twitter, but says that initially she was apprehensive about being on the social networking site...

    Finally, Kerry Washington on Twitter