Since before I can even remember, I’ve loved a single band above the rest. Be it the constant stream of live concert videos playing on my families television, or the fact it was said band’s concert that left me bitten by the concert bug, they’ve always blown me out of the water with the things they do. And this week, U2 held up to their extraordinary standard of work.
September 9th, 2014, music history was made with the joint effort of Apple and alternative rock legends, U2. A seemingly random performance at Apple Live, just following the announcement of the iPhone 6, led to yet another announcement that left us fans shocked and thrilled. Similar to the surprise drop of Beyonce’s album in December 2013, Songs of Innocence, the Dublin reigning band’s first LP to be released in the past five years, was made available to 500 million iTunes users across the globe, at the humble price of $0.00. (And no, you don’t need to go online and fill out some ridiculous survey to receive this download, as its already in your iTunes library). Thanks to the minds of Apple and the magic of iCloud, all you have to do to receive SOI is go to the albums portion of your iTunes library, click the album and its all yours.
After taking a listen through the track list, (and enjoying every moment of it, might I add) I was left pleasantly surprised. Not to say I was expecting a bad album, however, I was thrilled to find the earlier rock influences of the band making themselves present once again. Songs such as California (There Is No End To Love), and Iris (Hold Me Close) appropriately display the growth U2 has made, twelve studio albums since their first, titled Boy. Growing up with the four Irish rock stars as a constant influence on my life, I’m thrilled to now be 18, and still receiving new music. With no end for U2 in sight (Although No Line On The Horizon left numerous fans weary of a potential end) this incredible record has taken the music world by storm, and it’s yet to even be a week.
Written by: Abigail Burns