U2 shares recording plans, Innocence + Experience Tour returning

As U2 preps its Joshua Tree Tour 2017 for this summer, the band has unveiled its plans pre and post tour. In the April edition of MOJO Magazine, on newsstands this week in the U.K., all four members sat down for a lengthy interview that gives more incite to a few upcoming projects, including an update on Songs of Experience.

“U2 have been re-rehearsing the tracks for Songs Of Experience, with a view to cutting some of them again live at Electric Lady Studios in New York in March with Steve Lillywhite,” fan site @U2 reports.

While Bono has stated political reasons for delaying the project, bassist Adam Clayton says there are musical reasons, as well.

“There wasn’t clarity to some of the mixes [on Songs of Innocence] and we needed to be a little bit more inventive sonically,” he claims. “I mean, that record, when we performed it live, the songs became very, very masculine and very tough and we didn’t really capture that on the record. So again one of the reasons why we’re trying to slow this down a bit is we really want to get the mixes right. We don’t want a soup. We want a consommé.”

Clayton says the album is about 85% finished, but need to trim the 15-16 songs down to 12. Songs that the article references could make the cut include “The Best Thing About You Is Me,” “The Little Things That Give You Away,” “Red Flag Day,” “Summer Of Love” and “The Showman” that Bono says is currently his favorite.

“One of the reasons why we’re trying to slow this down a bit is we really want to get the mixes right.”

The magazine states the album is due in the “latter half of 2017” and that the group will resume their highly successful Innocence + Experience Tour in spring 2018.

The article also mentions that U2 will reissue a new mix of “Red Hill Mining Town” from their ground-breaking The Joshua Tree album. The mix will be helmed by producer Steve Lillywhite and feature a newly recorded vocal by Bono.

“We’ve also brought out the colliery brass band which was recorded at the time,” the singer states. “You can’t hear it in the original mix.”

No release date or other details were given for the track.

U.S. fans can purchase the issue online for $14.75 which includes shipping.

Buddy Iahn
Buddy Iahn

Buddy Iahn founded The Music Universe when he decided to juxtapose his love of web design and music. As a lifelong drummer, he decided to take a hiatus from playing music to report it. The website began as a fun project in 2013 to one of the top independent news sites. Email: info@themusicuniverse.com