This week we head back to the 9th of September 2014 and discuss one of the most heinous crimes in the history of music; stadium rock megastars U2’s 13th studio album Songs of Innocence.

After 2009’s No Line On The Horizon album “only” went platinum once in both the US and the UK, U2 were keen to make themselves relevant to a broader spectrum of music fans once again. After a protracted 5 year recording process, Songs of Innocence was not just released, it was shoved into the iTunes library of everyone on Earth as a little gift, due to the bands ongoing relationship with tech giants Apple. Nice idea in theory, but the response was one of outrage from the non-U2 loving contingent of the planet. Which, despite them being proper fucking massive, is still a hell of a lot of people. Years later the only thing that anyone can actually remember about the album and the band around this time is the fact that we all own it, which in these days of streaming culture is hardly the worst thing in the world is it? One thing that tends to be overlooked about Songs of Innocence is the fact that, yes, it is actually an album and therefore does actually have music on it, so… we should probably talk about that actual music right? We give it our best shot, but, damn, it’s not easy with music this bland. 

Uproxx article "Five Years Later, It’s Time To Admit We Overreacted About Apple Putting A Free U2 Album On Our Phones"

Consequence of Sound article "Why Radiohead Is the only Rock Band to Perfect the Surprise Album Release

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