U2 has amassed a catalogue of classic music over the course of the Irish band’s enduring career — and on March 17th, Bono and the guys will revisit many of those songs for a special new album.
“Songs of Surrender” will feature “a collection of 40 seminal U2 songs from across the band’s catalogue, re-recorded and reimagined for 2023 in sessions spanning the last two years,” per a news release.
The latest preview of this collection touches on one of the band’s most beloved songs and biggest hits: “With Or Without You.” Here’s the new version, :
Here’s another preview in the form of a radically different take on “Pride (In the Name of Love),” which in its its original version highlighted 1984’s “The Unforgettable Fire”:
U2 used the platform of television’s most watched program, the Super Bowl, to announce a Las Vegas residency. “U2: UV Achtung Baby Live at the Sphere” will take place in Fall 2023 at what is being described as “the world’s most exciting all-new-state-of-the-art venue,” MSG Sphere at the Venetian. The run, announced just before Super Bowl LVII’s thrilling ending, will mark the band’s first live outing in four years. The venue seats 17,500; watch an extensive clip below.
When U2 performs in Vegas, it’ll be without drummer Larry Mullen Jr. The announcement comes with confirmation that he will take time out to undergo and recuperate from surgery this year. The band will be joined for these shows by drummer Bram van den Berg joining Bono, The Edge and Adam Clayton onstage at MSG Sphere. In a joint statement, they said, “It’s going to take all we’ve got to approach the Sphere without our bandmate in the drum seat, but Larry has joined us in welcoming Bram van den Berg who is a force in his own right.” Further details on Mullen’s health circumstances were not disclosed.
The Edge added, “The beauty of the Sphere is not only the ground-breaking technology that will make it so unique, with the world’s most advanced audio system, integrated into a structure which is designed with sound quality as a priority; it’s also the possibilities around immersive experience in real and imaginary landscapes. In short, it’s a canvas of an unparalleled scale and image resolution and a once-in-a-generation opportunity. We all thought about it and decided we’d be mad not to accept the invitation.”
The album title is connected to Bono’s recent memoir, Surrender, and its corresponding book tour Stories of Surrender.
The new versions of “Pride (In The Name Of Love),” “With Or Without You,” and “One,” the first tracks from the brand new set of recordings have been released in advance. From the Jan. 11 album announcement: “Songs Of Surrender”, curated and produced by The Edge, sees U2 revisit some of the most celebrated songs of their 40+ year career, including “With Or Without You,” “One,” “Beautiful Day,” “Sunday Bloody Sunday” and “Invisible,” for a musical reimagining resulting in a completely new recording of each track, to include the arrangements and, in some cases, new lyrics.
Guitarist The Edge curated and produced Stories of Surrender, and issued a statement about the project:
“Music allows you to time travel, and we became curious to find out what it would be like to bring our early songs back with us to the present day and give them the benefit, or otherwise, of a 21st century reimagining.
What started out as an experiment quickly developed into a personal obsession as so many of our songs yielded to a new interpretation. Intimacy replaced post punk urgency. New tempos, new keys, and in some cases new chords and new lyrics arrived. A great song, it turns out is kind of indestructible.
The process of selecting which songs to revisit started with a series of demos. I looked at how a song would hang together if all but the bare essential elements were taken away. The other main aim was to find ways to bring intimacy into the songs, as most of them were originally written with live concert performance in mind.
Reviewing these sketch recordings with producer Bob Ezrin, it was very easy to see the ones that worked straight off the bat and those that needed more work. We all got into the sensibility of less is more.”
The collection’s 40 songs are arranged across four separate albums, distributed across each of the band member’s names.
The Fat Angel Sings 