By Laura BennettTuesday 16 Sep 2014CultureReading Time: 2 minutes
Did you download it from the Cloud?
Check your phone.
See it there?…U2’s ‘Songs of Innocence’ was made freely available to all iTunes accounts last week, boosting sales of their back catalogue and seeing an unprecedented number of their previous albums make the top 200.
You’d think we’d like the freebie, but for every fan that’s glad of the early Christmas present, there’s another who’s infuriated by the unwelcome ‘invasion’.
In the past few days the top search results around the album are how to get it off your phone/PC/device, with Apple announcing a new one-button feature to remove it.
It’s perhaps a harsh response for a project that’s as high calibre as any of U2’s other releases, (albeit ‘different’), and a rare gift from a band that have no need to give anything away.
Contained with the tracks of ‘Songs of Innocence’ are stories of childhood, encountering Christ, and wrestling with the application of your faith in a world seeming so far from it.
U2’s intention with ‘Songs of Innocence’ seems to be a demonstration of grace and unveiled humanity – lofty yes, but curiously inspiring.
Of course there’s a melee of marketers behind this ‘surprise’, and with rumours of a follow up ‘Songs of Experience’, they do have a plan, but in the midst of that is the music.
So, put your feet up, click the Cloud, and enjoy the ride.
Listen out for ‘The Miracle’ playing on Hope 103.2 now.