Songs of Experience track list, formats, etc.

[God, Part II]

I happened to see the covers of SOI of SOE side by side today and was struck by the literal contrast between the two covers.  On SOI, the subject (Larry and son) are light against a dark background.  On SOE, the subject (kids) are in dark clothing against a light background.  So the black and white aspects of the two covers are inversions of each other.  I wonder if that was done intentionally.

I was mildly irked that the cover of my Japanese edition of SOI has a high gloss finish, whereas my Japanese version of SOE is matte, but I suppose that helps supports (intended by the band or not) your theory.

[miryclay]

Here's my roll call of SOE ownership:

Standard US CD x 2
Deluxe USA Digipack
Super Deluxe Vinyl

Yours? Wave your freak flags mofos:

[Aaron]

Here's my roll call of SOE ownership:

Standard US CD x 2
Deluxe USA Digipack
Super Deluxe Vinyl

Yours? Wave your freak flags mofos:

Currently here marked with a *, others listed en route:
Box set: Czech Republic*
Standalone Vinyl: Czech Republic*
Regular CD: Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Canada*, France / Austria (unique sticker)*, German / Austria (with Tee)*, New Zealand*, Poland, Russia, Taiwan, USAx12 (two different pressings)
Deluxe CD: Argentina, Australia*, Brazil, Canada*, France / Austria* x2, Japan*, Mexico*, Poland / Austria, South Korea*, Taiwan, USA

[miryclay]

Having obtained my super deluxe over the holidays if any of you are doubting just go for it because it is a thing of beauty. A really enjoyable production.

[dagobah]

Dagobah I went with the same shipping option as well from CD Japan. I got an email earlier this week saying it had shipped. I'll be sure to post here when it arrives. Hope yours get here soon!

I guess you have not yet received it.  I placed my Japan order on November 30, the email says the order shipped on December 4 and I'm still waiting.

[morgan1098]

Dagobah I went with the same shipping option as well from CD Japan. I got an email earlier this week saying it had shipped. I'll be sure to post here when it arrives. Hope yours get here soon!

I guess you have not yet received it.  I placed my Japan order on November 30, the email says the order shipped on December 4 and I'm still waiting.

Oh wow! Sorry I forgot to report here. Yes, I received my CDJapan copy on December 15 (I preordered it very early, though). I would give it a few more days and then maybe contact CDJapan again. The wait can apparently be up to six weeks!

[Nikabrik]

Having obtained my super deluxe over the holidays if any of you are doubting just go for it because it is a thing of beauty. A really enjoyable production.

Could not disagree with this more. I think it's a huge wasted opportunity, with no new images or artwork. It's the same 2 or 3 images you've seen, over and over. And the newspaper is underwhelming and laid out like a first-year design school project. We've come a long way from the great U2 design of the past.

[jw]

Having obtained my super deluxe over the holidays if any of you are doubting just go for it because it is a thing of beauty. A really enjoyable production.

Could not disagree with this more. I think it's a huge wasted opportunity, with no new images or artwork. It's the same 2 or 3 images you've seen, over and over. And the newspaper is underwhelming and laid out like a first-year design school project. We've come a long way from the great U2 design of the past.

I also agree the artwork is underwhelming.  What is there is very nice.  But there's so little of it.  U2's album artwork has been pretty minimalist since 2000.  I miss the abundance of images from the albums of the 90s.  I spent a lot of time examining the pages of AB, Zooropa and Pop.   The artwork for the remastered 80s albums were also very nice.  Ha - if they ever issued  anniversary editions of the albums after 2000, I wonder what they'd look like.

[Nikabrik]

Songs of Innocence design elements:
Images - Cover photo, Band shot (leather jackets), three grainy images
Illustrations/graphics - Bootleg cover (the iTunes pre-release), Larry's tattoo.
Type - One typeface, one weight, one color, one size, on a solid background

Songs of Experience design elements:
Images - Cover photo, Band in warehouse (+ same image without band), Sian in helmet photo
Illustrations/graphics - Cover silhouette, blue radial gradient, Blackout wordmark.
Type: One font, one weight, one size, on a solid background
(Type in the newspaper is a mish mash of a ton of things that have no meaningful harmony, including setting the bulk of it in Times New Roman, possibly the most bland typeface in the western hemisphere)

Compare that to the wealth of images, colors, typefaces, icons, single covers, cover variants, on every album prior to these two. And I don't think anyone should mistake it for minimalism, because there's hardly anything intentional about any of it.

The REALLY confusing thing is how different the I+E tour materials are! The tour program is FULL of photos, cool type layouts, ink splashes, supporting typefaces, embossing, diecuts, etc. It's like the band has intentionally asked the designers to save all their creativity for the tour book, and to make the actual album artwork as non-descript as possible. It's baffling.

[dagobah]

As several forum members know, the Japan release of Songs Of Experience included a small little cardboard 2018 calendar.  For each month, the S for Sunday is colored red and the numbers below it for those Sundays are colored red.  And then . . . . . there are additional random days that are colored red.  Some appear to represent holidays such as Jan 1 (New Years Day).  But December 24 (Christmas Eve) is red rather than December 25 (Christmas Day).  Does anyone know what is the significance of the days colored red?
So . . . . in addition to every Sunday, these are colored red:
January  1   8
February  12
March  21
April  30
May  3   4   5
July  16
August  11
September  17   24
October  8
November  3   23
December  24

[God, Part II]

As several forum members know, the Japan release of Songs Of Experience included a small little cardboard 2018 calendar.  For each month, the S for Sunday is colored red and the numbers below it for those Sundays are colored red.  And then . . . . . there are additional random days that are colored red.  Some appear to represent holidays such as Jan 1 (New Years Day).  But December 24 (Christmas Eve) is red rather than December 25 (Christmas Day).  Does anyone know what is the significance of the days colored red?
So . . . . in addition to every Sunday, these are colored red:
January  1   8
February  12
March  21
April  30
May  3   4   5
July  16
August  11
September  17   24
October  8
November  3   23
December  24

Nothing more exciting than just indicators of Japanese holidays: https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/japan/

[dagobah]

Nothing more exciting than just indicators of Japanese holidays: https://www.timeanddate.com/holidays/japan/

Thank you very much.

[George]

I'm still waiting on my preorder from CD Japan to arrive.  My hope is that by posting this, it will make it appear today.

[santiago2u]

:::. I noticed that U2.com store had the 2LP for $39.00 USD, but at the U2 Store from Universal (Digital Store UK based) they had it for $29.00 USD so I went for it, but after 58 days, it just e.mailed them, to ask for a refund (minus s&h they said).
No Tracking number for International Shipping, they say too.

[dagobah]

I prefer acoustic versions of Get Out Of Your Own Way versus the album version.  Where did the audio in this YouTube video come from?  I can hear an audience at certain times during the recording.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=QOeJCwwiAXQ