U2 has confirmed its new album, "Songs of Experience," will arrive next month. The follow-up to 2014's "Songs of Innocence" will arrive Dec. 1, and an arena tour will follow in the spring, including a stop at the Forum in Inglewood on May 15.
Originally set for release shortly after "Songs of Innocence," U2 delayed the project amid divisive politics on both sides of the Atlantic with Brexit and the election of President Trump inspiring darker lyrics.
"The elections were a shock to the system personally and a shock to the system politically, not just in America but in Europe," Bono told the New York Times in September. "This is my lyrical response to both of those shocks. I leaned more on the personal than the political, but the political is there to put the personal songs in the context of time, of history."
U2 collaborated with Ryan Tedder, Jacknife Lee, Steve Lillywhite and Kendrick Lamar for the record. The lyrical approach of the album was greatly inspired by Irish poet, novelist and Trinity College, Dublin Professor Emeritus Brendan Kennelly's advice to Bono to "write as if you're dead." The result is a collection of songs that take the form of intimate letters to places and people close to the singer's heart_family, friends, fans and himself.
Just as "Songs of Experience" serves as a companion to "Songs of Innocence," the band's new Experience + Innocence Tour will act as a sequel to 2015's Innocence + Experience Tour.
Fifteen dates have been announced so far, and tickets go on sale Nov. 20 through Ticketmaster.
