U2 is trying something new – and something old – with its new album Songs of Surrender. The album will reimagine 40 songs spanning U2’s career.
The band offered more details in a handwritten note mailed out to fans: “The fact is that most of our work was written and recorded when we were a bunch of very young men. Those songs mean something quite different to us now”.
“Music allows you to time travel and so we started to imagine what it would be like to bring these songs back with us to the present day and give them the benefit or otherwise, of a 21st-century re-imagining.” The letter continues, “What started as an experiment quickly became a personal obsession as so many early U2 songs yielded to a new interpretation.”
A video trailer for the album was uploaded to YouTube on Tuesday, with a preview of the re-imagined version of “Beautiful Day”.
Songs of Surrender will be released on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th.