Today U2 have announced their new album, Songs of Experience, to be released on 1 December 2017. The band will tour in 2018 to support the album, with the Experience + Innocence Tour a successor to 2015's Innocence + Experience Tour.

The album: Songs of Experience

The album comes in four formats. The standard CD and vinyl versions contain 13 tracks, the most on any U2 studio album if you exclude studio/live hybrid Rattle and Hum. The deluxe versions come with 16–17 tracks, though only one of those 3–4 bonus tracks is a previously unreleased new song. Full details are available via the U2.com link above, including how to pre-order.

Two new songs are available today: The Blackout and Get Out of Your Own Away. You get these as an instant download when you buy the album, and they are also streaming on services such as Spotify.

The tour: Experience + Innocence 2018

The album announcement confirms North American tour dates for May and June 2018. It also states that there will be a yet-to-be-announced European leg, which will go on sale in early 2018.

The North American itinerary is:

• 2018-05-02: Tulsa, Oklahoma - BOK Center
• 2018-05-04: St Louis, Missouri - Scottrade Center
• 2018-05-07: San Jose, California - SAP Center
• 2018-05-11: Las Vegas, Nevada - T-Mobile Arena
• 2018-05-15: Los Angeles, California - Forum
• 2018-05-22: Chicago, Illinois - United Center
• 2018-05-26: Nashville, Tennessee - Bridgestone Arena
• 2018-05-28: Atlanta, Georgia - Infinite Energy Arena
• 2018-06-05: Montréal, Québec - Bell Centre
• 2018-06-09: Uniondale, New York - NYCB Live, Home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
• 2018-06-13: Philadelphia, Pennsylvania - Wells Fargo Center
• 2018-06-17: Washington, DC - Capital One Arena
• 2018-06-21: Boston, Massachusetts - TD Garden
• 2018-06-25: New York, New York - Madison Square Garden
• 2018-06-29: Newark, New Jersey - Prudential Center

Concert tickets

Tickets go on sale to the general public on 20 November 2017, with a presale for U2.com subscribers commencing six days earlier on 14 November. There will be two presale groups, named Experience and Innocence; log in to your U2.com account to find out which you are in. Direct ticketing links for each show will be on U2.com's tour page.

All tickets for the North American tour will be sold through Ticketmaster's Verified Fan system. Details on how this works are here. And yes, it applies to the presale as well as the general sale. If you are not verified you cannot buy tickets.

When you buy concert tickets, every ticket entitles you to one copy of the new album. The code you will receive will, on 1 December, be redeemable for either a digital or CD copy.

Fun facts about the tour

In general the tour hits North American markets that were not visited on this year's Joshua Tree 2017 Tour, as well as repeat visits to the largest markets.

The opening night of the tour is U2's first concert in Tulsa since 9 March 1983. It will be U2's third show ever in Tulsa; apart from this gig and the 1983 one, the band played there on 4 April 1981. It will be just U2's seventh show anywhere in Oklahoma, and only the second since the War Tour—on 18 October 2009, the band played in Norman.

The final show of the leg will be U2's first ever concert in Newark, New Jersey. This is, perhaps, not as momentous as it first seems: they have played frequently in nearby East Rutherford, as well as two shows in Passaic.

In between these dates are some others with interesting facts. St Louis gets a gig, which will no doubt be a special one to make up for this year's cancellation. Atlanta and Las Vegas, two notable markets that were both skipped in 2015 and 2017, also get U2 this time around.

The concert in Nashville will be just U2's third in the city. They previously visited on 2 July 2011 and all the way back on 2 December 1981.

U2 will perform in Uniondale for the first time since 9 March 1992. From 1985 to 1992 U2 had been frequent visitors to the Nassau Coliseum, performing there four times. Next year's show will be U2's first concert anywhere in New York state outside of New York City or Buffalo since they played Albany on 2 June 2001. But, of course, Uniondale is part of the sprawling greater New York area, as is Newark, meaning that in addition to the Madison Square Garden date, U2 are playing two other venues in the larger metropolis.

The only date in Canada, rather than the US, is that in Montréal. The band are not returning to the Canadian markets they visited this year, Toronto and Vancouver.

There is obvious space in the itinerary for extra shows in some markets. We will keep you updated when additional shows are added. As noted above, European dates will be announced soon. Nothing is confirmed for any other parts of the world, but we also have rumours of Australia, New Zealand, and Asia in November 2018.