U2’s 360 Tour, which ended in 2011, is the top grossing rock tour of all time. It featured a stage dominated by what was affectionately dubbed “The Claw.”

We interrupt these vacation memories for an important cultural announcement: U2 have released a new album, their first in five years.

It is already the most widely distributed album of all time, as it was made instantly available for free to the subscribers to Apple’s iTunes service, at least 500 million people.

“Free” to subscribers means that means Apple paid the band for exclusive rights to the album, for a month anyway, then it hits the stores. For the band it’s a good deal financially and a great deal in terms of exposure. Millions of people who wouldn’t ordinarily listen to a U2 record will check it out since they have already “purchased” it. I suspect many will become fans. With a tour coming in 2015 (that’s where the big money is in music these days) new fans should lead to increased ticket sales for the band, though they are already the top-grossing live act on the planet.

As their fans know, there are other U2 projects on the go. In announcing the release of this record lead vocalist and chief lyricist Bono Vox refers to an upcoming album that is almost completed, Songs of Experience. There’s also Songs of Ascent, which has been rumoured for years, the music from the Broadway musical Spiderman and another album the band has been working on with producer Rick Rubin. If U2 wants to release another record before Christmas using more traditional market methods I imagine they could do that.

U2 have come a long way since I first saw them perform at England’s Greenbelt Festival  in August 1981, four nervous young men who showed up and said “God told us to come, can we play?” They burst onto the stage, the audience roared and Bono said “we didn’t think you would know who we were.”

Songs of Innocence is a reflection on the past from a present-day perspective. This is the first U2 record since the band members turned 50. That milestone may be giving them incentive to reflect. The album deals with big topics: sex, death, conflict, growing up and salvation. Then again, U2 have always dealt with the big topics, not confined themselves to the “boy meets girl” standard.

I do wonder though, does a rock band have anything meaningful to say to us? Should we be paying attention? Many years ago there was a television ad for cough medicine where a soap opera star told the audience “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on television,” as if that made him an expert. Apparently, in our culture celebrity conveys authority, on television, the movie screen and the music hall stage. Bono has used his celebrity as a platform, advocating for causes he believes in. He acknowledges the absurdity of the fact that being a rock star has given him access to the rich and powerful who can help him move his agenda along.

Songs of Innocence is anything but innocent. Too much time has passed since the release of the first U2 album, Boy, for the band’s youthful idealism to be unchanged. This is a gentle look back at an imperfect past, tinged perhaps with a touch of regret but infused with hope for the future. This is not about rock and roll as salvation or salvation through rock and roll or even necessarily about salvation at all. Songs of Innocence is remembrance through the lens of maturity.

Music can be at the same time both a very subjective, intensely personal experience and a communal one; I invite you to download Songs of Innocence for yourself. It’s free until October 13, 2014. Then post a comment or two here, let me know what you think of the record.