Atomic Bomb Appreciation

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Gonna Run 2 U

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I'm sure there is a thread floating around here somewhere but I had trouble finding one dedicated to it on the search. I have developed a new appreciation for this album after recently listening to it. I remember when it first came out and years after it did not particularly resonate with me. As I got older and as of recently I've developed sort of connection to a lot of Bono's lyrics and how passionate he sings on the album. I know the record has taken a lot of heat here particularly with the super loud production and in ways having an overall safe sound but it really hit home. It was my uncles second favorite U2 album after Boy and I always sort of gave him crap about it really being one of their worst. Turns out at this moment it's one of my favorites. How do you guys feel? Is it aging more like a fine wine?

 
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My least favorite U2 album of the 2000's, but it has grown on me in the past few years. COBL and Sometimes You Can't Make It... are still my favorite tracks.
 
I really liked this album from the time it was released. I am not a fan of Vertigo other than during their shows where it rocks. I even really like Yahweh which really takes a beating here....

Unfortunately it does have one of the worst (maybe THE worst) U2 song in AMAAW but that's ok, it's skippable...

As for how it has aged, TBH I don't listen to it much anymore. although I don't really listen to full albums in general anymore.
 
I love the Bomb.

I've always described it as the album where U2 looks forward as old men. Not musically, because it's very much a standard pop rock album, but forward as in what life will look like from now on. Its never nostalgic; instead it offers a reflection of love and faith.

For me it's always been more about the album as whole, rather than the parts, which is funny because Bono describes it as the opposite. You need all the parts working together to really feel the weight of it.

The only real clunker for me is One Step Closer, which is boring without being fun or interesting.
 
This was the first time I'd ever anticipated a u2 album coming out. My first album as a fan I'd buy on the day it came out. Atyclb got me into u2 but that was after it came out.

I was 18 at the time and I can remember being at work. I was that desperate to listen to the album I got my dad to buy it and drop it off to me on his lunch break. I had my tiny little sony cd Walkman with me and I played it all afternoon.

It was such a great time to be a u2 fan. Those 5 years between 2000-2005 were unbelievable years and probably there last period of being huge and relevant.

The album itself I loved. Probably don't love it as much now but I still go back to it, tracks like vertigo, miracle drug,sycmioyo,city of blinding lights,all because of you, crumbs from your table,love and peace and original of the species are great u2 songs.

Vertigo will probably be there last huge hit that will be played for generations.

First time I saw the band live aswell. Did 3 gigs on the vertigo tour.
 
It has some cracking songs in my opinion:

- City of Blinding Lights
- Original of the Species
- Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own

Then a bunch of decent songs such as Miracle Drug, Crumbs, Vertigo, All Because of You, One Step Closer etc.

It's a good album. Safe, yes. But it has some memorable songs.
 
This album holds a special place in my heart. It was probably my peak of U2 fandom. I ran a silly website leading up to the release, had just started working with Unforgettable Fire doing their website, went to the Brooklyn Bridge show and hung out all night to get the album at Tower Records in Times Square, saw them I think 8 times on the Vertigo tour, firat time in the ellipse/heart seeing them up close, got to be backstage at three of those shows :)ohmy:) including a brief run in with Adam and Edge, and overall had a hell of a year.

2006 also sucked for me big time, so probably makes me look back on the Vertigo era even more fondly.

Still think the album holds up well, too. I listen to songs from Bomb more than I listen to No Line or even SOI for that matter.
 
Bomb wipes nloth out of the water for me. I probably listen to soi more now and I never skip a track but I'd say some of the songs on bomb are alot stronger if that makes sense
 
Far, far better than either of the two albums that have followed it. Probably my 4th or 5th favorite album. Though Every Breaking Wave comes fairly close, I think U2's last truly incredible song was COBL.
 
Bomb will always hold a special place in the soundtrack of life. My friend had downloaded the entire album well before it was released, so I listened to it endlessly before it even came out. Naturally, I still bought the CD when it went on sale.

I was excited when I first heard Vertigo on the radio. Loved Edge's driving riff. COBL will always be my favorite track from Bomb. Crumbs and especially Sometimes are amongst my other Bomb favorites. I know Sometimes is about Bono and his dad, but I re-interpreted the song to be about the relationship with my gf at the time. 2004 to 2006 was a crazy time in my life and thanks to Bomb, I was able to endure the craziness.
 
I know Vertigo is the calling card, but the real all-time U2 classic here has become COBL (thanks, Obama). It has the magic of old while sounding very 21st century. It soars and aches, and was perhaps the most memorable opener of the 21st century tours.

I don't revisit this one much, but OOTS is *my* U2 song, as if they wrote it for me because it helped me greatly at the time, and the rest seems to fade into the background a bit. It has some great lines ("love and faith and sex and fear / and all the things that keep us here") if not overall great lyrics, and some of the intital would-be classics (MD) have washed away with time.

Its success kept them around, so for that I'm grateful.
 
Nice to see appreciation for this album on this thread, in contrast to the usual hate. I actually like this album a lot. It has several really great songs. It's not my favorite album, but it might be my 6th or 7th favorite (which is fairly high).
 
This album holds a special place in my heart. It was probably my peak of U2 fandom. I ran a silly website leading up to the release, had just started working with Unforgettable Fire doing their website, went to the Brooklyn Bridge show and hung out all night to get the album at Tower Records in Times Square, saw them I think 8 times on the Vertigo tour, firat time in the ellipse/heart seeing them up close, got to be backstage at three of those shows :)ohmy:) including a brief run in with Adam and Edge, and overall had a hell of a year.

2006 also sucked for me big time, so probably makes me look back on the Vertigo era even more fondly.

Still think the album holds up well, too. I listen to songs from Bomb more than I listen to No Line or even SOI for that matter.

ha i remember the office of U2 security. good times.

i love this album. I don't care how uncool it is on here to like it, but it was the first time I was a massive, rabid fan headed into a release. I was 17 when it came out. I still remember when I got home from class and Vertigo had been played on the Spanish radio station.

I ended up seeing 24 Vertigo shows. was a great time to end high school and start college.

people can crap on Vertigo all they want, but it's in my top 10 U2 songs. easily. I don't think the lyrics are as vapid as people make them out to be, and it's a monster live. I'm glad the three Joshua Tree shows I saw had Vertigo in them.

I wish the mixing and production on the album wasn't crappy, but i can get past that pretty easily.

another song that gets bashed here routinely - all because of you - i was hoping that would rotate on the e-stage for the ie tour. it didn't. ah well.

is it as good as Joshua Tree, Achtung? of course not. but it's a really good album, and one i'll always like no matter how uncool it is.
 
It's been a while since I've listened to it front to back, should do that this weekend.

I've always felt it's a decent collection of songs (some are great songs), but it doesn't feel like an album. And don't even get me started on the "loudness" issue of the production.
 
I've always had a lot of love for Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own. It's in my U2 top 50 playlist, as is COBL.

I actually LOVED the way they did Love and Peace or Else live on the Chicago DVD.
 
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Great album, first time I had the big build up to a new U2 album. Got into them when ATYCLB came out and soaked up all their back catalogue.

So when bomb was coming out I couldn't wait,and it didn't disappoint. Love all the songs, especially miracle drug,don't get why people slag it off.
 
Great album, first time I had the big build up to a new U2 album. Got into them when ATYCLB came out and soaked up all their back catalogue.

So when bomb was coming out I couldn't wait,and it didn't disappoint. Love all the songs, especially miracle drug,don't get why people slag it off.



Sounds like I've wrote that, I was in the exact same boat :)
 
Seems a lot of new fans came on board at that time. I remember seeing the video for elevation and thought they looked dead cool!



Uk Brit awards February 2001 is what drew me in. Beautiful day/one/ until the end of the world being performed got me sucked in
 
It was actually my wee brother who bought ATYCLB,listened to while playing FIFA soccer on the PlayStation! Now he is into GnR,must be because I always beat him!?
 
The first ever album I bought was this one aged 14 in February 2005. My head was completely turned a few months earlier with Vertigo. I just loved that song which was surprising given my preference for more softer, melodic pop/rock in the vein of Travis and Coldplay. Once the album was bought it didn't take long for that tune to be usurped by a few other tracks on that album (and what it seems like hundreds more U2 songs 13 and a half years later).

It's my favourite album of theirs post 2000. I think Bono's voice sounds fantastic - as powerful and gutsy as on any U2 record aside from The Joshua Tree and a considerable improvement from the comparatively weedy vocals on ATYCLB before it. For sure, the second half is not nearly as good as the first half but what does it matter? When you've got a 5 song opening punch that climaxes with City of Blinding Lights - still to this day one of my top 5 U2 tunes - you can almost forgive anything that comes after it! How anyone can dislike that particular tune beyond my imagination! It soars like no other song and is so glittery, hopeful and such a release of positive energy that I have never ever get bored of it.

Oh and there's also the small matter of Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own.

'Can you still hear me when I....siiiiiiiinnnnnng, you're the only reason I sing!' Only Bono can do that raw outburst of heartfelt emotion and not make it sound forced.
 
I could do without "Sometimes You Can't Make it to the End of long Song-title", which sounded like a self-parody back in 2004, and 'One Step Closer' is a so-so snoozer, but basically it's a great album that I will think will stand the test of time.

Really, the 2000 album, the 2004 album, and the 2014 (?) album all have their respective strengths and weaknesses -- which one I prefer would depend on my mood on a given day (note I'm not mentioning the forgettable 2009 one). But, I think most days, I'm picking Bomb as the best U2 album this century. I'm not really arsed that every release "feels like an album". That's great if you want prog-rock, but sometimes I just want to hear some good tunes.
 
I could do without "Sometimes You Can't Make it to the End of long Song-title", which sounded like a self-parody back in 2004, and 'One Step Closer' is a so-so snoozer, but basically it's a great album that I will think will stand the test of time.

Really, the 2000 album, the 2004 album, and the 2014 (?) album all have their respective strengths and weaknesses -- which one I prefer would depend on my mood on a given day (note I'm not mentioning the forgettable 2009 one). But, I think most days, I'm picking Bomb as the best U2 album this century. I'm not really arsed that every release "feels like an album". That's great if you want prog-rock, but sometimes I just want to hear some good tunes.
I honestly don't know how people can't like SYCMOYO,Bono pours his heart out on this song. Great tune. But I agree with the rest of your post.
 
I honestly don't know how people can't like SYCMOYO,Bono pours his heart out on this song.
Diff'rent Strokes for Gary Colema-- er, different folks.

Bono is probably giving it his all on the vocal for that song, but it's just too "showy" for my tastes. Basically, I hate opera and grand-standing in general, and "Sometimes" is like U2's opera song. But I'm not gonna argue with anyone who likes it. I can see that.
 
I like the "icicle" notes Edge hits during the emotional climax of SYCMIOYO, especially right after "don't leave me here alone." If you've ever lost a parent, it's quite a devastating rendering of grief and fear.
 
Diff'rent Strokes for Gary Colema-- er, different folks.



Bono is probably giving it his all on the vocal for that song, but it's just too "showy" for my tastes. Basically, I hate opera and grand-standing in general, and "Sometimes" is like U2's opera song. But I'm not gonna argue with anyone who likes it. I can see that.



I LOVE the song. Gets me every single time. And I think the showy operatic part is showy and operatic because he is literally saying "you're the reason the opera is in me." It just fits. And the lyrics are a gut punch.

I love COBL and MD. But I despise LAPOE and ABOY. The rest are good. But my hatred for those songs really brings the album down for me. Just like New York on ATYCLB.
 
I really like Love and Peace Or Else...i just wish they had shortened the title. I think what really made me like this song was seeing it in the Chicago DVD.
 
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