Four Reasons Why 'Atomic Bomb' should not be derided so foolishly....

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Luke2

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To all you U2 fans who have, so foolishly, been knocking "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" so spiritedly in recent times... I caution you. Please remember these simple points:

1. City of Blinding Lights... easily one of U2's best, most emotional yet uplifting songs ever, featuring a very NLOTH blend of classic U2 guitar yet modern U2 rhythm sections... surely any album with a song of this calibre on it, cannot be dismissed so lightly, as has been the case recently...

2. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own... possibly U2's best and most emotional rock-ballad (as opposed to soft lovey dovey ballad in the usual sense of the word)... at the very least, U2's best song in this genre since "One"... and to anyone who has lost someone they hold dear, in the physical sense or emotional sense, this is a very, very special song

3. Vertigo... the U2 song that, along with it's close sibling Elevation, better than any other song, brought young people into the U2 fold... who knows, perhaps U2 band members tried this song out in front of their younger kids and decided to proceed at pace with this one, because I happen to know a few kids in my family in the 5-20 age bracket in 2004, who were addicted to Vertigo instantly in 04 and still are... don't quite know what sort of wierd science U2 used to bring this one into being, but the performance at the university recently, and its reception, not to mention its general reception among any younger audiences, seems to indicate that this song helped generate millions of new young U2 fans around the globe....

4. and on this point I will simply mention a couple of other special tunes, including "Original of the Species" and "Yahweh"... Original being a wonderful modern U2 ballad, while Yahweh sounding like it could have fitted onto Joshua Tree...

OK, the album aint perfect, but no U2 album is ever "perfect" in the truest definition of the word. But surely the songs mentioned above demonstrate that this album is not the "dog" that over-zealous people have recently claimed it is.... NLOTH is a masterpiece, but that is no reason to be so derisive of "Atomic"....
 
1) Well its an alright song, but the production is shite. It could have been better than it was.
2) =''=
3) Probably. But screw the young people.
4) I like OOTS. Yahweh can take a long walk off a short pier. Repeat 1)


In conclusion, HTDAAB is ok, but it could have been BETTER. THAT is why I dislike it. :)
 
Perhaps to explain how I feel a bit better...the album could have soared and been some magical epic explosion of emotion and feeling, but as it was taking the run up, it tripped and fell flat on its face.

Potential there, but it never took off.


That and I dont like the cover. I think Ill change it actually, It might make me skip the songs less.
 
I agree with the OP. While it may not be their "best" album, I will always count it as my favorite. I absolutely love every U2 album including NLOTH, but I wouldn't be a fan of the band at all if it wasn't for HTDAAB. I bought it simply out of curiosity and a desire to listen to something other than the top 40 crap on the radio in the summer of 2006. I was about to turn 18 in August, and I had a lot of stuff going on in my life at the time (getting ready to move away for college, getting ready to sell and move out of the house I'd lived 18 years in, my mom had cancer at the time, she and my dad were in the middle of a divorce..) I didn't have an iPod at the time, so I brought the CD home and played it straight through. I was hooked from the first listen. I'd never heard anything that had spoken to what I was going through like that album did. I went back and bought all the other albums and fell in love with them too. I agree there are some, like I said, that may be "better" in the technical aspect, but I wouldn't be a U2 fan if not for HTDAAB, so nothing will ever top it for me.
 
MooMoo! said:
1) Well its an alright song, but the production is shite. It could have been better than it was.
2) =''=
3) Probably. But screw the young people.
4) I like OOTS. Yahweh can take a long walk off a short pier. Repeat 1)


In conclusion, HTDAAB is ok, but it could have been BETTER. THAT is why I dislike it. :)
Click to expand...

Disagree with all your points. City of... and Sometimes... are easily the songs on that album with the very best production values, they could not have been produced any better....

Screw the young people.... LOL... Ok jokes aside, the value of Vertigo in terms of a new audience, surely should not be dismissed so... so... well, so dismissively...

Also, if you dislike a U2 album because "it could have been better" then you must dislike all of them.

I make the above points respectfully and thanks for replying and starting the debate, bring it on, all U2 fans... :wave:
 
Personally, I love HTDAAB. It's probably my 4th favorite U2 album. But I agree with MooMoo in that it never reached its potential. I forget who, but someone in this forum recently mentioned that the reason Bomb doesn't get a lot of love nowadays isn't necessarily because the songs are bad, but because of what Bomb could have been. In my opinion, you add Mercy or Smile or Fast Cars or Native Son or the alternate ABOY in place of a couple weaker songs (AMAAW, Yahweh, ABOY) and I think it would have been up there with AB and JT.

ETA: And, I think Miracle Drug is one of the 10 best songs they've ever done.
 
MooMoo! said:
Perhaps to explain how I feel a bit better...the album could have soared and been some magical epic explosion of emotion and feeling, but as it was taking the run up, it tripped and fell flat on its face.

Potential there, but it never took off.


That and I dont like the cover. I think Ill change it actually, It might make me skip the songs less.
Click to expand...

Thanks for explaining a bit more, well done....

Would I be TOO far off the mark to say, the album took off and the Vertigo tour made it take off even more, but...

Yes I agree, the album itself should have taken off of its own accord, more than it did?

Well, it sold a lot of copies, the general public loves it, but hey instead of 9-10 million, that album should have sold 15 million....?

Good to see a few objective replies on this... I just don't want "Atomic Bomb" to be regarded as worse than it actually is LOL which is always the danger for the most recent release apart from the new one...
 
COBL is actually one of the songs I like the most on the album.

SYCMIOYO bores me after a couple of listens, I understand it's an emotional song and such, but still I don't like it. Nor do I like one, so that comparison is wasted on me.

I love Miracle Drug, but it didn't work live. Same with Crumbs.

Vertigo, it's not a bad song, but it's not a masterpiece either. It's pretty simplistic, yet fun. Along the lines of Elevation and Boots. Native Son I prefer, but I can understand that the band didn't feel like playing that live every night.

With a few alternate mixes thrown in, and fast cars added in each version I find Bomb quite an enjoyable album actually.

It's not that the album has bad songs on it, it's just the fact that it doesn't seem to be a whole album, it's just a collection of songs.

Oh, and yes, as MooMoo said, there's the issue LOTS of people here have with the cover. Are we still allowed to say Paedophile here?
 
U2isthebest said:
I agree with the OP. While it may not be their "best" album, I will always count it as my favorite. I absolutely love every U2 album including NLOTH, but I wouldn't be a fan of the band at all if it wasn't for HTDAAB. I bought it simply out of curiosity and a desire to listen to something other than the top 40 crap on the radio in the summer of 2006. I was about to turn 18 in August, and I had a lot of stuff going on in my life at the time (getting ready to move away for college, getting ready to sell and move out of the house I'd lived 18 years in, my mom had cancer at the time, she and my dad were in the middle of a divorce..) I didn't have an iPod at the time, so I brought the CD home and played it straight through. I was hooked from the first listen. I'd never heard anything that had spoken to what I was going through like that album did. I went back and bought all the other albums and fell in love with them too. I agree there are some, like I said, that may be "better" in the technical aspect, but I wouldn't be a U2 fan if not for HTDAAB, so nothing will ever top it for me.
Click to expand...

Hey friend, very nice reply, thanks, I am happy this album introduced you to U2, although I am sad for you that some of your own circumstances were unhappy at the time..... interestingly, myself included, there seems to be a common theme with this album, of:

"getting me through a tough time in my life"...

The amount of times people have said to me that HTDAAB helped them cope with a sick relative, a lost or departed relative or friend, a tough personal time in terms of relationship problems, exhaustion due to working too hard, even sexuality issues with a friend of mine, makes me think that for the first time, U2 produced a soothing "sympathetic" album for their fans who needed some personal comfort at the time... and Bono was in such a situation as he wrote the words, perhaps that influenced the sometimes melancholy nature of the tunes on the record....

Well not to get down about it or anything, but has anyone posted this theory yet on the record... that only those in need of some emotional comfort in 2004, really got the meaning of this record, whereas, those who were travelling OK, either liked it because it was U2 and they understood, or simply did not quite get it?

Interesting new thoughts about the album thanks to respondents to the thread....
 
Luke2 said:
Thanks for explaining a bit more, well done....

Would I be TOO far off the mark to say, the album took off and the Vertigo tour made it take off even more, but...

Yes I agree, the album itself should have taken off of its own accord, more than it did?

Well, it sold a lot of copies, the general public loves it, but hey instead of 9-10 million, that album should have sold 15 million....?

Good to see a few objective replies on this... I just don't want "Atomic Bomb" to be regarded as worse than it actually is LOL which is always the danger for the most recent release apart from the new one...
Click to expand...

Well I didnt mean "take off" in terms of sales. I dont think it needed to sell to be a good album, its going to sell whether its good or not because U2 just have that sort of reputation. (how do you know its good or not till you buy it anyway? lol)

Also, if you dislike a U2 album because "it could have been better" then you must dislike all of them.
Click to expand...
Naw, I just felt in this instance its potential wasnt reached. All U2 albums could have things done to make them better, but I think most are ticking the right boxes. I honestly hold the belief that if HTDAAB was produced with Eno/Lanois, It would have been better. I feel theres a lot of instrument inbalance too, things arnt heard.

Its kind of...not bad, but it just didnt deliver for me. Like I said, I love OOTS, but theres still stuff in that when Im listening to it, I think "I wish that bit was different, the vocal longer, the bass more defined" etc.

However, I think Vertigo, shock horror, is probably the best done on the album. You can hear all the instruments quite clearly, its just a good balance. :)
 
MooMoo! said:
Well I didnt mean "take off" in terms of sales. I dont think it needed to sell to be a good album, its going to sell whether its good or not because U2 just have that sort of reputation. (how do you know its good or not till you buy it anyway? lol)


Naw, I just felt in this instance its potential wasnt reached. All U2 albums could have things done to make them better, but I think most are ticking the right boxes. I honestly hold the belief that if HTDAAB was produced with Eno/Lanois, It would have been better. I feel theres a lot of instrument inbalance too, things arnt heard.

Its kind of...not bad, but it just didnt deliver for me. Like I said, I love OOTS, but theres still stuff in that when Im listening to it, I think "I wish that bit was different, the vocal longer, the bass more defined" etc.

However, I think Vertigo, shock horror, is probably the best done on the album. You can hear all the instruments quite clearly, its just a good balance. :)
Click to expand...

Yeah I see your points very clearly there now, in fact, the question should be asked in relation to all future U2 albums...

Your point that Atomic may have turned out even better... from my point of view... than it did.... is intriguing...

Quite interestingly, the question has to be asked and that is, who was the real producer of that album...

...it seems like after the band relieved Chris Thomas of duties, they were never sure whether the record would be produced by Eno, Lanois, Flood, Lillywhite or even themselves...

Should Eno and Lanois produce all U2 albums forever from this moment forward, should they also add some writing duties to all U2 releases.... should those two lapsed Catholic boys become the effective 5th and 6th members of U2?

Also strange parallels between Bomb and Horizon in that full on rock producers and U2 simply could not work together...
 
Luke2 said:
Yeah I see your points very clearly there now, in fact, the question should be asked in relation to all future U2 albums...

Your point that Atomic may have turned out even better... from my point of view... than it did.... is intriguing...

Quite interestingly, the question has to be asked and that is, who was the real producer of that album...

...it seems like after the band relieved Chris Thomas of duties, they were never sure whether the record would be produced by Eno, Lanois, Flood, Lillywhite or even themselves...

Should Eno and Lanois produce all U2 albums forever from this moment forward, should they also add some writing duties to all U2 releases.... should those two lapsed Catholic boys become the effective 5th and 6th members of U2?

Also strange parallels between Bomb and Horizon in that full on rock producers and U2 simply could not work together...
Click to expand...

Eno/Lanois need to be used every other album, so it goes
"Yay! good album!" (E+L)
"Boo! Bad album!" (other guy)
"Yay! Good Album!" (E+L)

:wink:

I wouldnt want them on ALL U2 albums, cos it'd just make life boring. They seemed to try to bring in new people for Bomb, and in the end, I dont even know who produced what since they kept switching people. :huh:
 
HTDAAB suffers from the classic 'its cool to slag off u2's last album and praise the hell out of their latest offering' syndrome.
Just watch NLOTH suffer the same fate as time goes on.Then after 5/7/10 years HTDAAB will be seen as 'not a bad album....actually it was quite cool' etc etc etc.

same old same old.......................

BsB
 
it has the same problems as POP: lack of vision and not the best production
unlike POP I do still listen a lot to Bomb though
there is some warmth in the album/lyrics that wins me over
 
It has great songs, it lags a bit, but overall it's a pretty good album. One of the biggest problems, as noted before and many times before that, is the production. Native Son, Fast Cars and some of the alternate takes may have been too "raw", but the album has this really annoying, "cold" sheen to it that takes a lot of life out of a lot of songs. This sheen may have (maaaaaybe) worked on POP, had they been able to realize that album all the way, but the precision in the recording, editing and mastering for Bomb, to me, makes it too lifeless.

One man's opinion though. I actually like it better than ATYCLB, which - again, in my opinion - is less of an album and more a collection of songs than Bomb.
 
Salome said:
it has the same problems as POP: lack of vision and not the best production
unlike POP I do still listen a lot to Bomb though
there is some warmth in the album/lyrics that wins me over
Click to expand...

There is no comparison between Pop and Bomb. They're on completely different quality tiers, with Pop in the top echelon of u2 albums, Bomb... somewhere at the bottom.
 
Dalton said:
I find "Sometimes" to be the most overwrought and underworked song they've ever recorded.
Click to expand...

The first time I heard this live, I teared up. It was pretty much downhill from there, though. It became the Super Serious Moment Where Bono Takes Off His Shades, which is a shame, considering the song's meaning.

I find that as much as I loved Bomb in the first few months after its release (I actually wrote a piece for this site about how it had won me back after I pretty much gave up on U2 after ATYCLB), I don't listen to it as a whole that much anymore. Part of it may be that I burned out on it, but part of it is that it doesn't have as much staying power as many of U2's other albums, at least to me.

That said, I do love COBL. It's soaringly beautiful live, in the same vein as Streets. In fact, I'd love to see those two and maybe Breathe, Magnificent, or NLOH close together in in the set list for the next tour.

For me, HTDAAB is important because it was a necessary transition. I don't think they could've gotten to where they are now without it.
 
Personally I get really peeved that so many people keep harping on and on about how ATYCLB and HTDAAB are just collections of songs and not great albums as if that was a failure on the part of the band. This is patently ridiculous because the band has clearly stated all along that the focus on both of these albums was on individual songs not the album as a whole because the culture had shifted more towards the cherrypicking mentality and the mass audience was not for the most part looking for albums. It is entirely unfair to judge them on the same scale as albums like JT and AB or indeed any of the previous works. As collections of songs these albums were both extremely well done. There have even been some people who routinely bash the albums realizing that they actually listen to a lot of those songs more than others in the U2 catalogue. To me the songwriting on these two albums is much more consistant than any of the previous albums.

This idea that somehow the album is flawed because they could have done better is totally subjective as well. I personally can't understand what the attraction to the alternate versions of the Bomb songs are because they don't resonate nearly as well to me as what is on the album. All creativity flutuates, and just because they wrote One or Streets doesn't mean that every song they write can be at that level.

Although I usually rotate through the entire catalogue the three albums I tend to repeat the most are ATYCLB, HTDAAB, and U218. These albums I can listen too no matter what mood I am in and if I'm in a bad mood they make it better. The others I sometimes avoid depending on my mood. To me the first two are real healing albums and are great emotional mood changers.

Dana
 
That's interesting, because I'd say the last two albums were the band's most inconsistent in terms of songwriting--a few good songs on each, but some clunkers, too. The 80s albums and AB are a lot more consistent, in my opinion.

Regardless, like I said, the last two albums were part of what got the band from Pop to NLOH, so I'm going to write them off entirely, even if I don't listen to them that often.
 
HTDAAB would've been a better album if the production and songwriting were improved, but as it is it is a decent/good album, but could've been a great album. That being said "Sometimes..." is sung with heart and passion by Bono, and I think they executed it very well. One of Bonos best moments. :up:
 
It is a good album, U2 fans just have OCD about ranking and comparing. :shrug:

And if you are doing rankings, if is it ranked 7th of 10, for example, it's not necessarily rated a 3/10. Maybe that's what people are doing when they say it is "bad".
 
I agree with OP's first point ... but that's about where it stops.
[Insert IMO where necessary]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, HTDAAB has some of their best and some of their worst, easily. I can't consider an album very good if my finger twitches over the skip button through half the album.

God forbid anyone dislike a U2 album for concrete reasons. The trend-hating that seems to be common through most bandoms (where it is popular to hate the most recent album for whatever reason, mind that HTDAAB is no longer the most recent, blah, blah, blah) is stupid, granted, but bear in mind that not everyone hates it because it is cool to do so.
 
BonoIsMyMuse said:
That's interesting, because I'd say the last two albums were the band's most inconsistent in terms of songwriting--a few good songs on each, but some clunkers, too. The 80s albums and AB are a lot more consistent, in my opinion.
Click to expand...

definitely agree re: songwriting, although the writing seems pretty... opaque on say Boy & October as well

Bono's songwriting really peaked in the 90s, IMHO
 
My problem with the BomB is that, unlike most other U2 albums, the songs (or the album) haven't really grown on me in any way since 2004. That suggests an album that doesn't age well, that isn't timeless and that is lacking a characteristic that truly great albums have. There have been more depreciators over time than appreciators.

Appreciated
One Step Closer
Vertigo

No Change
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
Crumbs From Your Table
Yahweh
A Man And A Woman
City Of Blinding Lights

Depreciated
Miracle Drug
Love And Peace Or Else
All Because Of You
Original Of The Species
 
Luke2 said:
To all you U2 fans who have, so foolishly, been knocking "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" so spiritedly in recent times... I caution you. Please remember these simple points:

1. City of Blinding Lights... easily one of U2's best, most emotional yet uplifting songs ever, featuring a very NLOTH blend of classic U2 guitar yet modern U2 rhythm sections... surely any album with a song of this calibre on it, cannot be dismissed so lightly, as has been the case recently...

2. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own... possibly U2's best and most emotional rock-ballad (as opposed to soft lovey dovey ballad in the usual sense of the word)... at the very least, U2's best song in this genre since "One"... and to anyone who has lost someone they hold dear, in the physical sense or emotional sense, this is a very, very special song

3. Vertigo... the U2 song that, along with it's close sibling Elevation, better than any other song, brought young people into the U2 fold... who knows, perhaps U2 band members tried this song out in front of their younger kids and decided to proceed at pace with this one, because I happen to know a few kids in my family in the 5-20 age bracket in 2004, who were addicted to Vertigo instantly in 04 and still are... don't quite know what sort of wierd science U2 used to bring this one into being, but the performance at the university recently, and its reception, not to mention its general reception among any younger audiences, seems to indicate that this song helped generate millions of new young U2 fans around the globe....

4. and on this point I will simply mention a couple of other special tunes, including "Original of the Species" and "Yahweh"... Original being a wonderful modern U2 ballad, while Yahweh sounding like it could have fitted onto Joshua Tree...

OK, the album aint perfect, but no U2 album is ever "perfect" in the truest definition of the word. But surely the songs mentioned above demonstrate that this album is not the "dog" that over-zealous people have recently claimed it is.... NLOTH is a masterpiece, but that is no reason to be so derisive of "Atomic"....
Click to expand...

1) I hate this song.

2) I hate this song, i don't care what it's about, subject matter doesn't sway me at all if the song is lame.

3) Vertigo was fun for about a day.
I could care less how many fans U2 wins with each album. They could gain every person in the world, they could whittle their audience down to me and Bono's kids, it wouldn't matter the slightest bit.

4) Yahweh is the worst U2 song i have ever heard. I'd rather listen to the French guys talking from the beach clips.
 
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