How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb 9 years on

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This album makes me nostalgic. Brings me back to all those hilarious fights I used to have with almost everyone on here. Such great warm fuzzy memories.

But many years on...in fact I'm listening to the whole album all the way through for the first time since probably a month after it was released..........and.......

....it's still their worst album.

However, I do notice things that I dig for the first time. For instance, the "it's you when I look in the mirror" falsetto part in SYCMIOYO. Maybe it took some listening to R&B and soul, or some maturing in general...but it actually gave me chills in a good way. I mean, the rest of the tune I pretty much feel the same way about, but that part...yea, I like that. Should've been the direction for the entire song.

While there still seem to be certain songs I guess I am destined to NEVER like, I am pleased to discover there are some that I enjoy all the way through. Love and Peace or Else, Crumbs from your Table, Original of the Species... hell even Vertigo isn't annoying as much as it used to.

Kinda bittersweet...I was expecting this album to finally win me over, but despite a few that have aged well, the rest of the album still does little to nothing for me.

Well, maybe I'll give it another listen in 8 years.

Ordinary Love beats all of these songs...I'd say that's a good thing.
 
It's a special album to me. It's not their best album, it's not my favourite album. But it's the album I feel closer with.
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb came out in a very hard period of my life and I still see this album as one of the healers or painkillers of that time, specially because of some songs that I felt related with, such as "One Step Closer" or "Sometimes". I felt then that, for a very long time, Bono wrote some of his most honest lyrics (even though some lines are pretty bad), some lyrics I could see my self in.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, as any of the past 3 albums is nowhere near perfect, as the other two is full of mistakes, faults in the creative direction and on some choices made.

I'm not sure that the Chris Thomas' bomb would've been better, as some suggested back then. When I listen to the 5 Thomas songs that leaked or were released, there are also tones of problems with it... But in the exact opposite direction. They're clearly underproduced, too underproduced (to have raw feel is another thing)... Unlike the final versions which have loads of production, mixing and masterization over it. We have good examples of it in "City Of Blinding Lights" guitar treatment or on "Sometimes" when entering into the bridge - specially comparing to the alternate version which has the opposite problem. I wish that during the recording and creative process, U2 and the team had got to a middle term.

Then, there's the choice of the songs. I have no love at all for "A Man And A Woman", it has no effect on me. Someone here once wrote that like "this an innofensive the song for housewifes to listen to when they're washing the dishes". That how I feel about it. Plus, sonically I could never relate it with the rest of the collection. Another song is "Crumbs", which also doesn't do anything for me: trying to recreate "Electrical Storm" with a boring mood and bad and unimaginative political metaphores, I'd relegate it to b-side material.

I'm one of the few that likes "Yahweh", specially the final version, it's a joyful song, printed with U2-ADN sound, but with "happier" lyrics than many other 2000's songs. I also liked it closing the album, I understood the band's intention.
Another thing that bothered many fans was "All Because Of You" production, which reasons I understand. But it was one of my instant-favourite tracks when I listened to the album for the first time, maybe that's I will always have a positive memory/feeling about this song. And - guilty pleasure - I love that ear-piercing guitar in the first seconds ahahah :drool:
"Miracle Drug" is a different case. It's one of the most conservative tracks in my opinion (it feels too FM-radio-american-adult-contemporary-rock to me), but, forgetting the "scent like the top of a baby's head" line, I really like the lyrics, specially the heartfeeling and the meaning behind these lyrics.

"Vertigo" and "Sometimes", I've already wrote about it.
I wish that U2 had kept the lyrics of "Vertigo", but in the "Native Son" instrumental or something like that, or make a fusion of the two versions. For instance, after the second chorus, they could've kept the "check mated" section, followed by the "Native Son"'s "freeeeee" instrumental section, and only then the "all of this can be yours" section (and then "Vertigo" on as we know it). I've also wouldn't mind the intro more similar to "Native Son", but with the stick's countdown.
In "Sometimes" case I'd love if U2 had kept the alternate version intro, the guitar work until the first chorus (which I love, it's very mid-90's) and the first chorus only with the title in the lyrics the way he sings it in the alternate version (then, after, the telephone/mirror lines could join). But, most of all, I wish they had toned down the production. When Bono starts the "siiiiiiiiing" part, the guitars/keyboards/bass feel like it's a huge mess not in unison. But still is, anyway, one of 2000's best songs.

I listened to this album a lot, specially during the tour, but then it ended, I didn't listen much to it until 2009 or so. Only then, with some time distance, I started to realize better some of the album's faults, specially in the tracklist choices, fluence, cohesion.
And I started to test alternate tracklists (the same way I did with ATYCLB and, later, with NLOTH) until I got to my perfect tracklist, which I think I have already posted here in the forum. I just kept it to these essential 10:

1. Love And Peace Or Else
2. Vertigo
3. Miracle Drug
4. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own
5. One Step Closer
6. Fast Cars
7. All Because Of You
8. City Of Blinding Lights
9. Original Of The Species *
10. Yahweh

*I use the single version, which is richer and improved the album version

I'm also still not very convinced about the title. I like the idea of dismanteling an atomic bomb, and the atomic bomb being a metaphor for the heart (I think that metaphor is genious), but I feel the title is too "big", I mean, too pretensious for the album itself.
I also do not like the cover (I've made a few alternative ones) and I'm also not a fan of the creative ideas for the photoshoot for this album... And it's a shame because they were made in Portugal and they (the photographer and the team) could've profit or use those places so much better...
 
It's a special album to me. It's not their best album, it's not my favourite album. But it's the album I feel closer with.
How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb came out in a very hard period of my life and I still see this album as one of the healers or painkillers of that time, specially because of some songs that I felt related with

Great post! :hug:

Funny how one album seems to come at just the right time. For me it was Achtung Baby. It literally saved me from eventual suicide and will always be their best album in my eyes.
 
The rest is decent but not particularly memorable, in my opinion.

I think this describes nearly the entire album. There's one song I hate (OOTS) and then a fistful of average music with subtle degrees of high and low.

COBL and AMAAW are tracks I still listen to and feel some nostalgia toward though.
 
The alternate/pre-overly produced versions and outtakes (Smile, Xanax and Wine, Native Son, Yahweh, Mercy) really demonstrate what this album ALMOST was.

Of course - we would still have to deal with the lyrics - which have been a problem since Achtung Baby.
 
I like the album. It's got a 'warm' feeling to it. Those last 3 songs, One Step Closer, OOTS and Yahweh, are very strong. Ranks up there with their best album ending IMO.
 
Vertigo, COBL, Miracle drug, OOTS, Crumbs - all good songs. Even the weaker songs are at least solid. Bomb was way better than ATYCLB, which was barely half an album.

I prefer NLOTH to both, even though I only play the first 4 and last 4 songs of it.
 
The CDUK performance was actually set up like a mini concert in terms of the stage etc which very rarely used to happen on the show, the fact that the band also played more than one song says there was a good chance it was live
 
the fact that the band also played more than one song says there was a good chance it was live

Explain to me this logic. What difference does it make if it's one song or five of them?

It's obvious that they were playing. What you hear though is not live.
 
So you're suggesting that they were in fact playing live for the audience, but that the instrument tracks were taken out later and overdubbed with the studio tracks for broadcast?
 
Did you watch the videos? They are playing. Whether they're plugged in remains a mystery. But yeah, there is probably some bizarre mix going on, since I do believe at parts you can hear Edge playing and Bono singing (the latter also varies). The same tactic was used for that 2006 Japanese video somebody mentioned. What you hear are predominantly the studio versions. It's as clear as day. You can hear three guitars in Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own and it sounds identical to the studio version. U2 is infamous for their use of backing tracks during their concerts (mostly synth work and elaborate sounds made in the studio), but they have never went this far.

So U2 conceded to the show's policy that doesn't do live performances, same like they did with Top of the Pops starting in the 80s. It's not a tragedy, really.
 
I wouldn't be surprised if they played to a backing track. I mean honestly if they had to mime it in I imagine it would be hard to do without a backing track anyway.
 
The only U2 album I own that's not on my faux-pod. It's just not remotely exciting in any way. All polish, very little rush. Still love Yahweh, mind.
 
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