MERGED-->Press Reviews of HTDAAB HERE
- Thread starter HelloAngel
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone that follows U2.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
More like ATYCLB 12 worldwide (check Peeling of the dollar bills forum) which would mean about 4 million in USA and 8 million ROTW. I'd say the world pretty much loved ATYCLB, not just America.
U2 always wants its albums to do well in US, that's no secret. JT and Rattle and Hum were influenced by US music and directed towards that market, will you start hating them too?
ATYCLB had 7 million mark worldwide under its belt by the end of 2000. It was released almost a whole YEAR ahead of 9/11, so your little theory about 9/11 "helping" ATYCLB doesn't fly.
Hmm...if Beautiful day wasn't a hit, I don't know what is. It was played on MTV and radio a LOT - which IMO, is defining a hit song a lot more than simply sales. (too much influence by what is "hot" at the moment and too much effect by the TRL/MTV demographic to be really relevant) Plus, singles sales aren't what they used to be years ago and rock music isn't mainstream they way pop/r&b/rap are these days, which makes it harder for rock bands to chart well.
Stuck in a moment also charted on Billboard, unfortunately there is no data for Walk on or Elevation.
U2 always wants its albums to do well in US, that's no secret. JT and Rattle and Hum were influenced by US music and directed towards that market, will you start hating them too?
ATYCLB had 7 million mark worldwide under its belt by the end of 2000. It was released almost a whole YEAR ahead of 9/11, so your little theory about 9/11 "helping" ATYCLB doesn't fly.
Hmm...if Beautiful day wasn't a hit, I don't know what is. It was played on MTV and radio a LOT - which IMO, is defining a hit song a lot more than simply sales. (too much influence by what is "hot" at the moment and too much effect by the TRL/MTV demographic to be really relevant) Plus, singles sales aren't what they used to be years ago and rock music isn't mainstream they way pop/r&b/rap are these days, which makes it harder for rock bands to chart well.
Stuck in a moment also charted on Billboard, unfortunately there is no data for Walk on or Elevation.
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bathiu
Refugee
Read this: http://www.interference.com/u2103411/index.html
(about the sales numbers)
...BTW, stop living in dreams... ATYCanLB is a huge failure... Elevation tour ended and so many people are changing their minds about the record (proof that without live versions the album is shit), the new record is out and even more people see what ATYCanLb realy was... a good selling nothing.
ohh, and JT and R&H are for sure not in my favorites, exactly for being to american... sometimes even to close to country music
(yes, I remember what songs are on those albums, but liking some songs is not the same as "liking an album")
(about the sales numbers)
...BTW, stop living in dreams... ATYCanLB is a huge failure... Elevation tour ended and so many people are changing their minds about the record (proof that without live versions the album is shit), the new record is out and even more people see what ATYCanLb realy was... a good selling nothing.
ohh, and JT and R&H are for sure not in my favorites, exactly for being to american... sometimes even to close to country music
(yes, I remember what songs are on those albums, but liking some songs is not the same as "liking an album")That article is wrong. ATYCLB is at about 12 million mark worldwide - trust me. Again, have a look in Peeling of the dollar bills forum.
I don't think that people are changing their minds, most of them still like (if not love) ATYCLB - it's only the 90's U2 loving vocal minority that openly hates it. Keep in mind U2 has a very big fanbase and if you were to go ask fans who are older than the 20something majority on the internet forum, ATYCLB would be even better off. Majority of the reviews I read liked ATYCLB.
If anything, Elevation only helped ATYCLB and U2's catalog.
Most reviews agree HTDAAB is a continuation of ATYCLB in the focus on songwriting and direct lyrics and the traditional U2 sound. Considering virtually all reviews really like HTDAAB, that means U2 was, once again, RIGHT when they made ATYCLB.
I don't think that people are changing their minds, most of them still like (if not love) ATYCLB - it's only the 90's U2 loving vocal minority that openly hates it. Keep in mind U2 has a very big fanbase and if you were to go ask fans who are older than the 20something majority on the internet forum, ATYCLB would be even better off. Majority of the reviews I read liked ATYCLB.
If anything, Elevation only helped ATYCLB and U2's catalog.
Most reviews agree HTDAAB is a continuation of ATYCLB in the focus on songwriting and direct lyrics and the traditional U2 sound. Considering virtually all reviews really like HTDAAB, that means U2 was, once again, RIGHT when they made ATYCLB.
bathiu
Refugee
"I guess the truth hurts"... @ "vocal minority"
There's this theory about U2 albums that is ALWAYS right, it looks like this:
Boy - good
October - worse than last one
War - better than last one
UF - worse
JT - better
R&H - worse
AB - better
Zooropa - worse
Pop - better
ATYCanLB - worse
HTDAAB - better
.
.
.
.
any questions?
There's this theory about U2 albums that is ALWAYS right, it looks like this:
Boy - good
October - worse than last one
War - better than last one
UF - worse
JT - better
R&H - worse
AB - better
Zooropa - worse
Pop - better
ATYCanLB - worse
HTDAAB - better
.
.
.
.
any questions?
THe Musictap review (Digital bits)
11/19/04
Reviewed by - Bill Hunt
New U2 albums are never quite what I expect them to be. I generally consider that a good thing. Every second or third release from this band seems to represent a landmark of sorts in the evolution of their sound. Case in point are the likes of War, Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby and All That You Can’t Leave Behind – all highly successful, defining entries in U2’s discography. The steps in between include both live releases (Under a Blood Red Sky and Rattle and Hum) and less commercial, more experimental dalliances (Passengers: Original Soundtracks, Volume 1 and Pop come to mind). Then there are those albums where you can almost tangibly sense the band in mid-transformation – albums like The Unforgettable Fire and Zooropa. U2’s latest, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, falls squarely into this last category.
I have to confess that, upon first listen, I was somewhat put off by Atomic Bomb’s punchy debut single, Vertigo. As I suggested above, whatever I’d been expecting from U2’s new album… it certainly wasn’t this. Still, as is often the case with this band, the longer I lived with the track, the more it tended to grow on me. More importantly, it has yet to overstay its welcome – surprising given the song’s near overexposure thanks to Apple’s recent iPod ad campaign. In spite of this (or perhaps because of it), when I finally previewed Atomic Bomb in its entirety, I was once again thrown for a loop. Vertigo is unlike anything else on the disc. It takes a certain amount of daring to tease a new album with a song that’s largely unrepresentative of it, but then U2 has never lacked audacity.
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is very much a logical progression from U2’s previous studio release. If you take All That You Can’t Leave Behind and spin it with a hint of the band’s more recent single, Electrical Storm, you come to a pretty good jumping off point from which to approach this latest work. You quickly get the sense that Atomic Bomb is very much The Edge’s album musically, owing its leaner character to his ever driving guitar hooks. There are subtle touches layered into several of its eleven songs that musically recall elements of The Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. Standout tracks include Miracle Drug, All Because of You and (my favorite) City of Blinding Lights .
But if Atomic Bomb is the sound of a band that’s playfully examining where it’s been, it’s also a thoughtful examination of larger, more forward-looking themes. Such grandiose topics as War, Peace, Life, Death, God, Love – they’re all touched upon here in turn, in an interesting balance. Two of the album’s more poignant tracks (One Step Closer and Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own) sprang directly out of Bono’s reaction to the death of his father (in 2001). Bono and company also manage to reflect on the unsettling place in which Humanity currently finds itself in several songs, including Vertigo (“The night is full of holes, as bullets rip the sky of ink with gold, they twinkle as the boys play Rock ‘n Roll…”). Sometimes this rumination works well, sometimes not quite so much. But if the band's reach occasionally exceeds its grasp (Yahweh) and there is the occasional misstep (Love and Peace or Else), there's an emotional honesty present here that's surprisingly refreshing.
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb might not truly be a great album. but it is a very, very good album -- rich for its simplicity, confidently executed and ultimately compelling. It's an album that you'll have to live with a little while before you begin to fully appreciate it. That aside, I have the sneaking suspicion that a number of these eleven songs will age well within U2's larger body of work. Like The Unforgettable Fire before it, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb grows more rewarding with each new listen.
4/5
11/19/04
Reviewed by - Bill Hunt
New U2 albums are never quite what I expect them to be. I generally consider that a good thing. Every second or third release from this band seems to represent a landmark of sorts in the evolution of their sound. Case in point are the likes of War, Joshua Tree, Achtung Baby and All That You Can’t Leave Behind – all highly successful, defining entries in U2’s discography. The steps in between include both live releases (Under a Blood Red Sky and Rattle and Hum) and less commercial, more experimental dalliances (Passengers: Original Soundtracks, Volume 1 and Pop come to mind). Then there are those albums where you can almost tangibly sense the band in mid-transformation – albums like The Unforgettable Fire and Zooropa. U2’s latest, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, falls squarely into this last category.
I have to confess that, upon first listen, I was somewhat put off by Atomic Bomb’s punchy debut single, Vertigo. As I suggested above, whatever I’d been expecting from U2’s new album… it certainly wasn’t this. Still, as is often the case with this band, the longer I lived with the track, the more it tended to grow on me. More importantly, it has yet to overstay its welcome – surprising given the song’s near overexposure thanks to Apple’s recent iPod ad campaign. In spite of this (or perhaps because of it), when I finally previewed Atomic Bomb in its entirety, I was once again thrown for a loop. Vertigo is unlike anything else on the disc. It takes a certain amount of daring to tease a new album with a song that’s largely unrepresentative of it, but then U2 has never lacked audacity.
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is very much a logical progression from U2’s previous studio release. If you take All That You Can’t Leave Behind and spin it with a hint of the band’s more recent single, Electrical Storm, you come to a pretty good jumping off point from which to approach this latest work. You quickly get the sense that Atomic Bomb is very much The Edge’s album musically, owing its leaner character to his ever driving guitar hooks. There are subtle touches layered into several of its eleven songs that musically recall elements of The Unforgettable Fire, Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby. Standout tracks include Miracle Drug, All Because of You and (my favorite) City of Blinding Lights .
But if Atomic Bomb is the sound of a band that’s playfully examining where it’s been, it’s also a thoughtful examination of larger, more forward-looking themes. Such grandiose topics as War, Peace, Life, Death, God, Love – they’re all touched upon here in turn, in an interesting balance. Two of the album’s more poignant tracks (One Step Closer and Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own) sprang directly out of Bono’s reaction to the death of his father (in 2001). Bono and company also manage to reflect on the unsettling place in which Humanity currently finds itself in several songs, including Vertigo (“The night is full of holes, as bullets rip the sky of ink with gold, they twinkle as the boys play Rock ‘n Roll…”). Sometimes this rumination works well, sometimes not quite so much. But if the band's reach occasionally exceeds its grasp (Yahweh) and there is the occasional misstep (Love and Peace or Else), there's an emotional honesty present here that's surprisingly refreshing.
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb might not truly be a great album. but it is a very, very good album -- rich for its simplicity, confidently executed and ultimately compelling. It's an album that you'll have to live with a little while before you begin to fully appreciate it. That aside, I have the sneaking suspicion that a number of these eleven songs will age well within U2's larger body of work. Like The Unforgettable Fire before it, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb grows more rewarding with each new listen.
4/5
Dalton
Blue Crack Addict
This is the best review that I have read so far. I disagree with some of it, but I think he explains his thoughts in a fair way.
EXIT_TO_THE_NORTH
The Fly
This album is a big time 'grower.' and not b/c it's unaccessible or boring — to me, it's because it has very complex things going on lyrically and the rest.
I didn't like AB went it first came out, with the exception of One — on first listen I thought, This song will be as big as any Rolling Stones song. About AB, I didn't like the lyrics all that much, I thought it was over-produced. Actually, today I only truly enjoy maybe half the songs. More filler on there than on HTDAAB, that's for sure!
But I digress, the new album does indeed get better with every listen. Thus, I think in the next couple years it WILL be regarded as on equal ground with JT — just in a more current, more real kind of album that deals with the interior rather than the exterior (JT & AB) — which I find more important.
I didn't like AB went it first came out, with the exception of One — on first listen I thought, This song will be as big as any Rolling Stones song. About AB, I didn't like the lyrics all that much, I thought it was over-produced. Actually, today I only truly enjoy maybe half the songs. More filler on there than on HTDAAB, that's for sure!
But I digress, the new album does indeed get better with every listen. Thus, I think in the next couple years it WILL be regarded as on equal ground with JT — just in a more current, more real kind of album that deals with the interior rather than the exterior (JT & AB) — which I find more important.
mikal
Blue Crack Addict
yes. great read, although i do feel that this album has a much depth as Achtung and Joshua Tree.
bathiu said:"I guess the truth hurts"... @ "vocal minority"
There's this theory about U2 albums that is ALWAYS right, it looks like this:
Boy - good
October - worse than last one
War - better than last one
UF - worse
JT - better
R&H - worse
AB - better
Zooropa - worse
Pop - better
ATYCanLB - worse
HTDAAB - better
.
.
.
.
any questions?
Where did you get this theory from?
I would say Zooropa, Pop and ATYCLB are, in general consensus, more equal than that. Good but not great, and I think Pop is the weakest U2 album since AB.
Zooropa - worse
Pop - even worse
ATYCLB - better
Last edited:
xovonob now!
The Fly
- Joined
- Nov 6, 2004
- Messages
- 70
bathiu said:"I guess the truth hurts"... @ "vocal minority"
There's this theory about U2 albums that is ALWAYS right, it looks like this:
Boy - good
October - worse than last one
War - better than last one
UF - worse
JT - better
R&H - worse
AB - better
Zooropa - worse
Pop - better
ATYCanLB - worse
HTDAAB - better
.
.
.
.
any questions?
You had me up until Unforgettable Fire. I love War, but UF is in no way worse.
Great review/interview by USA TODAY!
USA Today praises the new album, as Edna Gunderson interviews all four band members on the eve of release.
‘How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, U2's 11th studio album and first since 2000, arrives Tuesday amid more anticipation than any release this year. The blissful and aggressive "Vertigo," No. 1 at modern rock stations, is the band's hottest U.S. single to date and just knocked Eminem off the top of the U.K. chart.
Despite Internet piracy, retailers expect a monster opening week and huge holiday sales, and promoters predict instant sellouts for a world tour starting March 1 in Miami.
The Irish quartet isn't just the biggest rock band on the planet, but arguably the best, retaining a relevance years after many contemporaries faded or decamped to the oldies pasture. While such '80s-hatched giants as Madonna, R.E.M. and the Beastie Boys head into retrograde, U2 is entering its25th year with critical and commercial propulsion. The band still craves rock credibility and chart domination, in that order.
"Right now, we're excited about being a full-on rock 'n' roll band and playing big venues and being a contender for album-of-the-year and having a song on top 40 radio," says Edge, 43, whose guitar is Bomb's uranium core. "But we don't see that as the only way to be successful. What we want to preserve above everything else is the creative life of the band. Our approach to being commercial is be really good and original and don't worry about it."
He and bassist Adam Clayton, 44, are on break downstairs in U2's unobtrusive Hanover Quay studio on the Liffey River that divides the city's north and south sides. HQ has been a frenzied ground zero for Atomic Bomb, under construction for two years.
If Bomb were to bomb, U2 won't vanish in the smouldering crater. Clayton says, "There's something pure and fundamental about always being able to continue performing your body of work. I can see why Bob Dylan chose that. You start that way and end that way. To carry on playing smaller concerts would be absolutely appropriate. You keep the songs alive."
That's what Bono was doing the day before while lunching with friends at U2 manager Paul McGuinness' country manse in Annamoe, an hour south of Dublin. Playing Atomic Bomb at high volume, McGuinness apologizes for his failings as a DJ each time his stereo shuts off when the bass rumbles forth. "City of Blinding Lights," a soaring post-9/11 anthem that applies to any loss of innocence, cuts out, but Bono is undeterred, belting a cappella, "What happened to the beauty inside of me?...Time won't take the boy out of this man."
Atomic Bomb has the wisdom, depth and complexity expected from the durable foursome, but there's also some of 1980's Boy power and no shortage of buoyant optimism, still evident today.
The final hours of recording were "manic, incredible, exciting," says Bono, 44. "People were drinking coffee and walking into walls."
Atomic energy unleashed
Recorded in Dublin and France, Bomb underwent multiple mutations as the band challenged itself to outdo déjà U2.
"The last tour represented a ramping up," Clayton says. "We were cooking and thinking we could do anything. The plan for a rock record had been festering for a long time, and Edge had a lot of starting points."
Reinvigorated by the globally embraced All That You Can't Leave Behind and subsequent Elevation Tour, Edge holed up to pile up Bomb's guitar-driven rough drafts.
"From Achtung Baby, I'd been thinking in terms of keyboards, and guitar was something I had to do," Edge says. "Then I got excited about electric guitar again, and I've been working in primary colors."
After the band enlisted producer Chris Thomas, sessions initially sizzled and then stalled.
"It started out to be a rock 'n' roll album, pure and simple," Bono says. "We were very excited that Edge wasn't sitting at the piano or twiddling a piece of technology, because he is one of the great guitarists. Halfway through, we got bored, because it turns out you can only go so far with rifferama. We wanted more dimension. Now you've got punk rock starting points that go through Phil Spectorland, turn right at Tim Buckley, end up in alleyways and open onto other vistas and cityscapes and rooftops and skies. It's songwriting by accident, by a punk band that wants to play Bach."
By mutual agreement, Thomas left. Steve Lillywhite hopped aboard, as did Nellee Hooper, Flood and Jacknife Lee, dubbed a "sonic terrorist" by Bono.
Atomic Bomb "started off one color, and it had to change," drummer Larry Mullen Jr., 43, explains. "Chris was great at things we were quite good at. There wasn't a row, but we'd come to an impasse."
Within a week, U2 re-recorded five songs, though Bomb-making was never a blasé task.
"Edge is a terrier," Mullen says. "There was a particular drum part, a little inflection I did by accident on a demo we made three years ago in France. It came up in a different idea with a similar guitar. Edge said, 'It's not the same drum.' I said, 'Yes, it is.' He said, 'No, listen to this.' And he pulled the demo out."
Dismantling Bomb's origins, Bono recalls an early version of "Vertigo" that was massaged, hammered, tweaked and lubed before it sailed through two mixes and got U2's unanimous stamp of "very good," which meant not good enough.
"Very good," Bono says, "is the enemy of great. You think great is right next door. It's not. It's in another country."
"Vertigo" was outfitted in a new arrangement, melody and rhythms.
The band discovered untapped reserves of ideas and fortitude. Bono's voice rebounded from "toast," as Mullen put it, to butter.
"There's a strength to my voice I haven't had for 10 years," Bono says, adding with a laugh, "I hope I don't use it to bludgeon people, which I've done in the past, hectoring instead of singing."
At the heart of Bomb
Bono's activism kept him busy while Mullen, Clayton and Edge fine-tuned the sonics, but in his role as lyricist, he left his lecture notes at the podium.
"We've always been political in an organic way," Edge says. "I thought actually this would be a more political album. I think Bono did, too. I'm amazed at how personal it is. It's not a manifesto. It's about what matters. It's an honest snapshot of where we're at."
The album title, lifted from a song ("Fast Cars") only on an import version, hints at an anti-war agenda, yet much of Bomb's ache and intimacy stems from the death of Bono's father in 2001. The words fell swiftly into place.
"Nothing like bereavement to keep the heart porous," Bono says. "It's hardness of the heart that can close down a writer."
Though not immediately conveying themes of faith and foreboding, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is a fitting title.
"This is a gigantic and preposterous analogy," he warns. "In the days after Hiroshima, people were never so close to their families and never so hedonistic. The world was a much more fragile place when they saw what the splitting of the atom could do. Suddenly, the world had a sell-by date, perhaps. This album was no time for philosophizing. This is about who do you love, how do you love, why do you love."
Mullen can't recall a U2 record that exudes more confidence, the byproduct of repeated cliff dives.
"We make mistakes all the time," he says. "We're very slow learners, but we do learn. The only way we got to this record was by going down that road. Some mistakes have been our saving grace."
Others were just embarrassing.
"You only have to look at the mullet," Bono says of his mid-'80s hairdo. "Some mistakes have been stepping stones. What I regret the most are the unfinished songs, the lyrical sketches in the '80s. Larry has this project to finish the Pop album, which could have been a masterpiece with more time. People will always cite as a mistake us appearing nightly in a giant 40-foot mirrorball lemon spacecraft (on the PopMart tour). It was so Day-Glo, so George Clinton. I don't regret it."
The emergence of each U2 album follows a maelstrom of discovery, architecture, deconstruction, bloodshed, debate and group therapy to resolve issues of identity crisis and artistic anxiety.
"Most bands have a musical place — blues, hip-hop or rock," Mullen says. "We're still finding our place. We've never sought the musical accomplishment. We never studied the craft and art or learned how to do things correctly. We found it more interesting to experiment. We get as excited as children and use our dysfunction and inability to our advantage. On the road, people tell us, 'You're so serious and intense.' Well, if you couldn't play and had 50,000 people watching, you'd be intense."
The key is a sublime alchemy and a collective inability to be satisfied.
"It's a group effort in every sense," Edge says. "There's a lot of groping in the dark, because you can't dial up the necessary vision. Everyone's pushing in the same direction. That's why the band shines more than we could as individuals. We've long since stopped worrying about our personal space or reward in terms of ambition or effort. We see it as a group ego. There's no need to be diplomatic or subtle."
The grand and gorgeous tunes that waft from U2's dockside abbey exact a price from the band of brothers battling inside.
"We are brutal in a very clinical way," Bono says. "That eye is almost cruel in its search for beauty. No one notices the blows or sees the bruises. All we're concerned about is where is the beauty."
USA Today praises the new album, as Edna Gunderson interviews all four band members on the eve of release.
‘How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, U2's 11th studio album and first since 2000, arrives Tuesday amid more anticipation than any release this year. The blissful and aggressive "Vertigo," No. 1 at modern rock stations, is the band's hottest U.S. single to date and just knocked Eminem off the top of the U.K. chart.
Despite Internet piracy, retailers expect a monster opening week and huge holiday sales, and promoters predict instant sellouts for a world tour starting March 1 in Miami.
The Irish quartet isn't just the biggest rock band on the planet, but arguably the best, retaining a relevance years after many contemporaries faded or decamped to the oldies pasture. While such '80s-hatched giants as Madonna, R.E.M. and the Beastie Boys head into retrograde, U2 is entering its25th year with critical and commercial propulsion. The band still craves rock credibility and chart domination, in that order.
"Right now, we're excited about being a full-on rock 'n' roll band and playing big venues and being a contender for album-of-the-year and having a song on top 40 radio," says Edge, 43, whose guitar is Bomb's uranium core. "But we don't see that as the only way to be successful. What we want to preserve above everything else is the creative life of the band. Our approach to being commercial is be really good and original and don't worry about it."
He and bassist Adam Clayton, 44, are on break downstairs in U2's unobtrusive Hanover Quay studio on the Liffey River that divides the city's north and south sides. HQ has been a frenzied ground zero for Atomic Bomb, under construction for two years.
If Bomb were to bomb, U2 won't vanish in the smouldering crater. Clayton says, "There's something pure and fundamental about always being able to continue performing your body of work. I can see why Bob Dylan chose that. You start that way and end that way. To carry on playing smaller concerts would be absolutely appropriate. You keep the songs alive."
That's what Bono was doing the day before while lunching with friends at U2 manager Paul McGuinness' country manse in Annamoe, an hour south of Dublin. Playing Atomic Bomb at high volume, McGuinness apologizes for his failings as a DJ each time his stereo shuts off when the bass rumbles forth. "City of Blinding Lights," a soaring post-9/11 anthem that applies to any loss of innocence, cuts out, but Bono is undeterred, belting a cappella, "What happened to the beauty inside of me?...Time won't take the boy out of this man."
Atomic Bomb has the wisdom, depth and complexity expected from the durable foursome, but there's also some of 1980's Boy power and no shortage of buoyant optimism, still evident today.
The final hours of recording were "manic, incredible, exciting," says Bono, 44. "People were drinking coffee and walking into walls."
Atomic energy unleashed
Recorded in Dublin and France, Bomb underwent multiple mutations as the band challenged itself to outdo déjà U2.
"The last tour represented a ramping up," Clayton says. "We were cooking and thinking we could do anything. The plan for a rock record had been festering for a long time, and Edge had a lot of starting points."
Reinvigorated by the globally embraced All That You Can't Leave Behind and subsequent Elevation Tour, Edge holed up to pile up Bomb's guitar-driven rough drafts.
"From Achtung Baby, I'd been thinking in terms of keyboards, and guitar was something I had to do," Edge says. "Then I got excited about electric guitar again, and I've been working in primary colors."
After the band enlisted producer Chris Thomas, sessions initially sizzled and then stalled.
"It started out to be a rock 'n' roll album, pure and simple," Bono says. "We were very excited that Edge wasn't sitting at the piano or twiddling a piece of technology, because he is one of the great guitarists. Halfway through, we got bored, because it turns out you can only go so far with rifferama. We wanted more dimension. Now you've got punk rock starting points that go through Phil Spectorland, turn right at Tim Buckley, end up in alleyways and open onto other vistas and cityscapes and rooftops and skies. It's songwriting by accident, by a punk band that wants to play Bach."
By mutual agreement, Thomas left. Steve Lillywhite hopped aboard, as did Nellee Hooper, Flood and Jacknife Lee, dubbed a "sonic terrorist" by Bono.
Atomic Bomb "started off one color, and it had to change," drummer Larry Mullen Jr., 43, explains. "Chris was great at things we were quite good at. There wasn't a row, but we'd come to an impasse."
Within a week, U2 re-recorded five songs, though Bomb-making was never a blasé task.
"Edge is a terrier," Mullen says. "There was a particular drum part, a little inflection I did by accident on a demo we made three years ago in France. It came up in a different idea with a similar guitar. Edge said, 'It's not the same drum.' I said, 'Yes, it is.' He said, 'No, listen to this.' And he pulled the demo out."
Dismantling Bomb's origins, Bono recalls an early version of "Vertigo" that was massaged, hammered, tweaked and lubed before it sailed through two mixes and got U2's unanimous stamp of "very good," which meant not good enough.
"Very good," Bono says, "is the enemy of great. You think great is right next door. It's not. It's in another country."
"Vertigo" was outfitted in a new arrangement, melody and rhythms.
The band discovered untapped reserves of ideas and fortitude. Bono's voice rebounded from "toast," as Mullen put it, to butter.
"There's a strength to my voice I haven't had for 10 years," Bono says, adding with a laugh, "I hope I don't use it to bludgeon people, which I've done in the past, hectoring instead of singing."
At the heart of Bomb
Bono's activism kept him busy while Mullen, Clayton and Edge fine-tuned the sonics, but in his role as lyricist, he left his lecture notes at the podium.
"We've always been political in an organic way," Edge says. "I thought actually this would be a more political album. I think Bono did, too. I'm amazed at how personal it is. It's not a manifesto. It's about what matters. It's an honest snapshot of where we're at."
The album title, lifted from a song ("Fast Cars") only on an import version, hints at an anti-war agenda, yet much of Bomb's ache and intimacy stems from the death of Bono's father in 2001. The words fell swiftly into place.
"Nothing like bereavement to keep the heart porous," Bono says. "It's hardness of the heart that can close down a writer."
Though not immediately conveying themes of faith and foreboding, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is a fitting title.
"This is a gigantic and preposterous analogy," he warns. "In the days after Hiroshima, people were never so close to their families and never so hedonistic. The world was a much more fragile place when they saw what the splitting of the atom could do. Suddenly, the world had a sell-by date, perhaps. This album was no time for philosophizing. This is about who do you love, how do you love, why do you love."
Mullen can't recall a U2 record that exudes more confidence, the byproduct of repeated cliff dives.
"We make mistakes all the time," he says. "We're very slow learners, but we do learn. The only way we got to this record was by going down that road. Some mistakes have been our saving grace."
Others were just embarrassing.
"You only have to look at the mullet," Bono says of his mid-'80s hairdo. "Some mistakes have been stepping stones. What I regret the most are the unfinished songs, the lyrical sketches in the '80s. Larry has this project to finish the Pop album, which could have been a masterpiece with more time. People will always cite as a mistake us appearing nightly in a giant 40-foot mirrorball lemon spacecraft (on the PopMart tour). It was so Day-Glo, so George Clinton. I don't regret it."
The emergence of each U2 album follows a maelstrom of discovery, architecture, deconstruction, bloodshed, debate and group therapy to resolve issues of identity crisis and artistic anxiety.
"Most bands have a musical place — blues, hip-hop or rock," Mullen says. "We're still finding our place. We've never sought the musical accomplishment. We never studied the craft and art or learned how to do things correctly. We found it more interesting to experiment. We get as excited as children and use our dysfunction and inability to our advantage. On the road, people tell us, 'You're so serious and intense.' Well, if you couldn't play and had 50,000 people watching, you'd be intense."
The key is a sublime alchemy and a collective inability to be satisfied.
"It's a group effort in every sense," Edge says. "There's a lot of groping in the dark, because you can't dial up the necessary vision. Everyone's pushing in the same direction. That's why the band shines more than we could as individuals. We've long since stopped worrying about our personal space or reward in terms of ambition or effort. We see it as a group ego. There's no need to be diplomatic or subtle."
The grand and gorgeous tunes that waft from U2's dockside abbey exact a price from the band of brothers battling inside.
"We are brutal in a very clinical way," Bono says. "That eye is almost cruel in its search for beauty. No one notices the blows or sees the bruises. All we're concerned about is where is the beauty."
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sue4u2
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
Has anyone posted Niall Stokes, HotPress review from the Radio 1 listening? If so I don't want to post it again.. It's 3 parts.
With computer problems, I'm really behind on what's been posted.
Great review in any case...
With computer problems, I'm really behind on what's been posted.
Great review in any case...
UnforgettableLemon
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
Nice read. But the Beastie Boy, while they did make a retro album this year, made a damn good retro album.
Entertainment Weekly review of the bomb
U2 - How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Entertainment Weekly (#794) - November 26, 2004
During an interview with the Edge before the release of All That You Can't Leave Behind four years ago, U2's modest, skullcapped guitarist told me the band was apprehensive when he dusted off his trademark needle-prick sound for "Beautiful Day"; their first reaction was that it felt too predictable. On How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, however, not only is the Edge once moreflicking away at his strings just like old times, but many of the grand gestures U2 had dismantled with each new, exploratory album following The Joshua Tree are also back for a return engagement. From the arrangements from the inevitable crashing-wave crescendos, echoes of "I Will Follow" and "New Year's Day" rumble through the songs. All that's missing is Bono's old white flag.
What motivated this let's-rock-again backpedaling for such a forward-looking band? Ego, pehaps. At the 2001 Grammys, Bono's remark that U2 were reapplying for the job of "best band in the world" was the first sign that these men still hunger for arena crowds and platinum sales; the latest indication is their current, craven iPod tie-in campaign. It's a wonder that Atomic Bomb's liner notes don't include demographic spreadsheets.
That said, U2 are one of the few remaining bands who can make pop-chart lust work for them, as Atomic Bomb intermittently demonstrates. "Crumbs From Your Table" is the type of glorious gallop this band can write in its pub nap, but no one does it better; the tune will surely be a highlight of the group's next tour. "City of Blinding Lights" energetically works the same terrain, all whoo-hoo! chorus and monolithic roar. Compare U2's fate to that of R.E.M., who started out around the same time yet sound as if they can barely get through a song on this year's lackluster Around the Sun. In rock & roll, at least, forced enthusiam trumps lethargy every time.
But perpetual glory is an elusive beast, too, as U2 also learn on an album so tortured it took eight producers to finish it. Bono's voice sounds weathered; the spirit may be willing, but the throat muscles aren't always. Neither are the songs completely up to the band's amps-on-11 level. "Love and Peace or Else" wants to be a towering statement, but on what? the lyrics refer to both a fractured personal relationship and a need to reconnect - a recurring theme on the album-and to wartime images of "the troops on the ground [who] are about to dig in." (Despite the album title, political grandstanding doesn't dominate the songwriting.) The guitars detonating around those words are mostly bombast, and the song turns into musical flop sweat. So it goes with other attempts to party like it's 1989. "All Because of You," one of several punchy three-chorders that should be as direct as a laser beam, bogs down in logy production. The single "Vertigo," an unlikely mix of vigor and afterhours-club-hopping ennui, avoids that fate, but just barely.
For all that, something about U2-their continued seriousness of purpose, a sound still very much their own-makes you root for them. Take "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own," essentially a middling rewrite of "Where the Streets Have No Name." Midway through, as the music begins to crest, Bono intones, "Can...you...hear...me...when...I...sing?" Upon hitting sing, his voice and the Edge's guitars merge into a cathartic release. Then Bono adds, almost as an afterthought, "You're the reason I sing." At least he has a reason, which at this stage of their game, is justification enough for anyone to still care about U2. B
U2 - How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Entertainment Weekly (#794) - November 26, 2004
During an interview with the Edge before the release of All That You Can't Leave Behind four years ago, U2's modest, skullcapped guitarist told me the band was apprehensive when he dusted off his trademark needle-prick sound for "Beautiful Day"; their first reaction was that it felt too predictable. On How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, however, not only is the Edge once moreflicking away at his strings just like old times, but many of the grand gestures U2 had dismantled with each new, exploratory album following The Joshua Tree are also back for a return engagement. From the arrangements from the inevitable crashing-wave crescendos, echoes of "I Will Follow" and "New Year's Day" rumble through the songs. All that's missing is Bono's old white flag.
What motivated this let's-rock-again backpedaling for such a forward-looking band? Ego, pehaps. At the 2001 Grammys, Bono's remark that U2 were reapplying for the job of "best band in the world" was the first sign that these men still hunger for arena crowds and platinum sales; the latest indication is their current, craven iPod tie-in campaign. It's a wonder that Atomic Bomb's liner notes don't include demographic spreadsheets.
That said, U2 are one of the few remaining bands who can make pop-chart lust work for them, as Atomic Bomb intermittently demonstrates. "Crumbs From Your Table" is the type of glorious gallop this band can write in its pub nap, but no one does it better; the tune will surely be a highlight of the group's next tour. "City of Blinding Lights" energetically works the same terrain, all whoo-hoo! chorus and monolithic roar. Compare U2's fate to that of R.E.M., who started out around the same time yet sound as if they can barely get through a song on this year's lackluster Around the Sun. In rock & roll, at least, forced enthusiam trumps lethargy every time.
But perpetual glory is an elusive beast, too, as U2 also learn on an album so tortured it took eight producers to finish it. Bono's voice sounds weathered; the spirit may be willing, but the throat muscles aren't always. Neither are the songs completely up to the band's amps-on-11 level. "Love and Peace or Else" wants to be a towering statement, but on what? the lyrics refer to both a fractured personal relationship and a need to reconnect - a recurring theme on the album-and to wartime images of "the troops on the ground [who] are about to dig in." (Despite the album title, political grandstanding doesn't dominate the songwriting.) The guitars detonating around those words are mostly bombast, and the song turns into musical flop sweat. So it goes with other attempts to party like it's 1989. "All Because of You," one of several punchy three-chorders that should be as direct as a laser beam, bogs down in logy production. The single "Vertigo," an unlikely mix of vigor and afterhours-club-hopping ennui, avoids that fate, but just barely.
For all that, something about U2-their continued seriousness of purpose, a sound still very much their own-makes you root for them. Take "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own," essentially a middling rewrite of "Where the Streets Have No Name." Midway through, as the music begins to crest, Bono intones, "Can...you...hear...me...when...I...sing?" Upon hitting sing, his voice and the Edge's guitars merge into a cathartic release. Then Bono adds, almost as an afterthought, "You're the reason I sing." At least he has a reason, which at this stage of their game, is justification enough for anyone to still care about U2. B
mikal
Blue Crack Addict
entertainment weekly has always been a joke. i didn't even read it. sorry.
Diane L
Rock n' Roll Doggie FOB
This is the same magazine that gave "O Brother Where Art Thou?" an F. I think a B was too low a grade, but that's my opinion.
KennethTanner
Babyface
sue4u2 said:Has anyone posted Niall Stokes, HotPress review from the Radio 1 listening? If so I don't want to post it again.. It's 3 parts.
With computer problems, I'm really behind on what's been posted.
Great review in any case...
I would love to read Niall Stokes review. Please post it.
The Chicago Tribune's Greg Kot reviews U2's new album in the Arts and Entertainment section of the paper today. Not such a great review. It is too long to type, so I'll just give the first and last parargraphs.
Secondhand U2
'How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb' shows a band settling into middle age, recycling past
One way to appreciate the new U2 album, "How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" (Interscope) - perhaps the only way to appreciate it - is to pretend the last 15 years didn't happen.
Sonically, that's as exciting as it gets, and it's not nearly enough to suggest anything like a step forward. Fans who embrace this album will undoubtedly be comforted by how closely it hews to band's trademark sound. But U2 carries weight and meaning because it has always challenged its fans as much as embraced them. "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" shrinks from that high standard by offering U2 by the numbers.
Secondhand U2
'How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb' shows a band settling into middle age, recycling past
One way to appreciate the new U2 album, "How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" (Interscope) - perhaps the only way to appreciate it - is to pretend the last 15 years didn't happen.
Sonically, that's as exciting as it gets, and it's not nearly enough to suggest anything like a step forward. Fans who embrace this album will undoubtedly be comforted by how closely it hews to band's trademark sound. But U2 carries weight and meaning because it has always challenged its fans as much as embraced them. "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" shrinks from that high standard by offering U2 by the numbers.
2 more reviews I found on the net.
http://www.musicomh.com/albums2/u2-2.htm
http://www.sundayherald.com/46152
http://www.musicomh.com/albums2/u2-2.htm
http://www.sundayherald.com/46152
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dsmith2904
ONE love, blood, life
Just posted the one from the LA Times. Shouldn't be a surprise to too many people that Robert Hilburn loves the album.
http://forum.interference.com/t103659.html
http://forum.interference.com/t103659.html
kiwilad
Refugee
Another review ...
This is from the major paper here in NZ. Pretty uninformed review really, but oh well, here it is if you're interested ...
They're in their early 40s now, they always wear sunglasses - even at night - and they keep rolling out the albums. Sitting down to listen to a new U2 album for the first time isn't exactly a woo-hoo moment, especially when you can't take it away from the record company offices. But you have to admire them.
If 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind was an indication of where they're heading, then their 11th studio album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, sees them nail it, if first impressions are anything to go by.
Vertigo (3:16) U2 think it's them doing "punk" and "metal". Settle down boys. It is U2 at their best, but it's just rock'n'roll, rather than a more fiery offshoot of the devil's music. An ideal first single, yet a little too close to Elevation from All That You Can't Leave Behind.
Miracle Drug (3:54) Drummer Larry Mullen jnr bangs the bass drum like a Cook Islands drummer. It's inspiring stuff and Bono's lyrics circle round and round like a vulture, which means you never really know what specifically the song is about.
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own (5:05) Bono sang this at his father's funeral in 2001. Brendan Robert Hewson (Bob) was known as a bit of a tough old bugger, and Bono sings: "We fight all the time you and I / that's alright, we're the same soul." Beautiful and touching.
Love and Peace Or Else (4:48) Dirty, very dirty. It makes you wonder why U2 don't do away with the polish every now and then. A big PJ Harvey-style bassline and Bono coming across all sexy makes this the most innovative U2 song since The Fly. Overall, the best track on the record.
City Of Blinding Lights (5:46) Starts off like Sleepless In Seattle and continues to plod on, inoffensively. The most go-nowhere track here - it's about New York by the way. It is saved by the uplifting piano arrangements and Bono's recurring mantra, "Oh you look so beautiful tonight". You have to smile - he is singing about a city, after all.
All Because Of You (3:34) A more punchy U2 track that's reminiscent of Boy, October and War from the early 80s, but without the political edge and with more polish. It has single release written all over it, but there are better songs here.
A Man And A Woman (4:27) Starts off acoustic and immediately has a soulful shuffle to it, with a Bono and Adam Clayton (on bass, not singing) break mid-song. Sometimes you forget U2 have a rhythm section, but on Atomic Bomb, Clayton and Mullen jnr are to the fore.
Crumbs From Your Table (4:59) True passion from Bono. He always was a flirt, which makes this song one for the ladies. And like a lot of this album, it's the extra instruments and sounds - be it the Edge's guitar atmospherics, or Jacknife Lee's synthesiser - that add another dimension.
One Step Closer (3:48) It's good to know that no matter how big U2 are, they still need a little help from their friends. On this track - which is more like a soundscape than a tune - Daniel Lanois plays pedal steel, Jacknife Lee mixes and plays synth, and they thank Oasis' Noel Gallagher in the credits for some reason.
Original Of The Species (4:34) It's that time on the album. Get your lighter out, or your cellphone, and wave it in the air. Instead of dealing with world politics, this is Bono helping people out with personal politics and saying, "Be proud of yourself". He's a well-rounded guy.
Yahweh (4:22) Keep the lighters out for this song, the title of which is the Hebrew word for God. More Edge guitar noodling with electronic oomph, some inspirational verses and towering choruses. It's U2 then? It sure is.
C4 Music channel C4 dedicates a day to U2 today to celebrate Monday's release of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. Coverage, starting at 4pm, includes interviews with the band, every video ever made, the making of the Vertigo video, Rattle and Hum (the Joshua Tree tour including backstage, tour bus and live footage), and Live at Slane Castle.
DVD Videos: Sometimes You Can Make It On Your Own; Crumbs from Your Table; Vertigo (Temple Bar Remix); Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own (Acoustic Couch Video); Vertigo
This is from the major paper here in NZ. Pretty uninformed review really, but oh well, here it is if you're interested ...
They're in their early 40s now, they always wear sunglasses - even at night - and they keep rolling out the albums. Sitting down to listen to a new U2 album for the first time isn't exactly a woo-hoo moment, especially when you can't take it away from the record company offices. But you have to admire them.
If 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind was an indication of where they're heading, then their 11th studio album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, sees them nail it, if first impressions are anything to go by.
Vertigo (3:16) U2 think it's them doing "punk" and "metal". Settle down boys. It is U2 at their best, but it's just rock'n'roll, rather than a more fiery offshoot of the devil's music. An ideal first single, yet a little too close to Elevation from All That You Can't Leave Behind.
Miracle Drug (3:54) Drummer Larry Mullen jnr bangs the bass drum like a Cook Islands drummer. It's inspiring stuff and Bono's lyrics circle round and round like a vulture, which means you never really know what specifically the song is about.
Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own (5:05) Bono sang this at his father's funeral in 2001. Brendan Robert Hewson (Bob) was known as a bit of a tough old bugger, and Bono sings: "We fight all the time you and I / that's alright, we're the same soul." Beautiful and touching.
Love and Peace Or Else (4:48) Dirty, very dirty. It makes you wonder why U2 don't do away with the polish every now and then. A big PJ Harvey-style bassline and Bono coming across all sexy makes this the most innovative U2 song since The Fly. Overall, the best track on the record.
City Of Blinding Lights (5:46) Starts off like Sleepless In Seattle and continues to plod on, inoffensively. The most go-nowhere track here - it's about New York by the way. It is saved by the uplifting piano arrangements and Bono's recurring mantra, "Oh you look so beautiful tonight". You have to smile - he is singing about a city, after all.
All Because Of You (3:34) A more punchy U2 track that's reminiscent of Boy, October and War from the early 80s, but without the political edge and with more polish. It has single release written all over it, but there are better songs here.
A Man And A Woman (4:27) Starts off acoustic and immediately has a soulful shuffle to it, with a Bono and Adam Clayton (on bass, not singing) break mid-song. Sometimes you forget U2 have a rhythm section, but on Atomic Bomb, Clayton and Mullen jnr are to the fore.
Crumbs From Your Table (4:59) True passion from Bono. He always was a flirt, which makes this song one for the ladies. And like a lot of this album, it's the extra instruments and sounds - be it the Edge's guitar atmospherics, or Jacknife Lee's synthesiser - that add another dimension.
One Step Closer (3:48) It's good to know that no matter how big U2 are, they still need a little help from their friends. On this track - which is more like a soundscape than a tune - Daniel Lanois plays pedal steel, Jacknife Lee mixes and plays synth, and they thank Oasis' Noel Gallagher in the credits for some reason.
Original Of The Species (4:34) It's that time on the album. Get your lighter out, or your cellphone, and wave it in the air. Instead of dealing with world politics, this is Bono helping people out with personal politics and saying, "Be proud of yourself". He's a well-rounded guy.
Yahweh (4:22) Keep the lighters out for this song, the title of which is the Hebrew word for God. More Edge guitar noodling with electronic oomph, some inspirational verses and towering choruses. It's U2 then? It sure is.
C4 Music channel C4 dedicates a day to U2 today to celebrate Monday's release of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. Coverage, starting at 4pm, includes interviews with the band, every video ever made, the making of the Vertigo video, Rattle and Hum (the Joshua Tree tour including backstage, tour bus and live footage), and Live at Slane Castle.
DVD Videos: Sometimes You Can Make It On Your Own; Crumbs from Your Table; Vertigo (Temple Bar Remix); Sometimes You Can't Make it On Your Own (Acoustic Couch Video); Vertigo
gorman
Refugee
For some reason I found that really funny. Mainly because it's one of the worst written reviews I've ever seen
Thanks for posting it though, it was amusing.
Thanks for posting it though, it was amusing.
trashdaveed
The Fly
- Joined
- Aug 25, 2002
- Messages
- 107
Pitchfork Review
Before everyone bashes the 6.9/10.0 rating (it's pitchforkmedia.com by the way), keep in mind that they are the powerful 'hipster' reviewers that sort of set the pattern for what all other indie types will think about a given album. They're not big fans of U2 (5.0 for ATYCLB and 5.6 for Best Of 90-00), of course they couldn't possibly be considering the need to maintain indie cred, but altogether this isn't a horrible review for a website that usually trashes the few big acts they review (check out recent Eminem or Snoop reviews) and who are more often negative than not. As a regular reader of pitchfork, I'd say 6.9 for a post-80's U2 album is very, very good. Enjoy. (Yaweh fans beware!)
U2
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
[Interscope; 2004]
Rating: 6.9
U2 has been crowned the biggest band in the world so many times that, at least conceptually, they've finally managed to transcend themselves, ditching their earthly digs and assuming cartoonish proportions. And that might be why the four silhouettes currently twitching across America's TV screens, jerkily promoting U2-branded iPods over big, neon expanses, seem so eerily apropos: the flesh and blood members of U2 have been reduced to signifiers, mock-ups, representatives. They are bigger than their band.
Produced by arena-guru Steve Lillywhite (with help from longtime twiddlers Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, and Flood), U2's 11th LP, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, is brash, grungy, and loud-- everything R.E.M. tried (and failed) to be on Monster, and everything U2 opted out of being on 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind. Still, Atomic Bomb is not an especially surprising record. It's a classic mix of colossal ballads and jerky rockers-- part-The Unforgettable Fire, part-Achtung Baby. Theoretically, Atomic Bomb weds classic U2 (echoing guitars, big sound, soaring vocals) with nu-U2 (experimental tweaks, electronic flourishes) but, high aspirations aside, the only marriage the record ultimately achieves is the union of good U2 and bad U2. So take a deep breath and prepare for a tiny handful of outstanding tracks and a whole mess of schmaltzy filler.
U2 may be a staunchly democratic machine (ask Eno), but Bono is still singularly responsible for propelling U2-as-uber-group forward, leering out from behind oversized yellow goggles, crusading righteously to reduce Third World debt, campaigning against AIDS, spitting post-Beat induction speeches from Jann Wenner's Hall of Fame podium, bobbing stupidly for Apple, talking and talking and talking about himself. Publicly, U2 are overblown and decadent, sporting silly, abstract monikers and booking colossal stadium tours, calling presidents, wearing sunglasses in the dark, anchoring the Superbowl, pushing products. Bono is 43 years old, boasts remarkable sway both inside and outside the pop culture sphere, and fronts one of the most universally recognizable rock bands of all time: He is a neo-superstar-- global, important, impossibly entertaining, and forever tiptoeing the line between wholly extraordinary and idiotically self-obsessed.
Despite a deliberately leading album title-- and one lone, overtly suggestive song title ("Love and Peace Or Else")-- How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is a curiously apolitical record, more about love and loyalty (and the 2001 death of Bono's father) than impending global doom. The decision to sidestep bold politicking and instead highlight feelings-and-guitars is a particularly compelling one right now, given the super-charged months preceding the record's release (and the mŽlange of global conflicts now escalating to new levels of absurdity). Listeners are left wondering if Bono's elbows-deep international activism has somehow turned him off to the (comparably nebulous) effort of writing protest songs-- has all the dirt under his fingernails made the act of emoting into a microphone seem a little less urgent? "Saving the world is now a daily chore," Bono joked to The New York Times-- even in jest, it's a completely ridiculous thing to say. And yet?
Deliberately or not, Bono-as-bespectacled-celebrity-crusader seeps into nearly everything U2 does, sometimes to significant aesthetic effect: When Bono starts cawing urgently about a place called "Vertigo", declaring it "everything I wish I didn't know," it's possible that he's talking about girls or his father or his band-- or Bono might be squealing about something far worse, something awful, something most of us are lucky enough to have never witnessed. The problem is that it's extraordinarily difficult to ever really know exactly what Bono is talking about. Almost without exception, Bono yowls vague, cliched observations, his sentiments always awkwardly bombastic or hopelessly maudlin (check "Miracle Drug," where we are invited to ponder how "Freedom has a scent/ Like the top of a newborn baby's head," or "A Man and A Woman", where we contemplate "the mysterious distance between a man and a woman," or even just repeated-- seriously!-- "Where is the love?" demands.)
Loads of listeners have already noted that opener "Vertigo" bears an odd resemblance to The Supremes' gorgeously desperate "You Keep Me Hanging On", except "Vertigo" is framed by a classic punk shout-down where-- get this!-- Bono's totally singing in Spanish! Wait, he said catorce! It's a classic U2 moment: worldly, frantic, irritatingly deliberate. But when the Edge slams into his guitar, hollering a smirky "Hola!" to Bono's quasi-confrontational "Hello, hello!" it's awfully easy to forgive: "Vertigo" is hopelessly appealing, somehow growing less stupid and more compelling with each listen.
"Vertigo" is followed by a pair of swirly half-ballads, the plodding, overblown "Miracle Drug" and the super-sappy "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own", before we're mercifully handed "Love and Peace Or Else", a snarly, throbbing bit of solace. "Love and Peace" opens with a platter of ominous noise, shaky guitar grumbles rubbing up against high-pitched whines. Drums rumble, and Bono lodges his best semi-seductive demand: "Lay down, lay down." "Love and Peace" is chased by the equally exhilarating "City of Blinding Lights", an earnest and galactic fight song, and the sort of track that's best enjoyed in cars and airplanes, simply because it encites so much giddy movement. But "City of Blinding Lights" is the record's climax, and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb begins its gnawing descent almost immediately, culminating with disastrous closer "Yahweh", a whiny, monotonous mess that's easily one of the worst songs U2 have ever recorded.
Maybe the biggest problem with Atomic Bomb is just that it sounds so much like U2, and their semi-absurd, totally unparalleled ubiquity has left all of us just a tiny bit tired of listening to things that sound like U2. This isn't completely their fault-- they tried to change (see the questionable Zooropa or the disastrous Pop), and we didn't like that, either. Bono has talked publicly about U2's longevity and quasi-diversity, crediting their shape-shifting to his band's unbreakable internal bonds-- U2 can afford to mess around, because the "spirit" of the band is so strong, so infinitely recognizable. But maybe U2's immortality is also their biggest curse-- and now they're forced to wallow in superstardom, forever perpetuating their own colossal myth.
-Amanda Petrusich, November 22nd, 2004
Before everyone bashes the 6.9/10.0 rating (it's pitchforkmedia.com by the way), keep in mind that they are the powerful 'hipster' reviewers that sort of set the pattern for what all other indie types will think about a given album. They're not big fans of U2 (5.0 for ATYCLB and 5.6 for Best Of 90-00), of course they couldn't possibly be considering the need to maintain indie cred, but altogether this isn't a horrible review for a website that usually trashes the few big acts they review (check out recent Eminem or Snoop reviews) and who are more often negative than not. As a regular reader of pitchfork, I'd say 6.9 for a post-80's U2 album is very, very good. Enjoy. (Yaweh fans beware!)
U2
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
[Interscope; 2004]
Rating: 6.9
U2 has been crowned the biggest band in the world so many times that, at least conceptually, they've finally managed to transcend themselves, ditching their earthly digs and assuming cartoonish proportions. And that might be why the four silhouettes currently twitching across America's TV screens, jerkily promoting U2-branded iPods over big, neon expanses, seem so eerily apropos: the flesh and blood members of U2 have been reduced to signifiers, mock-ups, representatives. They are bigger than their band.
Produced by arena-guru Steve Lillywhite (with help from longtime twiddlers Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, and Flood), U2's 11th LP, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, is brash, grungy, and loud-- everything R.E.M. tried (and failed) to be on Monster, and everything U2 opted out of being on 2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind. Still, Atomic Bomb is not an especially surprising record. It's a classic mix of colossal ballads and jerky rockers-- part-The Unforgettable Fire, part-Achtung Baby. Theoretically, Atomic Bomb weds classic U2 (echoing guitars, big sound, soaring vocals) with nu-U2 (experimental tweaks, electronic flourishes) but, high aspirations aside, the only marriage the record ultimately achieves is the union of good U2 and bad U2. So take a deep breath and prepare for a tiny handful of outstanding tracks and a whole mess of schmaltzy filler.
U2 may be a staunchly democratic machine (ask Eno), but Bono is still singularly responsible for propelling U2-as-uber-group forward, leering out from behind oversized yellow goggles, crusading righteously to reduce Third World debt, campaigning against AIDS, spitting post-Beat induction speeches from Jann Wenner's Hall of Fame podium, bobbing stupidly for Apple, talking and talking and talking about himself. Publicly, U2 are overblown and decadent, sporting silly, abstract monikers and booking colossal stadium tours, calling presidents, wearing sunglasses in the dark, anchoring the Superbowl, pushing products. Bono is 43 years old, boasts remarkable sway both inside and outside the pop culture sphere, and fronts one of the most universally recognizable rock bands of all time: He is a neo-superstar-- global, important, impossibly entertaining, and forever tiptoeing the line between wholly extraordinary and idiotically self-obsessed.
Despite a deliberately leading album title-- and one lone, overtly suggestive song title ("Love and Peace Or Else")-- How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is a curiously apolitical record, more about love and loyalty (and the 2001 death of Bono's father) than impending global doom. The decision to sidestep bold politicking and instead highlight feelings-and-guitars is a particularly compelling one right now, given the super-charged months preceding the record's release (and the mŽlange of global conflicts now escalating to new levels of absurdity). Listeners are left wondering if Bono's elbows-deep international activism has somehow turned him off to the (comparably nebulous) effort of writing protest songs-- has all the dirt under his fingernails made the act of emoting into a microphone seem a little less urgent? "Saving the world is now a daily chore," Bono joked to The New York Times-- even in jest, it's a completely ridiculous thing to say. And yet?
Deliberately or not, Bono-as-bespectacled-celebrity-crusader seeps into nearly everything U2 does, sometimes to significant aesthetic effect: When Bono starts cawing urgently about a place called "Vertigo", declaring it "everything I wish I didn't know," it's possible that he's talking about girls or his father or his band-- or Bono might be squealing about something far worse, something awful, something most of us are lucky enough to have never witnessed. The problem is that it's extraordinarily difficult to ever really know exactly what Bono is talking about. Almost without exception, Bono yowls vague, cliched observations, his sentiments always awkwardly bombastic or hopelessly maudlin (check "Miracle Drug," where we are invited to ponder how "Freedom has a scent/ Like the top of a newborn baby's head," or "A Man and A Woman", where we contemplate "the mysterious distance between a man and a woman," or even just repeated-- seriously!-- "Where is the love?" demands.)
Loads of listeners have already noted that opener "Vertigo" bears an odd resemblance to The Supremes' gorgeously desperate "You Keep Me Hanging On", except "Vertigo" is framed by a classic punk shout-down where-- get this!-- Bono's totally singing in Spanish! Wait, he said catorce! It's a classic U2 moment: worldly, frantic, irritatingly deliberate. But when the Edge slams into his guitar, hollering a smirky "Hola!" to Bono's quasi-confrontational "Hello, hello!" it's awfully easy to forgive: "Vertigo" is hopelessly appealing, somehow growing less stupid and more compelling with each listen.
"Vertigo" is followed by a pair of swirly half-ballads, the plodding, overblown "Miracle Drug" and the super-sappy "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own", before we're mercifully handed "Love and Peace Or Else", a snarly, throbbing bit of solace. "Love and Peace" opens with a platter of ominous noise, shaky guitar grumbles rubbing up against high-pitched whines. Drums rumble, and Bono lodges his best semi-seductive demand: "Lay down, lay down." "Love and Peace" is chased by the equally exhilarating "City of Blinding Lights", an earnest and galactic fight song, and the sort of track that's best enjoyed in cars and airplanes, simply because it encites so much giddy movement. But "City of Blinding Lights" is the record's climax, and How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb begins its gnawing descent almost immediately, culminating with disastrous closer "Yahweh", a whiny, monotonous mess that's easily one of the worst songs U2 have ever recorded.
Maybe the biggest problem with Atomic Bomb is just that it sounds so much like U2, and their semi-absurd, totally unparalleled ubiquity has left all of us just a tiny bit tired of listening to things that sound like U2. This isn't completely their fault-- they tried to change (see the questionable Zooropa or the disastrous Pop), and we didn't like that, either. Bono has talked publicly about U2's longevity and quasi-diversity, crediting their shape-shifting to his band's unbreakable internal bonds-- U2 can afford to mess around, because the "spirit" of the band is so strong, so infinitely recognizable. But maybe U2's immortality is also their biggest curse-- and now they're forced to wallow in superstardom, forever perpetuating their own colossal myth.
-Amanda Petrusich, November 22nd, 2004
kiwilad
Refugee
Yeah I know exactly what you mean, it is really bad!
In fact, it could be the worst HTDAAB review I've read! Although some of the early negative reviews from European fan sites were miles off the mark.
In fact, it could be the worst HTDAAB review I've read! Although some of the early negative reviews from European fan sites were miles off the mark.
kiwilad
Refugee
Haha, that wasn't so bad I suppose, in fact the review of Love and Peace or Else was very well done! I guess to be huge means U2 will always be uncool to the fringes, but that's OK, I like them and their music exactly how it is! I'm obviously no punk huh!
Cheers for posting
Cheers for posting
AussieU2fanman
Refugee
Re: Pitchfork Review
What a fuckhead. I won't even comment on that. (except with the fuckhead remark )
trashdaveed said:
What a fuckhead. I won't even comment on that. (except with the fuckhead remark
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