UK Uncut Magazine HTDAAB Preview!!
- Thread starter AtomicLemon
- 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.
Sleep Over Jack
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"One Step Closer" sounds really interesting..
djerdap
Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
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Thanks Jim! Can't wait to hear the Yahweh review! Love the Sometimes description.
maxpouliot
War Child
anything on Fast Cars?
Sleep Over Jack
Refugee
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Jim said:
Beatleseque eh? Never a bad thing
maxpouliot
War Child
is there an overall review Jim?
RademR
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
I love the descriptions, it definetly goes more into the songs than the others, even though he slowed down at the end. The biggest thing I pick up is Bonos lyrics, I think they look great.
Souly
Rock n' Roll Doggie Band-aid
Thanks Jim!
SoBe
Refugee
Thank You Jim!
TheFlyOnTheWall
Refugee
I wonder what would the song-by-song reviews of AB or JT look like... 
Thanks for the thanks - no problem. The introduction gives us a backround to the album and production that we already know plus a few.
Ah bollox I'll type it up:
After the speculation, gossip and rumour, U2 will release the highly anticipated new album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, on November 22nd. Produced by Steve Lilywhite with assistance from Flood, Jacknife Lee, Nelee Hooper and Chris Thomas, the title was suggested to Bono by Damien Hirst. Further light was shed on the title's significance by Christian singer and friend of the band Michael W Smith, who reports that Bono recently asked him if he knew how to disarm such a weapon. When Smith said he did notm Bono answered his own question: "Love. With Love". With R.E.M. also releasing a new album this month, HTDAAB sounds like a consolidation of their re-application for the title of World's Biggest Rock Band with 2001's ATYCLB. The writing sounds like a logical development from it's predecessor. But the music is driven by the guitar of The Edge, and the production echoes the bands early days. Forget the speculation you may have heard elsewhere. Here Uncut offers the exclusive inside track of the album's 11 songs, and reveals details of an unannounced bonus track.....
Ah bollox I'll type it up:
After the speculation, gossip and rumour, U2 will release the highly anticipated new album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, on November 22nd. Produced by Steve Lilywhite with assistance from Flood, Jacknife Lee, Nelee Hooper and Chris Thomas, the title was suggested to Bono by Damien Hirst. Further light was shed on the title's significance by Christian singer and friend of the band Michael W Smith, who reports that Bono recently asked him if he knew how to disarm such a weapon. When Smith said he did notm Bono answered his own question: "Love. With Love". With R.E.M. also releasing a new album this month, HTDAAB sounds like a consolidation of their re-application for the title of World's Biggest Rock Band with 2001's ATYCLB. The writing sounds like a logical development from it's predecessor. But the music is driven by the guitar of The Edge, and the production echoes the bands early days. Forget the speculation you may have heard elsewhere. Here Uncut offers the exclusive inside track of the album's 11 songs, and reveals details of an unannounced bonus track.....
RademR
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
We appreciate it, Jim. Here is the song by song in one post for the newcomers to the thread:
VERTIGO
Thindering bass from Adam Clayton, jagged guitar and a punkish riff that suggests they haven't ignored the rise of The Strokes et al in the three years since ATYCLB. An anthem to the more redemptive power of rock'n'roll and gets more epic as the track goes on and and ends in a dozen triumphant cries of 'Yeah, yeah, yeah!"
MIRACLE DRUG
A slow, echoing start with cello, before Bono's voice plaintively sings, "I want to trip inside your head, spend a day there, hear the things you haven't said". The Edge's guitar takes up a ringing, ascending motif, it's clearly some kind of love song, although lyrics such as, "love and logic keep us clear, reason is on our side" might have been lifted from a Scientology manual.
SOMETIMES YOU CAN'T MAKE IT ON YOUR OWN
Written for Bono's father and sung at his funeral. Like a companion for 'One', it starts slow and hauntingly but builds dramatically, until Bono breaks into a shimering falsetto: "It's you when I look into the mirror". It ends in a crescendo of visceral emotion before being stripped back down to a heartbeat. Both uplifting and heart-rendering, and despite the personal nature of the subject the effect is universal.
LOVE AND PEACE OR ELSE
U2's own Middle East peace initiative, apparently, with lyrics telling the "daughters of Zion" and "sons of Abraham" to "lay down your guns". Musically there's so much happening: it starts with a rumbling, half-hearted sound like distant gunfire before a raw blues riff takes over, The Edge eventually pusing it into the realm of heavy metal. Then it ends with some martial drumming from Larry Mullen and spiraling guitar, as Bono repeatedly intones, "Where is the love?"
CITY OF BLINDING LIGHTS
At almost six minutes, the longest track on the album. It opens with guitar effects and surprisingly, tinkling keyboard melody before the rhythm builds into something more insistent, beautiful but slightly sinister. Blessed with one of those great, whoosing, "whoa-whoa-whoa" choruses and an irrepressible hook. ("Oh you look so beautiful tonight in the city of blinding lights"), much of the rest of the lyric ("the more you see the less you kno") has a similarly Zen quality to George Harrison's "The Inner Light".
ALL BECAUSE OF YOU
With a guitar riff somewhere between "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and The Who's "Substitute", the most '60s sounding U2 since "Gloria", complete with freak-out guitar coda. And is the touch of self mockery as Bono sings, "I like the sound of my own voice, I didn't give anyone else a choice"?
A MAN AND A WOMAN
Opens with acoustic guitar and vibrating bass, then adds strings and becomes a floating ballad with a luminous, summery chorus. "I could never understand the mysterious distance between a man and a woman," Bono croons a song that sounds as though it should be a theme to an epic Hollywood movie.
CRUMBS FROM YOUR TABLE
A gentle opening with a strummed acoustic guitar and chiming harmonies gives way to a tyipical mid-tempo U2 riff. The subject matter is weighty and lines such as "would you deny for others what you demand yourself?" and "where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die" would appear to have been inspired by Bono's campaign against third world debt.
ONE STEP CLOSER
Starts with an ethereal wash of sound and develops into a mellow rock ballad with a wasted, late-night vocal. The moody production recalls Lanois (although it isn't) and there's touch of the Mercury Rev school of Americana, even before the pedal steel comes in. "I'm on an island in a busy intersection", Bono sings at one point in a moody lyric that finds him stranded "around the corner from anything that's real". About as intimate as U2 gets.
ORIGINAL OF THE SPECIES
If George Martin produced U2, it might sound something like this, with it's "I Am The Walrus" strings and Beatlesque ambience. "Baby slow down, please stay a child in your heart," Bono sings in an intriguing lyric.
YAHWEH
A rock'n'roll prayer, with chiming guitars full of spiritual metaphors, as Bono invokes God by his ancient Hebrew name, imploring him to mend the world and restore us to grace
FAST CARS
U2 do world music on a Japan-only track destined to become a collector's item - an exotic, semi-Arabic beat with a touch of flamenco.
VERTIGO
Thindering bass from Adam Clayton, jagged guitar and a punkish riff that suggests they haven't ignored the rise of The Strokes et al in the three years since ATYCLB. An anthem to the more redemptive power of rock'n'roll and gets more epic as the track goes on and and ends in a dozen triumphant cries of 'Yeah, yeah, yeah!"
MIRACLE DRUG
A slow, echoing start with cello, before Bono's voice plaintively sings, "I want to trip inside your head, spend a day there, hear the things you haven't said". The Edge's guitar takes up a ringing, ascending motif, it's clearly some kind of love song, although lyrics such as, "love and logic keep us clear, reason is on our side" might have been lifted from a Scientology manual.
SOMETIMES YOU CAN'T MAKE IT ON YOUR OWN
Written for Bono's father and sung at his funeral. Like a companion for 'One', it starts slow and hauntingly but builds dramatically, until Bono breaks into a shimering falsetto: "It's you when I look into the mirror". It ends in a crescendo of visceral emotion before being stripped back down to a heartbeat. Both uplifting and heart-rendering, and despite the personal nature of the subject the effect is universal.
LOVE AND PEACE OR ELSE
U2's own Middle East peace initiative, apparently, with lyrics telling the "daughters of Zion" and "sons of Abraham" to "lay down your guns". Musically there's so much happening: it starts with a rumbling, half-hearted sound like distant gunfire before a raw blues riff takes over, The Edge eventually pusing it into the realm of heavy metal. Then it ends with some martial drumming from Larry Mullen and spiraling guitar, as Bono repeatedly intones, "Where is the love?"
CITY OF BLINDING LIGHTS
At almost six minutes, the longest track on the album. It opens with guitar effects and surprisingly, tinkling keyboard melody before the rhythm builds into something more insistent, beautiful but slightly sinister. Blessed with one of those great, whoosing, "whoa-whoa-whoa" choruses and an irrepressible hook. ("Oh you look so beautiful tonight in the city of blinding lights"), much of the rest of the lyric ("the more you see the less you kno") has a similarly Zen quality to George Harrison's "The Inner Light".
ALL BECAUSE OF YOU
With a guitar riff somewhere between "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and The Who's "Substitute", the most '60s sounding U2 since "Gloria", complete with freak-out guitar coda. And is the touch of self mockery as Bono sings, "I like the sound of my own voice, I didn't give anyone else a choice"?
A MAN AND A WOMAN
Opens with acoustic guitar and vibrating bass, then adds strings and becomes a floating ballad with a luminous, summery chorus. "I could never understand the mysterious distance between a man and a woman," Bono croons a song that sounds as though it should be a theme to an epic Hollywood movie.
CRUMBS FROM YOUR TABLE
A gentle opening with a strummed acoustic guitar and chiming harmonies gives way to a tyipical mid-tempo U2 riff. The subject matter is weighty and lines such as "would you deny for others what you demand yourself?" and "where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die" would appear to have been inspired by Bono's campaign against third world debt.
ONE STEP CLOSER
Starts with an ethereal wash of sound and develops into a mellow rock ballad with a wasted, late-night vocal. The moody production recalls Lanois (although it isn't) and there's touch of the Mercury Rev school of Americana, even before the pedal steel comes in. "I'm on an island in a busy intersection", Bono sings at one point in a moody lyric that finds him stranded "around the corner from anything that's real". About as intimate as U2 gets.
ORIGINAL OF THE SPECIES
If George Martin produced U2, it might sound something like this, with it's "I Am The Walrus" strings and Beatlesque ambience. "Baby slow down, please stay a child in your heart," Bono sings in an intriguing lyric.
YAHWEH
A rock'n'roll prayer, with chiming guitars full of spiritual metaphors, as Bono invokes God by his ancient Hebrew name, imploring him to mend the world and restore us to grace
FAST CARS
U2 do world music on a Japan-only track destined to become a collector's item - an exotic, semi-Arabic beat with a touch of flamenco.
maxpouliot
War Child
Here are the quotes from the 3
'Vertigo' (3:07)
NME
The first single, and as you'd expect, it's a corker. 'Vertigo' features a riff from The Edge as big as 'Beautiful Day', perfectly complementing Bono's cries of "Feeeel!" throughout the chorus. "Hello, hello, we're in a place called vertigo", he sings. It's an anthem, probable Number One single and an electrifying opening to the album.
Q
U2 as garage band. Over power chords, Bono sings about boys who play rock and roll.
Adam Clayton: "It was originally called Native Son and had a very different feel. Bono and Edge rewrote it when we started work with Steve Lillywhite. The bass and drums have a little bit of Echo & the Bunnymen in there - a nice wink to where we came from."
Uncut
Thindering bass from Adam Clayton, jagged guitar and a punkish riff that suggests they haven't ignored the rise of The Strokes et al in the three years since ATYCLB. An anthem to the more redemptive power of rock'n'roll and gets more epic as the track goes on and and ends in a dozen triumphant cries of 'Yeah, yeah, yeah!"
'Miracle Drug' (3:54)
NME
After the punky 'Vertigo', 'Miracle Drug' is much slower but still heavy. "Want to trip inside your head/Spend the day there", Bono croons. It's a love song with tribal drums and a massive guitar-led chorus. Could be a single.
Q
The sort of wide-eyed anthem that should by now carry a U2 patent.
Bono: "It started off being about the Irish writer Christopher Nolan, who was at our school (Nolan, who was born with cerebral palsy, won the 1988 Whitbread Prize for his autobiographical novel 'Under The Eyes of the Clock'). But in a more oblique way it's probably as much about Aids and the drugs developed to arrest it. I couldn't write specifically about that without feeling an idiot."
Uncut
A slow, echoing start with cello, before Bono's voice plaintively sings, "I want to trip inside your head, spend a day there, hear the things you haven't said". The Edge's guitar takes up a ringing, ascending motif, it's clearly some kind of love song, although lyrics such as, "love and logic keep us clear, reason is on our side" might have been lifted from a Scientology manual.
'Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own' (5:02)
NME
After two all-out rock numbers, 'Sometimes....' is the first ballad. Backed by simple chiming guitar and drums reminiscent of 'Where The Streets Have No Name', Bono sings "You don't have to put up a fight/You don't always have to be right....let me take some of the punches for you tonight". The feel is a lot like REM's 'Everybody Hurts'.
Q
Bono on his father's death. As stately and emotive as One.
Bono: "There's a line, 'You're the reason I have the operas in me.' My old man was a beautiful tenor. He was this working-class guy who loved opera. He used to sit conducting the stereo with knitting needles."
Uncut
Written for Bono's father and sung at his funeral. Like a companion for 'One', it starts slow and hauntingly but builds dramatically, until Bono breaks into a shimering falsetto: "It's you when I look into the mirror". It ends in a crescendo of visceral emotion before being stripped back down to a heartbeat. Both uplifting and heart-rendering, and despite the personal nature of the subject the effect is universal.
'Love and Peace or Else' (4:47)
NME
An industrial growl and host of Nine Inch Nails-style noises hide Bono's whispering intro, before the song evolves into a clapalong, glammy chorus "Give me love and peace", Bono sings. It's the first hint of his political side, with references in to "troops on the ground". A thumping bassline makes it all sound a bit like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
Q
As close as U2 have come to being Led Zeppelin
The Edge: "I'm delighted about this one. It's been around since the last record. All we had was an amazing keyboard part of Brian (Eno)'s and a rhythm section Larry and Daniel (Lanois) had worked up. I fought for hours trying to figure out what to do with this fantastic raw track. We cracked it this time."
Uncut
U2's own Middle East peace initiative, apparently, with lyrics telling the "daughters of Zion" and "sons of Abraham" to "lay down your guns". Musically there's so much happening: it starts with a rumbling, half-hearted sound like distant gunfire before a raw blues riff takes over, The Edge eventually pushing it into the realm of heavy metal. Then it ends with some martial drumming from Larry Mullen and spiraling guitar, as Bono repeatedly intones, "Where is the love?"
'City of Blinding Lights' (5:44)
NME
The second Big Stadium moment. Pretty piano opens the song, which sounds like an updated 'With or Without You', Bono's in reflective mood, singing, "The more you see, the less you know".
Q
Back to the wide-open terrain of The Unforgettable Fire, via a vintage Edge motif.
Bono: "It's a New York song. About going there for the first time. We were the first band to play Madison Square Gardens after 9/11. During Where the Streets Have No Name the house lights came up and there were 20,000 people in tears. It was beautiful."
Uncut
At almost six minutes, the longest track on the album. It opens with guitar effects and surprisingly, tinkling keyboard melody before the rhythm builds into something more insistent, beautiful but slightly sinister. Blessed with one of those great, whoosing, "whoa-whoa-whoa" choruses and an irrepressible hook. ("Oh you look so beautiful tonight in the city of blinding lights"), much of the rest of the lyric ("the more you see the less you know") has a similarly Zen quality to George Harrison's "The Inner Light".
'All Because of You' (3:37)
NME
'Achtung Baby'-era guitars back one of Bono's most confessional songs ever. "I'm not broke but you can see the cracks", he sings. The lyrics suggest that he may walk the corridors of the UN, meet with Presidents and be able to call the Pope on his mobile, but sometimes he'd just like to be simple old Paul Hewson.
Q
Three minutes of gleeful stomping and a likely single. Sample lyric: "I like the sound of my own voice."
Adam Clayton: "Often when we have something which is straight rock it never goes anywhere - we just keep churning it around. But this was one or two takes."
Uncut
With a guitar riff somewhere between "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and The Who's "Substitute", the most '60s sounding U2 since "Gloria", complete with freak-out guitar coda. And is the touch of self mockery as Bono sings, "I like the sound of my own voice, I didn't give anyone else a choice"?
'A Man and a Woman' (4:25)
NME
If the first half of the record is direct, simple rock, from here on in it gets more chilled. 'A Man and a Woman' is the last of the straight-ahead rock numbers dealing with similar themes of lost love.
Q
Motown by way of The Rolling Stones' 'Waiting on a Friend'
Bono: "The sound of sitting on a stoop in New York in the summer. I wanted a song that rolled up The Clash and Marvin Gaye into one."
Uncut
Opens with acoustic guitar and vibrating bass, then adds strings and becomes a floating ballad with a luminous, summery chorus. "I could never understand the mysterious distance between a man and a woman," Bono croons a song that sounds as though it should be a theme to an epic Hollywood movie.
'Crumbs From Your Table' (4:57)
NME
Compared to 'Vertigo' and 'All Because of You', 'Crumbs...' is one of the more understated songs on the album. Could probably have been a B-side.
Q
The Edge breaks out I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For's ringing guitar. Bono rails at the Aids crisis.
Bono: "I went to speak to Christian fundamentalist groups in America to convince them to give money to fight Aids in Africa. It was like getting blood from a stone. I told them about a hospice In Uganda where so many people were dying they had to sleep three to a bed. Sister Anne, who I mention in the song, works at that hospice. Her office is a sewer."
Uncut
A gentle opening with a strummed acoustic guitar and chiming harmonies gives way to a typical mid-tempo U2 riff. The subject matter is weighty and lines such as "would you deny for others what you demand yourself?" and "where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die" would appear to have been inspired by Bono's campaign against third world debt.
'One Step Closer' (3:50)
NME
An ambient-sounding track their old producer Brian Eno would have been proud of is the stand-out song on the second half of 'How to Dismantle...'. Bono's dejected, or in his words has "crossed the road from hope", but is resigned to his fate. "A heart that hurts is a heart that beats", he sings. It'll be the lighters-in-the-air moment on next year's stadium tour.
Q
Bono ponders the meaning of death over a hushed backdrop
Bono: "Noel Gallacher gave me that line. We were in Birmingham on the last UK tour. I was telling Noel that my old man had lost his faith and didn't know where he was going. And Noel just said (adopts passable Mancunian drawl), Well, he's one step closer to knowing, isn't he?"
Uncut
Starts with an ethereal wash of sound and develops into a mellow rock ballad with a wasted, late-night vocal. The moody production recalls Lanois (although it isn't) and there's touch of the Mercury Rev school of Americana, even before the pedal steel comes in. "I'm on an island in a busy intersection", Bono sings at one point in a moody lyric that finds him stranded "around the corner from anything that's real". About as intimate as U2 gets.
'Original of the Species' (4:33)
NME
In keeping with the calmer mood of the second half of the album, 'Original...' has subtle, cinematic strings backing a pretty piano. It builds into an epic ballad which is classic U2.
Q
A strident torch song. Contains the lines, "Some things you shouldn't get too good at/Like smiling, crying and celebrity."
The Edge: "The last time I cried was listening to that song. It was a song Bono started on the last record about my daughter Holly. He's her godfather. The lyric became more universal. About being young and full of doubt about yourself. He probably won't agree, but I think it has connotations for Bono, looking back to when he was 20."
Uncut
If George Martin produced U2, it might sound something like this, with it's "I Am The Walrus" strings and Beatlesque ambience. "Baby slow down, please stay a child in your heart," Bono sings in an intriguing lyric.
'Yahweh' (4:20)
NME
The title is the transliteration of the Hebrew word for the name of God, so it's appropriate what the closing song is a plea for peace. "Take these hands, don't make a fist", Bono sings, "take this mouth, give it a kiss".
Q
Quintessentially U2 - from soaring chorus to a title that co-opts the Hebrew word for God.
Bono: "I had the idea that no one can own Jerusalem, but everybody wants to put flags on it. The title's an ancient name that's not meant to be spoken. I got around it by singing it. I hope I don't offend anyone."
Uncut
A rock'n'roll prayer, with chiming guitars full of spiritual metaphors, as Bono invokes God by his ancient Hebrew name, imploring him to mend the world and restore us to grace.
'Fast Cars' (bonus track)
NME
Unlikely to appear on the UK version of the album, this track is currently slated for inclusion on the Japanese pressing only. That's a tragedy for UK U2 fans as it's by far the most exciting song here. With a distinct Middle Eastern influence in the music, it's also where the line 'How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb' comes from. NME says: put this track on the UK album!
Q
Bizarrely, U2 come on like the house band in a Morrocan bazaar.
Bono: "We did this on the very last day in the studio. It was really just for fun, but it came out so well it'll be an extra track on the record in some countries."
Uncut
U2 do world music on a Japan-only track destined to become a collector's item - an exotic, semi-Arabic beat with a touch of flamenco.
OVERALL
NME
For fans looks for that classic U2 sound, 'How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb' is well worth the wait. Some strong tracks - particularly on the early part of the album - guarantee this will be a massive-selling record and will set them up for some monster live shows next year.'
Q
Uncut
After the speculation, gossip and rumour, U2 will release the highly anticipated new album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, on November 22nd. Produced by Steve Lilywhite with assistance from Flood, Jacknife Lee, Nelee Hooper and Chris Thomas, the title was suggested to Bono by Damien Hirst. Further light was shed on the title's significance by Christian singer and friend of the band Michael W Smith, who reports that Bono recently asked him if he knew how to disarm such a weapon. When Smith said he did notm Bono answered his own question: "Love. With Love". With R.E.M. also releasing a new album this month, HTDAAB sounds like a consolidation of their re-application for the title of World's Biggest Rock Band with 2001's ATYCLB. The writing sounds like a logical development from it's predecessor. But the music is driven by the guitar of The Edge, and the production echoes the bands early days. Forget the speculation you may have heard elsewhere. Here Uncut offers the exclusive inside track of the album's 11 songs, and reveals details of an unannounced bonus track.....
'Vertigo' (3:07)
NME
The first single, and as you'd expect, it's a corker. 'Vertigo' features a riff from The Edge as big as 'Beautiful Day', perfectly complementing Bono's cries of "Feeeel!" throughout the chorus. "Hello, hello, we're in a place called vertigo", he sings. It's an anthem, probable Number One single and an electrifying opening to the album.
Q
U2 as garage band. Over power chords, Bono sings about boys who play rock and roll.
Adam Clayton: "It was originally called Native Son and had a very different feel. Bono and Edge rewrote it when we started work with Steve Lillywhite. The bass and drums have a little bit of Echo & the Bunnymen in there - a nice wink to where we came from."
Uncut
Thindering bass from Adam Clayton, jagged guitar and a punkish riff that suggests they haven't ignored the rise of The Strokes et al in the three years since ATYCLB. An anthem to the more redemptive power of rock'n'roll and gets more epic as the track goes on and and ends in a dozen triumphant cries of 'Yeah, yeah, yeah!"
'Miracle Drug' (3:54)
NME
After the punky 'Vertigo', 'Miracle Drug' is much slower but still heavy. "Want to trip inside your head/Spend the day there", Bono croons. It's a love song with tribal drums and a massive guitar-led chorus. Could be a single.
Q
The sort of wide-eyed anthem that should by now carry a U2 patent.
Bono: "It started off being about the Irish writer Christopher Nolan, who was at our school (Nolan, who was born with cerebral palsy, won the 1988 Whitbread Prize for his autobiographical novel 'Under The Eyes of the Clock'). But in a more oblique way it's probably as much about Aids and the drugs developed to arrest it. I couldn't write specifically about that without feeling an idiot."
Uncut
A slow, echoing start with cello, before Bono's voice plaintively sings, "I want to trip inside your head, spend a day there, hear the things you haven't said". The Edge's guitar takes up a ringing, ascending motif, it's clearly some kind of love song, although lyrics such as, "love and logic keep us clear, reason is on our side" might have been lifted from a Scientology manual.
'Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own' (5:02)
NME
After two all-out rock numbers, 'Sometimes....' is the first ballad. Backed by simple chiming guitar and drums reminiscent of 'Where The Streets Have No Name', Bono sings "You don't have to put up a fight/You don't always have to be right....let me take some of the punches for you tonight". The feel is a lot like REM's 'Everybody Hurts'.
Q
Bono on his father's death. As stately and emotive as One.
Bono: "There's a line, 'You're the reason I have the operas in me.' My old man was a beautiful tenor. He was this working-class guy who loved opera. He used to sit conducting the stereo with knitting needles."
Uncut
Written for Bono's father and sung at his funeral. Like a companion for 'One', it starts slow and hauntingly but builds dramatically, until Bono breaks into a shimering falsetto: "It's you when I look into the mirror". It ends in a crescendo of visceral emotion before being stripped back down to a heartbeat. Both uplifting and heart-rendering, and despite the personal nature of the subject the effect is universal.
'Love and Peace or Else' (4:47)
NME
An industrial growl and host of Nine Inch Nails-style noises hide Bono's whispering intro, before the song evolves into a clapalong, glammy chorus "Give me love and peace", Bono sings. It's the first hint of his political side, with references in to "troops on the ground". A thumping bassline makes it all sound a bit like Black Rebel Motorcycle Club.
Q
As close as U2 have come to being Led Zeppelin
The Edge: "I'm delighted about this one. It's been around since the last record. All we had was an amazing keyboard part of Brian (Eno)'s and a rhythm section Larry and Daniel (Lanois) had worked up. I fought for hours trying to figure out what to do with this fantastic raw track. We cracked it this time."
Uncut
U2's own Middle East peace initiative, apparently, with lyrics telling the "daughters of Zion" and "sons of Abraham" to "lay down your guns". Musically there's so much happening: it starts with a rumbling, half-hearted sound like distant gunfire before a raw blues riff takes over, The Edge eventually pushing it into the realm of heavy metal. Then it ends with some martial drumming from Larry Mullen and spiraling guitar, as Bono repeatedly intones, "Where is the love?"
'City of Blinding Lights' (5:44)
NME
The second Big Stadium moment. Pretty piano opens the song, which sounds like an updated 'With or Without You', Bono's in reflective mood, singing, "The more you see, the less you know".
Q
Back to the wide-open terrain of The Unforgettable Fire, via a vintage Edge motif.
Bono: "It's a New York song. About going there for the first time. We were the first band to play Madison Square Gardens after 9/11. During Where the Streets Have No Name the house lights came up and there were 20,000 people in tears. It was beautiful."
Uncut
At almost six minutes, the longest track on the album. It opens with guitar effects and surprisingly, tinkling keyboard melody before the rhythm builds into something more insistent, beautiful but slightly sinister. Blessed with one of those great, whoosing, "whoa-whoa-whoa" choruses and an irrepressible hook. ("Oh you look so beautiful tonight in the city of blinding lights"), much of the rest of the lyric ("the more you see the less you know") has a similarly Zen quality to George Harrison's "The Inner Light".
'All Because of You' (3:37)
NME
'Achtung Baby'-era guitars back one of Bono's most confessional songs ever. "I'm not broke but you can see the cracks", he sings. The lyrics suggest that he may walk the corridors of the UN, meet with Presidents and be able to call the Pope on his mobile, but sometimes he'd just like to be simple old Paul Hewson.
Q
Three minutes of gleeful stomping and a likely single. Sample lyric: "I like the sound of my own voice."
Adam Clayton: "Often when we have something which is straight rock it never goes anywhere - we just keep churning it around. But this was one or two takes."
Uncut
With a guitar riff somewhere between "Jumpin' Jack Flash" and The Who's "Substitute", the most '60s sounding U2 since "Gloria", complete with freak-out guitar coda. And is the touch of self mockery as Bono sings, "I like the sound of my own voice, I didn't give anyone else a choice"?
'A Man and a Woman' (4:25)
NME
If the first half of the record is direct, simple rock, from here on in it gets more chilled. 'A Man and a Woman' is the last of the straight-ahead rock numbers dealing with similar themes of lost love.
Q
Motown by way of The Rolling Stones' 'Waiting on a Friend'
Bono: "The sound of sitting on a stoop in New York in the summer. I wanted a song that rolled up The Clash and Marvin Gaye into one."
Uncut
Opens with acoustic guitar and vibrating bass, then adds strings and becomes a floating ballad with a luminous, summery chorus. "I could never understand the mysterious distance between a man and a woman," Bono croons a song that sounds as though it should be a theme to an epic Hollywood movie.
'Crumbs From Your Table' (4:57)
NME
Compared to 'Vertigo' and 'All Because of You', 'Crumbs...' is one of the more understated songs on the album. Could probably have been a B-side.
Q
The Edge breaks out I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For's ringing guitar. Bono rails at the Aids crisis.
Bono: "I went to speak to Christian fundamentalist groups in America to convince them to give money to fight Aids in Africa. It was like getting blood from a stone. I told them about a hospice In Uganda where so many people were dying they had to sleep three to a bed. Sister Anne, who I mention in the song, works at that hospice. Her office is a sewer."
Uncut
A gentle opening with a strummed acoustic guitar and chiming harmonies gives way to a typical mid-tempo U2 riff. The subject matter is weighty and lines such as "would you deny for others what you demand yourself?" and "where you live should not decide whether you live or whether you die" would appear to have been inspired by Bono's campaign against third world debt.
'One Step Closer' (3:50)
NME
An ambient-sounding track their old producer Brian Eno would have been proud of is the stand-out song on the second half of 'How to Dismantle...'. Bono's dejected, or in his words has "crossed the road from hope", but is resigned to his fate. "A heart that hurts is a heart that beats", he sings. It'll be the lighters-in-the-air moment on next year's stadium tour.
Q
Bono ponders the meaning of death over a hushed backdrop
Bono: "Noel Gallacher gave me that line. We were in Birmingham on the last UK tour. I was telling Noel that my old man had lost his faith and didn't know where he was going. And Noel just said (adopts passable Mancunian drawl), Well, he's one step closer to knowing, isn't he?"
Uncut
Starts with an ethereal wash of sound and develops into a mellow rock ballad with a wasted, late-night vocal. The moody production recalls Lanois (although it isn't) and there's touch of the Mercury Rev school of Americana, even before the pedal steel comes in. "I'm on an island in a busy intersection", Bono sings at one point in a moody lyric that finds him stranded "around the corner from anything that's real". About as intimate as U2 gets.
'Original of the Species' (4:33)
NME
In keeping with the calmer mood of the second half of the album, 'Original...' has subtle, cinematic strings backing a pretty piano. It builds into an epic ballad which is classic U2.
Q
A strident torch song. Contains the lines, "Some things you shouldn't get too good at/Like smiling, crying and celebrity."
The Edge: "The last time I cried was listening to that song. It was a song Bono started on the last record about my daughter Holly. He's her godfather. The lyric became more universal. About being young and full of doubt about yourself. He probably won't agree, but I think it has connotations for Bono, looking back to when he was 20."
Uncut
If George Martin produced U2, it might sound something like this, with it's "I Am The Walrus" strings and Beatlesque ambience. "Baby slow down, please stay a child in your heart," Bono sings in an intriguing lyric.
'Yahweh' (4:20)
NME
The title is the transliteration of the Hebrew word for the name of God, so it's appropriate what the closing song is a plea for peace. "Take these hands, don't make a fist", Bono sings, "take this mouth, give it a kiss".
Q
Quintessentially U2 - from soaring chorus to a title that co-opts the Hebrew word for God.
Bono: "I had the idea that no one can own Jerusalem, but everybody wants to put flags on it. The title's an ancient name that's not meant to be spoken. I got around it by singing it. I hope I don't offend anyone."
Uncut
A rock'n'roll prayer, with chiming guitars full of spiritual metaphors, as Bono invokes God by his ancient Hebrew name, imploring him to mend the world and restore us to grace.
'Fast Cars' (bonus track)
NME
Unlikely to appear on the UK version of the album, this track is currently slated for inclusion on the Japanese pressing only. That's a tragedy for UK U2 fans as it's by far the most exciting song here. With a distinct Middle Eastern influence in the music, it's also where the line 'How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb' comes from. NME says: put this track on the UK album!
Q
Bizarrely, U2 come on like the house band in a Morrocan bazaar.
Bono: "We did this on the very last day in the studio. It was really just for fun, but it came out so well it'll be an extra track on the record in some countries."
Uncut
U2 do world music on a Japan-only track destined to become a collector's item - an exotic, semi-Arabic beat with a touch of flamenco.
OVERALL
NME
For fans looks for that classic U2 sound, 'How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb' is well worth the wait. Some strong tracks - particularly on the early part of the album - guarantee this will be a massive-selling record and will set them up for some monster live shows next year.'
Q
Uncut
After the speculation, gossip and rumour, U2 will release the highly anticipated new album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, on November 22nd. Produced by Steve Lilywhite with assistance from Flood, Jacknife Lee, Nelee Hooper and Chris Thomas, the title was suggested to Bono by Damien Hirst. Further light was shed on the title's significance by Christian singer and friend of the band Michael W Smith, who reports that Bono recently asked him if he knew how to disarm such a weapon. When Smith said he did notm Bono answered his own question: "Love. With Love". With R.E.M. also releasing a new album this month, HTDAAB sounds like a consolidation of their re-application for the title of World's Biggest Rock Band with 2001's ATYCLB. The writing sounds like a logical development from it's predecessor. But the music is driven by the guitar of The Edge, and the production echoes the bands early days. Forget the speculation you may have heard elsewhere. Here Uncut offers the exclusive inside track of the album's 11 songs, and reveals details of an unannounced bonus track.....
Se7en
Rock n' Roll Doggie
well suck me sideways...this sounds amazing!!
lay it down
lay down your guns
all you daughters of zion
all you abraham's sons
lay it down
lay down your guns
all you daughters of zion
all you abraham's sons
shart1780
Rock n' Roll Doggie
Love and Peace or Else sounds way too obvious that it's about AIDS. Same with Crumbs From Your Table.
Nooooooooo.
Nooooooooo.
RademR said:
Herco
War Child
I can't wait any longer!!!!
Please gimme a leak or someting!!!!
BTW: U2aussiefanman, I think we can't go back to PLEBA anymore, after all you said and she's mine
Please gimme a leak or someting!!!!
BTW: U2aussiefanman, I think we can't go back to PLEBA anymore, after all you said
and she's mine
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RademR said:definetly. I might be wrong, so someone can correct me if I am, but after I read the Uncut Legends issue, it seems it is a magazine that isn't pro-u2 or against them, they do a pretty good job of just giving their opinions.
True - it's quite British reserved too .. it's never likely to say this is f**** amazing!!!
MrBrau1
ONE love, blood, life
I'm getting the feeling Land Peace or Else is about the Middle East, not AIDS.
is it november yet?
RademR
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
shart1780 said:
We've heard the whole leak on this song, and none of the lyrics point anything about AIDS. Its all about the middle east if anything, but youre right on about "Crumbs." I'm worried about that track too, thats about it out of the 11.
RademR
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
Jim and Philod: Blue Crack Men of the Year!!
Herco
War Child
RademR said:Jim and Philod: Blue Crack Men of the Year!!
don't forget The Edge
MrBrau1
ONE love, blood, life
RademR said:
Why does it worry you the song might be about Africa and AIDS?
RademR
Rock n' Roll Doggie VIP PASS
MrBrau1 said:
No, I could care less about the song being about AIDS and africa. That might be a good thing. Its the reviews, all 3 havent really said much about the tune, one said it should have been a "B-Side." Of course, Im not looking too much into the reviews, its just I had a question mark when I heard this song title, so it may be a psychological thing. I'm not going to find out until I actually hear the album.
Love the descriptions of ABOY and "City of Burning Lights"!!
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