U2 - How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
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Free Music Notes for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Free Music Review: CRANK IT UP! A 10/10
Hit: 5 Stars
Like a lot of U2 fans (and rock fans in general), I've been waiting a long time for this album ... more than 2 1/2 years. Was it worth the wait? I've spun the CD five times now and can say yes, yes, and yes -- it's the best album U2 have yet produced.
I'll paraphrase another reviewer who called HTDAAB the offspring of Achtung Baby and The Joshua Tree; it is all that and more, but it surpasses even those classic albums with its astonishing heart and musical passion. Bono's lyrics and singing aside, this disc contains some GREAT music. The Edge's guitar is like a combination chainsaw/machine-gun, and Larry and Adam of course provide mesmerizing rhythm.
"Atomic Bomb" is miles ahead of "All That You Can't Leave Behind," that much should go without saying. There isn't a single bit of dead weight anywhere on the record, though it's definitely an ALBUM. You should sit down, free yourself of distractions, maybe light a candle and pop open a cold beer, and just ENJOY, at top volume. This is an album to grow old with.
A song-by-song run-through:
Vertigo: A solid rocker and a great arena anthem, though it's easily the least song on the album. Best line: "The girl with crimson nails/has Jesus round her neck/swinging to the music."
Miracle Drug: Took me a couple of turns to switch onto this track, but it's a great U2 song, full of heart and emotion, with a strong solo from The Edge. Best line: "Of science and the human heart/there is no limit."
Sometimes You Can't Make It ... OK, I dare you to get through this song without weeping. A classic ballad, instantly up there with "One" and "Running To Stand Still," but maybe a little better, as it is so nakedly personal. Bono has never sounded better. Best line: "And it's you when I look in the mirror/and it's you when I don't pick up the phone ..."
Love and Peace or Else: Wow, this track sounds just like U2 without sounding anything at all like U2. Might take a couple of spins to grow on you, but it amps up and rocks the walls down. A fantastic rocker that would make Black Rebel Motorcycle Club a tad envious. Best line: "Lay down your guns/all your daughters of Zion/All your Abraham sons." This will be fantastic live.
City of Blinding Lights: An epic rocker, lit up like a city at night. Will easily stand alongside "New Years Day" a few years from now. Built for arenas. Best line: "They're advertising in the skies/for people like us."
All Because of You: One of the best! A heavy, garage-band sound permeates this hard-rocking track that's destined for heavy radio rotation (and deserves it). Ranks up there with "Mysterious Ways" with its funky guitar riff. Best line: "Some people got high rises on their backs."
A Man And a Woman: Should solidify Bono as one of the finest soul singers in the world. Another strong radio contender, with a groovy bassline from Mr. Clayton. I love this song. Best line: "I been sleeping in the street again/like a stray dog."
Crumbs From Your Table: The band deflates mainstream religion on this beautiful track that happens to rock as hard as "Vertigo." EXCELLENT guitarwork from The Edge, highly reminiscent of "The Joshua Tree." And great vocals from Bono, of course. Best line: "With a mouthful of teeth/you ate all your friends."
One Step Closer: A slower number, full of empty spaces, but beautifully poetic, full of gorgeous nighttime images of Bono caught somewhere between life and death. Every line in the song is a killer.
Original of the Species: Probably the most difficult track on the album; don't give it one fast listen and then dismiss it. Come back later, two or three times, let it grow on you. You'll understand that this song puts U2 firmly in Beatles territory. Best line: "Some people got way too much confidence, baby."
Yahweh: Here U2 come dangerously close to self-parody with a song that addresses God directly and by name. But they pull it off the right way, by making the song and the chorus so big, so heartfelt, and so genuinely poetic that, by Yahweh, you'll have tears in your eyes while you're singing along. Best line: "This love is like a drop in the ocean."
What else can I say? It's the ultimate U2 album, the one they've been working toward for 26 years. Yeah, we had to wait a long time, but the end result is fantastic. Those expecting something different or "better" would probably have never been satisfied with anything. The refreshing thing about U2 is that they continue to move forward without losing sight of the things that fire them up. These guys are going to go down in history as one of the top five bands ever, if they're not already there.
Free Music Review: Well Worth the Wait
Hit: 5 Stars
Irish supergroupU2 ("rock's only remaining superpower," according to one reviewer) is back with their first new studio album in four years, and this solid but surprising effort has many elements that make it well worth the wait. 2002's "Electrical Storm" and 2003's "The Hands That Built America" gave no hint of the direction this album would take.
It may not be the instant classic of its advance notices, but How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is a soaring, atmospheric journey and a worthy successor to 2000's brilliant "All That You Can't Leave Behind." In fact, in its best moments, Atomic Bomb sounds, if anything, like a direct continuation of that album's highest musical achievements. It's easy to hear some of the new songs falling in place right alongside ATYCLB's more memorable tunes. "Vertigo" seems a logical lead-in to "Elevation," "Walk On" a natural follow-up to "Yahweh," "Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own" is a spiritual stepson of ATYCLB's "Kite." That said, this album stands on its' own, and has a unique view of the world that incorporates the changes we have all endured in the years since ATYCLB's sunny, optimistic melodies soared out of our radios in late 2000.
Pre-billed by the band as a hard-edged, guitar driven record, HTDAAB is anything but. The opening song, Vertigo, certainly hits that preconception right on the money, but the rest of the album is a quiet, almost somber record that accepts the reality of today's challenging world while evoking more than a few memories of U2 songs past. Vertigo actually sounds contrived and forced, as if the band had it in mind to manufacture a "hit single." The end result of such efforts is invariably that the finished product sounds, well, manufactured. Bono's vocal style is ill suited to the demands that such a silly rave-up makes on him, and while the song has grown on me, the band sounds uncomfortable executing it.
It's possible that the band started out to make an up tempo rock and roll record, then discovered when they got into the studio that their hearts just weren't in it. This certainly seems supported by the surprising transition into "Miracle Drug," the album's second tune. MD is a soulful, deeply emotional song about a paralyzed schoolmate of the bands' who was helped by a new drug therapy. The song is full of wonder at the miracles of science, and takes an opposing view from traditional Christian perspectives on experimentation and "playing the hand you're dealt." Maybe it is an ode to stem cell research, but regardless it is a wondrously executed melody driven by Bono's heartfelt vocals. Layers of background vocals soften the overall feel of the song and offset Edges' driving guitar work, even as he pushes the song to a rising finish. It's a personal, memorable tune.
Miracle Drug transitions into a soft, almost crooner-ish intro to "Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own." Easily the albums best song, SYCMIOYO features Edge conjuring up the memory of early U2 songs with his metallic, echoing guitar work. Bono's vocal is phenomenal, and the lyric is uniquely personal and direct as he works through his relationship with his late father, who passed away in the middle of the Elevation tour in 2001. While ATYCLB's "Kite" took a philosophical perspective on his fathers' inevitable demise, this song is fully about a man in grief, and Bono throws himself into it with the passion and intensity of someone who really doubts he can get by without his moral compass. SYCMIOYO is almost like a personalized version of Pop's "Please," but this time focusing the pain and desperation inwardly at his own heart, instead of outwardly at the tragedy of world events. Both songs are brilliant, but SYCMIOYO will resonate long after the memories of Sarajevo have faded.
Other songs are almost as memorable. "City of Blinding Lights" walks a tightrope between sappy sentiment and a refined, glittering guitar riff that evokes fond memories of "In God's Country." "Original of the Species" and "Crumbs from Your Table" deftly walk the razors edge between the personal and political, never going too far and yet making their points with force and passion. "Yahweh," the album's closing hymn, is the group's most overtly religious song since October's "Gloria," and finishes the album on a humble yet rousing tone that leaves the listener on a musical mountaintop.
In the end, HTDAAB is work of greatness that while not necessarily extending U2's legend, at the very least confirms it.
Free Music Review: Great work of rock history
Hit: 5 Stars
Album: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Artist: U2
Simple: Don't build one. That's the best way to dismantle an atomic bomb. I didn't come up with that (I read it in another review). Yes, I know this album came out a long time ago (in the music buiness last Thanksgiving may as well be forever ago) but it's taken me a really long time to ponder HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB (HTDAB). First, let me say that while I love it when band's experiment....thank God U2's mid-life crisis is over and they've returned to their roots. Both this album and their previous effort, ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND find U2 leaving behind the dark, noisy Euro-Disco scene and returning to arena rock (where they belong). HTDAB is fab...and U2 lets you know right off the bat with "Vertigo" a gee-whizzbang homerun/grandslam of a song. Yeah, so what if Apple and Clear Channel have run it into the ground? They were able to do so because it kicks so much ass! Bono and company wisely slow things down with the second (artier) track "Miracle Drug." I personally found it to be my least favorite track, but this could be caused by an acute adrenaline overdose left over from "Vertigo." The third track, "Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own" is the soul brother of ALL THAT YOU CAN'T LEAVE BEHIND's "Kite." Both songs sprang from Bono's adult relationship with his dead. Whereas "Kite" was about moving out, "Sometimes..." is about moving on (after the death of a loved one). The song is truthful and moving. Bono's gift for laying his feelings all out for everyone to see in this song will silence critics who accuse him of pandering and being a sell-out. No one sells out by writing a song like "Sometimes..." Next, "Love and Peace or Else" is a noisy, post-Pop manifesto for peace (by making threats). This song seems like a statement to those super activists who end up becoming the very thing they are fighting. Peace, should be born of love-not frustration and anger. If "Love and Peace or Else" were a road, "City of Blinding Lights" would be the destination. This song is classic U2, and is one of the stongest tracks. I love Edge's guitar work (his songs are always so fresh and unique). The song also has my favorite lyrics on the album "the more see the less you know/ the less you find out as you go" only a mature, world-weary Bono could write a universal truth like that (and sing it with such conviction...so much that my 21 year old ears automatically take the statement as fact rather than opinion). "All Because of You" another great single, is well...a great single. Not as fast as or furious as "Vertigo" but it's not meant to be-it's a great U2 love song. Speaking of love songs, "Man and a Woman" the next track is probably the best 'I don't understand love' song written. Totally encapsulating the whole 'what the hell is going on here' feeling of man and woman's relationships, the song features some great guitar work and brilliant chorus."Crumbs from Your Table" sounds like vintage U2, again the chorus is strong (the 'cool down mama' will stick inside your head for days). The album's weakest track is stuck down there at the bottom (where an album's weakest track belongs). The song, "One Step Closer" isn't really bad, just not very memorable and seems like a U2 song we've already heard. "Origin of the Species" and "Yahweh" close HTDAB, on a uplifting-hopefull note. The spiritual side we've all come to expect from U2 rears it head, and unlike many political bands, keeps from being preachy (while still making it's point). "Yahweh" alone is worth the purchase price of the CD (I think). A love letter to God...the song will break your heart with it's 'always pain before a child is born' chorus and humble before-the-universe lyrics. I love this album, and the band who made it. Many might dismiss U2 as a Dinosaur of the '80s, a relic still trying to cash in on their essential rock classic THE JOSHUA TREE-but HTDAB is proof positive that U2 tough (but willing to wear their hearts on their sleeves). I was, however, a bit dissapointed that the album didn't really seem to touch 9/11 or the War on Terror (I desperately wanted U2 to tell me everything was going to be okay). Upon further consideration, I realized that any attempt to do so would be an act of futility-also songs of healing and hope (like "Yahweh") are more in line with what this world needs right now (not "The Angry American").
Free Music Review: "Just when I thought I was out...they pull me back in"
Hit: 5 Stars
U2 are one of the few bands in the history of rock which have maintained such a high level of commercial success while still maintaining their musical integrity and basically addding to their absolutely HUGE following as they went along.
However, I had lost a lot of the love I had for my favorite band of the 80s after the infamous ZooTV tour ended. "Pop" was too over-the-top experimental for me, and although it was a good album, it had some fillers. It felt rushed and we found out it was. With 2000's "All That You Can't Leave Behind," I found myself cringing at the feeling that u2 were simply running through the motions with a very "safe" record. Although the first half was maybe one of their strongest, the second half was full of weak attempts to fill an album, the exception being "New York."
To say I was excited to hear "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb" might be the biggest understatement of the year. This u2 record, for the first time in years, lives off emotion and is soaked with passion and pure beauty. As a musician, I find myself being sometimes too critical of music I listen to. With U2 this is easy, as you can not possibly get a grip on the true essence of any of their albums without fully falling into the songs and discovering each and every one of them.
The first half of HTDAAB are stacked with singles and juggernauts. "Vertigo" blasts through the speakers to lead off the album, the perfect first track as Bono does the Spanish countdown and Edge comes in with the angry guitar riffs. I think "Miracle Drug" officially has the copyright sign after the G because it is a classic u2 song in which only they can do. Incredible, as is "Sometimes You Can't Make it on Your Own," which is a good companion to "Stuck in a Moment." It's honestly a little better though. The hair-raising ballad leads into the experimental "Love and Peace or Else", which is filled with so many sounds it could have been separated into three different songs. The guitar work by Edge is nothing short of genius, and it covers up pretty weak lyrics by Bono. The next track is the strongest on the record and will be the highlight of next year's tour. "The City of Blinding Lights" is the song I've been waiting for them to make since the "Joshua Tree." It is pure beauty which puts you back in the 80s, and then the next song "All Because of You" seems to jump you back two decades more. This is definetly influenced by the Stones, as Edge goes crazy with his guitar again. Again, it does an amazing job at covering up a slightly weak chorus. Other than that, a fantastic track.
Enough of those radio hits, now is when the record gets really interesting. "A Man and a Woman" is a pretty risky move by U2 because it's basically a love song with some "marvin gaye" influence sprinkled on it. Sometimes I sit back and think, how do they pull stuff like this off? But they do, and the funny thing is the first time you hear it, you say to yourself it may be the worst song they ever recorded. Five listens later, you know all the words and are singing it at work. "Crumbs from You Table" I was hearing was the weakest here, but that's very untrue. The song and guitar work, although stellar, do get a little repetitive, but Bono is flawless here and delivers a monster. "One Step Closer" is the song which is essential to the whole theme of the album, and it just has me in emotional knots when I hear it. It's very touching, and I found it more personal than the following "Original of the Species", which is a fantastic tune but feels like u2 were trying too hard to make a hit with it. And finally u2's best closer since "All I Want is You," it is "Yahweh," a fascinating song which runs by you so smoothly like a summer breeze. It has just impeccable lyrics and ends the album with Bono declaring, "take this heart...and make it break."
With the collectors edition comes "Fast Cars," a fun track which u2 completed in a few hours on the final day in the studio. It's truly great, but I'm glad it is not on the regular album format, it doesn't fit the overall theme of the record.
I've always stayed interested in u2 over the last few years, but I didn't feel that emotion to their music which had connected me to them when I first heard "Bad" in 1984. This album brings all that back for me and once again displays the band's truly unforgettable fire.
Free Music Review: U2's Strongest Album Ever
Hit: 5 Stars
Ah yes, the U2 album early review syndrome. That consists of people hearing U2's newest album just once, immediately forming an opinion, and posting it. I would have thought that by now everyone would have realized U2 albums aren't the most easily accessible. It takes repeated listens to uncover all of the layers, and truly discover what the album is all about. That's both good and bad, but in the end, a very good thing. It keeps the album from becoming old, which is rare in music these days. On the downside, it also makes for a lot of negative reviews at first. I think true U2 fans will agree that it's worth suffering through some negative reviews for an album that will be referred to as a classic 10 years from now.
It's sad that so many people have clearly stated that they'd only heard the album once before deciding it was "trash". Yet those same people also say that Vertigo is the one good song on the album. Could that be because they've heard the song many times already, and have had a chance to explore it? It sure seems like it. I hope at some point, everyone gives the full album that chance, as I'm confident many opinions will change.
I am the proud owner of both the normal version of the album as well as the collectors edition, but I was fortunate to hear the album before its release. As a result, I've listened to the complete album upwards of 40 times. Funny enough, I'm still uncovering sounds and lyric meanings. At first listen, it's easy to not pick up much depth to How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (HTDAAB). However, after listening for a while, it becomes obvious that not only is this a very deep album both in meaning and in music, but one of U2's best. That's a very strong statement, especially for a band over 25 years into their career, but it's entirely true. The fact that sticks in my mind the most is that there is not one track I don't truly enjoy hearing. I have yet to skip a track, and my "favorite" changes with nearly every listen.
I was one of the people that found U2's previous album, All That You Can't Leave Behind (ATYCLB), a little weak, despite the incredible tour that surrounded it. I was worried about Bono's voice, and that the band as a whole might have lost their spark to create music. Hearing HTDAAB quickly calmed my fears, to say the least. HTDAAB is better than ATYCLB by leaps and bounds in every way. Bono has found his voice again, every song has a great deal of depth and strength, and the whole band seems excited about creating and playing music again. Without question, HTDAAB features all four members in their top form. Bono's voice has more strength and clarity than it has in many years, while retaining all of its emotiveness. In fact, Bono is sounding even better live recently than he does on the album, which is very encouraging news for the upcoming tour. Edge finally realized just how gifted of a guitar player he is, and he's in full force. Adam's bass has never been more prominent and detailed throughout an entire album, and it truly drives the album. Larry's drumming is more intricate than ever, and really defines the structure for each song.
In closing, I can't help but repeat how great and strong of an album HTDAAB truly is. While I still rank Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby as U2's greatest, HTDAAB contains the most consistently strong song lineup of any album they've put out. This may not be their most innovative album, and it is U2 being U2, but I don't think I would have wanted anything else out of HTDAAB. As one reviewer said, HTDAAB has one leg in the past, and one in the future. I couldn't agree more.
If you're not a fan of U2 to begin with, then I wouldn't expect you to like HTDAAB. Not liking U2 or HTDAAB is fine, but not giving them a chance, or needlessly bashing them is not. HTDAAB will go on to be yet another album with "classic" status in U2's vast archive. Please don't immediately brush the album off after just one listen; it's truly an amazing and very emotionally moving piece of music. With that said, U2 is the best live band around, and that truly is the environment in which their songs come alive and their magic is exposed. March 1st can't come soon enough! Good thing we have such a brilliant album to tide us over.