U2 — How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb cover

U2

Item: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
Author: Nick Mattiske

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

(2004)

Reviewed by Nick Mattiske

Discogs Apple Music TIDAL Amazon Music Spotify YouTube Music

Label Interscope RecordsThe Phantom Tollbooth2005

alternative rock pop rock rock

In the film Rattle and Hum Larry Mullen Jr famously described that undertaking as a "musical journey." How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb likewise is a musical journey, albeit through U2's back catalogue. Like All That You Can't Leave Behind, they throw a few grimy rock numbers amongst a bunch of archetypal, soaring, ringing anthems, with the occasional deviation into more grown-up musical styles. Album release hype marked it as harking back to the raw, youthful energy of Boy, and the opener and first single "Vertigo" certainly gives that impression. But the album then slips quickly into the classic, middle-period sound of The Joshua Tree. In the '90s, particularly during the re-evaluation period of making Achtung Baby, the explicit aim of the band was to not sound like U2, but post-irony it seems that Mr Mullen (always the most uncomfortable with the mirror balls and sonic experimentation) in particular has put his foot down--"we're U2, let's sound like U2!"

"Vertigo" may have the urgency of "I Will Follow" or "Out of Control," but it's more like when they learnt to rock in the 1990s, on tracks like "Until the End of the World", "Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me", and more recently, "Elevation," when, as Zoo TV tour DJ B P Fallon suggested, they finally sounded like men rather than boys. After a no-nonsense Larry Mullen drumbeat, The Edge lays down a classically rock'n'roll riff which any guitar player will recognize as brilliant in its simplicity. Its brother-in-stylistic-arms "All Because of You" is an even more urgent stomping garage rocker.

With its ringing harmonics, "Miracle Drug" is the flipside of modern U2--sincere and optimistic. Like "Beautiful Day" and "Walk On," it's traditional U2, and as elsewhere on the album, Bono's Christianity is obvious in the lyrics, as he sings about the still small voice and quotes Jesus: "I was a stranger, you took me in." But he also sings, "the songs are in your eyes"--a classic Bono-ism. Like on the emotional "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" where he sings "you're the reason I sing," these lines are what U2's critics deride them for. "Sometimes..." is a response to Bono's father's death, and uses a style of direct address, as on "Stuck In a Moment...". Like "If God Will Send His Angels" and "One" in its quiet build-up, it's punctured by a falsetto arc like on "Electrical Storm" and The Edge's oscillating guitar. As on "Kite", Bono is dealing with growing older, trying to make sense of his flawed relationship with his father, saying the things he couldn't say to him in life. There aren't many rock singers displaying their wounds like this.

While Bono sings of giving up romantic love for something more mature and enduring on "Miracle Drug," on "Love And Peace Or Else" there are references to the Israeli-Palestinian situation and the war in Iraq. Its sinister feel, like "Exit" from "The Joshua Tree," is set-up by deeply rumbling bass notes, before it becomes an industrial-blues number like something from P J Harvey's "Dry," quite removed musically from the album's other tracks. "A Man and a Woman" is different again, like Sting's World Music-influenced dalliances, and while there are precedents in U2 songs like "Three Sunrises" and "Sweetest Thing," it seems a little out of place here (though the cruise ship feel is tempered by a nicely scratchy Bono vocal, as if he's been up all night).

"Crumbs From Your Table" and "City of Blinding Lights" are more obvious examples of U2 sounding like U2. "Crumbs From Your Table" revisits the textbook Edge harmonics and bigger-picture sentiments of "Miracle Drug." Helicopter guitar, pulsating bassline and minimalist piano like on "New Year's Day" drive "City of Blinding Lights" onward and suck in all but the most cynical. There is a synthesis of the kind of new tech catchphrases Bono was cobbling together on Zooropa and Pop, and the grander gestures of The Joshua Tree and The Unforgettable Fire-- a line like "neon heart dayglo eyes" is contrasted with "I miss you when you're not around".

The last big surprise is "Yahweh," sitting somewhere between "Where The Streets Have No Name" and "In God's Country," and even featuring a Daniel Lanois mandolin. It enters abruptly, with the band disregarding any uneasiness about milking the traditional U2 sound. If Pop had a song titled "Yahweh," you'd expect a dark lament about His seeming disappearance. In the same vein as "Do You Feel Loved," Bono sings "take these hands," "take these shoes," etc., but instead of that song's cynical perspective, this one is a beautifully humble prayer.

Critics have been falling over themselves in proclaiming this album a new classic. That may be a bit premature. It's classic in the sense of a classic U2 sound, but the best of past U2 albums were groundbreaking in a way this is not. This continues down the path mapped out by All That You Can't Leave Behind. But then again, while U2 are not the condensed genius of the Beatles, in the last twenty years there's been no one to hold a candle to them. They continue to make music that as a whole soars beyond the sum of its parts. The only danger is becoming, like The Rolling Stones, a parody of themselves. Let's pray not.

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