How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb

Album Review

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. Cases in point are War, The 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 live releases such as Under a Blood Red Sky, the studio-and-live hybrid Rattle and Hum, and less commercial, more experimental dalliances such as Original Soundtracks 1, released as Passengers, and Pop. 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 have 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 recall elements of The Unforgettable Fire, The 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, and love are all touched upon here 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 from 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." Sometimes this rumination works well; sometimes not quite so much. But if the band's reach occasionally exceeds its grasp on "Yahweh," and there is the occasional misstep in "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 in 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.

Review by Bill Hunt