U2 / How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb

You have heard "Love And Peace Or Else" and "City Of Blinding Lights," right?

"City of blinding lights" is growing on me actually. That chorus is great.

Okay, that song's not too bad, but the production masks the fact that the music is rather middling. And the lyrics...yikes. They've run out of ideas.

It's the second half of the album that really sinks the whole thing.

I think most of the U2 haters here are just pissed because they couldn't be cast as an iPod dancing silhouette.

Oh, and lack of Eno/Lanois surely doesn't mean much, given how much Mr. The Edge has learned from Eno and Lanois over the past 20 years. Plus, people shouldn't forget that Steve Lillywhite engineered the last several U2 albums, working along side Eno and Lanois.

Anyway, I want to give this disc a lot more time.

(Credits lifted from a U2 site.)

1. Vertigo (3:13)
Lyrics by Bono with The Edge, Produced by Steve Lillywhite, Backing
Vocals by The Edge, Synthesizers by Jacknife Lee

2. Miracle Drug (3:53)
Lyrics by Bono, Produced by Steve Lillywhite, Additional production by
Carl Glanville and Jacknife Lee, Piano and additional vocal by The
Edge, Backing vocal by Bono and Larry Mullen, Synthesizers and
Programming by Jacknife Lee

3. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own (5:05)
Lyrics by Bono, Produced by Chris Thomas, Additional production by
Steve Lillywhite and Nellee Hooper, Keyboards and additional vocal by
The Edge

4. Love And Peace Or Else (4:48)
Lyrics by Bono with The Edge, Original Production by Brian Eno and
Daniel Lanois, Additional production by Chris Thomas, Jacknife Lee and
Flood, Mixed by Flood, Synthesizers by Brian Eno, Piano and backing
vocals by The Edge, Shaker by Daniel Lanois

5. City Of Blinding Lights (5:46)
Lyrics by Bono, Produced by Flood, Additional production by Chris
Thomas and Jacknife Lee, Piano by The Edge and Bono, Synthesizers by
Jacknife Lee

6. All Because Of You (3:34)
Lyrics by Bono, Produced by Steve Lillywhite, Mixed by Flood, Backing
Vocals by The Edge, Keyboards by Jacknife Lee

7. A Man And A Woman (4:27)
Lyrics by Bono, Produced by Jacknife Lee, Backing vocals and aditional
percussion by The Edge, Synthesizers by Jacknife Lee

8. Crumbs From Your Table (4:59)
Lyrics by Bono, Produced by Steve Lillwhite, Additional production by
Jacknife Lee, Mixed by Steve Lillywhite, Flood and Jacknife Lee,
Additional synthesisers by Jacknife Lee

9. One Step Closer (3:48)
Lyrics by Bono, Original production by Chris Thomas and Daniel Lanois,
Additional production by Jacknife Lee, Additional guitar by Bono, Backing Vocals by The Edge, Additional guitar and Pedal steel by Daniel
Lanois, Synthesisers by Jacknife Lee

10. Original Of The Species (4:34)
Lyrics by Bono, Produced by Steve Lillywhite, Additional production by
Jacknife Lee, Mixed by Flood, Piano and synthesiser by The Edge,
Additional synthesisers by Jacknife Lee

11. Yahweh (4:22)
Lyrics by Bono with The Edge, Produced by Chris Thomas, Piano, synthesisers and backing vocals by The Edge, Mandolin by Daniel Lanois, Additional guitar by Bono

Basically, it's every major U2 producer minus Jimmy Iovine, plus Chris Thomas.

What are the other songs like?

ermmmmmmmm, sorrrrrrrrt of. i can hear what you're saying.

wonder if we'll see a reissue of the Compulsion back catalogue then .. or even a reunion ?

their last lp Medium is the Future was indeed a fucking excellent album .. all the freaky synth noises etc set to fantastic songs ..

Vertigo, for some reason reminds me of Dirty Boots.

Having finished Bono's memoir I go back to this CD. I'm a bit disappointed. It feels thinner than I hoped. Like ... "2000s rock-pop that might appeal to Steve Jobs", rather than the magical band I first loved.

"All Because of You", "Crumbs From Your Table", "Original Species" are all relatively low points.

I do have some affection for "Miracle Drug", tucked quietly between two 45s - and I was always quite impressed by "City of Blinding Lights". But I think the great underrated track here remains "A Man & A Woman". Melody, structure, voice, delivery, guitar, texture, words, it's all here - for once, in this era.

I was very underwhelmed with this album when it came out, but "City of Blinding Lights" is a keeper.

There's a lot of keepers on this, but despite everything it isn't that different from ATYCLB. They went on the attack, matching their New Rock-adjacent sound with the red/white/black album art and atomic bomb/target roundel icons, but they still gave it an unwieldy title rather than a quick snappy one - 'Vertigo' would have worked.

When this was first released I wasn't really enthusiastic about it, I mean their sound has always appealed and therefore I liked it but it felt flat. However I kinda found the vinyl reissue from several years back to be a bit revelatory, I don't know what they did but it sounds punchier and the songs sound more confident. If you happen to own a record player, I recommend picking it up. After hearing it anew i feel it's an album that hangs together much better than anything since, though it doesn't have the highs of NLOTH and does unfortunately have Yahweh, which is probably the least of Bono's religion songs.

Good, well-informed posts - thanks.

I agree w/your take on 'a man and a woman', kind of an unwieldy title but a really strong cut.

I was very underwhelmed with this album when it came out, but "City of Blinding Lights" is a keeper.

Same here. Still don't like the album, but when I saw them for the only time on the No Line on the Horizon tour, that track was a highlight, partly because "the spaceship" (or what was more commonly referred to as "the claw") opened up into a mothership out of a Spielberg movie and started spinning around, shining its lights across the stadium the entire time. A great spectacle even if the rest of the show was pretty uneven.

Just played 'Yahweh' again and I like a) the first few seconds before the verse starts and it feels like it will be more musically exciting than it is, b) when Bono dramatically sings, twice, 'this love is like a drop in the ocean' at the end of the bridge - the drama I think being in how he's belittling his own love (which with the minor chord music at that moment sounds ominous) rather than aggrandising it.

xp (I double checked and actually the structure itself didn't spin. Rather they created an illusion of spinning via the honeycomb of screens that covered the surface of the structure.)

"City of Blinding Lights," like "Happy" and "Can't Stop the Feeling!," became a staple of administrative gatherings + corporate nonsense that I couldn't hear it for the decent anthem it was for years. I prefer this album to ATYCLB: it's the Emotional Rescue without the title track, depending on what you think of "Vertigo."

Egregiously clunky album title