U2

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (HTDAAB)

Ring Those Bells Edge!!!!

Review Score:

(10/10)
I've been a fan of this band for many years but I was really curious and cautious regarding the new U2 album considering all these 1 star reviewers (btw it seems most of them haven't written any other reviews for any other artists.....hmmmm)and people calling it a "sell out". U2 selling out??...Isn't this the same band that's sold 100's upon 100's of millions of copies of albums for the past 25 years??!!!?? I knew there was something wrong right there but anyway, that aside, I'm just totally surprised by the negative response to this album. I'm gonna have to agree with one reviewer with the fact that it would be impossible to please everyone when some people are gonna prefer their 90's poppy new wave material to their earlier anthemic more stripped down sound. Even though I don't really prefer one style over another I do know a good album when I FEEL it! This is to me, what ATYCLB should have sounded like. Not that that album was bad ( a bit less pleasing than HTDAAB) but IMHO this is REALLY U2 returning to its roots, spiritually and musically. Yes, this is probably a version of U2 that we've all heard before, but isn't that what returning to one's roots is supposed to be all about???? I truly find these songs, lyrically and musically,to be among the most moving and spiritually inspirational pieces this band has ever released. Is it their best album??...I would have to say no. That would probably have to go to Achtung Baby, I guess from a production standpoint alone. But it certainly ranks right up there with the best of them. For some reason a lot of people are just intentionally going by the numbers on this one and over analyzing this music, quantity over quality.....guitars tuned way up loud??.....logical opener in 6th position???!!....childish lyrics???!!!!????...............

"I'm around the corner from anything that's real,
I'm across the road from hope,
I'm under a bridge in a rip tide that's taken everything I've called my own....one step closer to knowing"

"True love never can be rent, but only true love can make beauty innocent"

"I'm alive, i'm being born,
I just arrived,
I'm at the door of the place I started out from and I want back inside"

"Where are we now?
I've just got to let you know
A house still doesn't make a home
don't leave me here alone
sometimes you can't make it on your own"

Oh yeah I'm sure a five year old can express these ideas let alone half of the other popular bands whose ambiguity is deemed today as being "original" and "creative". As far as the vocals, Bono sounds just fine to me. A bit raspy in places (miracle drug, all because of you) but to me that only adds to the bitterness and emotionality of the performence. As a sidenote the album does come with the passing of Bono's father and is dedicated to his memory. All in all it sounds like.....a-hem.....an older and WISER U2 to me echoing back to an earlier simpler time. So all you "rebels" can put down your white flags now, get in touch with your spiritual side and start rejoicing!!!! Listen to this album with your heart as well as your ears!!

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