My Review of U2's How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb

[ZoCrowes]

It's been a long while since I've posted and since there are a few U2 fans on here I figured I would post my little review before it comes out tomorrow

I've had U2's new album since Friday (ah the benefits of being a record store flunky) and I've finally listened to it enough to write an honest review. I'll just start off by saying I was not expecting much out of this one.When I first heard Vertigo I was not impressed really. It's formulaic and boring however it's actually U2 putting out a single that's not a cheeseball ballad so that's a damn good thing. That being said I think the album itself is EXCELLENT! Their best since Achtung Baby. They're still pretentious as hell and Bono preens his way through most of the track but there are truly some brilliant moments. Miracle Drug, Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own and All Because of You make the album to me. Over the past decade these guys have had some GREAT single tracks (Electrical Storm, Beatiful Day, Gone, The Sweetest Thing) but very little in the way of strong albums. This changes that. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is not a world shattering album but it's SOLID and that definitely counts for something. 3.5\5

[Placebo]

1. I'm waiting for it to be available through iTunes.

The suspense is killing me.

[WindRavenX]

2. go to U2.com and listen to the album

It's fucking brilliant.
5/5 for me. Fucking BRI-LLIANT!

[mike_c]

13. listening now-- thanks for the link....

I agree. It's a great CD.

[cabbage08]

39. awesome

[RevolutionaryActs]

3. Oh very cool! Thanks for posting that. I'm so asking for this for

Christmas now :7

[Zomby Woof]

4. jeezus fucking christfarts

WHERE the fuck have you been youngster?? The Lounge has sorely missed your musical sermons. And your cage-rattling.

And although I think U2 has sucked the Big Weenus since 'Achtung Baby' ('War' and those albums mean something to us geezers and old farts), you wrote an honest review because you did mention they are pretentious.

Welcome back, YL.

[GOPisEvil]

6. Yeah, what he said!

:hi: YL16!

[ZoCrowes]

7. What;s up old man!

I've been working my ass off trying to support my music habit and trying to finish up college without getting alcohol poisoning.

The fuckers are pretentious as hell and they know it. Bono still thinks he is 25.

I'll agree about the sucking major weenus however they have had some very good pop/rock songs. Nothing that can touch them in their prime but still quite solid when compared with some of the other shit forced upon us.

So how have you been man?

[Zomby Woof]

9. You created a self-fulfilling prophecy

I really AM the Old Man now:

http://www.theatrikos.com/A%20Christmas%20Story.htm

(scroll down to see the cast list)

I am kickin' ass out here in AZ... got a good job finally (last 6 months or so), and rediscovering my college acting roots on the side.

All in all, pretty damn good, and glad to see you are still in school and mainlining the tunes. Music addiction should have no cure.

[ZoCrowes]

10. Damn you are the Old Man

with top billing!

Yeah I think I'm somewhere around 2300 albums now (store bought not burned.) It's really disgusting. Think how many starving children I could have fed considering how many times I had to buy Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs (re-remastered, scratched one, lost one etc.) and the Dylan and Stones remasters.

[Zomby Woof]

16. damn remasters

I would have put off buying CD's well into the 90's had I known then what they can make now... those Dylan SACD hybrids will kill me...

And the Pink Floyd remasters... and...and...

Fuck it, let's listen to Duane and EC.

[ZoCrowes]

19. Thankfully they lowered the price of the Dylans

took em out of the digipaks and put em in single layer format (no SACD) in jewel cases and are back to being priced at $11. Now they are slowly remastering Beatles records so I am definitely fucked. Already shelled out $70 for the Capitol albums just so I could have a remastered Happy Just To Dance With You. I'm such a nerd.

[Zomby Woof]

20. thank gawd

Now I can get "Blood On The Tracks" with even more crystal clarity. Ah, sweet pain!

[ZoCrowes]

22. Now they just need to remaster

The Times They Are A'Changin and I can stop buying Dylan shit (until they come out with another Bootleg Series volume then I'll shell out another $20 bucks.)

[tuvor]

5. Bad, BAD record store flunky!!!!

Except for the gorgeous Beautiful Day I found nothing on the last album to be anything worth listening to more than once.

Can you actually COMPARE it to Achtung Baby? I've been a fan since October/War, and distanced myself around Joshua Tree and Rattle 'n' Hum only to be blown away by Achtung. Nothing they've done since, except the odd single, has done it for me.

Whattaya say?

[ZoCrowes]

8. Not as good as Achtung in my mind

They are now U2 writing what you expect to hear in a U2 song. They just happened to do it quite well this time. Quality wise about the same as Unforgettable Fire.

[tuvor]

11. Now I'm totally unsure.

That's my favorite U2 album!

:)

[ZoCrowes]

17. It's a damn good record

and it keeps drawing me back. The first time I listened to it I liked it but I was not really enthralled with it. The more I listen to it the more I want to hear it. It grows on me with each subsequent listen and that, to me, is the sign of a great album.

[tuvor]

25. Thanks for the info! Exactly what I look for!

My two favorites of this past year are Black Eyed Peas new one and the new Hives. For exactly the same reasons.

Cheers!

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

12. Chris, what the !@$%

You come waltzing back in here, just expecting us to care about your review of the new U2 album? Ha.


Well... okay. Stick around! :hi:

[ZoCrowes]

14. Yeah well...

...you should care cause...uh...who am I kidding I don't have a snappy comeback. I might actually stick around this time you never know :)

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

18. You have some catching up to do

Ch-check out my post count (by clicking on the little person next to my username). :D

[ZoCrowes]

21. Holy crap on a stick

I definitely won't be catching up anytime soon. I just realized that I was 16 when I made this username 4 years ago and you were just a little kid. You're about to go into college aren't you?

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

23. Yep.

I was such a little dork back then. I'm going to be 18 in June, yikes! It seems unbelievable.

[ZoCrowes]

24. And I'm almost finished with college

Scary huh?

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

26. For real.

For some reason or another, I feel like my life's getting faster and faster, it's really strange.

The past year has FLOWN by. Looking back on when I first started talking with all the DyoUth, I was itching to get out of high school back then, and I am literally ready to get. the. fuck. out. More than ever before. It's driving me crazy. Only 7 more months and I'm freeeeee!

[ZoCrowes]

29. It seems like just yesterday I was leaving High School

and scared shitless about college and life. Now I'm ready to get out of college and move the fuck on.

Where are you going to go to school?

[LeftPeopleFinishFirst]

30. dunno

i applied to nyu, bu, gwu, rit, northeastern and two art schools (art institute of boston and corcoran school of art + design) - for photojournalism. we'll see where i get in, and if anybody's willing to uh, pay my college tuition. :D

[tjdee]

15. OMG as SOON as I get off work tomorrow I'm buying it.

Excitement...excitement....

[WilliamPitt]

27. "Their best since Achtung Baby"

Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

[ZoCrowes]

28. A lot of people like Achtung Baby

myself included. I get into more nerd arguments over that album than almost any other 90s album. You either love it or hate it. Yeah its pretentious and over-the-top but the who the hell says that is a bad thing? Sometimes rock n roll needs a little ego. The earnest U2 became boring after a while.

[tjdee]

31. Do you think it's a younger person thing?

No offense you oldersters... but Achtung Baby was one of the first cds I bought on my own when I was...14 or 15 or whatever. I had not the benefit of being exposed to War, etc. first, so I listened to Achtung Baby on its face instead of comparatively. And I'm way older than you, so I imagine it may be the same?

Had I started with Boy and gone all the way up, I can see how Achtung forward would seem weird/selling out/whatever.

Personally though, I dig their whole catalog and still feel that U2 is saying something to me with every album.

[ZoCrowes]

32. I'll agree with you there

I was only 8 or so when it came about but it's the album I have the most memories of and was also the first U2 album I bought.

[Susang]

34. If it's an age thing

Then how do you explain me? ;-)

I was 18 when Boy came out and I liked "Achtung Baby" just fine. I even liked <gasp> "Pop". Sacrilege in most people's opinion, I know. I even go so far as to say there are a couple brilliant songs on that album.

Sure "Boy" and "War" meant something to me when they came out. So did many other albums. I'm a singer, I know that if an artist doesn't keep evolving, they stagnate and die. I think some people would be happier if that happened to U2 after "The Unforgettable Fire"

A lot of people's musical tastes stop growing after high school and college. They may continue to buy new cds, but the genre and styles they enjoy tend to become cemented in that happy-go-lucky time period. They stop going to see live music in small clubs and only go to see major concert events and change the channel to VH1 Classic when feeling nostalgic.

P.S. It's good to see you back, even if you did sneakily change your name at the last split second. :hi:

Myself, I'd rather go try to check out the Libertines at the Empty Bottle or see if I can score Paul Oakenfold tickets at Smart Bar. It's not that I don't enjoy VH1 Classic every once in awhile, it's just that if I watch and listen to oldies channels now, what will I listen to in 10 or 15 years?

[Zomby Woof]

36. all very valid

But it isn't change old fogies like me are averse to... I have kept up with lots of 80's bands who are still around (Los Lobos comes to mind as one of these 80's bands still taking chances and expanding) who have changed and experimented drastically, alienating old fans and picking up new ones... so your theories, while sound, do not cover up the fact that U2 lost it some time ago.

It isn't them trying new styles or songwriting that I loathe, it's the fact they keep dressing it up in glossier and glossier production to mask the lack of creativity and burn-out. It happens to lots of great bands, and they are not immune. I am wary of overproduction. Chicken shit can NOT be made into chicken salad, no matter how great studio technology has become. I WISH the experiments worked, because I would like them even less now if they were trying to make "War" over and over. That would make them as useless, as say, Aerosmith.

U2's biggest crime over the past decade or so is that they have become the boring old farts they once were an alternative to. It happens. That's the general metabolism of the music industry...

[Susang]

50. I can understand where you're coming from

Though I disagree with your base argument. I don't think that U2 lost it a long time ago and neither do a lot others, critics and fans alike. Music is a very subjective taste and allowances must be made for the individual, obviously one of the main things you enjoyed about U2's early work is the raw and unpolished quality to the recordings. Myself, I don't believe that quality production necessarily means the music or the art is less valid.

I don't consider U2's albums to be overproduced. If anything, they have consistantly chosen producers who are far more subtle and understated than most in the genre they work in. Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, Steve Lillywhite, etc., are all all artists in their own right and while you didn't like what they did with U2's work, I felt it only added to my appreciation of their music.

I'm listening to the cd right now, and I have to say that I think it's pretty good. I never make up my mind on any album until I've heard it at least 10 times (or so), but if you can't listen to "All Because of You" and not feel anything, then yeah, you should probably stop listening to U2.

Myself, I'm in love with the sound of Bono's voice, have been for 22 years, probably will be for some time now. But I'm a singer myself, we judge things a little differently sometimes.

[NashVegas]

41. It's Not An Age Thing

I was pushing 30 when AB came out.

Didn't care so much for the rest of their '90s stuff, though, except for a few singles.

[Skittles]

35. WHO ARE YOU AND WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH YL16

WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN CHRIS; I SHOULD KICK YOUR ASS, I HAVE MISSED YOU BADLY!!! :hi:

NO ONE HAS TOLD ME TO GET BACK IN MY CAGE FOR THE LONGEST TIME!!!

[ZoCrowes]

42. I'm his pod person

Duh

[NashVegas]

40. Achtung Baby Was Brilliant

Probably the most solid and cohesive album of all of them.

[Redleg]

56. Good point. If you said their best since War I would be more excited.

[ralps]

33. It's now available at the iTunes Music Store

:hi:

[ProfessorGAC]

37. Hey! Long Time, No Time!

Good to have you back posting.
The Professor

[ZoCrowes]

43. What's up man

Glad to be back posting. I look forward to more longass conversations about music theory with ya.

[ProfessorGAC]

47. You Have To Promise, Though. . .

. . .to not make fun of my pointy guitar. Yeah, i readily admit to being a shredder, and XNASA and mkuhl (along with a few others like chiburb) keep ridiculing my pointy shredder guitar. The guitar is getting pissed. Welcome back, again!
The Professor

[ZoCrowes]

48. A pointy guitar?!

Dear god that's scary! Is it bright pink with polka dots too?

I'm probably the only 20 year old on the face of the planet who plays full-hollowbodies with P-90s so I won't make fun of ya too much.

[Sparkle]

38. I plan to purchase their new CD, not because it's probably good but

because he performed at President Clinton's dedication to his library. Bono and that awesome guitar player did a great job in spite of all that damn rain.

[Kid_A]

44. My favorite album of theirs is actually "Zooropa"...

I really like how it's a lot more downbeat than the "Look! We can RAWK!!!" "Achtung Baby" (which is my second favorite). I like when make a universally praised magnum opus of an album and then follow it up with a quieter, more slow-paced album (just look at my username...).

Hey, if I thought "All That You Can't Leave Behind" was WAAAAY overrated except for the first four tracks, will I be disappointed with "Bomb"?

[ZoCrowes]

45. Much better that ATYCLB

Except for Beautiful Day and Elevation that album bores me to tears.

[Kid_A]

49. That's promising...

And I fell in love with the song "Vertigo" the first time I heard it, and not even the ever-present iPod commercials can detract from the song's awesomeness.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

51. 90s u2 is the best

more experimental

'dirty day' still gives me shivers, too

[rucky]

46. But is it better than Daydream Nation?

the answer is no.

[rene moon]

54. Daydream nation????

You have to be kidding me. Yuck!

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

52. i give it 7 of 10

not their best album, not even in the top 5, but still adequate u2 is better than 95% of the shit on the radio today. they're still my all time favorite band, but i'll admit this album is a little lacking. they're playing too safe, sticking to a formula-but the songwriting is so strong that you can forgive it.

can't wait for the live shows-no one comes close to u2 as a live experience. i've seen them 5 times so far. here's hoping they stick with lower prices for concert tickets

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

53. oh, and 'original of the species' is the sleep er track

that you kind of ignore on the first few listens, then it really, really grows on you

[tjdee]

55. I liked it the first time--do I get an award??

;)

I listened superficially to all the tracks on my way home, and that's one of the early favorites.

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

57. sure, why not?

enjoy bono in his 80s bad hair glory!