U2 will celebrate the 20th anniversary of their iconic album How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb with an exciting new release of previously unreleased material. The band announced a “shadow album” titled How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb, which will come out November 29. It’s a collection of outtakes from the original sessions that produced the hit record of 2004. The tracks here are a treasure trove of what wasn’t heard, great in and of themselves as well as fascinating because of what they suggest about the creative process at work during that creative time frame.
This ten-track album promises to be an exciting one, featuring such interestingly-titled tracks as “Treason,” “Happiness,” and “Evidence of Life,” as well as the “Luckiest Man in the World.” Some die-hard fans may recall the latter from when it leaked online before, back when it sported a working title of “Mercy.” To feed listeners’ appetites, U2 has also already released one of the previously unreleased tracks, “Country Mile.”
Bonus, for fans, will be the “Vertigo” B-side “Are We Gonna Wait Forever? ” and “Picture of You (X + W)”. The set is also to be released on vinyl for Record Store Day and through digital services. In addition to How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb, a remastered version of the original will be issued on both vinyl and CD.
In addition to How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb, a remastered version of the original will be issued on both vinyl and CD.
This remastered edition will include “Fast Cars,” another outtake from those recording sessions. The Edge shared his excitement about the new release, noting, “For this anniversary edition I went into my personal archive to see if there were any unreleased gems, and I hit the jackpot.”. We chose ten that we really liked.
We filed them away at the time, but in retrospect, we see our instincts were right – they were contenders for the album; we were onto something.
Recorded in the band’s studio in Dublin and the South of France, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb was a follow-up to their 2000 release All That You Can’t Leave Behind. Dubbed the band’s “rocking” best album, the latter has been positively reviewed, as U2 won five Grammy Awards in 2006, including Album of the Year and Song of the Year for “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own.”
Another album from that year was Atomic Bomb, which Brian Eno produced. It has been a successive chart-topping record and topped the charts of more countries than any other U2 record ever made. When Bono did his Rolling Stone interview with the magazine in 2005, he was sternly critical enough towards Atomic Bomb: “It’s the best collection of songs we’ve put together — there are no weak songs.” Then with a hint of disappointment, “But as an album, the whole isn’t greater than the sum of its parts, and it fucking annoys me”.
The new collection promises to have light it casts on what the band envisioned during the creative process of this iconic album. “What you’re getting on this shadow album is that raw energy of discovery, the visceral impact of the music, a sonic narrative, a moment in time, the exploration and interaction of four musicians playing together in a room. This is the pure U2 drop,” said The Edge. With How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb, U2 seeks to make the fans realize more about this creative process it undertook during the production of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. The collection will now be able to touch the long-time followers of the group, by revealing to them the untouchable creativity of that moment in the life of the band. Expectations for this album’s release have built up hugely and promises to be one of the most memorable additions to the storied discography of U2. It reminds the world of the never-ending legacy and what the band with its music can do for its fans when connecting with powerful music.