Dissecting How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb… You Can’t Leave Behind
Those of you who listened to the first episode of the B-Sides Concept Album are probably wondering how we could maintain all the Springsteen talk for so long.
I won’t pretend to speak for Saleski or Iguana Glen, but I can answer that for myself. Stamina, baby!
11 and I have been known to have conversations like that about Springsteen for longer than an hour. I really should only use my powers for good.
Just the other night, 11 and I had a long talk about U2. That conversation has been bubbling through the guts of my brain ever since, and I’m now listening through to their last two albums.
When How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb was released, I thought it might be the third best album of their career. I fuckin’ loved it! TheWifeToWhomI’mMarried and I listened to that record nonstop on a trip to the armpit of Hell (Leesville, LA). This album will always remind me of that trip and that’s not a bad thing because we had a really good time when we got down there. Unfortunately, the record lost some of its luster as the months went by. I don’t hate it by any means, but it doesn’t feel as special to me as it once did. There are some great moments on the record (”Miracle Drug” and “City of Blinding Lights”), but there are too many ordinary songs.
Contrast that with All That You Can’t Leave Behind, an album that marked U2’s return to form and a return from the wilderness that was Pop. The album became something more in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States. The album was released nearly a full year before that terrible day, but the themes of so many of these songs were a perfect salve for the psyche and spirit of a nation in uncertain times.
“Beautiful Day” is one of the five best things they’ve ever done. I don’t think I’m alone in being thankful for “Stuck in A Moment You Can’t Get Out Of.” “Walk On” should close every show until they write something better. “Kite,” despite Bono’s attempt to ruin the song with some nutty rubbish about hip hop and hoopties, is a powerful, elegiac song about losing a loved one. “In A Little While” is one of the last songs the great Joey Ramone listened to before he left us all too soon. “Wild Honey” is a fun slice of disposable pop.
I don’t suppose it matters that one of these albums is demonstrably better than the other, but after discussing it with 11 until the wee hours of the morning I felt the need to confirm this for myself.
Anyone up for 45 minutes on U2? Do you have the stamina?
Filed under: Tags: U2
yup
Yup to the conversation, my thoughts on the two albums, or all of the above, sir?
It was intended for the 45 minutes of U2, but upon reflection, I agree with most of it.
I haven’t heard it in a while, but I think “Love and Peace or Else” is my favorite song on that album, which I do think is not as good as “All That…” Although damn if the aftermath of 9/11 didn’t tie in so well to the mood of that album. I can’t remember it, but the video that was made with memorial images was absolutely breathtaking. It makes Thriller at the top of any new greatest video list an absolute joke.
Maybe because it hasn’t had the chance to have been overplayed, but you’d get no argument from me if you said Beautiful Day was their best song, although “End of the World” has been my pick for a while.
Hey Josh, I’m so glad you appreciate some of the lesser known songs on ATYCLB, like “Kite.” It is a powerful song, and I would add that “When I Look At The World” is another underrated U2 song from that album. Even WEEI in Boston has been known to cue it coming out of commercial break during Red Sox games over the years. As far as the album as a whole, I would put it up there with Achtung Baby as the two best albums U2 has released in the last 15 years or so and are right up there with War and Joshua Tree for top albums in their catalog.
U2 is in my top 10 all-time favorite bands (as is Springsteen, and I wish I could have been a part of your first show the other night to join in the Boss talk but I was busy seeing the Celtics crush the Knicks in person). So I’m up for U2 talk any time.
Personally, I never really got into their last album HTDATB - never really listen to it all that much, but songs like “Original of the Species” “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” and “Miracle Drug” sounded really great live on their last tour - I saw them twice in Boston in ‘05. One of the underrated songs from that record I still dig is “Yahweh,” but “Vertigo” is, even if overplayed and close to a Sonic Youth ripoff, the best pure rock song they’ve recorded in a long time. That’s all I got for now. (Back to watching the BC/VT game)
Give me Pop any day over Atomic Bomb. Some decent songs here, a few bright spots, but a dreary, drab, un-fun album overall. Pop is far more interesting and at least they sound like they were taking some chances there. I honestly hardly listen to it anymore, and that makes me a little sad. It’s the one I consistently pull off of my Ipod to make room for other things. Pop, of course, used to serve this same purpose, but I’ve grown a strange attachment to it lately. It’s always on there.
Of course, now I have to put it on there to give it another listen, given all of these thoughts to consider.
Achtung Baby absolutely is one of the best albums they released - I contend that it’s one of the very best of the entire decade, not just their own catalog. If this album doesn’t get the same grand treatment that The Joshua Tree just got, I will be seriously pissed off.
This is excellent… I’m glad to have found some U2 fans to dish the dirt with.
Charlie, I get the feeling you and I are the only two people on the planet who like “Yahweh.” I didn’t like the way they played it on the Chicago DVD, but I love the version on the album. It’s a good song. “Miracle Drug” is an amazing song. “City” is, too. The rest of the album ranges from pleasant to ordinary for me.
Tom, I’m never going to be able to accept Pop. They acted like they wanted to take chances with it but then got scared and tried to mainstream it. Beyond that, U2 is an important band that sings about important things. There are too many bad to mediocre lyrics on that record. I just can’t take it.
My holy trinity of U2 records is Tree, Achtung, and Zooropa. ATYCLB is nipping at the heels. I agree. Achtung better get the fancy treatment in a couple years. Great, great album.
If my interview for this week’s B-Sides show falls through, I’m going to have to book this U2 discussion for the show. I think the interest is there.
El B… I’ve never liked “Until The End of the World” as much as everyone else seems to. It’s a good song and I get the meanings behind it, but I never would have expected that to be the song from Achtung that would still be getting played all these years later. Don’t get me wrong… I do like it. It’s very good. I just… I don’t know. It surprises me. I’m ready for that and “Bullet” to be retired from the set list.
i love U2, though i’m pretty sure i can’t do 45 minutes on it. on the other hand, i’d totally be up for hearing bicho take on the task.
I’ll give you 45 minutes on U2 and not pause for a breath.
‘New York’ is my favorite ATYCLB album cut. Love it.
Boys and girls, the unveiling of 11 is imminent! Another marathon conversation was held last night and I look forward to soon bringing you pride of 11-land.
Oh, and he’s serious about “New York.” He’s been all about that song since Oct. 2000. Ask me how I know.
I don’t think I could talk about anything for 45 minutes straight. I get too distracted too quickly to stay on task.
U2 is the first band I ever loved. Unfortunately around Pop I found a mistress, then another, and another and I haven’t been home to Bono in quite some time.
Maybe tonights the night.
Although I would put Unforgettable Fire in my trilogy, it’s nice to see Zooropa get some love,. I haven’t cracked that out in a while. It is what Pop wanted to be. My two immediate impressions are the title track is awesome and I can’t believe the music on “The Wanderer.” There has to be another arrangement because that’s one of the worst meldings of music and voice ever.
re: World. I find the music fantastic and that the fact that some of the lyrics can fit a relationship of the listener while being about the relationship between Jesus and Judas without directly stating it is sheer brilliance. He doesn’t always hit a home run, but when he does Bono can be a great writer.
I’ve always loved that Johnny Cash vocal on the “Wanderer” but yeah, the music is all kinds of cheese. The rest of Zooropa is about half great.
The music for “The Wanderer” wouldn’t work by itself. It gets a lot of its vitality from the odd juxtaposition of that music and that voice. I love that song.
There’s not much on Zooropa I don’t like. 11 and I always ponder how much better it would have been if they’d stuck “Hold Me, Kill…” on there. It would have fit. Great album.
“Stay” is an outright masterpiece.