Satan's Luau

U2 - How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb: A

Don't get me wrong, I still think Zootopia and Pop were BIG BIG missteps (ehh, the truth is I never really warmed to anything JT and beyond, except for some songs here and there) ... that I would compare to a Mettish L/Re-L phase for the biggest band in the world. I just happen to think that this album is really a great album from the Dubliners.

I was initially made curious of the album because of the poignant "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own", in fact, God knows how many times I played that ballad over and over and over. The song is truly epic, and goes along with the great ballads such as "One", "Bad", "Stay" and even the simply ubiquitous played to death and dismemberment, "With or Without You"

Then there was that "it" song from the iPod commercial, "Vertigo" ... although I've become more in the middle about the song ... when I first heard it, I was like wow, I can dig this harder edge rocking U2. Recently, I've come into liking the power ballad, "Original of the Species" from another commercial.

I suppose that it is somewhat ironic that I came into this effort basically by commercials and advertising, and that seems so unlike the stronger social and political stances of the band. Lately, I've been discovering other great songs, like "Miracle Drug" and "City of Blinding Lights". I guess the larger portion of my appreciation comes from the return of the boys to a middle ground between the post punk ringing delay guitars and the poppy ballady efforts ... this album takes some of the best of the old and the new sounds and puts them forth in a really compelling, accessible effort

Even when they dabble with a Depeche Mode "PJ" stompy motif like "Love or Peace or Else", it doesn't sound forced, fake, contrived or pointless ... it is very solid. Another track I liked early on prior to getting the album, "All Because of You", I just liked it for the way it just rode the percussion, and I thought what a good arena rock type song to get the peeps clapping in unison.

Another solid track is "A Man and a Woman" a very FM-friendly contemporary pop sounding song ... feels like a lighter reprise on classic NYsD vibe. And for you classic ringing sound fans, there is an refreshing of it in the take of "Yahweh", that twists it into another contempo pop sounding song -- I can see myself playing this more and more in the near future. I'm really not in a place at the moment where I would snob such songs, I'm just looking for stuff that I enjoy listening to rather than finding something in "art".

There really aren't any particularly skippable, weak tracks on the album, though I do think "Crumbs from Your Table" and "One Step Closer" are pretty marginal ... in that they haven't grabbed me like most of the songs on the album. I would almost prefer that they kept the rambling U2-esque "Mercy" ... but then I think they would have had a good handful of similar sounding contempo pop rocks, all kind of in the "Miracle Drug" vein -- which in the final analysis, I would be okay with because it's just well put together pop rocks, nothing wrong with that.

I, for one, am glad all the experimentation with techno and dance is largely gone, and the band has gotten back to playing straightforward, emotional, human, stripped down, warm, very live sounding music. I would not be surprised if they sweep in Grammys tonight ... this is that kind of effort that makes all the other offerings out there seem really weak in comparison.

It's been quite a while since I've had this album and I continue to find new stuff that I like about it. That's why I think it is a solid A, and perhaps maybe when I think about it ... verging on the best of the stuff of late 04/last year.