U2’s ‘How to Reassemble an Atomic Bomb’ is a satisfying throwback

It’s U2, but unlike what we have heard for some time. And even though it has been six months since its release, I just can’t stop listening to How to Reassemble an Atomic Bomb.

It’s rock, it’s raw and unpolished. It’s music in the life-melody that saw early albums like Boy, October and War assault and the kidnapping of popular culture into a universe of conscious rock.

But there is a lot more to Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr and Adam Clayton’s music. It’s easy to get sidetracked by the activism of it all when, in actual fact, the post-punk anxiety and emotionally depth-charged melodies and lyrics of U2 is what made the band incredible in the first place. It’s music we can relate to, dance to, meditate to, and feel to. How to Reassemble an Atomic Bomb is a solid reminder of this.

It’s the music that made U2 incredible

On U2.com, The Edge said that the original sessions for How To Dismantle an Atomic Bomb were a very creative period for the band.

“We were exploring so many song ideas in the studio. We were inspired to revisit our early music influences, and it was a time of deep personal introspection for Bono, who was attempting to process/dismantle the death of his father,” he said.

“I went into my personal archive to see if there were any unreleased gems, and I hit the jackpot. We chose 10 that really spoke to us. Although at the time we left these songs to one side, with the benefit of hindsight, we recognise that our initial instincts about them being contenders for the album were right, we were onto something.”

There are 10 tracks on the album, and some never even made it to B-side status. But it’s good. Really good. That is, if you can look past the rawness of it all. Because despite the tracks being dusted off and panel beaten, there’s a hollow longing inside of them, a yearn for punk-infused emotive rock and roll like only this band knows how to make.

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In an interview with U2Songs.com, frontman Bono said that “the sound of a crowd was still ringing” and that it was this energy that sparked the band’s return to the basics.

“These are the primal sources of our instinct to make a record that would be the primary colour of rock and roll. Go back to those 45s, those rock and roll 45s, and we stayed there for maybe a few weeks. And then, of course, subject matter takes you down different musical paths.”

‘We hit the jackpot’ – The Edge

The Edge said he “hit the jackpot” when he dug into his personal archives while looking for tracks to Reassemble. He shared that although the songs had once been shelved, the band’s instincts about them being serious contenders as album material had been right all along.

“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,” he shared.

“That raw energy, condensed into ideas that were, at the time, contenders. But for various reasons along the way, they sort of slipped. Slipped off, they fell off the back of the truck, so to speak, into the ditch.”

Bono said, “You are hearing us discover,” and Edge added, “You hear us really going after those big guitar songs. A lot of poets would take their earlier works and reuse them, add verses, take verses out. I think that’s cool, there is a living, breathing aspect to music. It shouldn’t be monolithic in that sense,” The Edge said to U2.com on release late last year.

The music is strangely relevant

There was also a strange sense of timing, The Edge added. He noted that many of the songs had been inspired by the Iraq War. Though almost two decades ago, they feel just as relevant now.

“Things have kind of come full circle. At the time, we were writing about what was happening in Iraq. But now, if we sort of transport back to today, with what’s happening in the Middle East, that really could have been written last week.”

How to Reassemble an Atomic Bomb is an album that is a curiously satisfying throwback to very early U2. But it’s very today, too. The currency of the band remains emotion, social commentary and political tuning. But it’s as rock and roll and hot as hell in its intent as ever. It is a testament to four guys, a guitar, a bass, drums and a frontman. A collective that believed they could change the world. And, to a great extent, they did.

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