2004 November - How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb

The release of a U2 album is always a special event for us fans, and it's really nice to be able to share it, so I went through to my friend and fellow u2 fan Dawn's place so we could listen to it for the first time together. It was a miserable November night, but I got a warm welcome and we were both excited and apprehensive about the album.

We listened to it one song at a time and discussed it before moving on to the next. The truth is we were both underwhelmed. All That You Can't Leave Behind was a good, safe album, what we really expected after the shaky Pop, they had to make a safe album to get fans on board once more. But How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb was yet another safe album, very much on the lines of ATYCLB, but in my opinion, not as good. It wasn't a bad album, it was okay, but a bit of a disappointment for us two fans who had wanted something that went out on a limb from the band. We were hoping to be challenged by U2, but it was not to be, it was quite predictable and Bono's lyrics were often not up to the usual standard.

To this day it is the album I've played least. I like some individual songs, but in general it doesn't excite or hold me. Later we got to hear a song that was left off the album - Mercy - and I loved it, pure unbridled U2 that , better than any song on the album by miles. But I can see why Mercy was left off, it was too different to fit in with the rest, but it's the song I've played many more times than any Bomb album track.