"Some Things You Shouldn't Get Too Good At...Like Smiling, Crying & Celebrity"

When I feel the need to be moved emotionally, Bono's is one of the first numbers I dial. Despite nearly three decades as the frontman of the best rock band on the planet, this multimillionaire still communicates to his audience like the guy next door. It might be because so many of his songs communicate struggle or confusion. Whether it's about love of man, romantic love, or God, Bono's voice speaks to the listener in such an intimate manner, it immediately sets him apart from damn near every other singer out there. Sensitive folks like me respect the sincerity and feel it. Jaded folks call it pretentiousness (pretention?) and yawn.

That the band-U2-manages to speak so clearly (and so successfully) to the music-appreciating public 25 years after it's first record is a testament to the high quality of the music the guys have made. To date, there has not been a below-average U2 album. There've been a couple of borderline sketchy ones, and while Zooropa gets my vote for all-time worst U2 album (I'm sure many of you disagree), even that's better than the best, oh say, Nickelback or Limp Bizkit record.

When we saw Bono and the boys last, they were touring the world in support of All That You Can't Leave Behind, a 7-Grammy winning behemoth of an album which restored the band to glory after a couple of minor stumbles. The album (which already had a great deal of emotional resonance) gained even more emotional resonance after the 9/11 attacks. The songs on that album sort of acted as a light at the end of a dark tunnel for the folks who were directly and indirectly affected by the tragedy. U2 seemed like the perfect band to represent the sorrow that was felt, as well as the first stages of healing.

With that said, excuse me if my expectations are heightened a little bit for How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. I'd imagine the expectations of most people are. Well, for me, the final result was worth it. Atomic Bomb (which it will be called for the duration of this review because that title is too damn clunky) is a tight, concise (11 tracks) collection of tunes that continue in U2's practically flawless tradition. With Steve Lillywhite (who produced the band's first three albums) back on board for much of the album, there is a sense of the band trying to return to past glories, I guess. But, damn, if 90% of music sounded as good as U2 did in 1983, there'd be a heckuva lot more good music to listen to, y'know?

It's sort of weird that the opening track from this album has completely no emotional resonance whatsoever, and that's fine. First single Vertigo is nothing more than an excuse for the band to rock hard, and it's certainly one of the more aggressive offerings the band has come up with lately. A rock-solid drumbeat, Edge's buzzsaw of a guitar, and Bono's impassioned shouting make for an adrenaline rush of a song, if you don't get sick of it from the stupid iPod commercials. It's sort of refreshing to hear the album getting off to a somewhat frivolous start (what's up with the screaming in Spanish in the chorus?), but you just have to go two tracks forward to find the first of the tracks that serve as the album's emotional center.

The moody Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own may have been written by Bono in mourning over his late father, but the song's message (as exemplified in the title) is universal. It can be seen as either a lament or an offering to a friend in need, but there's no denying the raw emotion in Bono' voice or the pure beauty in the falsetto chorus. Love & Peace Or Else not only has a great title, but it turns the volume back up on the aggro-meter, with more fuzzy guitar, and an arrangement that reminds me more than a little bit of Rock & Roll Part II by Gary Glitter. City Of Blinding Lights sounds like Where The Streets Have No Name mixed up in a blender with Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses. The result-chiming guitars, an understated piano, a fleet bass line-culminating in soaring falsetto harmonies and a killer chorus-is nothing short of perfection. Is it a love song to New York City? Is it a traditional love song with the Big Apple as a backdrop? Who cares! It's a great song!

To me, the album's best track is one of it's most understated. A Man & A Woman has classic pop song written all over it. It's one part acoustic ballad, one part chillout late-night dance jam a la Everything But The Girl, all fantastic. The only pain is to feel nothing at all, Bono sings as he weighs love versus lust, and chooses love in the end. His vocal delivery sounds eerily (to me, anyway) like Bob Marley, a connection that ensures Bono's placing on my list of all-time favorite vocalists.

I mentioned in a previous review that U2's songs have sort of a universal appeal from a lyrical standpoint. Bono's lyrics manage to be straightforward and oblique at the same time.. One Step Closer To Nowhere, a haunting ballad reminiscent of All I Want Is You, could easily be about having a broken heart due to the end of a relationship or a broken heart due to the lack of will to live. Yahweh, however, is a pretty straightforward prayer. The Edge's secondary vocal adds a bit of gravity to Bono's soulful wail on this song, an uplifting, hopeful way to close this album.

One thing this album definitely has in common with ATYCLB is it's sort of back-to-basics approach. Bono and company stepped out for a bit, did the borderline-electronica thing, did the whole Discotheque video dressed as the Village People, experimented a bit and then came back home. There's not anything on here that will make you stop and go holy sh*t, that's U2???. The songs are fairly organic, The Edge's guitar chimes and rings the same way it did back in '87, Bono's definitely more earnest than he is cheeky, and all is right with the world again.

Is Atomic Bomb the best album ever recorded in the history of the world? No. Even on an overwhelmingly great album like this, there's gonna be a song or two that just doesn't hold up quality-wise. For me, that's Miracle Drug, which I sorta dug the first couple listens before realizing that it was just keeping me from being able to listen to Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own quick enough. "All Because Of You" kinda drones along noisily without any lyrical or musical ear candy to grab me.

Even with demerits for those two songs, "Atomic Bomb" probably rests comfortably in the upper middle of the pack as far as U2 albums go. Not quite a work of genius, but definitely a solid spin around the block for a band whose first misstep has yet to come into view. Hey, what can you say when the only thing you can find major fault with on an album is the title?



"How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb" by U2

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

Repeat: "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own", "A Man And A Woman", "Yahweh"

Skip: "All Because Of You", "Miracle Drug"

Great Music to Play While: Wondering who came up with that Godawful album title?