U2 how to dismantle an Atomic Bomb LP mint

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How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is the 11th studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was released on 22 November 2004 on Island Records and Interscope Records. Much like their previous album, All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000), How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb exhibits a more mainstream rock sound after the band experimented with alternative rock and dance music in the 1990s. The album was produced by Steve Lillywhite, with additional production from  Chris Thomas, Jacknife Lee, Nellee Hooper, Flood, Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, and Carl Glanville.

• Hanover Quay (Dublin)
• South of France

• Steve Lillywhite
• Chris Thomas (add.)
• Jacknife Lee (add.)
• Nellee Hooper(add.)
• Flood (add.)
• Daniel Lanois (add.)
• Brian Eno (add.)
• Carl Glanville (add.)

1. "Vertigo"
   Released: 8 November 2004
2. "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own"
   Released: 7 February 2005 (except North America)
3. "All Because of You"
   Released: 8 February 2005 (North America only)
4. "City of Blinding Lights"
   Released: 6 June 2005

Looking for a more hard-hitting sound than that of their previous album, U2 began recording How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb in February 2003 with Thomas. After nine months of work, the band had an album's worth of material ready for release, but they were not satisfied with the results. The group subsequently enlisted Lillywhite to take over as producer in Dublin in January 2004. Lillywhite, along with his assistant Lee, spent six months with the band reworking songs and encouraging better performances. U2 lead singer Bonodescribed the album as "our first rock album. It's taken us twenty years or whatever it is, but this is our first rock album." Thematically, the record touches on life, death, love, war, faith, and family.

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb received favourable reviews and reached number one in 30 countries, including the US, where first-week sales of 840,000 copies nearly doubled the band's previous personal best. The album and its singles won all nine Grammy Awards for which they were nominated (U2 themselves were awarded eight out of the nine). The album also was the fourth-highest-selling album of 2004, with over 10 million copies sold, and it yielded several successful singles in "Vertigo", "City of Blinding Lights" and "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own". The album was also included in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Best Albums of the Decade" at number 68.

Contents

Writing and recordingEdit

Lead singer Bono explained that he had to ask himself a few hard questions before carrying on recording: "I wanted to check where I was to where I am. So I went back and listened to all the music that made me want to be in a band, right from the Buzzcocks, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Echo & The Bunnymen, all that stuff. And what was interesting is, that was what a lot of people in bands now are listening to anyway. So in a funny way, it made us completely contemporary."

Looking for a harder-hitting rock sound than that of All That You Can't Leave Behind, U2 began recording How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, in February 2003 with producer Chris Thomas. After nine months of work, the band had an album's worth of material ready for release, but they were not satisfied with the results; drummer Larry Mullen Jr. said that the songs "had no magic". The group subsequently enlisted Steve Lillywhite to take over as producer in Dublin in January 2004. Lillywhite, along with his assistant Jacknife Lee, spent six months with the band reworking songs and encouraging better performances. Several other producers received credits on the album, including Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, Flood, Carl Glanville, and Nellee Hooper; Bono acknowledged that the involvement of multiple producers affected the record's "sonic cohesion".

A demo version of the album (guitarist The Edge's copy) was stolen while the band were having their photo taken for a magazine in France in July 2004. It contained unfinished versions of several songs that made it onto the album. The band publicly announced that if those tracks were leaked online, they would release the album immediately via the iTunes Store. Several months later, the finished album was leaked online, but the band did not release it earlier, despite previous comments.

In late 2004, "Mercy", an unreleased track taken from the How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb sessions, surfaced on the Internet through a fan who had been given a copy of the album containing the extra track. The track is of less than standard audio quality, but managed to become a favorite on fan websites. It was cut from the final release, but was described by Blender as "a six-and-a-half-minute outpouring of U2 at its most uninhibitedly U2-ish". The lyrics to the song can be found in the booklet for the Special Limited Edition. A significantly revised version of the song was performed during the European leg of the U2 360° Tour; it made its live debut on 12 September 2010 during the second Zurich concert, and was officially released as the opening track on the band's Wide Awake in Europe vinyl-only live EP that November.