One, two, three...fourteen. The ill-conceived Spanglish that launched a thousand iPod commercials. "Vertigo" and the Apple partnership overpowered the press behind How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (Atomic Bomb). Critics, and the public warmly received the record, but the bag on the album was it was not much more that All That You Can't Leave Behind II.Atomic Bomb is a minor push of the musical envelope over its predecessor, but it is a much more dramatic and powerful record. The death of Bono's father, Bob Hewson, lays a heavy conscious across the album. His father is the atomic bomb.
The beauty in Bono's lyrics is his ability to balance the deeply personal with the universal. All That You Can't Leave Behind was about the time in life when death and new life seem to connect. Atomic Bomb digs much deeper into that experience, and uncovers the anger, frustration and hope in those moments.
This album arrived in a time when I was experiencing new life, and death. My child was born and my grandmother died. The record was immediate catharsis, but as time has passed it continues comfort and uplift. Late in the album is one of its best songs, "Origin of the Species." Three years later and I watch my incredible little child grow and do amazing things. Every parent says that, but every kid is pretty amazing too. I watch that child in amazement, with hope and in fear. I have never loved something like I love him.
One day he was playing and I was just doing dishes, listening to How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. I turned around as "Origin of the Species" hit the chorus and tears just started streaming.
And you feel like no-one before
You steal right under my door
I kneel 'cause I want you some more
I want the lot of what you got
And I want nothing that you're not
It is impossible now to listen to this song without my lip quivering. That little child reminds me that I am human, alive. He also reminds me how that life would never be the same without him.
Several other songs made immediate emotional connections with me at that time, and have only grown since - "Sometimes (You Can't Make it on Your Own." "City of Blinding Lights" and "Yahweh." Unlike many other U2 songs where I can pinpoint specific moments in songs that drive the whole thing home, these songs rely on the whole message. This album is very much like a close friend consoling you. That person may not say everything right but in the end you feel uplifted, and that is the whole point.
I went back to my original review of Atomic Bomb upon its release. I wrote:
U2's best characteristics have also been their worst enemies. But now the band has fully embraced what made them an exciting band in the first place, emotion. They have never been afraid to show emotions and work in matters of the mind and heart.
I still feel like this album, coupled with All That You Can't Leave Behind, demonstrates U2 is arguably at its best when they are not trying to be cool. Enough bands in the world know how to be cool. If these two records were a throwback to anything from the band's '80s records, it is the desire to do something more important than look cool in leather trousers. U2 was able to do both with Achtung Baby and with Zooropa, but at this stage of the game, it is best to stick with a song instead of a style.
