How
do you top the fame, fortune and popularity that are already equated
with U2? Bono and The Edge are household names among music fans,
and the band’s career has spanned 25 years. With the hype
and anticipation surrounding the release of How to
Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, anything less than stellar
reviews would be underachieving for the boys from Ireland.
Is
the album a solid piece of work? Definitely—it will push
U2’s already successful career forward. But it isn’t
necessarily groundbreaking for them. It bears little resemblance
to the experimental albums of Zooropa
and Pop (both of which I love, for the
record). It’s also a noticeably different vibe than the
widely successful All That
You Can’t Leave Behind, which reestablished
the band’s fan base in 2000. All That You Can’t
is a set of songs that brings back memories of the early U2 days,
namely The Joshua Tree. Whereas, How
to Dismantle, with its haunting melodies and sexy
guitar layers, sounds much more like something from the Achtung
Baby era. Indeed the classic pieces are all here:
Edge’s trademark guitar sounds, Bono’s distinctive
soaring vocals, and the spiritually charged lyrics.
The
music is not purely loud rock n’ roll; in
fact, the opening single “Vertigo,”
with its catchy guitar riff, provides the biggest punch of the
album. The rest of the disc settles into a steady cohesive groove,
consisting of pop rock tunes and ballads with a definite acoustic
emphasis. The band has always been able to write strong melodies,
and this album is no exception. However, as a whole it fails to
take the band in any new direction. While the creativity of past
work (the aforementioned Pop album,
for example) revealed an unusual and innovative side to the band,
this album fails to create much excitement. It’s a comfortable
fit for the fans, and a pleasure to listen to, but I’d hoped
the band would have continued to push the bounds of today’s
rock landscape instead of settling for a conservative U2 sound.
What
isn’t static is the band’s spirituality, which permeates
the entire production. Bono continues to deftly weave together
romantic, spiritual, and political imagery in his lyrics. In fact,
Bono’s lyrics may be the most explicitly “Christian”
that they’ve ever been. He’s become more outspoken
in recent years about his faith and doesn’t shy away from
writing modern-day rock n’ roll hymns for an un-churched
audience. They may not fit into a typical evangelical or mainline
church, but Bono and the boys haven’t failed to serve and
promote the Judeo-Christian God in a distinctive and powerful
way.
The
songs on this album indeed have much to say. The Christian message
of compassion is represented in the song “Miracle
Drug.” Bono empathetically writes to everyone
suffering in the African AIDS crisis, telling them that “love
makes nonsense of space and time” and beneath the cries
of the victims is the voice of Jesus reminding us to help bring
comfort and relief (“I was a stranger, you took me in”).
In
“Love
and Peace or Else” (a song that represents
what “Bullet the Blue Sky” might have sounded like
on Pop), the band cries out for a cease
fire in the Middle East: "lay down your guns, all your daughters
of Zion, all your Abraham sons.” Instead of the incessant
fighting which has disrupted the region for years, the prayer
is for the current generation to develop “a brand new heart.”
The
grace of God is the theme of “All
Because of You;” In a poetic play on words,
Bono uses the name of God that was given to Moses in Exodus 3:14,
“I Am.” The Lord is given credit for bringing life
and meaning—“You heard me in my tune, when I just
heard confusion” and “I’m alive, I’m being
born . . . all because of you, I Am.”
“One
Step Closer” is a modern sequel to “I
Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” displaying
the emotional intensity of a weary wanderer in the world. In the
midst of doubt, pain, and sorrow, there is still the hope of moving
forward (“one step closer to knowing”). Love and mercy
are learned through the trials of life, for “the heart that
hurts is the heart that beats.”
The
album concludes with “Yahweh,”
a beautiful contemporary song of worship. “Take this shirt,”
writes Bono, “and make it clean,” and “take
this soul . . . and make it sing.” The road of sanctification
is long and difficult, because there is “always pain before
the child is born.” Every believer has wondered why Yahweh
allows “the dark before the dawn,” but God continually
reassures us of his presence in the world, and this brings hope
(“the sun is coming up on the ocean”).
U2
continues to deliver this hope to the shadowy places of the world
through artful and inspiring music. Even in the seemingly frivolous
world of pop music one can find God’s grace at work, for
as Bono reminds us, “blessings are not just for the ones
who kneel . . . luckily” (“City
of Blinding Lights”). This album affirms that
God’s love is available to all people, and that it is only
by His grace that anyone can experience true life. This realization
drives us to our knees in humility, where we can all join the
band in singing the final lines of “Yahweh”:
“Take this heart . . . and make it break.”
Michael
Ray's BLOG
How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb
