Only music that touches the soul is music that is great or can even be considered as such.  U2 have been making great tunes for as long as I've been alive, a year shy actually, so it is no surprise they are the biggest band in the world and it is no surprise they are the most talented band in the world and with that... the most solid and put tether band in the world.

When you see these guys live, you know you're seeing not only a band that plays kick ass tunes, writes great music but also you're seeing 4 friends... and it shows within the
Chemistry of the band.

However, this is not a 25 year in review, this is a "HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB" review and that's what I'm going to try to do with each song here.


VERTIGO- It starts it out and it's old hat by now, cause everyone and there mom and maybe even puppy have heard it.  However, this song is a 2 chord jam and it buzzes inside your head like killer bees.  It's an honest song and at the same time a very pop orientated song, but at it's root a very rock song and nothing like U2 has sounded before.  While not the DNA of the albumb, it is a great way to put it into gear.


MIRACLE DRUG- This is a song in a traditional U2 sense, yet not really as Edge takes a great cue to sing behind Bono's very sincere real voice. The song is probably the 5th best on the album as it has a great hook and lead in. The bridge is tricky to learn and the chorus easy to learn.  It's a sure fire single, but I can pick 7 songs on here that could be singles.


SOMETIMES YOU CAN't MAKE IT ON YOUR OWN- WOW! The most blue moment on the album, with the eception of One Step Closer... this is a song that just makes you feel it from the start with edges progressive two string strum, that he makes sound like a 12 string.  It's not a hard song but it's a deep song. This is probably their best ballad since One, but I seem to think Kite is there best ballad ever... SYCMIOYO is an exercise in so many feelings and you can really put it to your life without having to alter much about it at all. The 3rd best song on the album here, easily.

LOVE AND PEACE OR ELSE- This is a jam! It's bullet in the blue sky for the now.  It's a great piece and it makes the album really come alive. Bono sings bull horn like as he talks of troops on the ground diging in while the tv sound is turned down... this is a song for today's going on's in war and politics and no one makes better political statments than U2.  One of my favorite songs on the album.

CITY OF BLINDING LIGHTS - Also called neon lights too, strange. This is a slow slow slow song. It's the weakes song on the album and it makes the placement seem off, maybe this should have been like a hidden track or the last track... I dunno.  I agree with the actually last track though as Bono and the rest said it was an album that started on a high note and ended with one with Yahweh. Blinding lights is a U2 song I would have much rather traded up for a studio cut of the incredible U.V. which was cut from the Zooropa days after the ATB days.

ALL BECAUSE OF YOU- This song is great! Awsome 60's feel to it... At 1st listen you will hear without a doubt THE WHO in there... it's a song they could have written and probably preform better than U2, lol!  I so love this song it's such a close call here and with Yahweh to call my favorite on the album.  I'm such a huge fan of the WHO though, so go figure.


A MAN AND A WOMAN- Hmmm... this is a song maybe No Doubt would sing and get away with, but not U2. It's a very R&B inspired tune. It's got a great bass line from Adam and a good spanish style guitar on edges part, but the song seems to peculiar to be U2... it is and you ca tell, but what I can't tell is why U2 would be selling themselves so short on two of the tracks on this album.. cause this and Blinding lights were throw aways.


CRUMBS FROM YOUR TABLE - This is a great song... this is a song that screams 80's music mid 80's music... it would have possibly been written around the Tompson Twins to Talking Heads to even Echo and the Bunnymens hay days... It's a good catchy tune with no real chorus but the tag line.


ONE STEP CLOSER- A very personal song. It's a great tune and it's an honest tune, much like SYCMIOYO. It sounds like it could have been recorded on the Joshua Tree album, as it relys very heavy on acustics and bono's voice alone without much else... a time when Bono's voice was the best in the biz he comes thru here in flying colors.


ORIGINAL OF THE SPECIES- WOW! WOW! WOW! If U2 and the Beatles were to have got together for a song, this would be the out come... It's the best of john lennon, with Edges guitar mix and classic U2 feel... This song is great from start to finish. The lyrics, however deep, are very real and very personable.  "Some things you shouldn't get to good at, like lying, crying, and celebrity" just screams a john lennon moment. This is without a doubt the strongest song on the album, it is... It's not the best, cause the best is the actuall last U.S. track, but it's so close.

YAHWEH- This is the song you buy the album for, right here.  I've bought so many albums to hear just one song alot of times and they are always never U2 albums... This album had hit after hit after hit... and this song here would still be the reason to buy the album, even if the other songs did suck, which lucky for me they don't.  This song is a song that just has it. You know it has it. It has a great sound, a great vibe and a great trail from start to finish. You follow it and love it you want it to build and it does and then you want it to come down and it does it is a song you feel... it's a perfect song if ever there was one.  It's a song about GOD, hence the hebrew spelling, and it's a song about life and love and happiness and about change... it's all about change and this song changes you. U2 at it's very very very best here.

FAST CARS "U.K." - This is a song most of you who don't live in the U.K. or Japan or don't buy the delux box set won't get to here, unless live.  This is a heavy heavy song... it's like a shot in the arm to the album and lucky for me I got the good version to hear it.  It's a song that doesn't add to the album, but as a dear and close friend of mine likes to say about things, it "compliments" the album well and that's what it's all about.  
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So... with all the songs talked about and all the songs we didn't hear as they were cut or reproduced for U2's top seceret Rare collections... this is U2's follow up to ATYCLB and nothing more... that album was great and this one is it's LOTR T.T. follow up, it's just as good and in most cases better.  U2 aren't back... cause they haven't left since the last gig and they won't be going anywhere since.

They are set to take the RnR hall of fame crown this year.
This album will sell like mad.
Their tour is gonna eclipse the highest grossing tour of 2002 the elevation tour.
This album will go down as U2's best effort yet.

While some might not like u2 for taking up so much of the spot light in the music biz, they do and have earn and deserved it all. A group that can stay together, without breaking up for 5 years is magic, let alone 25 years... R.E.M. & U2 are the only two bands I can think of that are still rolling out the good tunes after 25 and 26 years on the market.

In closing... Go buy this album.. it's not gonna disapoint you in the least bit.

4 1/2 out of 5

U2's strongest effort to make an impact since ATB and The Joshua Tree