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Knowing that a strong first single was U2's greatest concern, Lillywhite, 49, who has produced the band on and off since 1980, decided to re-record a promising track called Native Son. He set the group up in a Dublin warehouse to get a martial drum sound reminiscent of its early days and persuaded the Edge to "stop worrying about the fine line between White Stripes and Whitesnake"--or between art rock and arena rock--and just let loose. When the music started to smolder, Bono grabbed a microphone. "He was awful," says Lillywhite. "The song was all about...
Despite Lillywhite's success with Vertigo, the process didn't get any easier. U2 continued to work in moments of epiphany followed by days of wallowing. The Edge obsessed over his guitar sound, Clayton and Mullen Jr. hung around to offer criticism, encouragement and rhythm, and Bono checked in via cell phone during breaks from his various attempts to save the world. "He really wasn't around a hell of a lot," says Lillywhite. Nevertheless, his lyrics were the only thing flowing with relative ease. "It's all done in the morning now," says Bono cheerfully. "I used to stay...
After 10 months of endless talking and recording-studio drudgery, U2 held another meeting and finally reached something approaching unanimity on the new album. "I do believe we have the hits now," says Clayton--and he's right. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb is the catchiest album U2 has ever made, though it is neither political--the titular bomb refers to Bono's tempestuous father, who died in 2001--nor, as Vertigo suggests, a garage rocker. Mostly it's perfectly rendered grandiose pop, enormous in sound and theme. Bono sings about salvation (Yahweh), love (A Man and a Woman...
...real star of Bomb is the Edge. On the up-tempo tracks, his guitar swaggers with a grimy, lo-fi elegance. On the half a dozen ballads, he doesn't hesitate to sample the clean, echoing minimalism he created on U2's earlier records. The result is an album that references old sounds for the devoted, integrates fuzzy new ones for the kids and delivers a staggering number of indelible hooks. The only notable weakness is that the pursuit of those hooks keeps Bomb rooted in the thrill-delivering formula of verse-chorus-verse-pedal-steel solo, depriving...
Having gone through the agony of making hits, U2 wants to make sure its songs will be heard. Radio has been unfriendly to the band for years (its last Top 10 hit was 1997's Discotheque, which peaked at No. 10), so the group decided to cooperate with Apple on a customized black iPod and the now ubiquitous Vertigo silhouette ads, though they didn't do it solely for a payday. "A big car company once offered us $25 million for one of our songs," says Bono, "and we turned them down. No money changed hands in this deal. Downloading...