How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb by U2

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, U2's eleventh album, came out on Island on 22 November 2004 in the UK, with Interscope putting it out in the US a day later, and it's the band gunning straight for the rock-and-roll jugular. They started it in February 2003 with Chris Thomas, spent nine months on it, and then decided it wasn't good enough. Steve Lillywhite came in to take over in Dublin in January 2004, and he and Jacknife Lee spent six months pulling better performances out of them, with Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, Flood and others adding production along the way. Bono pitched it as the band's first real rock album.

"Vertigo" is the proof, a snarling riff machine that sounds built for arenas and car stereos alike. Around it the record swings from the widescreen shimmer of "City of Blinding Lights" to the grand, aching sweep of "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own", with "All Because of You", "Original of the Species" and "Yahweh" filling out a record about life and death, love and war, faith and family.

It went to number one in 34 countries, and in America it sold 840,000 copies in week one, close to twice U2's old personal record. The album and its singles won all eight Grammys they were up for, Album of the Year and Best Rock Album among them, and with nearly ten million sold it was the fourth-biggest album of 2004. Rolling Stone later put it at 68 on its list of the decade's best.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.