Listen to U2’s New Album: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb Online!!

Da Music Issue

With the exception of possibly another Nirvana album, it’s hard to imagine a more anticipated, discussed and dissected major release than U2’s "How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb," out Monday. This is the band’s first album in four years and their 11th. Their longevity, can be attested by their ability to make hardened rock critics gush because no matter what you might think, or even if you’re not aware. There is no one out there who doesn’t like U2. The test being everyone sings along (some in secret) to "With or Without You."

And even better and extra special, Glutter discovered that on NME you can pre-listen the to the album.

Listen to How to Dismantle a Atomic Bomb Now!!
(Some of the links for real media is funky, keep clicking it eventually works)

"It has become clear that there has never been, and probably never will be again, a band like U2. A combination of the Beatles (hugely popular, melodic) and the New York punk band Television (innovative, uplifting), they also have the heart of the Ramones and the swagger of Frank Sinatra. In their career-spanning quarter of a century, they have never had a band member arrested for carrying a gun, or punching a photographer, or been thrown out of a nightclub or dragged kicking and screaming out of an apartment building in a a state of undress. No member of U2 has had to hide stories from a wife about a visit to a strip club. Not one of the original members has quit the band, overdosed, committed suicide, been murdered of died. Even though Bono writes the melodies and the words to the songs and Edge comes up with much of the rest of the music, the four fo them truly work out songs together and have had an equal share in the money. They’ve had the same manager for 27 years, which is practically unheard of in the music business…. They’ve had the same tour manager, Dennis Sheehand, for more than 20 years and an organization (staffed mostly by women) known for efficiency and good manners in a nasty, nasty business. And except from the brief period of time when Adam Clayton was engaged to Naomi Campbell, they have never been fodder for the tabloids. U2, the only mega-band that still makes both commercially successful and vital music, avoided the rock-star cliché from the get-go….

"They didn’t pretend they didn’t want to play large venues. And while every band that steps on stage really wants to be as big as the Beatles, U2 admitted it. The songs -"I will follow," New Year’s Day," "Where the Streets have No Name," "I Still Haven’t Found What I Am Looking For." and countless others -were always described as anthemic, with soaring melodies, and ringing guitars. They had big dreams, big ideas, and a big atmospheric sound. U2 was, and is, a band that matters.

Vanity Fair: U2’s Unforgettable Fire, Lisa Robinson Nov 2004.

"Virtually everything that once made U2 the kind of band that the Teardrop Explodes or the Pet Shop Boys sniggered at, is back on How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. The lyrics address social issues with brushstrokes so broad, they make undoubted sincerity sound suspiciously like cliché: in those high-powered meetings he has with Blair and Bush, you can only hope Bono comes up with something a bit more convincing than "we need love and peace, lay down your guns".

"And yet – as anyone who has been dragged along to a ghastly sports arena protesting that they hate everything U2 stand for, then unaccountably ended up punching the air to Pride, will tell you – there is something undeniable about U2. How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb may be unadventurous and melodramatic, but it is packed with disarming moments. City of Blinding Lights is shameless stuff, building from a howl of feedback through a majestic, booming piano line to a chant-a-long chorus designed to reach the back rows of some ghastly sports arena. But you would have to be pretty churlish to remain unmoved by it, as you would by brash current single Vertigo or the supercharged Motown stomp of All Because of You."

Guardian: You aren’t Laughing Anymore

"We want him over the top, playing with unforgettable
fire. We want him to sing in Latin or feed the world or play Jesus
to the lepers in his head. We want him to be Bono. Nobody else is
even remotely qualified.

When Bono sings, "You’re the reason why I have the
operas in me," his grief and his grandiosity seem to come from the
same place in his heart. It’s a reminder that what makes U2 so big
isn’t really their clever ideas, or even their intelligence — it’s
the warmth that all too few rock stars have any idea how to turn
into music."

Rolling Stones Review

The Album is Out World Wide Monday.

Listen to How to Dismantle a Atomic Bomb Now!!