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The Edge rummaged through U2’s archives and found 10 unreleased tracks from 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. The album was a hard-rocking affair produced by Steve Lillywhite, who had supervised the band’s first three albums and jumped in at the last minute to save the troubled Dismantle sessions. This expanded complete edition—bristling with 22 remastered tracks—builds on the reputation of that sonic powerhouse, from the snarling, guitar-driven opener “Vertigo” to the dance-stomp number “Happiness,” which presages the experimentalism of Zooropa and Pop. The lyrics to that latter song referenced the U.S. military’s Desert Storm campaign in Iraq and Kuwait, but they’ve retained relevance in a perennially war-torn world. Previously unreleased songs include a soaring statement of faith (“Country Mile”), a meditation on the universal power of love (“Luckiest Man in the World”), and a Middle East taste of electronica (“Treason”). The first two evoke the back-to-basics ethos of 1983’s War while the latter tracks suggest Pop. The 20th-anniversary edition is available in an 8-LP super-deluxe collector’s box set, a 5-CD collector’s set, a 2-LP or 2-CD edition, a single-CD version of previously unreleased tracks, hi-res downloads and streaming formats, and cassette.
By Greg Cahill
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