Mixed reception for U2's latest

November 24, 2004

Is U2 the world's greatest rock band? The jury is still out.

The band's new release, How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, has received a mixed reception.

It fused the "pompous sincerity of [the band's] '80s incarnation" and their "ironic, self-aware '90s version", said Simon Price in the Independent on Sunday. The result "isn't downright atrocious - frustratingly U2 never quite are - but neither does it sparkle".

Andrew Perry, in London's Telegraph, agreed that parts sounded like early material reworked by "post-Achtung Baby U2" - but this was no bad thing. "From its wonderfully eye-catching title downwards, U2's 11th album is top-hole pop art, sucking up the latest ideas ... from around them, and reshaping them into the kind of exhilarating soundburst that only U2 can make," he gushed.

For James Delingpole, in London's Sunday Telegraph, the new album did not "quite resolve the eternal mystery of why U2 are considered the world's greatest rock band". Its saving grace was that it sounded "mostly unlike U2", he reckoned. Michael Clark, in the Houston Chronicle, wrote: "While younger bands struggle to find ways to expand their sound without alienating a fickle fan base, U2 goes anywhere it wants and confidently tells its listeners, 'This is what you need.' "