The Big Bang

1 Nov 2004
'That post-irony purple patch shows no sign of ending.' Q loves the 'Bomb'.

William Burroughs, says Q reviewer Johnny Davis, would have approved of 'How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb'. After all, it was Burroughs who said, 'You cut up the past to find the future' and with their new album U2 have 'effectively sampled themselves.'
'It's The Edge who makes this record,' he writes, with its 'arsenal of guitar noises that bring to mind a particularly impatient boy with a new box of indoor fireworks: there's tricks going off all over the place. Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own sends a single repeated note ringing through digital delay. City of Blinding Lights piles on the slide and distortion. All Because of You features a heavily manhandled acoustic guitar...'
Bono told Q last month that U2's continuing motivation was 'not becoming crap like everyehone else does.'
'With their 11th studio album,' concludes Davis, 'They've succeeded in not becoming crap quite admirably.'

Read the whole review in the December edition of Q, just published.
Incidentally, if you know you like U2 but you aren't sure what else you might like, well Q have some recommendations. If you like U2's new album they predict you will love Siouxie and the Banshees (The Scream, 1978), Muse (Absolution, 2003), Coldplay (A Rush of Blood to the Head, 2002), Bruce Springsteen (Darkness on the Edge of Town, 1978) and Echo & The Bunnymen (Ballyhoo; The Best of, 1997)
More Q here

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