U2 announces ‘How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb’ 20th anniversary editions

Ten songs from the original album will be part of a deluxe reissue

To mark the 20th anniversary of U2’s eight-time Grammy-winning album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, Island Records and UMR have announced the release of a shadow album titled How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb, which includes new, unreleased songs discovered in the archive of the original album recording sessions. Set for a standalone release on November 29th, the first songs to be made available from How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb are “Country Mile” and “Picture Of You (X + W).”

To further celebrate the anniversary of this seminal album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb has now been remastered for the first time, a process which saw the band go back to the vault to revisit those early ‘00s recording sessions, a period of intense creativity for U2 in the studio, as well as a time of deep personal and artistic reflection following the passing of Bono’s father Bob in 2001. This special 20th anniversary edition – out November 22nd – will include the bonus track “Fast Cars” which was available on a deluxe edition at the time of the original release. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (Re-Assemble Edition) – featuring both How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb and How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb – will be available as a dual digital release on November 22nd.

The remastered How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (20th Anniversary Edition) will be released as an 8 LP vinyl Limited Edition Super Deluxe Collector’s Edition, 2 LP vinyl; Exclusive D2C Limited Edition 2 LP Black & Red Ink Spot Vinyl, Limited Edition 5 CD Super Deluxe Collectors box; CD; and Exclusive Limited Edition Red & Black Cassette. The digital releases include HTDAAB remastered (12 tracks); and HTDAAB & HTRAAB featuring 22 tracks.

How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb will be exclusively available in physical format for Record Store Day as a Limited Edition Black & Red Marble single LP and as a standalone ten-track digital release, available on November 29th.

Selection of remixes from collaborators including Hot Chip, Trent Reznor, and Jacknife Lee. The Remix disc includes four previously unreleased remixes. For the first time on CD the complete Vertigo 2005: Live From Chicago show will be available in audio format. The boxes include an exclusive collector’s edition hardback photography book by Anton Corbijn featuring handwritten notes by the photographer and never-before-seen photos, and a unique set of eight special edition prints illustrated by the band, housed in a folio sleeve.

How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb is a collection of ten songs taken from the original recording sessions for How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb recently rediscovered in the band’s archive and now released for the first time as a standalone album. This shadow album includes new, never-before-heard or previously released songs – “Treason,” “Evidence Of Life,” “Country Mile,” and “Happiness,” plus a song called “Luckiest Man In The World” – familiar to fans under its working title “Mercy,” an early demo of which was leaked online almost 20 years ago – which now gets its official release; as well as five newly remastered songs – “Picture Of You (X+W),” “I Don’t Wanna See You Smile,” “Are We Gonna Wait Forever?,” “Theme From The Batman,” and “All Because Of You 2” – all collected together for the first time to mark the 20th anniversary of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb is U2’s 11th studio album. Released by Island Records/Interscope on 22nd November 2004, it went to No. 1 in 34 countries, including Ireland, the UK and the US. Described by Bono at the time as “our first rock album,” How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb was recorded at the band’s studio in Hanover Quay, Dublin and the South of France, and produced by Steve Lilywhite, with additional production from Chris Thomas, Flood, Jacknife Lee, Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, Nellee Hooper and Carl Glanville. The 11 tracks included the songs “Vertigo” and “Sometimes You Can’t Make It on Your Own,” both of which debuted at No. 1 in the UK charts, the first time a U2 album produced two chart-topping singles. How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb and its singles won eight Grammy Awards, sweeping all of the categories in which the band was nominated, with “Vertigo” alone winning three in 2005, including Best Rock Song. The band was the night’s big winners in 2006, taking home the Grammy for Album of the Year, as well as Song of the Year for “Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own” and Best Rock Song for “City of Blinding Lights,” with Steve Lilywhite also winning Producer of the Year.

CD 1: How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb Remastered

1. Vertigo
2. Miracle Drug
3. Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
4. Love and Peace or Else
5. City Of Blinding Lights
6. All Because Of You
7. A Man And A Woman
8. Crumbs From Your Table
9. One Step Closer
10. Original Of The Species
11. Yahweh
12. Fast Cars

CD 2: How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb

1. Picture of You (X+W)
2. Evidence of Life
3. Luckiest Man in the World
4. Treason
5. I Don’t Wanna See You Smile
6. Country Mile
7. Happiness
8. Are You Gonna Wait Forever?
9. Theme from The Batman
10. All Because of You 2

CD 3: Remixes

1. Vertigo – Redanka Power Mix
2. Vertigo – Trent Reznor Remix
3. Vertigo – Jacknife Lee 12”
4. Fast Cars – Jacknife Lee Mix
5. All Because Of You – Killahurtz Fly Mix
6. All Because Of You – Redanka Indian Summer Remix
7. City Of Blinding Lights – Paradise Soul Vocal Mix
8. City Of Blinding Lights – Hot Chip 2006 Remix
9. One Step Closer – Asian Temple Remix
10. Miracle Drug – Redanka Miracle Dub
11. Miracle Drug – Redanka Zootopian Vocal Mix

CD 4: Vertigo 2005, Live From Chicago

1. City Of Blinding Lights
2. Vertigo/Stories For Boys
3. Elevation
4. The Cry/The Electric Co.
5. An Cat Dubh/Into The Heart
6. Beautiful Day
7. New Year’s Day
8. Miracle Drug
9. Sometimes You Can’t Make It On Your Own
10. Love And Peace Or Else
11. Sunday Bloody Sunday
12. Bullet The Blue Sky

CD 5: Vertigo 2005, Live From Chicago

1. Running To Stand Still
2. Pride (In The Name Of Love)
3. Where The Streets Have No Name
4. One
5. Zoo Station
6. The Fly
7. Mysterious Ways
8. All Because Of You
9. Original Of The Species
10. Yahweh
11. “40”