"Picture of You (X+W)" - U2

Promotional Release

Track Listing:

Background Information

U2 announced the release of a 20th anniversary series of recordings of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb on September 26, 2024. Immediately a double A-Side commercial single was released on commercial services for “Country Mile” / “Picture of You (X+Y)” containing the album versions of those two songs. Both are taken from the “shadow album” of demos titled, How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb. The track, “Picture of You (X+W)” was familiar to fans as it is a different recording of the song “Xanax and Wine”, released in 2004.

Both songs were also issued as promotional singles in a variety of formats. These singles were delivered to radio stations via digital services, and to date we are not aware of any physical releases for “Picture of You (X+W)” nor for “Country Mile“.

“Cover” art for the promotional single includes art based on the How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb album in many cases. At least one single includes art from the deluxe box for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb instead. At least four edits of the song that are different from the album version have been distributed.

The day of the announcement, September 26, 2024, promotional releases were circulated containing both the album and radio mix of the song. RTE and U2 X-Radio both added the radio edit of the song for airplay on this day. 2FM, during their advance first play of the song with Dave Fanning, used the radio edit of the song.

A week later, October 4, a slightly edited version of the album track was sent to radio stations. It ends about 3 seconds early, and removes a ‘double click’ noise that could be heard at the end of the track. On Tuesday October 7 and 8, additional versions of “Picture of You (X+W)” were sent to promotion. This time the release included the edited album version of the song plus two new edits. One of these new edits is a longer version of the song at 4:25 in length, with an additional instrumental (~15 seconds) at the end of the song. Instead of fading out, this instrumental comes in at the end and the song finished on the music. The other edit runs 3:28, and once again adds the added instrumental at the end of the song. Both of these new edits remove the drum count in to the song that you hear on the album version.

“Picture of You (X+W)” is being heavily pushed for airplay in North America, while “Country Mile“ is getting a stronger push for airplay in Europe. Both have entered airplay charts, which can be found on the discography entry for the commercial single.

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