Some Re-Assembly Required

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2024-10-10)

Please note: This article looks at the upcoming songs on the “shadow album” How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb. This may include information that some would consider spoilers for the unreleased album, and we suggest you turn back if you wish to remain unspoiled about elements of lyrics and the development of songs for this release.

How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb is an album of demos and unfinished material from the How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb sessions. U2 are calling it a “shadow album”. Ten tracks are included, for 40 minutes of music, much of which hasn’t been heard previously. Re-Assemble is being released in the box set on vinyl and on CD. It is also being released as a deluxe version of the album on digital services on November 22. On November 29, Re-Assemble will be released as a standalone album as well. It will be released on coloured vinyl for the Record Store Day Black Friday event, and it will also be released by itself on streaming services and digital storefronts at this time. A standalone CD release is not planned.

U2 started work on the album that would become How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb in 2001 while on the Elevation tour. After that tour ended the band worked on the songs themselves for a while and then went into studio to work on the album with producer Chris Thomas, who had started his career working with The Beatles, and had gone on to produce artists like Roxy Music, INXS, The Sex Pistols and Pulp. The sessions with Thomas started in February 2003. In October 2003 the band found themselves working with a twenty-piece orchestra with Thomas in charge. Larry explained in U2 by U2, “It just wasn’t there. The songs had a lot of things going for them but they had no magic.” Adam Clayton agreed, “Frankly, we were missing more than just a first single.” Plans for releasing the album were pushed back a year, and the band turned to old friend Steve Lillywhite in January 2004 to finish off the album, who in turn brought Jacknife Lee in to work with him. Some of those tracks done with Thomas are included here, while others are taken from the later sessions with Lillywhite and Lee.

Here at U2Songs, we first heard about a full album of demos back in the Spring. Some of the tracks here, are as they were recorded in 2004, and others have had additional material added in recent recording sessions. The project was mastered in June and delivered to the label in July. We’re going to take a look at the ten tracks below with a little background on the songs, and what we know about themat this point. There’s been little published information about these songs to date, and what we’ve put together is from the lyrics, previous mentions of song titles over the years, and some of the notes included with the new release. Record Collector Magazine is publishing a cover story on U2, including an interview, at the end of October which likely will shed more light on this project, as will the release in November.

“Picture of You (X+W)” (Studio Version) – U2 (04:18)

Music by U2. Lyrics by Bono. Produced by Chris Thomas. Engineered by Carl Glanville. Assisted by Chris Heaney. Mixed by Carl Glanville.

“Xanax and Wine” was an early demo version of “Fast Cars”. “Fast Cars” was a bonus track on the Atomic Bomb album in 2004, and will be added to the main album for this 20th anniversary set as well. “Xanax and Wine”, the earlier version of the song, was originally released on The Complete U2 via iTunes and Medium, Rare and Remastered via the fan club. “Picture of You (X+W)” is an alternate take of “Xanax and Wine”. The structure of the song flows differently than “Xanax and Wine”. It appears that “Picture of You (X+W)” is intact from the 2004 recordings of the song, and the credits suggest no additional work was done for this new compilation.

In comparing “Picture of You (X+W)” to the previously released version of “Xanax and Wine” the following verse is moved to a later point in the song.

Save me, save me from myself
I know that you’ve been good to me
Now I need you not to be
Wake me, I feel like I’ve been asleep
I’m buying things I can’t afford
I’m on a high diving board

The lines that follow that verse in “Xanax and Wine”, “Oh it’s you that’s keeping me dry, Xanax and wine” are omitted from “Picture of You” completely. The new version of this song inverts the lines, “Try not to look so bored, You’re buying things you can’t afford” and “I’m buying things I can’t afford, I’m on a high diving board”. The song is familiar, but different due to these changes. And while jarring at first if you are familiar with “Xanax and Wine” repeated listens lessen that.

Adam Clayton discussed “Fast Cars”, the song “Picture of You” would eventually become in U2 by U2: “We recorded a new song on the second-last night in the studio, which ended up as a bonus track in Britain and Japan. We had a kind of electronica track called ‘Xanax and Red Wine’ which included the line ‘how to dismantle an atomic bomb’, and we had done a couple of versions but couldn’t make it fit together. Bono wanted to get that lyric back onto the record and we didn’t have much time so the idea came to start from scratch, replay it with a sparse arrangement and adapt melodies and lyrics to fit that new format. It turned into ‘Fast Cars’. It really ended those sessions on a high note.”

“Picture of You (X+W)” is one of the more recognizable songs on this “shadow” album, having been released as a bonus track on the Australian, UK and Japan versions of the album in the form of “Fast Cars”. U2 also performed “Fast Cars” live in concert starting with the third leg of the Vertigo tour. The new version of the song, “Picture of You”, has now been issued to radio and is being heavily promoted via multiple promotional issues. It is also available as a commercial double A-Side single with “Country Mile” on commercial services such as Qobuz.

“Evidence of Life” (Studio Version) – U2 (03:06)

Music by The Edge. Lyrics by The Edge with Bono. Produced by The Edge and Duncan Stewart. Recorded by Dan Vickers and Duncan Stewart. Mixed by Duncan Stewart. Keyboards: Bono. Additional Drums by The Edge.

There is little to say about this song, and much remains unknown about it at this point. The song does have keyboards by Bono and additional drums by The Edge, so it sounds like they were mixing things up in the studio to finish this one. This is one of the songs that has been added to recently, with work by Duncan Stewart on the track. Duncan has been working with the band for some time now, but he is far too young to have worked on recording sessions for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. So anywhere he pops up in the credits for this album suggests that more recent work has been done.

The lyrics in “Evidence of Life” hearken back to “Beautiful Day”, released on the album before Atomic Bomb, where Bono sings, “see the bird with a leaf in her mouth, After the flood all the colours came out”. The line is a reference to the story of Noah, who sent a dove out from the ark to look for land during the flood, and was overjoyed when the bird returned with a single olive leaf. Here Bono sings, “White dove flying in from out of bounds, One leaf, just a leaf is all she found.”

“Luckiest Man in the World” (Studio Version) – U2 (06:13)

Music by U2. Lyrics by Bono. Produced by Jacknife Lee. Additional production by Duncan Stewart. Recorded by Carl Glanville and Duncan Stewart. Assisted by Chris Heaney. Mixed by Jacknife Lee and Duncan Stewart. Additional Guitar by Bono.

U2 fans fell in love with a song called “Mercy” in 2004, and have been asking for its release ever since. And although this isn’t the same version as what leaked in 2004, Lillywhite has said that “Luckiest Man in the World” uses the instrumentation from the version that leaked 20 years ago, but there have been some newly recorded lyrics added to the track, “it’s the same version just finished lyrics.” (Thanks Ross) The original was 6:31 in length, the new is about 20 seconds shorter.

“Mercy” was first mentioned in a fall 2004 article in Blender:

As it stands, the album is three seconds shy of an hour and, as Bono says, “too much of a good thing is a bad thing,” so drastic measures need to be taken. “I have a theory,” Mullen begins, and a reverential silence descends as the drummer — traditionally the first band member to be shouted down in these situations — states his case. After just five minutes, it has been unanimously decided that the track “Mercy,” a six-and-a-half-minute outpouring of U2 at its most uninhibitedly U2-ish, must go. Hence a song that any self-respecting band would be proud to call a single becomes what Bono immediately anoints “the best B-side you’ve ever heard.”

Just after Atomic Bomb had been released, “Mercy” made an appearance online, via the Interference forum. A fan posted a low quality digital file (WMA), claiming she got it from a friend. (Some confusion suggested it came direct from Bono, she confirmed the CD she was given did not.) The friend, would later tell the message board that he had received a copy of the album about a week and a half before the album was released, and it was given to him on cassette by a friend at Interscope Records.

Although left off of Atomic Bomb the band would continue to mention “Mercy” over the years. In 2007 Bono would tell an Italian fan (who shared the information via U2Place.Com) that the song would be included on the next album, No Line on the Horizon. When that album went from a planned double album down to a single album, “Mercy” was cut from the album and was said to be on hold for Songs of Ascent, a companion album U2 had plans for, but still have not released. In 2009, The Edge shared that the band really liked “Mercy”, but just hadn’t figured out where to use it. And throughout the U2360 tour, the band played “Mercy” a number of times, with a tour debut in the pouring rain in Zurich in September 2010. Speaking with fans after the show, Bono wanted to know how the fans knew the lyrics to a song U2 had never played before. He was told the fans would have known more of the lyrics had Bono not changed all the words. A version of “Mercy” from that tour was released on the “Wide Awake in Europe” EP under it’s original title, but with the very different lyrics Bono was using in 2010.

There are hints as to how close “Mercy” came to being on the final album. In the deluxe booklet that came with the album in 2004, the lyrics from “Mercy” are displayed on one page, while in another spot the title can be seen in the handwritten track listing for the album.


IMAGE: Lyric from Mercy in Deluxe Booklet (2004)

The lyric changes here do not appear to be major changes from the original leak. “If you’re the prosecution, I get away with murder” is now “But if I’m the prosecution, you’d get away with murder”. Later in the song “Your heart is my home, It’s fascinating, I know I’ll never be alone” becomes “Your heart has no home, It’s devastating, But you’d rather be alone”. The biggest changes come during the chorus, “I’m ripping the stitches, Without two cents to rub, I’m digging the ditches, Of someone else’s luck” becomes “I’m ripping the stitches, You’ve been bandaging up, I’m digging the ditches, For relics of your love”. “Love puts the blue back in my eye, Love will come again, I’ll be gone again” becomes “Love puts the blue back in my eye, The sand inside the pearl, You were the luckiest man in the world”. These changes are repeated where these lines are heard. The final couple of verses where Bono sings about misery and history, charity and clarity” are left out of the new version.

“Mercy” was one of the last recordings worked on for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, after Chris Thomas had exited the project, starting in early 2004.

“Treason” (Studio Version) – U2 (04:44)

Music by U2 and Dave Stewart. Lyrics by Bono with The Edge. Produced by Dave Stewart and Jacknife Lee. Recorded by Carl Glanville with Duncan Stewart. Assisted by Chris Heaney. Mixed by Jacknife Lee. Additional mixing by Duncan Stewart. Keyboards and Additional Guitar by Dave Stewart. Programming by Mick Elizondo. Choral backing vocals by Gateway Ambassador Singers.

“Treason” was a song that Bono originally was developing with Dave Stewart, of the Eurythmics, and Dr. Dre. The trio worked on developing “Treason” and “American Prayer” at the same time. Bono and Stewart would also work on other songs together for the 46664 concerts. Out of these songs, “Treason” was never heard, but U2 did later work on development of the song further in studio. Elements of the work done in Dr. Dre’s studio are still present in the song. A young group of musicians from Ghana, by the name of The Gateway Ambassador Singers recorded the backing vocal during that session. Dave Stewart shares, “Those talented kids were all orphans and about to go on the road with Bono for the Heartland of America Tour, generating support in the fight against AIDS.” Mick Elizondo, who is credited with programming is a protege of Dr. Dre. Dr. Dre is not listed in the credits for the song.

The final mix here is by Jacknife Lee, and the song is produced by Dave Stewart and Jacknife Lee. Duncan Stewart was involved in mixing the track, so it appears at least the final mix was done more recently, and possibly some additional music or lyrics added into the mix.

A photo from U2 by U2 shows notes of songs under development and includes a note “Treason” Slide, with the date November 6, 2003.


IMAGE: Demo references in U2 by U2

One lyric from “Treason” jumps out at us:

Shadow-man’ll-cage-us-in-a-mansion-in-the-ocean-air,
I-don’t-wanna-make-you-wanna-rush-you, no, way, now
Take it all I’m running also wanna see you there
You wanna fake it never dance, soul, mash-up
Who’d, you, want, it, love, hard-to-get,
I want me a better silhouette

The album is being hailed as a “shadow album”, and this is one place where shadows are mentioned in the lyrics. (For another look at “Picture of You (X+W)”) This one is interesting to us because it mentions “Shadow Man” which was a character that Bono used on stage during the Joshua Tree tours in 2017 and 2019 for the song “Exit”.

“I Don’t Wanna See You Smile” (Studio Version) – U2 (03:17)

Music by U2. Lyrics by Simon Carmody. Produced by Steve Lillywhite and Jacknife Lee. Recorded by Carl Glanville. Assisted by Chris Heaney. Mixed by Jacknife Lee.

This song is familiar, previously called just “Smile”. The song was featured on The Complete U2 for Apple, and also later released on the fan club release Medium, Rare, and Remastered. “Smile” was also available as a digital bonus track on deluxe versions of U2’s compilation, U218 Singles. From what information we have, it appears that the version here is the one we have heard before.

The Edge discussed the track in the liner notes for The Complete U2 sharing, “Every U2 recording session produces its share of unfinished ideas. Some like ‘Smile’, from the sessions for How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, just arrive too late. Others like ‘Love You Like Mad’, from the sessions for All That You Can’t Leave Behind, get lost in the crush. There are songs like ‘Beautiful Ghost’, from The Joshua Tree demo sessions, and ‘Flower Child’ from the All That You Can’t Leave Behind sessions that are waiting for a rewrite before they can be finished. Songs like “Levitate’ from the All That You Can’t Leave Behind sessions which just don’t fit in. Wherever they come from, these ideas are often the most revealing of their time, because they are the least worked on songs and recordings. For this reason, they are often some of my favorites.

The credits for Medium, Rare, and Remastered list the writers of the song as Simon Carmody and U2. The credits in this new version of the Atomic Bomb album confirm that the lyrics were written by Carmody, and it is U2 responsible for the music. Carmody was the lead singer with the Dublin band, The Golden Horde, who signed with U2’s Mother Records in the 80s. Carmody also went on to release some solo singles after he finished with the Golden Horde, including a cover of “You Can’t Always Get (What You Want!)” with Gavin Friday. He’s also written many songs with Bono over the years including tracks such as “The Ballad of Ronnie Drew”, the recent UEFA Euro 2020 song, “We Are the People” (recorded with Martin Garrix), “Streets of Surrender S.O.S.” (recorded by Zucchero) and “Where the Shadows Fall” which was recorded by Willie Nelson.

Like “Mercy”, “Smile” was developed late in the album sessions with a start in early 2004.

“Country Mile” (Studio Version) – U2 (04:58)

Music by U2. Lyrics by Bono. Produced by Chris Thomas. Additional Production by Duncan Stewart. Engineered by Carl Glanville. Assisted by Chris Heaney.

The phrase “Country Mile” suggests traveling a mile in the country on the winding roads is a longer path than a usual mile. It is now used to suggest a unexpectedly long distance. In this song it sounds as if Bono wants to take a nice long walk with someone, and there is a suggested relationship. “I’m gonna get there, But not unless you help me, Surrender what is lost and found.”

The song itself is taken from early sessions for the Atomic Bomb album, but there has been more modern work done on the song, as witnessed by the ‘additional production’ credit by Duncan Stewart.

There are noticeable elements from other U2 songs in place, with elements of “Yahweh” and “Boy Falls From The Sky” (a song used in the Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark musical) among others.

One lyric that stands out after U2’s recent shows at Sphere?

No use complaining
The key was under the mat
And if it’s raining you should have thought of that

Many nights at Sphere, during “Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World”, Bono would take a balloon on a walk around the stage, an offering to Ali, after he’s had a night on the town. He reaches her home, only to find the door locked, and he asks around for a key. We never got a resolution at Sphere, but perhaps this lyric is a more recent one bringing the story to a close. (Thanks Mich!)

The lyrics recall “Landlady” as well, from Songs of Experience which again references a key, “Roam, the phone is where I live till I get home, And when the doorbell rings, You tell me that I have a key, I ask you, how you know it’s me?” That’s not the only parallel. As Bono sings in “Landlady”, “The road, no road without a turn, And if there was, the road would be too long.” We suspect that like “Landlady”, there are elements of Bono’s own story with Ali in the lyrics to “Country Mile”.

“Country Mile” has been released as a commercial single, a double A-Side with “Picture of You (X+W)” and has also had a limited promotional release to radio.

“Happiness” (Studio Version) – U2 (04:30)

Music by U2. Lyrics by Bono with The Edge. Produced by Steve Lillywhite and Jacknife Lee. Additional production by Duncan Stewart. Recorded by Carl Glanville and Duncan Stewart. Assisted by Chris Heaney. Mixed by Jacknife Lee and Duncan Stewart.

The trailer for the new version of How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb (below) includes two segments of the song known as “Happiness”.

Up first, the line “Happiness is for those who don’t really need it” can be heard in the trailer. That line is shared with the original version of “Mercy” and still appears in “Luckiest Man in the World” on this release. Later in the trailer we hear a harder edged musical piece with the lyric “In the desert, it won’t be long, we’re here for the atomic bomb”, a lyric that is similar to what can be heard in “Picture of You (X+W)” (“They’re in the desert to dismantle an atomic bomb.”) That piece at the end of the trailer, we can confirm, is the end of the song “Happiness”.

Like other tracks on the album, there has been some more modern recording done on this piece, with “additional production” and recording done by Duncan Stewart.

The audio at the end of “Happiness” may sound familiar as well. The music is shared with the song “Pull the Trigger” from the Spider-man: Turn Off the Dark musical. The soundtrack album for that musical, released in 2011, was produced by Steve Lillywhite. You can take a listen to that track below.

“Are You Gonna Wait Forever?” (Re-Assemble Edition) – U2 (03:51)

Music by U2. Lyrics by Bono. Produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno. Recorded and mixed by Richard Rainey. Assisted by Chris Heaney. Backing vocals by The Edge.

It is a bit weird seeing Lanois and Eno listed here as you don’t normally associate them with the Atomic Bomb album, but perhaps we shouldn’t be too surprised. Another track on How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb had originated from the All That You Can’t Leave Behind sessions, “Love and Peace or Else”. That one went through work with Chris Thomas, and then later was finished with Jacknife Lee and Flood. “Are You Gonna Wait Forever?” only lists Lanois and Eno as producers on the track, no additional producers, so it is likely the work done on this one for Atomic Bomb was prior to Thomas coming on board. The song was used as the B-Side for “Vertigo” and is likely the same version, as the track runs the same length, and doesn’t appear to have any additional work from the credits. We say likely, because on some streaming services it is titled the “Re-Assemble Edition” version of the song when no other songs are labeled that way, so perhaps it is another alternate version of a song.

In 2003, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland Ohio opened a U2 exhibit, with multiple floors focused on U2. As part of that exhibit there was a notebook of song titles that were identified as having belonged to the recording sessions for All That You Can’t Leave Behind. The list for this album was long, containing 53 different titles. “Are You Going to Wait Forever?” was one of these songs. There were no additional notes beyond the title of the song, and it wasn’t heard of again until the “Vertigo” single. The song was recently re-issued as part of the “Vertigo” single on online services in 2022. It’s streaming below.

“Theme from ‘The Batman’” (Studio Version) – U2 (01:43)

Music by The Edge. Produced by The Edge. Engineered by The Edge.

The Batman was a cartoon that was produced by Warner Brothers animation and ran on the Kids WB block of Saturday morning cartoons starting on September 11, 2004. For the first two seasons, each show opened with a montage of animated clips over the sounds of U2’s The Edge. The show continued beyond that time, but The Edge’s opening soundtrack was replaced in later seasons. Throughout the first two seasons, as well as various releases on home video formats, a number of iterations of the track were heard. We catalog these running anywhere from six seconds to one minute in length. The song was also featured as a download on the Kids WB site, which was 1:20 in length. The version here is longer than any of those.

The Edge was interviewed about his involvement in the title track: “I’m very excited to be a part of what looks like a very interesting new take on Batman. When I’m working on music, and in this case it was no different, I always go for the mood and the rough kind of emotional area that I feel the tune should have. I wanted to do something that was contemporary and had a little bit more threat and a little bit more restraint, because that’s really the character of Batman. I’m really excited to see how it goes. I’m sure it’s going to be a big success.” In a separate interview he would also discuss the theme: “It was really just a case of creating a bedrock of something tough and slightly menacing that wasn’t necessarily too heavy and dark. The great thing about the whole ‘Batman’ idea is that it strips down life to the battle between good and evil. You can relate to different sides of that battle at different times.

The version used on the cartoon had a voice at the end saying “The Batman” and the sound of bats flying. It will be interesting to hear if those elements remain on this, the first official commercial audio release of the song. There are no lyrics listed for this song in the liner notes for How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb.

U2 previously worked on another Batman project in 2005 with the song “Hold Me, Thrill Me, Kiss Me, Kill Me” being featured as the first single from Batman Forever.

“All Because of You 2” – U2 (03:33)

Produced by Chris Thomas. Engineered by Carl Glanville. Assisted by Chris Heaney. Additional recording by Duncan Stewart. Mixed by Carl Glanville. Backing vocals by The Edge.

Promotion for the Re-Assemble album has not listed that this is a new track. So our thoughts immediately went to the Chris Thomas produced version that had been originally released on The Complete U2 and later on Medium, Rare and Remastered via the fan club. But reviewing the credits, once again Duncan Stewart is listed, he’s been involved in “additional recording”. That means it’s likely an early demo, produced by Thomas, and has had some additional elements as well. It should be different from what we have heard before. Only time will tell how different.

The name of this mix is interesting as the band usually gives a more descriptive name to alternate mixes. This name recalls “No Line on the Horizon 2” which was a very different version than the main track, more so than just an alternate version tends to be. Or maybe they were just having some fun and wanted to get that “You 2” pun into the song title.

“All Because of You” is the song people will be most familiar with on this “shadow” album, as a finished version not only appeared on How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, the song was also released as a single to promote the album twenty years ago. Bono has been quiet about the meaning behind “All Because of You”, and when asked, Adam Clayton tried to be non-committal as well, “It could be about God, it could be about your father or your friends. Or the audience.” The song started development in mid-2002 under Chris Thomas

Q Magazine reporter, Tom Doyle spoke with U2 in studio, and he spoke about the song in a piece published in October 2002:

Then, when the guitarist cues up another new track called “All Because of You,” things get physical. It’s the rawest song U2 have ever recorded: the quartet recast as an abrasive garage band. “It’s the Who!” Bono howls, windmilling Pete Townshend-like and landing light(ish) blows on Q’s arm to emphasise musical accents. It’s clear that, re-energised by the creative and commercial rebirth of 2000’s All That You Can’t Leave Behind, progress on the band’s latest studio album (expected arrival: summer 2003) is cracking along apace.

Bono would speak to fans outside the studio in June 2003 to say that the song was complete, and would be on the next album. And here, 20 years later, we’re waiting for another version of the song to make a first appearance on How to Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb. The album is out on November 22 as part of the How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb release and will be issued as a standalone album a week after that.

Other Information

If you enjoyed the article, we would suggest checking out the book, U2: Song by Song by the author Aaron J. Sams. The book, published by Fonthill Media earlier this year takes a look at all of U2’s songs from 1979 to 2023’s “Atomic City” in a similar manner. It is available via Blackwells, which will ship worldwide.

Further there’s lots of information about the new releases in our discography:

Many thanks to Dan, Mich, Brad, Adele, Ross for ideas that made their way into the above. And to everyone who’s taken some time to point us in the direction of new information about this release, or who have taken a few minutes to discuss the album along the way.

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