How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (Re-Assemble Edition)

“[Brian] Eno described me as the ‘Mother Teresa of the rough mix’,” The Edge tells Apple Music Radio’s Zane Lowe. “I would not give up. If I felt there was something in this rough mix, I would hold onto it.” So when the U2 guitarist returned to his CDs of demos and rough mixes for this 20th anniversary edition of 2004’s How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb, there was some confidence that he might find a few ideas worth pursuing. However, the making of U2’s 11th album had been protracted and, at times, frustrating. A first round of recording had produced a set of songs that left a feeling of “good but maybe not good enough” hanging over the band in late 2003 until Steve Lillywhite, who produced their first three albums, arrived to urge them towards “Vertigo” and several other big-hook, no-BS anthems that helped make …Atomic Bomb a U2 classic.

So, as The Edge rummaged through his archives, expectations would have been a little tempered. When he put the CDs on in his kitchen though, he discovered more than...