Reviewed by Mike Rimmer

I guess the answer to the album's title has got to be."carefully". U2 continue their application for the job of world's best band and amidst all the hype of one of the most significant album releases of the year, deliver something special. Simultaneously familiar and fresh, U2 continue the path of making spiritually inspired intriguing rock music. "City Of Blinding Lights" sounds like classic 'The Joshua Tree' era U2and is a tribute to New York after 9/11. The single "Vertigo" will already be familiar to you with its corrosive guitars, intoxicating riff and the sound of Bono's heart and head arguing before his heart wins. Other highlights are "Sometimes You Can't Make It On Your Own" which Bono sang at his father's funeral when he died in 2001. It is raw and emotional and an example of how the band connect. The band have never shied away from big issues and Bono's political activities are reflected on "Love And Peace Or Else", a song examining the Middle East situation - a political atomic bomb if ever there was one! Similarly, the crisis in Africa inspired the atmospheric "Crumbs From Your Table". There's been a lot of fuss made about the prayerful song "Yahweh" and it seems like the most obvious expression of faith on the album. And yet the band remain enigmatic about their faith, proving adept at fence-sitting refusing to be claimed by the faith community. Still they continue to pursue a spiritual agenda and with Bono's political activities seeking justice for the poor and relief for the suffering, affecting the world in a fashion no Christian band is able to equal. Meanwhile, 'How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb' ranks alongside 'The Joshua Tree' as an example of the band's best work.

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