How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb – U2
*** ½
How to Assemble an Atomic Bomb was U2’s eleventh studio album. It sold nearly ten million copies and won eight Grammy Awards. The twentieth anniversary package includes a remastered version of the original album, including bonus track “Fast Cars”, plus How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb, a “shadow album” of ten previously unreleased tracks from their 2004 album sessions recorded with Atomic Bomb’s original producer Chris Thomas. The songs, discovered by The Edge while digging through the archives, offer a fresh perspective on that era.
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- More of this review and a review of New Arrangements and Duets by Van Morrison
- Music News
- Song of the Week Lyrics ~ “He is Making All Things Right” by Bryan Fowler, Skye Peterson and Ben Shive
This shadow album includes four 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 some under it’s working title “Mercy”, an early version of which was leaked online nearly twenty years ago. There are also five newly remastered songs – “Picture Of You (X+W)”, “Don’t Wanna See You Smile”, “Are We Gonna Wait Forever?”, “Theme From The Batman”, and “All Because Of You 2”.
Favorite songs:
- Picture of You
- Luckiest Man in the World
- I Don’t Wanna See You Smile s
- Country Mile
- Are You Gonna Wait Forever?
Although the band has been in the studio with drummer Larry Mullen Jr., after his recovery from surgery, (which resulted in him missing the band’s forty show residency at the Sphere), How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb is likely to be the closest we’ll get to a new U2 album for quite some time. The good news is that this “shadow album” is much better than many might have anticipated.
New Arrangements and Duets – Van Morrison
** ½
This is Van Morrison’s 46th studio album. He has said that the album represents a small percentage of the huge amount of unreleased material he is hoping to roll out in the near future, rather than letting it gather dust in some archive. The big band tracks on the album were recorded in 2014 and the duets more recently. Morrison’s musical director/pianist Paul Moran and his former live band saxophonist Chris White individually picked the songs that they wanted to do new band arrangements for. The duets, recorded across 2018 and 2019, include Kurt Elling, Curtis Stigers, Joss Stone and Willie Nelson.
vThe album begins with a new version of his 2018 song “Ain’t Gonna Moan No More”, on which Van is joined by Kurt Elling. The duets include Curtis Stigers getting “Close Enough for Jazz” and Joss Stone on “Someone Like You”. The final two duets may be the best – “What’s Wrong with This Picture’ and “Steal My Heart Away” with Willie Nelson, with Nelson’s son Lukas on guitar.
The album also includes “big band” arrangements of Morrison songs such as “Avalon of the Heart”, “So Quiet in Here” and “The Master’s Eyes”, a highlight from 1985’s A Sense of Wonder.
This collection of fifteen somewhat random songs is the third of a series of releases from the vaults on Orangefield Records (Beyond Words: Instrumental compiled instrumental cuts from the Seventies to the 2000s and Live at Orangefield, a 2014 concert).
I have enjoyed Morrison’s music since 1989’s Avalon Sunset, but this release seems to lack energy, with similar jazz beats, and I probably won’t revisit it much in the future.
Favorite songs:
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- The Master’s Eyes
- Chopping Wood
- What’s Wrong With This Picture?
This week’s song of the week is “He is Making All Things Right”, written and performed by Bryan Fowler, Skye Peterson and Ben Shive at the 2024 Sing! Getty Music Worship Conference. The song is an upbeat celebration of Christ’s work to set all things right. Watch the performance of the song here.
Verse 1
Hail the rightful ruler
Christ who come to save
King of truth and justice
Lord of love and grace
He who bore the cross to
Bring His people peace
Broke the chains of sin and
Set the captive free
Chorus 1
He is making all things right
He is making all things right
Verse 2
Hail the humble shepherd
Bending low to serve
Bread for all our hunger
Water for our thirst
He who helps his neighbor
Loves the least of these
Welcomes in the stranger
Sets the captive free
Chorus 2, 3
He is making all things right
He is making all things right
In His goodness, in His time
He is making all things right
Verse 3
Hail the coming Savior
Hope of every heart
Healer of the nations
Bright and morning star
He will win the battle
Set the world at peace
Finally and forever
Set the captive free
