U2 have shared a new track, “Happiness,” from their forthcoming record How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb, a collection of ten songs taken from the original recording sessions for 2004’s How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. The album will be available on November 29th.
How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb is being called a ‘shadow album’ by the group, intended to showcase new and unheard material in honor of the 20th anniversary of the original record. The album includes songs discovered in the archive of the original album recording sessions. Before “Happiness,” the group previously released two songs off the record, “Country Mile” and “Picture Of You (X + W).”
To further celebrate the anniversary of this album, How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb has been remastered for the first time, a process which saw the band go back to the vault to revisit those early 00s recording sessions, a period inspired by deep personal and artistic reflection following the passing of Bono’s father Bob in 2001.
Speaking about the new project, The Edge shared, “The sessions for How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb were such a creative period for the band, we were exploring so many song ideas in the studio… For this anniversary edition I went into my personal archive to see if there were any unreleased gems and I hit the jackpot. We chose ten that really spoke to us. Although at the time we left these songs to one side, with the benefit of hindsight we recognize that our initial instincts about them being contenders for the album were right, we were onto something.”
He continued, “What you’re getting on this shadow album is that raw energy of discovery, the visceral impact of the music, a sonic narrative, a moment in time, the exploration and interaction of four musicians playing together in a room… this is the pure U2 drop.”
Order the 20th anniversary edition of How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.