U2 drops punky ‘Atomic City’ single before Vegas residency opens: review
nypost.comits first residency in Sin City on Friday night, the Irish icons dropped the new single “Atomic City” — and its video — earlier in the same day.Hey, they didn’t become one of the biggest rock bands of all time without learning a thing or two about promotional synergy.And as they prepare to go Vegas — where no respectable band would have dared to go back in the day when they ruled rock — “Atomic City” finds the quintessentially earnest quartet coming out swinging and swaggering rather than taking themselves so seriously.“I’m ready for bright lights…I came here for the fight/I’m front row in Las Vegas/And there’s a big one on tonight,” sings Bono in a not-so-subtle nod to “U2: UV Achtung Baby Live At Sphere,” their Sept.
29- Dec. 16 residency that christens the $2.3 billion Sphere venue in the Venetian Resort.Revisiting the dance-rock rhythms of U2’s “Zooropa”/”Pop” era, “Atomic City” — a ’50s nickname for Las Vegas — is a fun party song, complete with handclaps, for the ultimate party town.
Will it join the cannon of U2 classics? No. But, evoking the punchy punk-pop of, say, Green Day, it shows that they’ve still got the hooks — even if it’s been a minute since they’ve had anything resembling a hit.
This sounds like it actually could be one — or at least that it deserves to be.And to top it off, the “Atomic City” video — also released on Friday — finds U2 revisiting the same Sin City street where they filmed their “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” clip over 36 years ago.Viva Las Vegas indeed..
Read more on nypost.com