It’s a protracted, good distance — spiritually if not physically — from Joshua Tree to Las Vegas.
But as U2 prepares to launch its first residency in Sin City on Friday night, the Irish icons dropped the brand new single “Atomic City” — and its video — earlier in the identical day.
Hey, they didn’t develop into one in every of the largest 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 return within the day once they ruled rock — “Atomic City” finds the quintessentially earnest quartet coming out swinging and swaggering quite than taking themselves so seriously.
“I’m ready for shiny lights…I got here here for the fight/I’m front row in Las Vegas/And there’s an enormous 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 within 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 last word 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 when it’s been a minute since they’ve had anything resembling successful. This appears like it actually may very well be one — or at the least that it deserves to be.
And to top it off, the “Atomic City” video — also released on Friday — finds U2 revisiting the identical 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.
