U2 release new single ‘Atomic City’
U2 have released the single, ‘Atomic City’, to warm up for their 25-date residency at the new Las Vegas venue, The Sphere. The new track also pays tribute to a Blondie classic.
Notably, the Irish rock band premiered the new track during a video shoot at the Fremont Street Experience in the Nevada city on September 24th, and now, it’s available to listen to on all streaming platforms.
The chorus of ‘Atomic City’ is similar to that of Blondie’s 1980 classic, ‘Call Me’, which is no coincidence as the composers of the new wave track, Blondie frontwoman Debbie Harry and Giorgio Moroder, are both credited as writers on the new U2 single.
According to U2 frontman Bono, “It’s a love song to our audience,” which allegedly influenced the lyric, “Where you are is where I’ll be.” Furthermore, during the video shoot, the new single was introduced as “a rock ‘n’ roll 45 in the tradition of late ’70s post-punk”.
‘Atomic City’ was produced by Jacknife Lee, who has worked with U2 before on remixes of ‘Bullet the Blue Sky’ and ‘Vertigo’. Steve Lillywhite also contributed to the track, the 1980s producer du jour who collaborated with the quartet on early releases including their first three, Boy, October and War.
U2’s residency at The Sphere begins on September 29th. The band will be without Larry Mullen Jr. for the shows as he recuperates from an operation.
“The whole band and I’m sure the audience are going to be very sad and miss Larry,” Adam Clayton recently told the Daily Star. “He wants to come back, he wants to be able to have a long career and continue his drumming so he’s taking care of those injuries.”
Listen to ‘Atomic City’ below.
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