U2 By U2

Compiled from years of interviews, U2 By U2 follows the band from their early days playing in school gymnasiums to the release of their last full album How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. Bono, The Edge, Larry and Adam, along with manager Paul McGuinness, reminisce about thirty years of music with wit, humour and a whole lot of humility.

Album by album, song by song, each chapter deals with a different phase in the evolution of the band, and includes dozens of great photographs. And although the personal lives of the band are touched upon, it's the band itself that is the focus of this book. It becomes clear very quickly that U2 isn't about five different personalities, it's about an entity that has a power all its own.

The best part of reading this book for me was that it gave me the desire to relisten to each and every album as I was reading about it. I've been a U2 fan for almost twenty years, yet I found I still had a lot to learn about them. I came away with a better understanding of Bono's lyrics and Edge's guitar riffs, Larry's drum loops and Adam's bass lines. And beneath all the discussion of how their music has been created, I began see the ties that bind the band together. Each one of them had different reasons for joining the band, but in the end they all remained together because they knew they could become something special. They all believe that Atomic Bomb was their best album so far, but they also believe that they can still do better. Hopefully that means that I'll have another decade or two of music to listen to!

Michelle