It was produced by Steve Lillywhite, with additional production from Chris Thomas, Jacknife Lee, Nellee Hooper, Flood, Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno, and Carl Glanville.

How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb received generally positive reviews from critics and reached number one in 34 countries, including the US, where first-week sales of 840,000 copies nearly doubled the band's previous personal best.

It was also the fourth-highest-selling album of 2004,[2] with almost ten million copies sold,[3] and it yielded several successful singles, such as "Vertigo", "City of Blinding Lights", and "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own".

[4] U2's lead vocalist Bono said in a 2005 interview, "I went back and listened to all the music that made me want to be in a band, right from the Buzzcocks, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Echo & The Bunnymen, all that stuff.

"[5] U2 also wanted to make a concerted effort to revisit the same creative approach from their formative years: the ethos of the band members playing together in a room, with just guitar, bass, and drums.

"[4] Rather than repeat themselves after their previous record, All That You Can't Leave Behind (2000), U2 were seeking a harder-hitting, more guitar-driven rock sound in response to the success of the album's single "Beautiful Day".

The Edge said that he wanted Thomas to put the same stamp on U2's record that he had done on Never Mind the Bollocks, "The White Album" by the Beatles, and The Dark Side of the Moon by Pink Floyd.

[6][7] U2 began recording with Thomas in February 2003;[8] the Edge said the sessions were intended to have a "visceral band sound", and that he wanted a guitar tone like Steve Jones's on Never Mind the Bollocks.

Bassist Adam Clayton called the session the moment "the wheels came off"; he sensed the musicians' lack of enthusiasm for the band's music, saying: "We could read the room.

"[10] Clayton and Mullen also felt that All That You Can't Leave Behind had been overpraised, and they considered "Beautiful Day" to be the only hit single that the album generated.

[12] The Edge says that the group quickly fell into a much more organic creative process with Lillywhite, with he and Lee reworking songs and encouraging better performances from the band.

Contemporary Christian artist Michael W. Smith joined the band in the studio during the Atomic Bomb sessions and worked on at least one track with them, entitled "North Star".

[24] During performances on the Vertigo Tour, "Love and Peace Or Else" featured Mullen moving out to the center of the ellipse-shaped ramp, where he played a floor tom and crash cymbal for the majority of the song.

Bono stated on a bonus DVD included with special editions of the album that the band has no recollection of writing the song, as they were intoxicated at the time.

[26] "One Step Closer" is a slow tempo song, with Bono's lyrics centered around traffic images, leading to the singer being stranded on a refuge island.

Additionally, a special edition U2-branded iPod was released bearing the black and red color scheme of the album, as well as laser-engraved autographs of each member on the back.

"[38] Robert Hilburn of the Los Angeles Times called the album "triumphant", praising U2's "journey from adolescence to maturity" over their career as one that few groups could make "with their creative vision so fully intact".

He said that Bono lyrically "explores epic themes, from faith to family, with such indelible grace that the CD stands with 'The Joshua Tree' and 'Achtung Baby' as one of the Irish quartet's essential works".

[35] Dan Martin of NME called it "a classic U2 album, but also a breathtakingly modern heavy fucker", adding that "Bono's genius is that his inner monologue is so huge and heroic that it matches the scale of the music".

He called it "a joy to see the group rekindle its shimmering '80s guitar-pop sound" and was encouraged that their music "comes so strongly from the gut once again, without the latest techno-experimental production techniques.

"[41] Ann Powers of Blender called the album a "tour de force of tune and mood", adding, "because U2's sound has come to signify an open heart... it nearly always feels fresh, the way a new flame does".

She thought that Bono lyrically "wields sentimentality like a switchblade" but also said that "U2's music is so broad and welcoming it can express ardor equally well for Christ, wives, supermodels, children or Bishop Desmond Tutu".

[32] Stephen Troussé of Uncut called it "their most unabashedly strident record since The Unforgettable Fire" and said that songs such as "City of Blinding Lights" and "All Because of You" gave "the sense of a band flexing muscles they haven't used in years".

He thought the group had embraced the clichéd elements of their 1980s music but said, "Driven by a ferociously powerful rhythm section, U2 sound pleasingly raw, particularly next to the current wave of stadium rock pretenders".

[34] David Browne of Entertainment Weekly questioned U2's motivations for back-pedaling musically but called them "one of the few remaining bands who can make pop-chart lust work for them, as Atomic Bomb intermittently demonstrates".

[33] Greg Kot of the Chicago Tribune said that the record "marks a retreat from innovation and daring, and re-immerses the Irish quartet in the comfort zone of its earliest successes".

[42] Amanda Petrusich of Pitchfork called the record "brash, grungy, and loud" but not "especially surprising", judging it to contain a "tiny handful of outstanding tracks and a whole mess of schmaltzy filler".

She criticised Bono's "vague, cliched observations, his sentiments always awkwardly bombastic or hopelessly maudlin" and thought the album's biggest issue was "that it sounds so much like U2".

[54] The group also released what they referred to as a "shadow album" called How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb, comprising 10 songs unearthed from the recording sessions.

[55][56] The deluxe box-set editions of the reissue include the How to Re-Assemble an Atomic Bomb collection, an audio album of Vertigo 2005: Live from Chicago, B-sides and remixes, and a book of photography by Anton Corbijn.