Hello, hello: U2 will revisit their 11th album - and, depending on where you stand, the end of one era and the start of another - with a deluxe box set edition of How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb.

The set, available November 22 - exactly 20 years to the day of its original release - will feature five CDs or eight LPs of music: the original album, new collections of unreleased demos and vintage remixes, and the debut audio release of Vertigo 2005 - Live from Chicago, released on DVD in 2005 in the wake of the album. Each format includes a book of photographs from the era by Anton Corbijn. Highlights from the bonus material include a "shadow album" of outtakes under the name How to Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb plus 11 remixes of singles like "Vertigo," "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own," "City of Blinding Lights" and others. New double vinyl and CD pressings of the original album (with ex-U.S. bonus track "Fast Cars") will be made, and a "Re-Assemble Edition" - combining the original album and the outtakes disc - will be available digitally.

"It's taken us twenty years or whatever it is," frontman Bono grandiosely declared upon release, "but this is our first rock album." As gleefully insane as that claim may be, How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb indeed found the Irish quartet back in straight-ahead rock mode after spending most of the previous decade experimenting with dance and electronic sounds. (2000's All That You Can't Leave Behind was their first to adopt this "back-to-basics" approach, enlisting the services of The Joshua Tree and Achtung Baby producers Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno.) After the band disagreed on the direction of recordings made in 2003 with producer Chris Thomas - Bono and guitarist The Edge were in favor, while bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen, Jr. were opposed - the band called in another notable producer from their past: Steve Lillywhite, who'd produced the band's first three albums (Boy (1980), October (1981) and War (1983)). With the assistance of producer/engineer Jacknife Lee, Lillywhite helped guide the group into a more cohesive project, although nearly anyone who'd ever produced a U2 record ended up in the final credits, including Eno, Lanois, Flood and Nellee Hooper.

As ever, U2 sought to fill stadiums with their rolling layers of guitar sound on singles like "Vertigo," "City of Blinding Lights" and "All Because of You." But the album also featured other moments of reflection and intimacy. "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" and "One Step Closer" found Bono processing the death of his father in 2001, while "Love and Peace or Else" and "Crumbs from Your Table" featured the usual U2 profundity on the ills of the world. But the album was meant to be big; promoted in a flashy Apple ad where the band performed "Vertigo" in the style of the tech giant's iPod commercials, and supported by a five-continent arena and stadium tour with a unique stage design that enclosed some fans into a ring surrounding the main stage. (The iPod connections didn't end there: not only did the band sell a branded edition of the iPod pre-loaded with exclusive video, but in a landmark for digital catalogue activity, U2 also sold The Complete U2, a now-discontinued "digital box set" on iTunes featuring their studio output, B-sides, remixes, concerts and other unreleased and rare material. Curiously, some of the Atomic Bomb outtakes included in that now-deleted product are not here.)

Whether you think Atomic Bomb is U2's last great album or first mediocre one, it was certainly popular in its day. The album sold 840,000 copies in its first week in America, topping its chart plus surveys in the U.K., Australia and dozens of other countries. The album and its songs unusually won eight Grammys across two years in 2005 and 2006, including Album of the Year, Best Rock Album, Best Rock Song (for "Vertigo"), Song of the Year (for "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own") and Best Rock Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocals (for both).

The box set features a handful of previously unreleased audio on its bonus discs. Beyond the debut CD release of a show from the Vertigo Tour, four of the 11 remixes included on that bonus disc are heard here for the first time. How to Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb, drawn from the diverse sessions that birthed the album, offers five U2 songs that have never been heard or released before, including single "Country Mile" and "Luckiest Man in the World," a fan-favorite outtake that was leaked under the title "Mercy" (and whose lyrics appeared in original deluxe releases of the album). Three slightly retitled tracks from The Complete U2 - "Picture of You," then known as "Xanax and Wine"; "I Don't Wanna See You Smile," originally titled by its last word; and an alternate of "All Because of You" - will be included here, along with "Vertigo" B-side "Are You Gonna Wait Forever?" (A recording of The Edge's hard-driving theme for the '00s animated series The Batman is another inclusion that fans may have ostensibly heard.)

All formats of Atomic Bomb go off November 22 and can be pre-ordered below. As an Amazon affiliate, we earn from qualifying purchases.

How to Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (20th Anniversary Edition) (Island/UMR, 2024)

5CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
8LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada
CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada

CD 1/LP 1-2: Original album remastered (released as Island 986 782-9 (U.K.)/Interscope B0003613-02 (U.S.), 2004)

1. Vertigo
2. Miracle Drug
3. Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own
4. Love and Peace or Else
5. All Because of You
6. City of Blinding Lights
7. A Man and a Woman
8. Crumbs from Your Table
9. One Step Closer
10. Original of the Species
11. Yahweh
12. Fast Cars

CD 2/LP 3: How to Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb (* previously unreleased)

1. Picture of You (X+W)
2. Evidence of Life *
3. Luckiest Man in the World *
4. Treason *
5. I Don't Wanna See You Smile
6. Country Mile *
7. Happiness *
8. Are You Gonna Wait Forever?
9. Theme from The Batman *
10. All Because of You 2

Tracks 1, 5 and 10 released on The Complete U2 - Island/Mercury/Interscope (no cat. #), 2004
Track 8 released on "Vertigo" U.K. CD single - Island CID 878, 2004

CD 3/LP 4-5: Remixes (* previously unreleased)

1. Vertigo (Redanka Power Mix)
2. Vertigo (Trent Reznor Mix)
3. Vertigo (Jacknife Lee 12")
4. Fast Cars (Jacknife Lee Mix)
5. All Because of You (Killahurtz Fly Mix)
6. All Because of You (Redanka Indian Summer Mix) *
7. City of Blinding Lights (Paradise Soul Vocal Mix)
8. City of Blinding Lights (Hot Chip 2006 Mix)
9. One Step Closer (Asian Temple Mix) *
10. Miracle Drug (Redanka Miracle Dub) *
11. Miracle Drug (Redanka Zootopian Vocal Mix) *

Tracks 1-2 released as Island U.K. 12" 12 IS 866, 2005
Track 3 released on Island U.K. 12" 12 IS 878, 2004
Track 4 released on "Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own" U.K. CD single - Island CID 886, 2005
Track 5 released on "City of Blinding Lights" U.K. CD single - Island CID 890, 2005
Track 7 released on Island U.K. 12" promo 12 IS 890 DJ, 2005
Track 8 released on Artificial Horizon - Island/Mercury/Interscope U2.COM5, 2010

CD 4-5/LP 6-8: Vertigo 2005 - Live from Chicago (released on video as Island 987 464-0 (U.K.)/Interscope B0005709-09 (U.S.), 2005)

1. City of Blinding Lights
2. Vertigo/Stories for Boys
3. Elevation
4. The Cry/The Electric Co.
5. An Cat Dubh/Into the Heart
6. Beautiful Day
7. New Year's Day
8. Miracle Drug
9. Sometimes You Can't Make It on Your Own
10. Love and Peace or Else
11. Sunday Bloody Sunday
12. Bullet the Blue Sky

1. Running to Stand Still
2. Pride (in the Name of Love)
3. Where the Streets Have No Name
4. One
5. Zoo Station
6. The Fly
7. Mysterious Ways
8. All Because of You
9. Original of the Species
10. Yahweh
11. "40"