U2, in celebration of the start tonight of their U2UV: Achtung Baby 25-date residency at the Sphere in Las Vegas, have released "Atomic City," their first new song since "Your Song Saved My Life" in 2021.
The song’s chorus has a strong resemblance to Blondie’s “Call Me,” so Debbie Harry and Giorgio Moroder both have co-writing credits.
While it's been released to coincide with the Vegas opening, The Edge says they "wanted it to be a foreshadowing of where we're heading," but adds that they haven't recorded anything else.
The video for "Atomic City" was filmed on Fremont Street in Las Vegas on September 16th, drummer Larry Mullen Jr. played on the video and the record, but won't be part of the residency as he continues to recover from back surgery. Bram van den Berg will fill in on all dates through December 16th.
In an appearance on CBS Mornings Thursday Bono said that the first rehearsal the band had inside the Sphere on Monday "didn't go very well" and that it was "horrible" while The Edge said "It wasn't that bad." The Edge added that "Atomic City" is a "kind of foreshadowing of where we're going" but that they haven't recorded anything else yet for their next album.
The first 10 shows of the run are sold out, but there are still tickets for the last 15 dates. And prices on the secondary market have dropped almost 50-perecent for those sold out shows since tickets went on sale in the spring.
That's the track that the band filmed a video for on September 16th in downtown Las Vegas.
While the show is based on the band's 1991 album Achtung Baby and expected to use some elements of the group's ZOO TV tour, there have been very few leaks about the show's set list. The band does plan to take advantage of the video and audio technology advancements in the Sphere.