In November, U2’s How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb — the one with “Vertigo” — will turn 20 years old. I’m not sure if we’ll give that album a proper retrospective (we did just revisit a more notorious U2 x Apple collab), but the band itself is marking the occasion with a whole new album of songs from the Atomic Bomb sessions.

Set for a standalone release on Nov. 29, How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb is billed as a “shadow album” containing 10 tracks from that era. Five of them are previously unreleased: “Treason,” “Evidence Of Life,” “Country Mile,” “Happiness,” and “Luckiest Man In The World,” which emerged in demo form under the working title “Mercy” many years ago. The other five tracks are merely remastered: “Picture Of You (X+W),” “I Don’t Wanna See You Smile,” “Are We Gonna Wait Forever?,” “Theme From The Batman,” and “All Because Of You 2.”

U2 are also releasing a 20th anniversary remaster of the original Atomic Bomb album including the bonus track “Fast Cars,” which will be available on its own or packaged with the “shadow album” on Nov. 22, exactly 20 years after the release of the original album. They’re calling that How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (Re-Assemble Edition).

The Edge shared some thoughts on How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb:

The sessions for ‘How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb’ were such a creative period for the band, we were exploring so many song ideas in the studio. We were inspired to revisit our early music influences, and it was a time of deep personal introspection for Bono who was attempting to process – dismantle – the death of his father.

For this anniversary edition I went into my personal archive to see if there were any unreleased gems and I hit the jackpot. We chose ten that really spoke to us. Although at the time we left these songs to one side, with the benefit of hindsight we recognize that our initial instincts about them being contenders for the album were right, we were onto something.

What you’re getting on this shadow album is that raw energy of discovery, the visceral impact of the music, a sonic narrative, a moment in time, the exploration and interaction of four musicians playing together in a room… this is the pure U2 drop.

The band has released “Country Mile” and the remastered “Picture Of You (X+W)” today along with the announcement. Hear both tracks below, where you’ll also find an album trailer.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Picture Of You (X+W)”
02 “Evidence Of Life”
03 “Luckiest Man In The World”
04 “Treason”
05 “I Don’t Wanna See You Smile”
06 “Country Mile”
07 “Happiness”
08 “Are We Gonna Wait Forever?”
09 “Theme From The Batman”
10 “All Because Of You 2”

How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb (Re-Assemble Edition) is out 11/22 and How To Re-Assemble An Atomic Bomb is out 11/29. Pre-order them here.