genius is that his inner monologue is so huge and heroic that it matches the scale of the music". Steve Morse of The Boston Globe called it a "nakedly honest, uplifting album" and their most personal one since The Joshua Tree. 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." 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". 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 remarked about the melancholic undertow of Bono's lyrics, believing that the "lines that stay with you speak of a creeping malaise". Alexis Petridis of The Guardian said that the album "may be unadventurous and melodramatic, but it is packed with disarming moments". 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". He lamented the abandonment of their 1990s experimentation, but appreciated their retention of self-awareness, concluding, "it seems highly unlikely anyone will laugh at U2 again". 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". 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". He believed the band had "settl[ed] into middle age by recycling its best riffs and ideas" and that those musical ideas were "destined to pale in coming years as second-hand versions of those classic albums". Amanda Petrusich of Pitchfork called the