financeguy
ONE love, blood, life
Assuming the forthcoming album is the last of this decade, U2 will have released only three studio albums in this current decade. This is distinctly unimpressive when measured against their own output in the 1980's - 6 studio albums - and the 1990's - 4 studio albums, including Passengers. I think it is reasonable to include Passengers, given that it is completely original, it absorbed a significant amount of the band's time in the mid '90's, and a large part of the creative input came from U2 members (Note, I am including Rattle and Hum as a studio album. If it is excluded, then U2's 1980's output is 5.)
One could include U2's contributions to the Million Dollar Hotel soundtrack as a separate album in itself, but if one were to do so, one would also have to include similar side projects in the 1980's and the 1990's. So, it wouldn't really make the 00's look any more impressive.
The arguments regarding quality have already been threshed out here, but no-one can deny that U2's output has not been prolific in this decade.
It seems that however one looks at it, the 1980's are U2's most productive decade in terms of studio album releases. One could make an argument that Passengers shouldn't be included, in which case we have a tie between the 1990's and the 2000's.
One could include U2's contributions to the Million Dollar Hotel soundtrack as a separate album in itself, but if one were to do so, one would also have to include similar side projects in the 1980's and the 1990's. So, it wouldn't really make the 00's look any more impressive.
The arguments regarding quality have already been threshed out here, but no-one can deny that U2's output has not been prolific in this decade.
It seems that however one looks at it, the 1980's are U2's most productive decade in terms of studio album releases. One could make an argument that Passengers shouldn't be included, in which case we have a tie between the 1990's and the 2000's.