Week 42

[phommel]

No Line On The Horizon

Last week back in the top 100 on number 100. This week it increases 23 places in the Netherlands!

77 (100)

The reason probably is that it ended very high on several year-lists from music critics in newspapers.

 

[GibsonExplorer]

No Line On The Horizon

Last week back in the top 100 on number 100. This week it increases 23 places in the Netherlands!

77 (100)

The reason probably is that it ended very high on several year-lists from music critics in newspapers.

OR because it's the Christmas shopping season, pal.

 

[fedeu2]

OR because it's the Christmas shopping season, pal.

That would explain an increase in sales but not necessarily a climb in the charts.

 

[GibsonExplorer]

That would explain an increase in sales but not necessarily a climb in the charts.

Not necessarily, but past Christmases have been kind to U2's chart performance. A massive tour and steady positive press didn't help U2's chart position all this time. Why should a bunch of year-end lists that only music enthusiasts pay attention to? My guess is that a bunch of shitty pop acts that didn't appear in these lists also had a healthy sales gain (though not much of a chart boost because they're already near the top). It should seem obvious that this is due to the Christmas shopping season. Apparently, not obvious enough.

 

[Yahweh]

U2 gets a boost in sales and therefore goes up on the charts because they are a well known music act. All the "warhorses" of the music industry do this year after year and U2 is one of those artists that get a substantial boost in sales during the Christmas season.

Although positive reviews help they certainly don't drive music sales. Has Brittney Spears ever got a positive review? I think not but that doesn't mean her material doesn't sell well.

 

[rollingbob]

But it's only charting in a few countries...

France : 78 (87)
Italy : 86 (re)
Belgium (Wal) : 91 (re)
Belgium (Fl) : 100 (100)
US : 182 (re) with 6,516 - highest total for 12 wks & +62% from 4,012 last week. Total is now 1,056,294

I think The US re-entry could well be due to Rolling Stone naming it their album of the year due to them having such a huge influential reach. I haven't seen it on many other critics EOY lists though - at Acclaimed Music.net only about 5 out of 30, much less than the last two albums.

 

[roy]

But it's only charting in a few countries...

I think The US re-entry could well be due to Rolling Stone naming it their album of the year due to them having such a huge influential reach. I haven't seen it on many other critics EOY lists though - at Acclaimed Music.net only about 5 out of 30, much less than the last two albums.

I'm sure I saw it in Q's top 10 albums for 2009.

 

[rollingbob]

EOY critics lists (from Acclaimed Music.net) :

R.Stone (US) : 1st
R.Stone (Argentina) : 3rd
Hot Press (Ireland) : 4th
Q (UK) : 9th
R.Stone (Germany) : 13th
Amazon (US) : 31st
Spin (US) : 32nd
Onethirty BPM (US) : 46th
Consequence In Sound (US) : 100th

That's it, just 9 shouts out of 87 EOY lists in total means it's currently only the 59th most acclaimed album of '09. In comparison ATYCLB made 24 EOY critics lists & HTDAAB 28 & both are usually amoungst the top 20/30 most acclaimed albums of their respective years...Pop is the only other U2 album not to make the top 40.

 

[rollingbob]

^Should also mention UNCUT magazine put it on their 10 bubbling under the top 50 list too. But enough of this critics nonsense (in the sales thread)...in France it's finished the year as the 8th best selling album of the year with sales of ~300k, which is actually very good, their highest EOY finish here for a long time.

 

[phommel]

OR because it's the Christmas shopping season, pal.

Nope, that is probably not the explanation. In the Netherlands we celebrate Sinterklaas around the 5th of December (without him Santa Claus wouldn't be there!). For Sinterklaas the Dutch spend much more than for Christmas shopping, and there was no increase in the charts around that time. That's why I don't believe christmas shoppings explain the increase.

Remember that not the whole world celebrates Christmas with presents. We have Sinterklaas, the Spanish have the Three Kings..etc.