It's a very weak album. I've mounted a dozen 10 paragraph rants on that, and won't again, but I stand by it. It's a near perfect pop-rock FM radio album (and each song gets huge airplay as they should), but it's by U2 and that is it's curse. Middle of the road U2 pop-rock anthems on the radio are not going to sell albums. City of Blinding Lights, Sometimes, All Because of You - they all land smack in the middle of an expectation, they don't exceed it. It would be taken for granted that there's a new U2 song and it's kind of okay, or it's 'nice' or it 'rocks', but it's not leaping out of the speakers and slapping them across the face and saying "FUCK! Where did this come from!" While a quick glance at the Australian album sales chart or the playlists of the major FM stations may suggest otherwise, the Australian music listening and buying market, as a whole, are very smart and savvy. Compare those charts and playlists to the US market for one, then remember we are also Triple J-tuned, a thing like the Big Day Out is part of our 16-30 culture etc etc. We do very well, a country that for the most part is very interested in new things musically and knows quality. For U2 to have any real impact here ever again - not 'Bon Jovi' impact (huge band doing what we know they do) but real critical and cultural impact - middle of the road pop-rock singles are certainly not the way to go. Got to chop that shit down and start again. U2 do have a huge base here, most people love them, but this album hasn't meant a thing. It's just.... empty...
I agree with Love and Peace. Perfect choice for Australia.