U2's commercial and artistic (i.e. critical) success regarding their albums and singles have consistently dropped from All That You Can't Leave Behind to How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb to No Line On The Horizon while the time between their declining output continues to increase. That's a sinking ship. They can boast all they want about tour success, but that's pretty much irrelevant. Nobody considers Madonna or The Rolling Stone's recent work to be of any importance. It comes out, it sells a million in the US thanks to the tour and then is quickly forgotten about. Hmmm, reminds me of some 2009 release from an Irish band...