I agree 100%!!
What is to say that this means Elevation type songs? Have people forgotten about hits like SBS, New Year's Day, Streets, WOWY, Pride, Desire, The Fly and the list goes on??
Plenty of what U2 has done, both hits and non hits, have been songwriting focused and great at the same time. 2 Hearts, Refugee, UF, ASOH, IGC, RTSS, almost all of AB and Pop, the list goes on.
Yes, in the 2000s, "looking for a hit" has usually meant Elevation or Vertigo, songs that are fine by me, but certainly fall a long way short of classic. However, lets look at their entire career, as well as the recent lessons they have probably learned from the NLOTH middle 3 for a little more confidence!
That, I think is the key question. Will U2 be able to go back to making popular music that you hear on the radio(War, UF,JT, R&H, AB) and has the added benefit of being spectacular?
All I know is I would love to see U2 get back to this place, and that is more important to me than what kind of album this happens to be. Yes, I would like an SOA original concept album, but then again, do we really want all slow and meditative stuff from a rock band with not alot of margin for error this time?