ATYCLB and HTDAAB are so unfairly maligned in this forum. This whole 'U2 sold out', or 'U2 played it safe' argument is completely subjective. Those who LOVE the 90's will always feel U2 got scared and went back to it's 'basic sound'. Being a fan since the early 80's I can appreciate all aspects of U2's career and sound, and this gibberish that the 2000's were U2 running scared is absolutely bollocks...
Ok, this is where I have to step in. I've been a fan since 83 (yikes), and to me there is no question that from UF to POP was their creative, lyrical, musical, and pretty much everything else zenith.
I love any stage this band goes into and will follow them on the journey. I'm a big fan of SOI. But I think that the maligning of ATYCLB and Bomb are fairly well-deserved.
ATYCLB is a half decent album. Kite, WILATW, BD, and Elevation is a great live tune. But other than that it ranges from so-so, to downright bad.
Bomb is more consistent, but consistently mediocre. Nothing as horrible as Grace and POE, but nothing even approaching Kite, or even BD, which is think is a fine song, but probably a little bit more lauded than it deserves.
That being said:
Biggest mistakes in my opinion:
Single choices.
I often wonder where the band would be if they had chosen a couple of different key lead singles.
Firstly - Desire. Ok song. But really? They were lucky that the public was still so hot on them after JT that they let that one slide a bit. One wonders how even more astronomically huge they might have become at that point if they lead single was AIWIY. Rattle and Hum had its own issues, that probably still would have eventually weighed it down, but I do think it was not the best single choice.
EDIT! I take back my comment about The Fly. Bold and introduced Achtung Baby like it should have been - with a bang
I'll leave Zooropa out of this. Numb was so different and bold. What I loved about this band at that time.
Pop - ugh. Well, I don't hate Discoteque, but I often wonder if Staring at the Sun was the lead single, or Gone, even LNOE had been the lead, and the whole Village People/Kmart thing didn't accompany it, what would have happened. Very key moment for them here. Because it undoubtedly altered EVERYTHING for this band after that.
ATYCLB - great single choice, and great hype of "going back to the basics" worked so well for them here
Bomb - Also a good single choice, and smart pairing with Apple to keep them up in the biggest band status
No Line - How do you solve a problem like Boots. Ugh. Not much to say other than it was not good. Obviously leading with Magnificent would have been a real game changer for this album. Again, the band was lucky they were coming off the success of Vertigo and Bomb, because stations actually played the song for a couple weeks before abandoning it.
SOI - Again, horrible choice with Miracle. Paired along with their second stupidest decision (Apple release), put the album in a coffin, set it on fire and dumped it off a cliff.
Obvious choice, start off with EBW, DON'T show up and play at the Apple event, but still team with Apple to do a tasteful ad campaign featuring EBW (not kicking over drumsets and smashing guitars), and offering iTunes users to download the album for free for one week.
And last stupidest - waiting too damn long between albums when you are in your late 40's to 50's.
Honorable mention - teaming up with Blackberry instead of Apple to sponsor 360.
Leaving Mercy out of HTDAAB is definitely up there as a stupid decision.
)
so what is a pizza pie? I'm imagining a freak hybrid right now. 
In other words its redundant. Kind of like ATM Machine or frozen tundra. A tundra is frozen ground so saying frozen frozen ground just sounds silly. Kind of like pizza pie.
