But when all is said and done this year, NLOTH could be something like #17 on the year compared with #8 for HTDAAB, which is clearly not the same level of success. There are still a lot of albums to be released in this calendar year and because NLOTH hasn't gotten great airplay, other albums may have longer legs.
There are only 15 weeks left in the Billboard year, and with NLOTH at #13, its unlikely to be surpassed by any newly released album. It could drop a few more spots, but remember, this album was release in March, while HTDAAB had the benefit of being released the last week in November and had all of its weeks on chart count on the 2005 chart to land at #8. So when you adjust for that, finishing at #13 when the album was only released in March with only 9 months of the year to sell in, compared to HTDAAB that had all of its first 12 months counted for 2005, you could say that finishing at #13 for NLOTH is actually better than HTDAAB #8 finish.
By contrast, POP finished at #45 for the year in 1997.
For ATYCLB, Beautiful Day became this decade's iconic U2 song that is recognized by almost every casual, mainstream music listener in the world. The album doubled the sales of its predecessor and made U2 the "biggest band in the world" again.
In the United States, Beautiful Day peaked at #19 on the HOT 100 Airplay only chart.
By contrast here are the following peaks for the 3 singles that charted from pop on the HOT 100 Airplay only chart:
Discotheque #22
Staring At The Sun #16
Last Night On Earth #74
POP recieved more radio airplay than ATYCLB in total, yet it sold much less. So just recieving lots of airplay does not mean an album will sell well, although it certainly does not hurt.
For HTDAAB, Vertigo was the smash hit single that again, most casual mainstream music listeners are aware of. The album won a boatload of Grammy Awards and had one of the most successful tours in history. The itunes ad put new U2 in the living room of every house in America.
In the United States Vertigo peaked at
#30 on the HOT 100 Airplay only chart. Compare that to the #16 peak of "Staring at The Sun", or the #7 peak of One or the #1 peaks for "With Or With Out You, and ISHFWILF.
We have yet to see how many awards NLOTH will win, but it is the best selling album worldwide to date for 2009, and the tour will almost gross
double of what the Vertigo Tour did. This tour for this album will in fact be the
most successful tour in history.
For NLOTH, while it has been a clear success and one of the top selling albums of the year (globally) to this point
Correction! It
is the top selling album of the year globally, and one of the best sellers of the year in the United States!
GOYB was poorly received and was not a major hit like other lead U2 singles. Magnificent (A song I absolutely adore) failed to break into any significant chart success. How are casual music listeners supposed to find out about this album? GOYB dropped right off the chart. There's no airplay for the new songs (Blackberry ad is helping). The reviews were not as good for NLOTH as the past two albums (per Metacritic).
As shown above, the POP album recieved more radio airplay than ATYCLB or HTDAAB, but I don't think you would claim that the POP album was a better recieved album than ATYCLB or HTDAAB especially since it only sold 1/3 or 1/2 has many copies.
But I just have a sense that until NLOTH gets a real hit song, it will never really have had the same chance that ATYCLB and HTDAAB did to reach a wider audience and have a really big impact in the music world and expand U2's fanbase. Without a hit, I just always feel like the album is not selling as much as it could, despite the success.
Remember, unlike ATYCLB and HTDAAB, NLOTH is the best selling album of the year worldwide, at least at this point.