i disagree with the article. R.E.M.'s last three albums are not unimpressive, and not drab. There is so much going on on all three. Up is the album of a lost bad trying to find their way again, with their drummer gone. Ironically titled as it might be, it's straight from the heart. With Walk Unafraid as anthem, keeps doing what it's good at, which is reïnventing themselves, might that be with 4 or 3 members.
U2's last albums are most accuratley to be called "drab" and most vcertainly "unimpressive". U2 seems to have a certain fear of reïnventing themselves, which is what they did in the 90s. Now, they're going with the (main)stream, which (to me) is the wrong way. If you want to be contemporary you'll have to make an effort, instead of making the same songs over and over again.