Well the irony hasn't been there since 2000, allowing greater room for "sincerity". Their general "look" has been (as a rule) more conservative- especially on Elevation and Vertigo. Bono has neither sent his rock star image up nor adopted any alter-egoes. Although politics never went away in the 1990s, they have taken a more central position since 2000, the most obvious manifestations being Bono's speech before One in 2005 and more recently the Burmese mask protest. Some applaud this- for others it stirs uncomfortable meories of Rattle and Hum. Furthermore many of their setlists have revisited the 1980s with the returns for Out Of Control, Electric Co, Running To Stand Still, An Cath Dubh,and The Unforgettable Fire (all perfectly good songs) - these have been at the expense of their 90s material, which , AB aside has not figured so prominently. Meanwhile some of their new material frequently got out the old road maps- City Of Blinding Lights, Miracle Drug, Beautiful Day, Walk On and of course Vertigo, whose repetition in the European leg, consciously evoked their earlier years, when they didn't have so much material to play. In my view, these subtle differences have accumulated.