The momentum thing does kinda have an effect. Between Love Town and AB there was a bit less than 2 years, not a huge ammount of time and a year of that was much needed down time after 3 years of solid work which included two albums and twohuge tours, tours on a scale the band had neevr done before and were sick of.
Fast forward to l994 after ZooTV was over 2 years of solid touring and two albums and young families to worry about a break was well deserved, plus in 1995 we got Passengers an in there a fair bit of soundtrack work for those who really needed their U2 fix. But ime off was really well deserved becuase from 1987-1993 they had only taken 1990 off every other year in there was pretty much either spent in recording or touring in that space they produced four albums and three huge tours. A long pause but a well deserved one and we did get a few bones along the way.
Now when we hit the gap between Pop and ATYCLB which was a little long (for only one album and tour, though POPmart wasa huge undertaking and there was getting chewed up int he media) but not too bad. We had teh first BEst of with it's primo B-sides disc and the MDH soundtrack plus a good bit of media coverage in between and a lot of laad up to the album. Now for me the album was a disappointment but atleast there was some momentum between albums. Then add in the Millenium new years show that big benefit concert that though it failed gave us some more new live U2 stuff.
This time we got the Best of Soon after with ES which seemed pretty much like a left over from ATYCLB and while Hands was nice all this came pretty close after Elevation was son over, and then nothing... Yes there was this new song but I've never heard it nor would I have heard of it were I not on this board. Other than Bono's charity work U2 have completely dropped off the radar. This totally goes against Bon's statement about momentum.And given the early release of the Best of, methinks a quick album release was the original plan, if they were expecting a long production time I don't think they would have released it so early.