So Where Do Things Stand with the New U2 Album Now? [SPOILER: It’s Not All Positive]
Got your copy of Songs of Innocence yet? In case you were orbiting Ganymede for the last couple of days and didn’t year the news, some 500 million iTunes users received the new U2 album for free, whether they asked for it or not. So where do things stand today?
- American iTunes users downloaded the album 200,000 times on the first day. When the physical version comes out October 14, Universal expects it to sell about 150,000 copies in its first week.
- New U2 manager Guy Oseary (who is also Madonna’s manager) was obviously one of the main architects of this strategy. Here’s his take on everything.
- Here’s what retailers are going to get when the physical version comes out next month.
- What does this record say about the future of the album? Here’s one opinion.
- Vice REALLY hates U2. This guy takes to much too far.
- Cult of Mac calls U2’s “sad show” a “swan song for iTunes.”
- The Washington Post called Songs of Innocence “dystopian junk mail.” Ouch.
- FYI Music News accuses Apple of using U2 to cover up its “lackluster range of new offerings.”
- It seems cool to hate U2 these days. The BBC gives directions on how to delete U2 from your iTunes. (Another link from Greggory)
- Here’s a digest of more reviews.
- I don’t mind the album. I really don’t.
I just read the Vice article (well skimmed the second half after it became obvious the author was irrational) and the Washington Post article. The knee jerk reactions to this marketing experiment completely baffle me.
I would expect, if a person hatred U2 as much as these people do, that they would move along as soon as they learned that U2 was involved at all. Instead they sit down and write a pile of drivel even more irrelevant than U2 (assuming U2 is as irrelevant as they claim).
Personally, I’m way more fond of what U2 did up to and including the Rattle and Hum Live album but this “I’m so cool cause I don’t like the popular guys” nonsense makes me seriously question the value of reading the publications that post it in the first place.
I think its a great album.
I like how U2 surprised everyone with this launch. The whole campaign is pretty clever. I’d probably be more excited about it is I was an Apple sheep.
Having said that, I think album is weak. Where’s the fire they used to have? This album is a bigger disappointment for me than No Line On The Horizon. And the first single? Ugh. Horrible song. I think a couple of other tunes would have made better choices for the first single.
Still, this will be the top album in all the land for the next few weeks, and their subsequent tour will sell out, and all will be successful in the land of Bono.
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While I don’t think U2 has ever made a bad album (although Rattle and Hum and All That You Can’t Leave Behind come close), I think this is their best album since… their last one.
I love how they launched it and “The Miracle” seemed so promising, loved the crunchy guitar Edge doled out, but then the rest of the album sounded like “No Line On the Horizon” part two, bsides. Meh. I had hoped they would revitalize themselves and do something more punk/rock and roll.
After skipping through most of the tunes, I went back and played “War” and marvelled at the brash energy the band had.
As mentioned in one of the articles, I think U2 was a bad choice for Apple if they want to stay relevant to the younger generation. Both my kids were annoyed that the album was pushed to their iPods and deleted it immediately.
That’s too bad. My 10 year old loves the new album.
Truthfully, there is no good choice if you are trying to appeal to musical taste since it is so subjective. I just think the outright hostility of those who dislike U2 is a bit over the top. Your kids deleted it immediately. No harm no foul. If you want to go strictly by career sales numbers as a measure of who’s much to offer free, I would think U2 has to be pretty high on the list of candidates.