U2

Count me as one of those who actually thought U2 releasing their album for free through Itunes was a good move.  Their album sales were going south anyway.  They were finally turning into a heritage act.  Selling out tours?  No problem.  Getting people to pay attention to your new music?  A problem that affects all older artists.

But I do have to agree with those that say the big issue here is the album format itself and the short attention span of listeners.  To some, just knowing that a full album had been placed in your Itunes library must have caused a headache.  Do I actually have to listen to a new U2 album?  Some of these people probably haven't heard a new U2 album in decades.

There was snark, for sure about all of this.  Bono has become a decisive figure among many. I count Sting as his only competition in that field.  Oh, back to Songs of Innocence. It's a good U2 album. Lyrically sticking to more nostalgia themes than I remember and musically trying to get some radio attention.

But here's what I really felt after listening to it.  I got it for free.  Kind of hard to be critical?  Yeah, kind of.  But I wonder if the bad publicity will scare off anyone else from doing this with an album of new material.  An album of covers?  Now I could see artists giving something like that away.