There are many parallels between NLOTH and Pop. Both sold well worldwide, but neither got the expected traction in the US.

I like Gavin Friday’s explanation for Pop’s US failure in the U2 SHOW book. He reckons America wasn’t ready for Pop in 1997, but in 2003 would have lapped it up. Listening to Pop today – it has held up surprisingly well. I don’t care that the band have basically disowned it (See U2 by U2)

NLOTH seems to be taking the same life. The biggest difference is in 1997 the US & UK press – after initial favourable reviews – mocked the band a bit. None of that happened this year. U2 still got general good live and record reviews.

Hopefully this will allow the band to keep faith in the record. Good sales do not make a great record. Unfortunately the band sees sales as relevance.

For the Top 200 Album list, U2 ranked 18th. Britney Spears’ Circus ranked higher than U2. (As did the Peas and KOL).

For the Hot 100 artists chart, U2 didn’t even rank in the top 100. This is based on airplay and sales for the year.

The Hot Radio Songs list, U2 didn’t rank here either.

Hot Digital Songs chart – same here…U2 didn’t rank.

Top Digital Album Artists – ranked number 9, behind BEP, Kanye West, and Kings of Leon. (Michael Jackson was number 1).

Top Digital Album Chart – No Line on the Horizon ranked #12. The Essential Michael Jackson was higher than U2, as were Kanye, BEP, and KOL.

The Canadian Top Album list on Billboard ranked NLOTH at 18.

The European Top 100 Album list on Billboard ranked NLOTH the highest at #5.

The ongoing theme in the United States is that artists who have opened for U2 on the past two tours outranked U2 in 2009 in a variety of ways. Sales and airplay rotation were not U2′s friends in 2009.

Looking at the U2360 tour, we know that U2 can still sell out stadiums, but we have also found that many in the stadium did not react in the same way to the new material than to the old. The fact that band members were pointing fingers about NLOTH’s sales figures back in October through the pages of Rolling Stone said to me that their instrument panel’s artificial horizon (to borrow the term) wasn’t exactly what the pilot(s) thought it was.

I agree that the music biz is struggling, but new U2 music just wasn’t played on the radio. After the band tried to court radio folks during their March promotional pitch for NLOTH, it broke my heart to not hear the band’s music on the radio in a major city that loves this band. At least…not in the heavy rotation I’d expect to hear it in. During the week or so leading up to area concerts, the U2 songs played on the radio weren’t from NLOTH – they were the usual fan favorites like NYD, WOWY, Mysterious Ways, Beautiful Day.

So, given all of that, it’s really a hard for me to read the quote from The Edge where he said to David Fricke “I can’t think that things will change radically for us.”

Staying relevant is key for this band. Well, that’s one of the key quotes the band gives…that and that the guitarist is on fire. Yes, their tour sold well, but looking at album sales, something has to change to get those sales. Either the band has to create more radio-friendly songs, create songs that have a better 30-second sales pitch for those who cherry-pick tracks to download, the music biz has to do more to promote U2, or they continue to do what they want to do and don’t apologize or point fingers as to why sales aren’t where they are – they can remain steadfast and proud of the art they’ve created.

It bothered me that they were second guessing themselves a mere 7 months (technically earlier than that given when the interview was given vs. the time it went to print) and pointing fingers about why NLOTH didn’t fare as well as their other releases – including Pop. At this point, they still want to finish off Pop, yet there’s Pop remixes on Artificial Horizon. So, if that’s how they’re feeling about Pop, I have to wonder if they feel that NLOTH still feels unfinished.

Anyway, thanks for leaving a comment =)

Isn’t the album one of the top sellers this year worldwide? Our local news station reported on the top five best selling albums and it was Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, Black Eyed Peas, U2 and Susan Boyle.

Compared to previous albums things may be way down, but the entire record biz is in a dive right now. Plus the economy is the worst off it’s been for any recent U2 release.

I don’t know, having one of the top selling records of the year certainly points towards the album being embraced by the record buying public. It just seems to me that there’s a lot less of the public buying albums in general…