wsbtv.com: It's harder to resist if I'm being given the hard sell by a salesman as convincing and talented as U2's Bono. He and the Edge have a 20-plus-year history of making the kind of arena-rock music that I and millions all over the world are willing to fork over dollars to own a piece of.
But, it's exactly because of their track record and the group's rock-gods status that so often roadblocks an honest appraisal of the band's current wares, in this case, the newly released "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb." U2 is on a pedestal, and gets the critical benefit of the doubt that others don't. For the discerning music buyer, they have to deal with both superfan fawning as well as the disingenuous, uncritical reviews that appear in whatever magazines happen to cater to the U2 demographic. Many of the reviewers (and their bosses) are fearful of printing the unspun truth and taking on living legends and the multi-million music industry machine behind them. [
more]
But, it's exactly because of their track record and the group's rock-gods status that so often roadblocks an honest appraisal of the band's current wares, in this case, the newly released "How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb." U2 is on a pedestal, and gets the critical benefit of the doubt that others don't. For the discerning music buyer, they have to deal with both superfan fawning as well as the disingenuous, uncritical reviews that appear in whatever magazines happen to cater to the U2 demographic. Many of the reviewers (and their bosses) are fearful of printing the unspun truth and taking on living legends and the multi-million music industry machine behind them. [
more] 
