I will have to revisit Rattle and Hum, based on Stuart's comments and Marc's continued promotion of its merits. I bought the album (okay, cassette...but it was the 80s and I did have high speed dubbing on my pitiful little home stereo) when it came out and I was 17 years old so perhaps, some 21 years on, and with different sensibilities, I may enjoy it a lot more now. Unfortunately, I no longer possess any equipment that can play cassettes. But I digress.

I'm really buying your GOTT (Go Over The Top) over JTS (Jump the Shark) thesis Marc. And I'm wondering if GOTT the key to a band's longevity? Is this just a fancy new phrase that equals plain old risk-taking?

Regardless, you're probably right in that, if U2 had simply re-released a Joshua-Tree-like followup in either 1988 or 1991, they would likely have been resigned to the dustbin of the 1980s or the casinos of the 21st century. I would argue that it was the second of the three albums you've identified--Achtung Baby--that was the represented the biggest shift and perhaps the most conscious shift towards both a different sound and a self-referential attitude to their role as a band and their place in the pop culture pantheon.

Released on November 19, 1991 (though the first single came out at least a month earlier), some two months after the seminal, arguably era-defining album by a certain band from Seattle, Achtung Baby was represented a big stylistic and musical shift for the band. While listening to previous records conjured up images of The Edge standing in a grassy field outside Dublin, wailing on his guitar and looking stoically in the distance, this album seemed to channel more of a futuristic urban dystopia, albeit with some brighter moments ("One", is far more hopeful than "The Fly"); in other words, a completely different atmosphere, albeit very different from the grunge sensibility that would soon envelop the pop scene. Perhaps it was the production. Or the newfound embrace of electronic elements. Regardless, this was a definite shift and very successful one for the band.

Agree, too, that most of their stuff from the past 10 years isn't very interesting. I liked "Vertigo" but everything else has generated little more than a yawn. Still, props given for a band that, 21 years plus on, doesn't evoke groans a la Jagger, Richards et al.