The Rolling Stone

While not a regular reader, I could not help but notice that the most recent issue of The Rolling Stone proclaimed the forthcoming U2 album a "Masterpiece" and gave it RS's most prestigious honor, a 5-star rating. I was a little surprised. To be honest, I wrote U2 off a while back, I think around the time the time of their 1997 release, Pop (with such great hits as "Discotheque"). Subsequent releases revealed anthemic but unemotional songs that I found easy to ignore. With No Line on the Horizon, however, I may be forced start paying attention again when it is released on March 3rd.

On the other hand, RS is by no means perfect. Historically, they panned almost every Led Zeppelin releasecalled Layla bloated, and trashed Pinkerton. Wary of this, I went back and took a look at every album that RS has given a 5-star rating to since 2000. The following is a complete list (I only included new albums, no best-of compilations or re-releases):

Bruce Springsteen-Working on a Dream (2009)
Bruce Springsteen-Magic (2007)
Bob Dylan-Modern Times (2006)
Kanye West: Late Registration (2005)
Damon And Naomi-Earth is Blue (2005)
Brian Wilson-Smile (2004)
Beastie Boys-To the 5 Boroughs (2004)
White Stripes-Elephant (2003)
Bruce-Darkness on the Edge of Town
Beck-Sea Change (2002)
Bruce Springsteen-The Rising (2002)
Mick Jagger-Goddess in the Doorway (2001)
Bob Dylan-Love and Theft (2001)

Take out RS's unrepentant boner for Bruce Springsteen, and that's only 9 albums in the past 9 years that have garnered 5-stars. Take out the sentimental picks (both Bob Dylan albums, the horrible Mick Jagger album, and the Beastie Boys past their prime/911 sympathy), the album that was written in the 60s (Smile), and you're left with four albums in the past 9 years to take the honor. A big fucking deal. Seriously. That means this new U2 record needs to be better than everything released last year (as there were no 5-star records according to RS). EVERYTHING. I'm skeptical to say the least, especially based on their track record. A co-worker of mine thinks they paid off David Fricke to write this review. While I'm not that jaded, if this record turns out to be horrible I might start being a little more suspicious.

P.S. I compiled the list of albums manually, so I may have missed something (for some dumb reason, you cannot search the RS website for 5-star albums).