Originally Posted by Janszoon

I've always thought it was a pretty silly criticism of the album too. If anything, I would think making an album with an accompanying theatrically released movie a la Rattle and Hum is more of a sell out move than anything they did with Achtung Baby. In fact, I've never understood what people thought was the big difference between Achtung Baby and The Joshua Tree. I mean the band changed their sound a bit but the circumstances were no different; both were Brian Eno produced albums chock full of radio friendly songs. The only real difference I see is that The Joshua Tree has somber black and white photography of the band looking very serious on the cover. Can it really something as superficial as the packaging makes people perceive Achtung Baby as somehow more commercial?