I must admit I'm a fairly recent U2 convert. I got their last 2 albums, as well as a couple of others (Zooropa and Under a Blood Red Sky). My copy of How To Dismantle.... came with a DVD doco on the making of the album, which was a cool bonus. My wife says they really know how to milk an album for all it's worth. They'll release a single, and then just when you start to forget about them, they release another single. And they always seem to leave their "ace single" till last. I'll probably look at getting the new one as well.
On a final note, I wonder what they think of Radio1 inserting a "Radio1" :whatever: in the middle of their song.