10 Bands Destroyed By Just One Album

3. Songs Of Innocence - U2

It's no secret that the members of U2 tend to rub people the wrong way. Whether it be Bono's preachiness or the band's holier-than-thou presentation of their music, there's always some bit of pretentiousness in what the band has done. On the other hand, all the criticisms of the band's presentation always seemed to fade away as the long as the music kicked ass...usually.

At the end of 2014, many fans of U2 were psyched that the band had finished another studio album and it would be available to fans for free. However, the promotional plan led some fans to abandon these Irish heavyweights. In lieu of just giving away the album to their fans, the band made a deal with Apple where the album would be instantly downloaded on the device of every single Apple user. It's one thing to give your album away, but something else entirely to force the album onto people who might not even want to hear it.

What makes the debacle even more tragic is that Songs of Innocence is actually pretty decent, with songs like "The Miracle" bringing back some of that old school U2 punch that the band seemed to have lost on previous outings. The album could have been terrific, but the way it was force-fed to listeners led to it becoming the pariah of the band's catalog.