I agree inasmuch as the release method was awful. The cover is awful, too. And some of the promo material, like the photo of all four members in bed together was very much WTF? And, as for the apple keynote thing they did, it’s hard to think of anything less cool.
For me, the music on SOI sounds dead, no matter how good the tunes might be. EBW is a perfect example of that. If 80s u2 had recorded it, the tune would have become a classic. On SOI, it sounds so overworked that it lost any magic it originally had.
In fact, the album falls into the same category as NLOTH; defeat snatched from the jaws of victory. Bomb is just rubbish but SOI could have been sooooook much more. Fortunately, they redeemed themselves somewhat with SOE.