To be fair, U2 came out fairly strong out of the gate; Boy was good for a debut album and War is one of their better albums. (Nobody remembers October.) A little rough around the edges without the input of Brian Eno, but it's still good music. Now if you want to talk about initial sputtering that would kill a modern band dead, Pink Floyd spent the late 60s treading water with lots of mediocre noodling before they got a #1 with Atom Heart Mother.
As for CD prices, I agree. $15 would even be reasonable, $19.95+8.5% sales tax is way too much. There are still albums out there that are quality from start to finish, you just have to look for them.