Though U2 gifted their fans with a new album, 'Songs of Innocence,' for free earlier this year, the band has received some serious backlash from the decision. One critic is Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins, who criticized U2 both for the quality of 'Songs of Innocence' and the way the album was given away.

Many iTunes users felt somewhat violated when they suddenly found U2's 'Songs of Innocence' on their playlists. Ozzy Osbourne, Sharon Osbourne, Buckcherry's Keith Nelson and others in the music industry were also quick to criticize U2 for simply giving away music in a world where free, illegal downloading is harming musicians and industry workers.

While speaking with Australian news outlet The Music, Taylor Hawkins threw in his own two cents on the issue. “I mean, I think they probably thought it was gonna be a great idea, ‘Here’s the deal: everybody who has an iPhone, gets your record. And they get it for free!’ And they thought, probably, ‘Well that’s pretty awesome!’ but they didn’t really take into consideration the Big Brother feeling that kinda goes along with like, [In menacing voice] 'You have the new U2 record’... You couldn’t get rid of it and they actually had to come up with an app to get rid of it, that’s horrible," says Hawkins.

As for the album itself, Hawkins wasn't too keen on its sound either. “I don’t know that any of that new album has anything great on it,” Hawkins adds. “I listened to it once, but it’s so marred by that whole sort of, like I said, Orwellian, '1984' extreme that it just kinda sounds like a fart any way you listen to it.”

Head over to The Music to check out the full interview with Taylor Hawkins. Foo Fighters' eighth studio album, 'Sonic Highways,' was released today (Nov. 10). To pick up a copy of the album, click here.

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