The flow through the first four songs and through most of the second half is pretty strong.
I guess we won't agree, then.
In case you want to read my reasoning behind it, here it is (otherwise, skip it, it's way too long
):
The flow through the first four songs might be "decent". It would've been strong if the rest of the album has had some similarities with them.
For instance, No Line doesn't really fit into that group, I really really would've wanted more songs in the NLOTH style, but they never arrived, so it ends up sounding alone.
The other 3 flow a bit better.
But the second half... I don't see it flowing at all. Or I don't get what do you mean by second half.
The mid trio kind of flows on their own but disconected to the rest of the album.
So now we have 3 different "sets" of songs so far:
a) no line
b) magnificent, mos, uc
c) crazy, boots, suc
And then... Fez, Was, Breathe, Col.
Was and Col, yeah, sure. They even fit into the "b" group.
But Fez and Breathe seem to be totally out of place
In the end, the album "sound", the album "mood" is represented by two really contrasting (in a not so good way) groups:
a) the MOS, UC, WAS and COL group (and Magnificent to a lesser extent), which usually are not the kind of songs that define an album (a u2 album), they're more like the kind of songs that just "blend" into whatever sound each album has, just not disrupting the mood of it: WOWY, RTSS and MOTD in Joshua Tree, One in AB, and so on.
But in here, these kind of songs seem to be the main group. Which, despite that I really like them individually, as one of the main "sounds" of the album I find them a bit boring as a group.
b) the Boots and Stand Up group (maybe Crazy Tonight too), which seem to fit better in past albums and sound a bit cheap and silly compared to the rest of the songs in NLOTH.
They sound awkward in the album.
And that probably wouldn't have been a problem if the rest of the album was cohesive and strong enough, but considering the main group of songs is rather weak (not in quality, but in "album defining sound", whatever that is), then it kind of make a coup d'état, and either it becomes the main sound of the album, or you just ignore it. They're really awkward.
No Line, Fez and Breathe have a very distinctive and strong sound and mood and style, and anyone of them would've made a great "album defining sound" had there been more songs like them, but unfortunately there are no more songs like them in the album and they're way too different among themselves to be considered a unit.
So, that's why while I like very much the songs of the album (I regard 4 of them as some of the best they've ever done), I'm not too fond of the album as a whole.
There's also a very different lyrical direction that carries through much of the album as Bono places himself in someone else's shoes time and time again. It's a very interesting change of pace that separates the album from others.
I agree totally with this. I enjoyed this a lot.
I just usually don't get album cohesion from the lyrics, but from the music itself.
Between RTSS from the 80's, UTEOTW from the 90's and Kite from the 00's, I'd pick Kite. A heartfelt lyric, nice musical arrangement (minimalistic Edge at his best) and a powerful vocal from Bono. I still think this, and In a little while, should have been singles for ATYCLB instead of Walk on and Elevation. Plus, it was a fantastic closer at the Australian/NZ Vertigo shows.
