I think its mostly because of the acoustic version and their insistence on playing it that way live every night.
The album track isn't too bad, but having the acoustic version forced down our throats soured me on the song overall.
Yep, that acoustic version really didn't help EBW's reputation. I'd actually rank it in SOI's top five. I also think Iris belongs in the top five. This is, of course, a relative thing given my low opinion of U2's recent output. I'm pretty sure that if I could be fucked making a U2 top 100 the only SOI songs that would make it are Cedarwood Road and The Troubles.
And Song for Someone can go to hell.
There are tracks on TUF someone would say the same things about. As I said w/r/t Why Don't We Do It In The Road, the song doesn't have to follow verse-chorus-verse formula to be good. F-BB is evocative and has an impressionistic lyric that Bono should be doing more of these days. Some killer guitar sounds on there too, from the icy work on the verses and then that raging buzzing later on.
A real late-period standout for the band in an era of usually playing it too safe.
For once we're in total agreement.