No offense, but can't you guys take those comments to one of the billion HTDAAB virgin threads instead of cluttering up every other discussion on the album?
Yeah, I suppose not.
Anyway, I'm not crazy mad insane about the album like everyone else, although I don't dislike it either. Edge saves it; this album reminds me how much I love his playing. Adam and Larry also haven't sounded this good in a long time. Bono is oversinging like he did in the late eighties, except his voice could actually take it then. His voice's limitations conveyed a sense of longing and desperation on The Unforgettable Fire, but now, it just makes him sound worn out and hurts the album melodically (it wouldn't even be so bad if he kept it to the choruses, which are supposed to be rousing, but he practically screams out even the verses). The lyrics are also goofy, although I understand that's intentional since the album is supposed to be more raw (to balance out All That You Can't Leave Behind, which left me, ironically, complaining about overproduction four years ago).
For a raw album, though, the production is still way too tight. There's no "air" around the instruments; they don't seem to breathe like they do on The Joshua Tree's immaculate soundscapes (even something like Achtung, Baby had considerably more warmth than this; they should've let Lanois have at it alone). Edge's guitar especially sounds a bit overprocessed. This is what kept "Electrical Storm" from really rocking out. The White Stripes this isn't.
There also isn't a tremendous amount of sonic variety, but maybe all the songs haven't fully resonated with me yet. Even ATYCLB took a break from the power-anthems to do a silly acoustic romp like "Wild Honey." Even The Joshua Tree gave us an intermission from Edge's superchimey guitar with "Running To Stand Still." And 90s U2 was full of interesting new sounds. To be fair, though, I felt this way about Boy and October initially but eventually grew to love those albums partly for pounding that early U2 sound into the ground. "Love and Peace or Else" and the keyboards in "City of Blinding Lights" help, though.
Overall, I think it's okay. I'm expecting it to grow on me. I would probably appreciate it more if they hammered it out right off the Elevation tour instead of dicking around for three years. It's underwhelming considering how long they've had to work on it, but it would've made a fun, Zooropa-esque stopgap album. I think, though, that the album's direction is partially because the band stopped worrying so much about every album being a classic (see: ATYCLB) and decided to just put some moments on tape and see what happens.