UF is a transitional album for the band that produced a resounding radio hit with Pride and a terrific arena rock, U2 concert classic in Bad. The title track is good, but songs like "Promenade" "Elvis Presley and America" and "Indian Summer Sky" are mediocre. I just think that UF gets more kudos than it deserves based on the emergence of Pride as a radio hit. In other words, U2 was largely unknown to U.S. radio listeners until that song came out...Pride sort of "introduced" U2 to the masses here in the States...yet the album itself was (possibly still is) hailed by many as a "great" album because of the success of Pride and to a lesser commercial extent, Bad. In my opinion, those are really the only two legitimate songs on the entire album with the possible exception of the title track and Homecoming. The rest of the album is more conceptual in nature and experimental due to the Eno/Lanois team working with the boys for the first time. It is for these reasons I just feel UF is a little overrated...but I still enjoy it and appreciate it's work nonetheless!
I completely, completely agree, I think that UF gets propped up so much because of the presence of "Pride." I have seriously listened to each U2 album, one after the other in order to get a feel for where the band was coming from and where they were going, and after that experiment I put my very favorites into a super regular rotation. UF didn't make that cut because it just doesn't stick with me the way "Boy," "October," "Joshua Tree," "Rattle & Hum," "Achtung Baby," "Zooropa," "Pop" and "ATUCLB" have. The real strength of an album lies with the songs that weren't released as singles, and on UF they just don't stand up that well, don't really make it worthwhile to me to listen to the entire thing. On the other hand, I could listen to any track from any of the other U2 albums I listed and dig them all, regardless of if they were singles or not.
I do have a great appreciation for UF because it did push U2 to the forefront in America and it laid the groundwork for "Joshua Tree."