The production, for me, somewhat hampers the band's performance of the record.
Generally, the guitar bits are thickly textured, but they're somewhat mixed to create a sort of anonymous sound. So, though the album is guitar-heavy, it lacks character.
A good example of that is "When I Look at the World." Sonically, it's extremely rich in the sense that Radiohead's The Bends is rich. There's a layer of feedback guitar, a layer of delay, and a simple keyboard figure creating this vortex of texture. But, because this is all shoved into the back, it lacks anonymous.
"New York" is an interesting juxtaposition of jungle (yes, Mullen's playing a breakbeat) and a ambient guitar figure that wouldn't be out of place on Radiohead's OK Computer. The loud guitar part has a sort of laquered, rough personality as a classic Verve jam, but again, it's sorta melted away in the mix.
I mean, ATYCLB is first of all a POP record, so I guess they recorded it as such. But, when U2 tours, listen to how DIFFERENTLY (and IMO better) these songs will be, given that the band's identity can be better heard.
It will rock.