Bono (like myself) is a big Bob Dylan fan, and Dylan has made a career -- generally as the most respected solo songwriter (in English), ever -- out of cramming "too many" lyrical syllables into apparently restricted meters. It's a kind of performance art form common to Appalachian folk music and plenty of interpretive singers. That's not to say it's always good. Of course, it can sound terrible to some and good to others. When done well, it can add an extra element of excitement to the delivery of a line.
Anyway, I think the U2 album with the best set of lyrics overall is Rattle & Hum. There are 9 studio cuts (basically an entire album's worth) and 'Silver and Gold', making 10 U2 songs having never appeared on a LP before. I think each of the 10 has some really good lyrics. Samples from each:
Hold me now, hold me now
Till this hour has gone around
And I'm gone on the rising tide
For to face Van Diemen's Land
She's the dollars, she's my protection
Yeah she's a promise in the year of election
Oh sister, I can't let you go
Like a preacher stealing hearts at a traveling show
Like thunder needs rain, like the preacher needs pain
Like tongues of flame, like a sweet stain
Like a needle needs a vein, like someone to blame
Like a thought unchained, like a runaway train
I need your love
Broken back to the ceiling, broken nose to the floor
I scream at the silence, crawling
It crawls under the door
There's a rope around my neck and there's a trigger in a gun
Jesus say something!
I am someone
An empty glass, the lady sings
Eyes swollen like a bee sting
Blinded, you lost your way
Through the side streets and the alleyway
Like a star exploding in the night
Falling to the city in broad daylight
An angel in Devil's shoes
Salvation in the blues
You never looked like an angel
I've conquered my past, the future is here at last
I stand at the entrance to a new world I can see
The ruins to the right of me will soon have lost sight of me
I was a sailor, I was lost at sea
I was under the waves before love rescued me
I was a fighter, I could turn on a thread
Now I stand accused of the things I've said
Mississippi and the cotton wool heat
Sixty-six, a highway speaks
Of deserts dry
Of cool, green valleys
Gold and silver veins
Of the shining cities
Don't believe the devil, I don't believe his book
But the truth is not the same without the lies he made up
I don't believe in excess, success is to give
I don't believe in riches but you should see where I live
I believe in love
You say you'll give me a highway with no one on it
Treasure just to look upon it
All the riches in the night
You say you'll give me eyes in a moon of blindness
A river in a time of dryness
A harbour in the tempest
But all the promises we make from the cradle to the grave
When all I want is you
Good stuff all. Bono maybe goes a little overboard with the R&B/blues-referencing-for-beginners lyrics in 'Angel of Harlem' and 'When Love Comes to Town', but hey, they were young. (It's also hard to hear the last verse of 'When Love Comes to Town' without seeing Bono smiling at B.B. King as he reads him the lyrics.)
Zooropa is good lyrically, too. I've often thought that "Stay (Faraway! So Close)" is the most perfect lyrical poetry Bono's ever done. (By this, I mean it reads beautifully as prose poetry, but also works as song lyrics.)
I like the lyrics of War and The Unforgettable Fire, if the latter is a little too vague and unformed at times. The Joshua Tree lyrics fit the music perfectly and beautifully sustain a consistent imagery, but those images are rather repetitive (fire, rain, storms, etc.) and cliched. Achtung Baby is a good change of pace, but, as befits its pop-culture-aware aesthetic, it's a weird mix of the great and the silly, often awkwardly sandwiched together.
The later-U2 lyrics seem to be far too self-referencing and self-conscious; i.e., they're rather ego-centric, which does not interest me. There have been some gems, though. "Beautiful Day" gets overlooked because people hear only the chorus, but it's probably the most perfect lyric they've done since 1993. "Cedars of Lebanon" was impressive (despite one lazy line -- the "tank" rhyme).