It's awful. I voted for the last option, because I don't like the album at all, but in truth there is one U2 album that offends me more (R&H).
My opinions about each song (must keep that fact reinforced):
Vertigo is mindless garbage
Miracle Drug is boring, as middle-of-the-road-without-putting-in-any-effort as U2 have ever gotten... the only thing that interests me is Edge's singing, and it doesn't really interest me.
SYCMIOYO has nice intentions, but always comes off as trying too hard to sound overly sappy to me, and is essentially like plastic.
LAPOE is by far my least favorite U2 anti-war anthem, mainly because it's lyrically pompous and occasionally cheesy. Edge's guitar and the Eno/Lanois production are good, but that can hardly make a song for me.
City of Blinding Lights is one of my favorite songs by anyone ever. Shining gem of the album.
All Because Of You is absolute shit.
A Man and a Woman... nothing wrong with the song, but nothing right with it, either.
One Step Closer... I like the song, especially lyrically, but it's not interesting enough for me to want to listen to a lot.
OOTS... again, I like the song, and I listen to it occasionally. But its cheese can sometimes get on my nerves, and it's not an overly interesting song.
I also like Yahweh... the album version (the acoustic version is just okay, and I loathe the demo version). But not interesting enough to warrant my attention more than occasionally.
Fast Cars is pointless.
So... yeah... not an album that I really like. I don't like any of the demos in particular either (either than X&W's "fun value", but that doesn't make me really like the song), so I'd blame it on raw lack of songwriting aptitude/raw intellect/inspiration combined with Lillywhite coming up with the most in-your-face production possible and then jacking the volume up twice as high as it can go on every track.
I must reinforce, however, that this is all in my opinion.