I think it’s obvious that different people listen to albums for different reasons and in different ways though. If you think Tryin’ To Throw stands out on Achtung, well, I don’t really get that at all. The mellow morning-after song about hungover guilt fits the album perfectly and works brilliantly after the pulsing temptation of Mysterious Ways the night before. Achtung would be a lesser album without it. Unless you think Achtung Baby is just meant to be a cool, different sounding, balls to the wall rock album? Then sure, there are a couple of those songs that stand out. But if the genius in Achtung to you is it’s tackling of multiple sides of love and lust fighting or going off the rails or whatever it is, and that the music miraculously matches the mood and feel of each songs meaning, then yeah, Tryin’ To Throw is a highlight and Achtung scores 11/10 overall because they manage to hit that perfectly on every track.
NLOTH might very well be a lesser album because of this pop-rock interruption in the middle of an otherwise quite spectacular journey that they’re taking you through during the first and last four tracks. If they got the middle three right, perfectly pitched them to the mood and feel and journey of the rest of the album while still providing whatever mid-album relief they would have needed to, then right there you have an album that can at least apply for recognition of having some sort of AB/JT level of brilliance. They were right there, right on the edge, and maybe (maybe) took a step back.
Bono has said that the apparently already in the can follow up is an album about a pilgrimage. A decent chunk of these songs are about that, or a journey, or a moment in time that defines or changes your life. I’m guessing there’ll be some songs left off here, and left for the follow up, that will fit far better than these three and give you a real sense of what might have been. As I’ve said in another thread, it is heartbreakingly close to perfect. I think those middle three songs are fine in their own right. Really well written pop-rock and well above and beyond their Bomb contemporaries, but it’s just too much of a break, too much of a bucket of cold water getting dumped on you in the middle of a great dream. Sorry, but it knocks it back a peg or two for me. So, so close, but not quite there.