Nobody in this thread has much mentioned critical response...
Basically overall the professional critics are crapping on this release. :/
Songs of Experience currently has a 63 average on Metacritic, based on 24 critics. This is not good. Most so-so albums that come out are around 70 at least. Anything dipping in the 60's or lower is generally getting panned. This is even a touch lower than Songs of Innocence (64), which got slammed. "Highlights" include Pitchfork (5.3/10), NME (4/10), and The AV Club (33/100). I did laugh at the AV Club's review headline: "U2 gives too many fucks on the insufferable Songs of Experience".
Are we surprised/disappointed/ambivalent about this response? It has to sting a little for the band I would assume. As mentioned in my above post, I think it's a solid album, as good as we can expect at this point, with some new wrinkles.