I'll even go through the song an explain what I like and have problems with:
The lyrics are quite good throughout the song. However they are not quite outstanding, unlike some of their earlier stuff. As I said earlier the lyrics feel rather contrived at times.
For instance, he makes liberal use of lyric reversal trick eg. "Playing with the fire
Until the fire played with me". Although the lyrics this method creates aren't bad, they don't have the same kind of artistic achievement behind them as some of their other lyrics do.
Now let me get this straight, the songs intro is sparse and largely forgettable. But when the verses kick in, I like them and how they are sung mostly (ie. not the wedding day one).
I like them, until the song reaches the second chorus after the 'black hole' verse. ( I particularly like how he sings 'yearns' for instance, has an Arabic feel to it)
Now while the singing is good in the verses, the backing instrumentation is sparse and not interesting, it's just a backdrop. Say unlike So Cruel which has a cool piano line throughout the song.
OK so what about the chorus?
Unfortunately they made the massive mistake to sing it in unison, this robs the song of much of its seriousness and darkness (it reminds me of ATYCLB), notice that One, LIB, Acrobat, WOWY, AIWY etc. are similarily themed songs, but all don't have such poppy choruses.
The fact that they sing the chorus in the most obvious way possible, ie. not doing anything interesting with rhythm etc. also makes me deduct marks. The chorus simply doesn't work for this type of song.
The next chorus, is where it goes rather downhill. It begins with the lyric 'I was punching in the numbers at the ATM machine/ I could see in the reflection / A face staring back at me"
Firstly 'ATM machine' means 'automatic teller machine machine' which is incredibly silly to be in a serious song like this, I wouldn't care if it was in Crazy Tonight or something.
Secondly 'I could see in the reflection / A face staring back at me' - sigh- Oh, really Bono, you see a reflection do you, I wonder why? What a deep and meaningful lyric.
Then there's a moderately interesting piano and guitar interlude, which is relaxing. Edge's guitar (which is absent for 90% of the song) solo is ok, but it doesn't sound like him, it's like an Eric Clapton solo as people have remarked, c'mon Edge you can do better than this.
This also highlights a key point with the song - It doesn't sound like a U2 'dark' song.
The next verse is hampered by the fact that they sing it like the chorus, I would much rather see it sung almost spoken word by Bono alone, would add more angst.
Then is another chorus, which is exactly like the previous ones. The only interesting thing is the guitar 'drop' at 6.12, which I like.
Then the song goes off into a minute long series of 'ohhhs', and they're not even interesting vocalisations, (unlike the end of One for example) just filler material.
Thankfully the song stops soon after, and doesn't go into an extended, repetitive outro (Love Comes Tumbling style) which would make me hate the song.
So I guess I have two major problems with the song (apart from certain lyrics):
1. It doesn't really sound like a U2 ballad of old, it is almost like another band's song. I have a feeling that they can't do these kind of dark songs very well any more, post-2000s.
The best recent example of this type of song, has been Mercy, which had a fantastic first half with great lyrics, and a bit lackluster second half . But I am sure that if they had spent the same amount of time on Mercy as they did with MoS and actually finish the song, it would be a better long song.
2. It doesn't go anywhere, it doesn't build up to something awesome like One, WOWY, AIWY, LIB etc. Nor is it a plateau either like Being Born or something.
It's more of a relaxing, adult contemporary song.
So I would say overall this is a3/3.5 stars out of 5 song, though it does grow on you.
I am disappointed because I was expecting a grand U2 ballad in the old tradition.