Again, look at just the 10 studio cuts, and tell me with a straight face it isn't brilliant:
1) 'Van Diemen's Land' (amazing Edge lead vocal and very unique for U2)
2) 'Desire' (their 1st UK #1 lead single)
3) 'Hawkmoon 269' (incredible lyrics and lead vocal)
4) 'Silver and Gold' (studio version) - (Bono at his most politically charged)
5) 'Angel of Harlem' (U2's best "soul song" to date)
6) 'Love Rescue Me' (beautiful gospel...U2 at its most intimate)
7) 'When Love Comes to Town' (must have been ok to have BB King want to sing it)
8) 'Heartland' (Up there with 'Unforgettable Fire' as U2's most evocative song to date)
9) 'God Part II' (a nice pre-curser to Achtung Baby)
10) 'All I Want Is You' (one of U2's top 10 songs ever...up there with 'With or Without You', and possibly the best lyric Bono has ever penned: "...Eyes in a moon of blindness / A river in a time of dryness / A harbour in the tempest...")
It's not brilliant.
Van Deiman's Land is a dreadful pastiche.
The studio version of Silver and Gold sounds half-done compared to the live version and is flat. It's as good as their average b-side from that time. When Loves Come To Town is straight-up garbage. The lyrics are absurd, and U2 are arguable the worst blues band in history. It's wooden, and poorly written. The vocal is good, but that's it.
Love Rescue Me...good God, what the fuck is that monstrosity, and why is it so fucking long??? Like WLCTT and VDL, it's a pastiche. They're trying to do something that doesn't come naturally, which is laudable, but the result is laughable.
God Part 2...well, there's the title, first of all. Lennon's God would disown that wastrel. The words are a rant that seem to say more than they do, and the chorus, or breakdown (the uh-uh, phased everything part) makes me think of someone vomitting after drinking a few gallons of single malt, which is probably what they all did before recording that song.
Desire, Angel of Harlem, Heartland, and All I Want Is You are all among their best work. Hawkmoon works despite the awful lyrics. The sound is amazing.
The album overall is part great, part OK, and part shite. At least the bad songs have really good singing.
I respect them for trying something so foreign to them. It's probably their most experimental record in terms of stretching the boundaries of what they do. Their 91-97 work is clearly more original, but it also taps into their roots because they mainly come from 70s art rock and post punk.
The National are so boring it's depressing.