Very disappointed. Sounds mailed in so far. Too much pop fluff, too much production sheen and Pro Tools disjunction, too many lyrics crammed in, not letting the music breathe enough. Lazy lyrics (copping from Volcano? really?).
Re: American Soul, how many damn times is Bono going to recycle some version of his whole "America isn't a place, it's an idea" thing? It wasn't that deep of a concept initially. Now it's a cheap Xerox.
Thank God we get a copy of it with our concert tickets. Otherwise it'd be the 1st U2 album that I'd ever thought about not buying.