This will sound ignorant of me to say (since I have not heard this record), but I can nearly guarantee that Songs of Experince will not go down as one of the worst releases of this year. SOE has a greater potential to be a top three record of 2017 than it does a lower-tier crapshoot... and that's coming from a majorly pessimistic U2 fan.
I don't expect this album to be stronger than a Visions of a Life or Villains, but this album is automatically exempt from worst of the year contention because of that stellar opening track.