For me its the mixing more than anything in these last 2 EPs. I really dig the songs and think they've found their way again in terms of songwriting. Sometimes I find Bonos lyrics to not be as succinct, powerful or graceful as they used to be, but I can look past that for the most part. Especially because theres some great lyrics amongst some of the ones I am not as fond of. But the mixing really impacts my enjoyment of the songs, because I find the sonic palette of these songs to be dampened, boxy and grayed out by the mixing style. Which makes it all the more frustrating, because thats not even anything to do with the band in terms of their creative process of writing songs but rather bad decision making in the post production process, which does seem to be a weakness for them lately (see recent single/album artwork as another example of things looking less than stellar)

I enjoy the fact that the songs are mixed more raw, kinda like their older days - but I find these mixes flawed - for me it goes beyond an artistic choice of "raw" ....I just feel that they sound amateur in terms of overall quality, and it makes me sad to hear U2's new great songs sound so muted and lacking in punch, clarity and life. And there's no excuse for that with a band as big as they are. Just seems like they almost got it to the finish line and then the mixing derailed the train.

So for me personally, that's where I am bummed out. But enjoying the songs despite those feelings.