after several listenings, these are the songs i know i won't change my mind about on springsteen's the rising:
good: "lonesome day," "the fuse," "you're missing," "the rising"
bad: "mary's place"

now, the songs that, even as i write this, my opinion is changing w/r/t:
may only get better: "nothing man"
may only get worse: "countin' on a miracle," "let's be friends (skin to skin)"

this final grouping of songs is the most interesting. usually, prolonged exposure to a song will induce feelings either one way or the other and a position on said song becomes ossified; these songs i can see liking and then ultimately disliking:
"into the fire" -- i like the band's thump after the first chorus, but i can also foresee that the simplicity of the chorus -- "may your strength give us strength, may your faith give us faith, etc." -- may begin to grate.
"waitin' on a sunny day" -- seems rather lightweight, but i like the sound of the record, that e street band process. i could see its insubstantiality leading to future skips.
"empty sky" -- very spare and the chorus isn't particularly memorable, but i love the way the harmonica sounds, especially in contrast to the minimalist production.
"worlds apart" -- i wouldn't let sting, david byrne, paul simon or peter gabriel get away with this, but bruce is far more unabashed than any of those artists; and the guitar solos are incendiary.
"further on (up the road)" -- benefits greatly from its position on the album: following the lite-r&b of "let's be friends," it makes for a fantastic change of face. but there really isn't much to it, is there?
"paradise" -- right now, i like it a lot, a very harrowing solo performance. but it does sound quite a bit like "the sound of silence."
"my city of ruins" -- i'm warming to this new gospel-informed version but, at the same time, it does come across as overly refined, particularly when compared to the earlier version.