You're the Best Thing About Me - Song Discussion

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Why is the last chorus so short? Why the low-key drumming to start out the first 2 choruses? Why are Edge's vocals treated so dry?
 
This is one of those moments where I'm kinda glad I don't know chit about chorus, melody, harmony, production, overproduction, tempo and so forth.

I like it.. is it great, maybe not.

But an interesting vibe and some nice couplets --- couplets are a thing right?

It will be interesting to see how the non-Interference universe responds to the song.

I hope they play it in Kansas City next week -- a safe venue cuz if it bombs nobody will really notice .
 
I will withhold judgement until I listen more. I loved the Blackout and Little Things. I was expecting the same as anyone else from TBT- a pop/rock song that would be pretty U2 by numbers. So that being said, the knee jerk hate is mindblowing. This is definitely not U2 by numbers- it surprised me in a good way throughout. Threw a few curveballs in there for this long time U2 fan. Give this a chance , people. If I was surprised at how it came out and heard some new things, there will still be people in the general public who go "whoa, that's U2?!" Not as many as the blackout but still.

Also, the plodding complaints are overblown. It doesn't rip along like Out of Control or Electric Co or the Fly but it's not supposed to.
 
Jesus guys are we even listening to the same song?

I heard Blackout like 30 times already and I can't even recall the chorus atm. This melody is almost perfect - I agree the production is a little fuzzled but let's not get carried away, there is no way Blackout should've been the first single over the most catchy melody they've written in over a decade.


Also re: best thing that ever happened a boy - ever heard of poetic licence?
 
I literally had The Blackout on repeat for about 2.5 hours when it was first released and did not get tired of it. It made me really excited for the album and I honestly believe could've been a surprise hit for them. I've listened to The Best Thing now 4 times and I'm over it. The chorus is terrible and the outro sucks. The verses are pretty good even if the lyrics are meh. Honestly had I not heard The Little Things and The Blackout already this would have lowered my expectations and excitement for the album big time. This song is completely forgettable. It's not bad enough to drum up hate land it's not good enough to drum up excitement. It's completely throw away and will be forgotten before we even know it. People will see it as U2 coasting in their old age. The Blackout is fresh and exciting. This is anything but.

Anyways... that's all I got.
 
I've listened twice. I like it. Husband likes it. My four-year-old loved it. Lol.

I don't have much analysis, other than I don't think the first line is creepy. I think it's about her masking her emotional pain. Been there, done that.

And "ever happen a boy is lame." Is that confirmed? Any chance it's two words squished?

I need to listen more, but I certainly don't think it's garbage.
 
I think about the Usenet discussions about The Fly being the worst thing ever, and the end of U2. I will wait before I move to defcon-4.

Yeah no. Achtung was fundamentally a new and surprising chapter in U2's discography, while this is another page from an overlong chapter of mundanity. I thought perhaps things were looking up with Blackout, but Best Thing gives little cause for optimism.
 
The more I listen to it the more I like the juxtaposition of the changes in the song which to me is interesting and new ground for the boys. Still very very catchy and I think mainstream radio is going to eat this up, already seeing a lot of positive reaction on YouTube
 
And how the hell is this getting more hate than the miracle did?

Because people had unrealistic expectations.

They thought this would be the song that makes U2 "cool again", when if you had any sort of intuition on public consciousness, would never be the case ever again. People keep making fun of Bono for trying to chase a hit, when they also are really caught up in being validated about liking U2.

So take one overcooked song add in unrealistic expectations about what a 4 piece, guitar based, polarizing rock band can do in 2017, and you're going to have a lot of people coming down. And hard.

Which is just silly because this is a decent song.
 
Does anyone else think the record label preferred Blackout and that's why they made them release it also? The verses in TBT are good, but that chorus man...yikes. Like Boots it's the worst part of the song and it's the damn chorus!
 
Did the band talk to Dave or anyone on the radio?

He was meant to be on KROQ but I couldn't get the stream to work.

Also re: best thing that ever happened a boy - ever heard of poetic licence?

If you have to fall back on "poetic licence" to defend a lyric, it's shit. Unusual sentence structures made with poetic licence explain themselves. They make people say "hey that's cool/quirky/interesting" or whatever, not "wow what a whopper of an error".
 
Yeah no. Achtung was fundamentally a new and surprising chapter in U2's discography, while this is another page from an overlong chapter of mundanity. I thought perhaps things were looking up with Blackout, but Best Thing gives little cause for optimism.



The Blackout has groove and you can hear each band member.... way better than SOI. The Little Things has soul. This has nothing just bland generic throwaway.
 
As someone who came in not hearing the Kygo/beach clips remixes to throw it off for me somehow... I don't mind it. I don't love it, but it's far from the worst thing they've done. Not hearing this "busy" factor that people are saying, so not sure if that has something to do with the previous versions.

The guitar-driven verse sounds a bit odd at times, especially with the transition to the chorus (which is kind of pretty for a typical I–V–vi–IV progression and, like some people said, a bit more memorable than the Blackout one imo).

Edit: I've only heard Blackout once so far, since I'm waiting for some sort of official release to hear it again. So it's hard to say which I prefer personally.
 
Yeah no. Achtung was fundamentally a new and surprising chapter in U2's discography, while this is another page from an overlong chapter of mundanity. I thought perhaps things were looking up with Blackout, but Best Thing gives little cause for optimism.



Ax let's be honest mate it was never ever going to be the type of song that you liked, I have been on this forum long enough to even know that, but there are also certain posters on this forum that hated it before it was even out, my statement from before still stands, how can people be told to hang fire on calling a song the best ever after not even an hour of it being out, but yet it's totally fine to be able to say how crap it is etc?
 
Still can't believe how unbelievably bad this mix is. It's horrendous.
 
And how the hell is this getting more hate than the miracle did?

Because they showcased a song that would've been without question a much better lead single and then they went ahead and released the exact type of song many of us feared they would. I think a lot of people are upset at the choice of single combined with the typicalness of this song.
 
"Holy crap, if The Blackout isn't even the lead single, The Best Thing must be REALLY great!"

Yeah, about that...
 
They thought this would be the song that makes U2 "cool again", when if you had any sort of intuition on public consciousness, would never be the case ever again.

Who were these people? I've been one of the loudest disappointed voices in this thread and I've certainly never wanted nor predicted Best Thing or any other song would make U2 cool again - because I agree, those days are gone. And if U2 would hurry up and realise it, perhaps we wouldn't have got this over-thought, over-cooked, over-produced mess of musical copypasta.
 
This is one of those moments where I'm kinda glad I don't know chit about chorus, melody, harmony, production, overproduction, tempo and so forth.

I like it.. is it great, maybe not.

But an interesting vibe and some nice couplets --- couplets are a thing right?

.



Haha! Same. I mean, I know a little but there's no way I can analyze this using music theory or anything.
 
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