so this is neither here nor there, and it suffers from small sample size syndrome, but i'll share anyway.
my girlfriend is 25. she has music taste that is all over the map, graduated with a b.a. in musical studies, the whole nine yards. her favorites include justin bieber, hiatus kaiyote, stevie wonder, big sean, nas, miley cyrus, the beatles, classical music, coldplay, rihanna. you get the idea.
she really likes u2... on the right day. up until three years ago, she claimed she hated them (partially due to the iPhone fiasco). i asked why? she said they suck. so i asked her what songs she knows - couldn't name any. I took control of the juke box at the bar and played basically a combo of the best ofs, and she was singing the chorus to each song, knew each song and liked each song - but had no idea it was u2.
fast forward a few years. she's seen u2 three times with me now. twice on the ie tour (at the last msg show, she claimed she was "drunk on bono" and not to tell her friends that it was the best live show she'd seen) and again on joshua tree this year. she's loved each show and has come to love the joshua tree itself, but hates one tree hill.
all that serving as the backstory, she thinks the little things, the blackout and the best thing are three of the best songs u2 have ever done. it's a bit confusing for somebody who has been exposed to them for as much as she has, but she thinks the songs are awesome.
i don't know if that's the intended audience, but she and a few of her friends all really, genuinely love the best thing.
the song has grown on me a decent bit. i still love the chorus, especially the part "i'm the kind of trouble you enjoy" and the edge bridge, but... yeah. not u2's best song.
does this mean that they're going to win over the pop kids? no. but the pop kids do like it - unfortunately for u2, i don't think the pop kids are going to seek them out.
