I still like Best Thing. After listen 1000.
I think opinions are like...ehh, it's an overdone notion. But some opinions shouted the loudest seem to take on a cult following. I would venture to guess the majority of U2 fans, even on this board, like Best Thing. Some, like me, love it...instant smile.
I wonder if it has something to do, as is true about most love/tribute to a lover songs, with whether the listener has experienced that kind of love, or is living in it. Those who haven't found a transformative love won't be as accepting of lovey-dovey lyrics. I find personal resonance with some of the lyrics in Best Thing...My wife is the best thing about me, the best thing I ever accomplished (our kids are part of that, so...) She was a real accomplished, driven person who was, in part, intrigued by me and interested in taking a friendship to the next level because I was a kind of trouble that she enjoyed (not "bad boy", just political, cynical with reason, not the boy her friends and family pictured her with). I grew with her, and took on her best attributes and have grown less cynical and her friends who once hated me are close friends. She has taken on some of my questioning and is less likely to be taken advantage of. The Edge part could be written about us from the point of view of my closest friend. It just hits in every way. And that is personal, not universal. But the lyric is universal enough to be felt by anyone with a transformative love, or who pissed one away even with the "Why am I walking away?"
This isn't a thread about that song, but the idea is true to all songs. When an artist goes personal, there is risk. Michael Stipe had the worst time writing love songs...Paul McCartney, the greatest at the genre, wrote the schlockiest and called it Silly. I am sure the poppiness turns some off, and some dislike the cut-and-paste nature of some of the transitions. But I also truly believe some of the hatred (not all...if it doesn't apply to you, it doesn't) is from not relating to the lyric.
