namkcuR
ONE love, blood, life
Oh dear god please don't let this lead to a dick-ification meme. Cock-ification is already more than enough.
It's not like he couldn't have figured out how to sing the line with a "to" in there.
I was thinking that earlier. A brief pause before "oh" and while not Shakespeare, it works miles better than the current lyric.
But frankly all he needed to do was shoehorn "to" in there, would have worked fine.
Wait ..... maybe the song is about The Edge??????????
Alternately under that structure, maybe he's coming out as gay.
Is Edge the one singing the "why am I running away" line? Bono realizes the love - Edge is frightened but realizes he should go with it.
There's the explanation.
I don't know why this band is so utterly incapable of sounding even the least bit organic anymore. It must be some kind of hell to stitch together a song like this.
Lyrics about the Clash are decidedly not a selling point for me. It's definitely distinct, which I dig. "Important"? Meh.
The Edge offered a simpler criterion: “On this record, we went, ‘Is it going to be played by people in a bar in 25 years?’”
“You’re putting out a song about your girlfriend when the world is on fire?,” Bono asked, anticipating one reaction. “Yes. Joy is an act of defiance.”
Oh, I don't think that last statement is tone deaf at all. He's not wrong. It sounds a little naive, but there's great joy in observing the little good things when everything else seems to have turned to shit.
My girlfriend's take on the song: "You can go on the U2 forum and tell them I give it five steaming shits out of five. It's shit. If I heard that on the radio I would change the station. It sounds like a song by a band that's two years old, not one that's been around that long."
Ranking the lead singles, just for the hell of it (by song quality):
1. New Year's Day
2. With or Without You
3. The Fly
4. Beautiful Day
5. Desire
6. Pride
7. Numb
8. Discotheque
9. Vertigo
10. A Day Without Me
11. Fire
12. The Miracle
13. Boots
14. The Best Thing
I didn't even know until now that something other than I Will Follow led from Boy.
At least The Blackout sounds like Bono's trying to say something of significance, even if it is ultimately about the band itself. The Best Thing is, as Cobbler says, naff. But then Bono is the coward who keeps telling audiences that "we'll reach common ground when we reach for higher ground", even after a fucking neo-Nazi killed a protester with a car. Fuck off Bono, some people I don't want common ground with. And right now I don't think we need a big U2 single about the best thing to happen a boy. We need the band that once had fire in its belly.
I seriously can't believe how bad this song is, guys. I had hoped to be maybe a little enthusiastic about some new U2, and I sure didn't want something to deride, but... here we are. Normally if a new U2 single were out, I'd at least want to give it a spin the next morning. Today I just want to avoid it. I listened to it five times last night, and I promise you that if it were by a band I didn't know, rather than one that has been such a massive part of my life, it's unlikely I would have even got to the end of my first listen. That's the real test.
Instead I put on Boy (not a boy) this morning. Obviously U2 aren't young men any more, and most bands go to shit the older they get, but it's crazy to think that this group of teenagers with almost no formal musical knowledge put out an album with eleven songs that, today, are still more vital, energetic, and well-composed than a song they just released after over forty years' experience. At least when other musicians I like have got old and put out boring albums, they're fine in a compositional sense. The new Neil Finn and Paul Kelly albums don't excite me. But you can tell these guys know their shit and still have something to say. The Best Thing sounds like a band who took a knock to the head and now can't quite remember how to use their songwriting tools.
I'm fully prepared for Songs of Experience. I don't like Songs of Innocence, so I've already had that moment of finally disconnecting from the band. They will always be my favourite band ever, always, and they have a wealth of music I dearly love, they played an amazing concert just a few months ago that I got to see twice, I'm happy, however much this new album sucks.
I seriously can't believe how bad this song is, guys. I had hoped to be maybe a little enthusiastic about some new U2, and I sure didn't want something to deride, but... here we are. Normally if a new U2 single were out, I'd at least want to give it a spin the next morning. Today I just want to avoid it. I listened to it five times last night, and I promise you that if it were by a band I didn't know, rather than one that has been such a massive part of my life, it's unlikely I would have even got to the end of my first listen. That's the real test.
The thing for me is the band really needs to ask themselves if they have anything left to say, especially amid the myriad of poignant, introspective, and innovative artists out there right now. If you want to be a pure pop band and sing about how great it is to be in love, fine. But for fuck's sake don't go on to anyone who will listen about how you tailored the album specifically to a chaotic, frightening world situation and then release this piece of gleeful vapidity as the lead statement.
The thing for me is the band really needs to ask themselves if they have anything left to say, especially amid the myriad of poignant, introspective, and innovative artists out there right now. If you want to be a pure pop band and sing about how great it is to be in love, fine. But for fuck's sake don't go on to anyone who will listen about how you tailored the album specifically to a chaotic, frightening world situation and then release this piece of gleeful vapidity as the lead statement.
I guess you and a few other posters have already said something to that effect, but holy hell it needs to be repeated.
Honestly, I'm amazed you played it that many times. I listened to it right when I woke up this morning, and have been afraid to go back to it for fear of disliking it even more.
I'll watch the Fallon performance and a clip of when they eventually play it at a JT show. But I'm avoiding this studio version until the album comes out, I'll just play The Blackout (which I really like) if I need a fix.