GibsonGirl said:
I don't think it's as great as some people think it is. 
To me, it's just like any other stereotypical U2 song. The lyrics, while great at times, sound like a rambling mess of metaphors on the whole. Some people tout Mercy as being some of The Edge's best guitar work since Achtung Baby... All I can say to that is WHAT THE HELL? The guitar in Mercy sounds like anything you'd find on How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb, only mind-numbingly boring!
Don't get me wrong, I don't think it's a bad song, I just think it's hardly worth the praise that gets slapped onto it.
I think the song gets talked about way way way too much.
That said, it's better than anything on the album by a good stretch. What some see as rambling lyrics, I see as a pretty honest stream of conscience with a chorus, obviously at least as strong as anything on HTDAAB. If Mercy has crap lyrics, then the HTDAAB lyrics as a whole are abominable (save for Fast Cars and select lines).
The guitar work is minimalist and it harkens back to a time when Edge not only couldn't play cock rock but didn't seem to want to.
Contrast this style with that of Miracle Drug, which does have a very nice solo, but the verse guitar and chorus guitar are so cliched, minimalist typical Edge, it leaves me thinking "how utterly obvious" featureless and flawless.
The notes in Mercy are unique in style, maybe this is boring to some, fine. If anything it owes more to the Boy style than anything, minimalist and unique, rather than minimalist and completely obvious. If you are a guitar player looking to be playing songs that are interesting technically, you got the wrong band. Edge has always been about tones and textures over techniques. But what's boring to some is not to others completely subjective.
The song is not the second coming of Christ or even the song Gone, it's just the better side of a bunch of pretty obvious and over-polished tracks, any of which would do good to reach up to the level of magic that Mercy has, in it's rambling, rawness, simplicity and all of the above.
Now with all that said, will people finally shut the fuck up about this song????
You know Smile was a pretty fucking good song as well. Let's make 8,762 threads about it and then Headache can say "I wipe my ass with a Smile" in his signature.
People need to just get over it, it's not even THAT good, it's just the smartest kid on the short bus.
I would love see U2 pursue more songs like Smile.
I read that and all I thought was WOW! Now that would be somthing of a sound for sure.
Sorry man but you've brainwashed yourself into the old cliche that "Old" U2 is better than "New" U2. The similarities between early and present U2 are far too similar to actually make it as cut and dry as you guys make it ut to be. If you can't see that well than just have fun living in the past.
please ... be gentle
