I was trying to be impartial...
Alas... This place kills any song that has even one clunky lyric, but this one skates by. It adds to the whole "people think it's great because it wasn't released" argument
Rubbish. It's got nothing to do with the fact it's unreleased.
Firstly, I think criticisms of the lyrics don't take into account the style of the lyrics. Unlike so many U2 songs of this millennium, Bono isn't trying to cram too many words into single lines.
Also unlike so many U2 songs of this millennium, they make up a cohesive whole, where it all makes sense and ties together well, so I am therefore happy to excuse a couple of clunky lyrics, because they
actually work. It's a love song, and it's a simple theme: A contrasts B, A contrasts B.
I was drinking some wine / and it turned to blood
You wanted violins / and you got Nero
I'm weedkiller honey / you're sugar
I find it to be very evocative. Two people in love, Venus and Mars, but it works, and it's mutually beneficial and a wonderful, supporting, deeply loving love. Contrast that with the trollop love songs from Songs of Experience.
Aside from the lyrics, the reasons that I hold it up to be EASILY their best song since Pop are as follows:
- Bono's vocals. He was in good shape around the time of Bomb. Certainly not even close to career best, but the Mercy vocals are as good as you get post-Pop. The drop in his voice into the bridge is fucking fantastic if you ask, totally natural and helps make the pay-off in the chorus even more powerful, like he's dropping down a gear for a moment in order to make the next part bigger. And again, it's powerfully evocative. It's like anyone who's in a challenging but loving relationship, to me it feels like a necessary, big deep breath.
- The music. Edge's guitar. It is quintessential Edge and can comfortably, comfortably sit with the best of his classic "chiming" uplifting guitar lines. The double-tracked, contemplative, soulful playing in the intro. The way it soars in the chorus, the fuzzy strikes and concerted, heartful playing during the "fear nothing" parts. It's one of the best post-Pop songs for the rhythm section. Adam has a great bass line that you can actually hear throughout, Larry is pummelling along perfectly (yes of course the audio could do with some cleaning up). The whole song just builds so perfectly and so naturally and so well. You start off with Edge's guitar and then Larry's gentle drumming when the second guitar part comes in. And then you get the addition of Adam's bass which gives the song another layer, and then finally Bono.
I have been totally enamoured with it from the first time I heard it and it's criminal that it will never see its full potential.