You're the Best Thing About Me - Song Discussion

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Adam was on virgin radio this morning and the dj said the idea came from a reporter saying to Bono that Ali was the best thing about him
 
Marko said:
I see it working well being about Ali
And theme of experience
How she is the best thing about him, but he's to stupid to honor and see that fully. He's either walking away and destroying it, or as a compensation being too loud about it.
That's why I see edges verse working great here - as his friend he's telling him that there are problems in his actions, in his position towards Ali, who is just perfect for him. He tells him that he loves her loudly (writing songs for her for all the world to hear), while she wants him by her side, to just be with her without publicity and being loud about it for others.

Well....at this moment that's how I see it [emoji5]
Click to expand...




Agreed with much of this, except I don't think Edge's part is that of his friend -- it's of innocence Bono speaking through space and time to experience Bono and saying "don't fuck up what you have, because what you have now is what I wanted back then."
 
The band is in their mid-50s. While relatively healthy from what we can see (barring Bono's bad string of luck), it's not unusual for health stuff to start popping up.

Aging comes for us all, rich rock stars or not.
 
god, there's no ambiguity about the lyrics at all. beyond it being a very simple song, they've explained it to death.

the song is a disaster and just as bad as the three criminals on NLOTH. the arrangement is a complete mess:

- the guitar riff in the verses is boring, sounds like shit, and doesn't gel with the bass and drums. none of the parts fit, actually
- the distortion on the bass is distracting and, again, sounds like shit
- the way the first part of the chorus drops to power chords is deflating. i get that they want to make the rest of it JUMP but it has the opposite effect and makes the second part seem manipulative and cheap
- larry's drums to get to the second part of the chorus are intrusive
- the transition from the chorus to verse is abrupt and awkward
- the synths in the second verse are cool but don't fit with the rest of the music! It's like they realized the first verse was static but couldn't be bothered to fix it so just fixed the second verse
- the bridge and last part are fine, but the ending is abrupt

This song, or should I say mix and arrangement, is a disaster and one of the worst things they've ever released. The most successful parts are the parts that sound like Traditional U2, which is strange. It's good that they're trying new things but damn, that just doesn't work.

It's bizarre that this mix was made five days before the song was turned in. They spend years making something then change it at the last minute? What is with this band? I bet if they sat on this mix for a while longer it would have been smoothed out. And again, Edge's playing is disappointing af.

I'll let Sick Boy have the final word:

 
sci fi mix is good. they should have released this one. the "best thing" backing vocals in the pre-chorus are lame but otherwise everything is good. The arrangement isn't static. That "solo" riff lying under the pre-chorus is a nice touch that keeps the song moving along. The main flaw is having the chorus end with the "walking away" part, which is fat. It should only end the second chorus. The ending of the song is still abrupt, but as a whole it's a good piece of music. I'd still never say "Hey, check out this U2 song!" but it's tolerable. I like everything on SOI more though.
 
Hollow Island said:
god, there's no ambiguity about the lyrics at all. beyond it being a very simple song, they've explained it to death.

the song is a disaster and just as bad as the three criminals on NLOTH. the arrangement is a complete mess:

- the guitar riff in the verses is boring, sounds like shit, and doesn't gel with the bass and drums. none of the parts fit, actually
- the distortion on the bass is distracting and, again, sounds like shit
- the way the first part of the chorus drops to power chords is deflating. i get that they want to make the rest of it JUMP but it has the opposite effect and makes the second part seem manipulative and cheap
- larry's drums to get to the second part of the chorus are intrusive
- the transition from the chorus to verse is abrupt and awkward
- the synths in the second verse are cool but don't fit with the rest of the music! It's like they realized the first verse was static but couldn't be bothered to fix it so just fixed the second verse
- the bridge and last part are fine, but the ending is abrupt

This song, or should I say mix and arrangement, is a disaster and one of the worst things they've ever released. The most successful parts are the parts that sound like Traditional U2, which is strange. It's good that they're trying new things but damn, that just doesn't work.

It's bizarre that this mix was made five days before the song was turned in. They spend years making something then change it at the last minute? What is with this band? I bet if they sat on this mix for a while longer it would have been smoothed out. And again, Edge's playing is disappointing af.
Click to expand...

Sanity, at last.
 
While this song sounded much better to me once I actually got some rest and wasn't in a shit poor mood, as I was on first listen, it still doesn't know my socks off, which is what I was hoping for.

Little Things had that moment, towards the end when Edge really kicks into high gear. I'm dying to hear the studio version.

But let's get this straight... this song is still light years better than the giant shit turd that was Get On Your Boots.
 
I was in a bad mood the first time I heard it as well.

It's hard as a U2 fan to dislike a song they obviously worked hard on and are proud of, especially one that they tried to instil with such joyous, positive energy. I feel a little bad for not being sold on it.

But it's just not a very good song, and even worse first single. I remain in hope, however. The record that gave us Boots also gave us MOS.
 
the song is definitely better but the presentation of it is awful. both songs are messes and evidence of them trying too hard, but at least GOYB had the cool "let me in the sound" section.

i hope the sci-fi version is on the album. I also hope the song is in the middle of SOE and is the worst song on it.

I like Little Things well enough, but it's still only a 7/10 for me. Blackout is a 5, Best Thing single mix maybe a 3. I'm kind of dreading this album now. A month ago I was relatively excited...

what they need to do is record the songs with however many dozen producers they want, and then give the multracks to Eno, Lanois and Flood to cull and mix. Completely take final say away from U2.
 
Nick66 said:
I was in a bad mood the first time I heard it as well.

It's hard as a U2 fan to dislike a song they obviously worked hard on and are proud of, especially one that they tried to instil with such joyous, positive energy. I feel a little bad for not being sold on it.

But it's just not a very good song, and even worse first single. I remain in hope, however. The record that gave us Boots also gave us
MOS.
Click to expand...

they were also working with Eno and Lanois though, so there was reason for hope.

i was also in a bad mood the first time I heard it and was expecting the song to bring me out of it as U2 have done in the past - they have a knack for showing up when I need them. They let me down though.
 
BVS said:
I really don't want to get too deep in this whole lyric thing, seems silly.

But obviously it wasn't just an oversight, we know he's been singing it this way over a year.

What if he's just having fun with a local colloquialism?

My ex's family were "off the boat" Irish, and the older men(especially), that's how they would talk.

You would hear them say, "that's the worst thing to happen a fella".
Click to expand...



Of course, how could I have been so stupid. German and Latin does it, but so does Gaelic!

Thanks BVS you solved the puzzle :)
 
I'm convinced that people have become either so jaded with the band's recent output or have just let their expectations & personal tastes get so far in the way that they can't discern a good song anymore. Maybe it's both.

Or perhaps they never had an ear for one?
 
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A day later..... nope, the songs still a mess. It'll be forgotten very quickly and dropped live.
 
the thing is, Bono speaks properly. He doesn't drop random words or have rural/regional ticks. At least not that I've noticed in my 25 years of being a fan. He just dropped the word to make the lyric fit ffs. To even think otherwise is delusional.
 
Nick66 said:
True. They're not the same band without Brian & Danny.

Is there any doubt of that now?
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nope. the difference in quality of their records recorded with them (or just Eno) compared to what's made without them is so vast that it's basically a different band. I can understand why Eno and Lanois wanted writing credits.
 
jameskinsella said:
I'm convinced that people have become either so jaded with the band's recent output or have just let their expectations & personal tastes get so far in the way that they can't discern a good song anymore. Maybe it's both.

Or perhaps they never had an ear for one?
Click to expand...

Uh huh, personal taste gets in the way of liking a song. Well it would, wouldn't it? The song being bad also makes it difficult to enjoy.

I don't think anyone had high expectations for U2 at this point.
 
I think sci fi soul mix is still better than the single mix but what the single mix has going for it is the more defined bass and beat in the beginning. Not a fan of the rock guitar in the beginning of the Single Mix... it was in the sci-fi mix but lower in the mix and in the background. The copy and paste critique is legitimate IMO
 
Hollow Island said:
Uh huh, personal taste gets in the way of liking a song. Well it would, wouldn't it? The song being bad also makes it difficult to enjoy.

I don't think anyone had high expectations for U2 at this point.
Click to expand...

I didn't say 'liking a song', I said the ability to discern a good song.
 
The beginning of the sci Fi mix has them working on a Velvets template (self titled album) and that always works for them.
 
Zooropa and Pop and the second SOI were solid albums made without Lanois and Eno. NLOTH was mediocre and made with that crew. I think inspiration from the music scene is what helps create those aha moments for the band and unfortunately I don't here anything inspiring in today's music scene
 
This might have been a good song .. once. .. before they rushed for another last minute mix.

From the technical point of view I still think this is a mess. I can't believe a producer of a caliber like Steve Lillywhite has done that ...

The Sci-Fi Soul Mix is really more "cohesive" if that makes sense
 
The thing about U2 is, they want to just put out a simple little pop song as a single, fair enough.

But they can't just do that, can they? It has to be imbued with deeper meaning. It has to be about "joy chasing away darkness". They just can't let the song speak for itself...they have to TELL US how joyful their song is, and how it's supposed to make us feel. They have to engage in public pop psychology about the meaning of a 3 minute pop song, and how it has to change the mood of the time its in, and its only successful if people are playing it in a bar in 25 years. But they we're told to just shut up and enjoy the song for what it is!

One thing this song definitely does is go at least part of the way in laying bear the "we had to delay the record because Trump" lie for the crap it always was. The record was delayed for the same reason U2 records are always delayed.

And by throwing that whole thing out there about the record being a reaction to Trump, they're just doubling down on the whole "look how much meaning our songs have" pretension. And the irony is, after being told how meaningful the songs are and how they're a reflection of our troubled times (or an elixir for them), someone will come on here and say "you guys are taking this too seriously, just enjoy it for being a great song!"
 
Flying FuManchu said:
Zooropa and Pop and the second SOI were solid albums made without Lanois and Eno. NLOTH was mediocre and made with that crew. I think inspiration from the music scene is what helps create those aha moments for the band and unfortunately I don't here anything inspiring in today's music scene
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Eno and/or Lanois, I meant. Flood should be added to the list too. He was arguably more important than Eno on Achtung Baby since he mixed most of the songs iirc.

There is a lot of great, inspiring music being made. You just won't find it on corporate radio or anywhere in the mainstream, and I don't know if U2 have any interest in anything even remotely underground.

I really hope they do what Bowie did form Heathen onward and abandon hope of commercial success and mine past sounds while taking them somewhere new.
 
1. 1:25-1:32 of the single kills the momentum of this song. What is that?
2. Surprised to see this #12 on iTunes, and #15 on YouTube trending...
 
Hollow Island said:
The main flaw is having the chorus end with the "walking away" part, which is fat. It should only end the second chorus. The ending of the song is still abrupt
Click to expand...


Well that's what they tried to do in the single mix, and it's the biggest flaw of the song.

I actually like the abrupt ending, on both.
 
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