SOE
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U2 - You're The Best Thing About Me
 Album:
Songs Of Experience (2017)
  1. Originally posted by Bloodraven:[..]
    that's the way I saw it, too, just a one off.

    (But I do think that it sounded terrible, specially at the beginning)

    ---

    TBTAM is less embarrassing than Boots or Joey, and I do think it's doing as good as it gets for a 40 year old band like U2.

    Songs won't perform just based on how good they are.

    A controversial point of view... a song like Song For Someone, if it had been released by 80's/90's U2, it could've been a hit and become a classic. Maybe it's not the greatest composition, but I'd say that Extreme's More Than Words isn't either, yet it became more successful than they would've imagined, so if 80's 90's super cool U2 released SFS or TBTAM, I think it would've been not only a hit, but maybe it'd be even considered a classic.


    Not controversial at all. Music in the 80's/90's had a longer shelf life. You couldnt just click and have it, and then click to move on to the next thing. You had to discover it. It had time to grow legs...
  2. Originally posted by Bloodraven:[..]
    that's the way I saw it, too, just a one off.

    (But I do think that it sounded terrible, specially at the beginning)

    ---

    TBTAM is less embarrassing than Boots or Joey, and I do think it's doing as good as it gets for a 40 year old band like U2.

    Songs won't perform just based on how good they are.

    A controversial point of view... a song like Song For Someone, if it had been released by 80's/90's U2, it could've been a hit and become a classic. Maybe it's not the greatest composition, but I'd say that Extreme's More Than Words isn't either, yet it became more successful than they would've imagined, so if 80's 90's super cool U2 released SFS or TBTAM, I think it would've been not only a hit, but maybe it'd be even considered a classic.


    That being said, one could easily argue that U2 in the 90s wouldn't have written something like Song for Someone or The Best Thing About Me. Just compare their hit singles from AB, Zooropa and Pop to those songs. They're not nearly as straightforward or accessible (maybe One being the exception, but even then its harder to get your head around as a love song than Song for Someone), nor were they catering to what was on the radio, tonally speaking (at least for mainstream rock in those periods). The Best Thing About Me is clearly a song trying to get it on the One Direction/Taylor Swift market. This isn't an insult or a criticism, just an observation.
  3. Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:[..]


    That being said, one could easily argue that U2 in the 90s wouldn't have written something like Song for Someone or The Best Thing About Me. Just compare their hit singles from AB, Zooropa and Pop to those songs. They're not nearly as straightforward or accessible (maybe One being the exception, but even then its harder to get your head around as a love song than Song for Someone), nor were they catering to what was on the radio, tonally speaking (at least for mainstream rock in those periods). The Best Thing About Me is clearly a song trying to get it on the One Direction/Taylor Swift market. This isn't an insult or a criticism, just an observation.
    I'm not sure about that... Hindsight is weird, and I'm not sure we can be totally unbiased.
    As far as I remember, one of the main criticisms of Achtung (and later, Pop) was precisely that they were trying too hard to get in the "commercial" market of the time. I clearly remember that.

    And I'm not sure we can me unbiased about the quality of the songs, neither. If something like TBTAM had been a hit from U2's late 80's, we probably would be praising it right now, same as if Desire was released today we probably would be hating it...
  4. Originally posted by Bloodraven:[..]
    I'm not sure about that... Hindsight is weird, and I'm not sure we can be totally unbiased.
    As far as I remember, one of the main criticisms of Achtung (and later, Pop) was precisely that they were trying too hard to get in the "commercial" market of the time. I clearly remember that.

    And I'm not sure we can me unbiased about the quality of the songs, neither. If something like TBTAM had been a hit from U2's late 80's, we probably would be praising it right now, same as if Desire was released today we probably would be hating it...
    Really? That's weird, considering Pop came out at the height of Spice Girls/Backstreet Boys/P Diddy/R Kelly etc. - it sounds NOTHING like them. It took more from the sort of underground dance/electronic scene that was coming up at the time, or am I wrong about that? (and rock was busy with bands like Oasis, Rage Against the Machine (who opened for U2 as well), etc.

    Achtung came out right as grunge was taking off and it's a total left field from that, and from what U2 had already done (which we all know) - but maybe you're right, it's hard to get in a headspace of what it was like when those songs came out. Maybe Greg can help us out here....

    I will say that I very recently watched a documentary specifically on "music in the 90s" and "music culture in the 90s". Guess who was completely absent from the entire documentary as a musical and cultural force? As successful as U2 was in that decade, I don't think they were caught up in the tide of it all whatsoever. They were too busy doing their own thing and getting people to go with them. Like it's been said by others (smarter than me), U2 didn't follow the mainstream, the mainstream followed them - and I think that's the big difference with The Best Thing.

    I still don't think the latter part of your post is an argument we can make though. U2 were too busy writing songs like Still Haven't Found and With or Without You (again, which sound nothing like its contemporaries in the pop charts of that time) to write something like Best Thing Thing. They didn't just sound different, they were more lyrically challenging than the songs that surrounded them on the charts. The equivalent to U2 writing The Best Thing back then would've been if WOWY had been an up-tempo synth pop song about picking up chicks in a speedboat. That's sort of what I'm getting at.
  5. Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:[..]
    Really? That's weird, considering Pop came out at the height of Spice Girls/Backstreet Boys/P Diddy/R Kelly etc. - it sounds NOTHING like them. It took more from the sort of underground dance/electronic scene that was coming up at the time, or am I wrong about that? (and rock was busy with bands like Oasis, Rage Against the Machine (who opened for U2 as well), etc.

    Achtung came out right as grunge was taking off and it's a total left field from that, and from what U2 had already done (which we all know) - but maybe you're right, it's hard to get in a headspace of what it was like when those songs came out. Maybe Greg can help us out here....

    I will say that I very recently watched a documentary specifically on "music in the 90s" and "music culture in the 90s". Guess who was completely absent from the entire documentary as a musical and cultural force? As successful as U2 was in that decade, I don't think they were caught up in the tide of it all whatsoever. They were too busy doing their own thing and getting people to go with them. Like it's been said by others (smarter than me), U2 didn't follow the mainstream, the mainstream followed them - and I think that's the big difference with The Best Thing.

    I still don't think the latter part of your post is an argument we can make though. U2 were too busy writing songs like Still Haven't Found and With or Without You (again, which sound nothing like its contemporaries in the pop charts of that time) to write something like Best Thing Thing. They didn't just sound different, they were more lyrically challenging than the songs that surrounded them on the charts. The equivalent to U2 writing The Best Thing back then would've been if WOWY had been an up-tempo synth pop song about picking up chicks in a speedboat. That's sort of what I'm getting at.
    Grunge was taking off when AB came, but the electro industrial sound was peaking as well... neither of which were really "commercial" at the time, so I'm not sure about trying to get into the "commercial" market, as much as trying to get into the "what's cool with the kids" market... I remember either Edge or Bono mentioning they were really into KMFDM in this period and were letting the influence saturate.

    I dunno, my mind ain't as sharp as it once was... but there's my two cents. (If I'm even the Greg you seek!)
  6. Is this the official video?
  7. Originally posted by blueeyedboy:[..]
    Grunge was taking off when AB came, but the electro industrial sound was peaking as well... neither of which were really "commercial" at the time, so I'm not sure about trying to get into the "commercial" market, as much as trying to get into the "what's cool with the kids" market... I remember either Edge or Bono mentioning they were really into KMFDM in this period and were letting the influence saturate.

    I dunno, my mind ain't as sharp as it once was... but there's my two cents. (If I'm even the Greg you seek!)


    yep, that's what I meant... specially the "cool with the kids" line, I was about to reply something on those lines: Achtung Baby was the kind of music that the cool/party kids in the school listened. Rattle and Hum/Joshua Tree was not. The eternal "they sold out" was used over and over on the AB album.
  8. Originally posted by RattleandHum1988:[..] The equivalent to U2 writing The Best Thing back then would've been if WOWY had been an up-tempo synth pop song about picking up chicks in a speedboat. That's sort of what I'm getting at.

    Lyrically, yep, I've already expressed my concerns about the lyrics on SOE (even if he's nowhere near on "picking up chicks in a speedboat", so that's a totally unfair comparison), but musically, the equivalent would be U2 writing something like Mysterious Ways, imho.
  9. Ah, I see what you mean (and yes Greg, you were the Greg I was referring to ).

    I still say there's a difference though. Both in terms how The Best Thing sounds in comparison to what is popular (not JUST with kids, but with everyone), and its lyrical content. It's shallow (not in a bad way, just is) and isn't really pushing anything tonally. I don't think they would've written and released a song that could be described that way back in those days. At this point they're content with releasing what they consider to be great songs at their core - they don't need to be experimental or conceptually challenging. I think that's where fans take issue.
  11. Originally posted by Bloodraven:[..]

    Lyrically, yep, I've already expressed my concerns about the lyrics on SOE (even if he's nowhere near on "picking up chicks in a speedboat", so that's a totally unfair comparison), but musically, the equivalent would be U2 writing something like Mysterious Ways, imho.
    U2 did write The Sweetest Thing in 1987, which is very related in sound, lyrics and spirit to SFS and Best Thing.
  12. Ok, I thought so. Probably we will get some more exciting video.
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Contribute to the U2 community with uploading photos or by telling us which shows you have visited.
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