The best U2 song, the ideas flying through this song are overwhelming.
It all starts in the foundation, bass and drums. The song was written around the bass line, apparently with massive arguments erupting about how to make the best use of it. Writing songs out of bass lines can be torturous, because the bass line is usually there to, how do I express it, "coat" the song? It holds roots where root clarity is needed; it moves where the song needs movement. It's a filler, a fixer. To start out by featuring the bass line is to write with no safety net. You must search out the music this bass line is implying completion of.
What a great idea, then, to actually keep the bass line out of the verses, saving it for maximum impact.
Instead, the verses rest on the other bedrock instruments, the drums and percussion. There are so many things happening in that percussion that hit me purely on a spiritual level, I don't know if I can properly just write about them... Let's try.
Listen to the sound of the kick drum alone. Most times, the kick drum is engineered to be almost inaudible, providing more of a hidden accent within a mix. In "Mysterious Ways," not only is the kick drum very up front in the mix, but it's mixed in a very dry, compressed way. The punchy quality that results is the heartbeat of an aggressively fun dance beat. The sharp, muted snare merely has to hold on and keep those back beats down. The pace of the song (99 beats per minute), makes for the best possible expression of this beat.
In support of this main drum beat is a host of aux percussion, all tightly, sharply in support of this amazing rhythm. It's all mixed quietly enough to be nearly subliminal, like the subconscious rush of feeling that electrifies the speaker of the song's lyrics. Most songs don't have rhythm like this. I can't tell you how special I think it is.
Over this badass rhythm work is just the most modest organ part, holding such a catchy series of chords to support the vocal.
And there is the vocal. We can attack Bono's ego all we want these days, or anything else we want to pick on about a guy who has put himself out there for so long.
Bono holds this verse all by his damn self. A prototypical musical close-up. Just one long, perfect pop melody, morphing comfortably with the words, in a state of joy at having discovered it. Listen close and notice a great falsetto doubling octave.
This isn't even to begin to praise the effect-laden main guitar riff, which is so explosively catchy, the signature cue.
This isn't even to begin to comprehend the choruses, with vocals melding word choice with a perfect breathless performance. "It's all right, It's all right"... I love nothing in songs deeper than words that are perfect to be sung, words that are inseparable from notes - this is what Bono found for that chorus.
This isn't even going to get into the lyrics, which are truly open to multiple interpretations, in the good sense of that quality. Ideas of the moon, the feminine, idealization, religion, fear, reassurance, and respect intermingle. It's an impressive collection of words, assembled with care to not too fine a point on anything.
None of this describes the greatest sequence of this song, which is the insane chord development of the middle bridge. This is a journey that I will never be sure how they completed: the initial key change is daring, the guitar solo something out an alien mind, then the bravest set of radical chord changes for the bridge vocal, and the way the beautiful vocal melody audaciously navigates these changes by holding the same repeated vocal line across much of them. The path through this series of chords never at one moment seems guaranteed - and yet here they are emerging at the end with a perfect finishing vocal flourish and perfectly - perfectly! - cadencing back into the chorus. The level of sophistication in this sequence alone is something we don't deserve. Why were they working so hard? The '80s were a peak of melodic and harmonic prowess in the pop scene that we haven't even come close to recognizing yet. But we're still in that shadow.
The challenge of writing "Mysterious Ways" led the band into a creative trance that directly resulted in the writing of "One," another classic. What a Creation.