10 Songs That Get Better Every Time You Hear Them

Everyone even slightly close to the pop culture zeigeist is familiar with something being a bit overplayed. I mean, as much as something like Pharrell's Happy may have inspired people almost a decade ago, the fact that it's been used in everywhere from promotional material to GAP commercials will make anyone want to jump out a window if they heard it again. As much as these might grate on your eardrums, there are a handful of songs that seem to go in a bit of a different direction.

From time to time, there are songs that reach the charts that only manage to get better the more that you hear them. For all of the basic elements of these tunes, there are always subtle variations that make them stand out against the rest of the stuff that comes up in every playlist or radio station. Though some of them do fall victim to the overplay monster from time to time, that doesn't stop them from holding up as perfect pieces of music that will most likely never go out of style.

Even listening back to these now, you can still pick up on little intricacies of the parts or something in the background that you would never notice the first time around. While the rest of the tune might be solid enough for one listen, the repeats are where the depth comes in.

Ever since the '80s, the work of U2 seems to have the entire rock community split down the middle. After all, you don't get to become the biggest band of the decade with the Joshua Tree without some people dogging you for being a touch pretentious in places. Even though Bono may talk a big game, he's not exactly lying about the band's power when it comes to I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For.

As a matter of fact, the only thing that actually manages to make this song work is how simple it is. Originally being produced to all hell on the original working title Desert of Our Love, the basic track became something magical when it turned into a modern version of a blues. While it doesn't follow the chord structure of Bo Diddley or BB King directly, you can still feel that yearning of the blues seeping in, which feels even more powerful at its metronomic pace.

Though you can hear the production complexities through Edge's guitar work plenty of times in this song, it never gets to the point where you lose the human element, with the bass flying all over the place and Bono's single vocal take cutting through the mix. As much fluff has been poured over the Joshua Tree as a hallmark of rock music, this is the barebones of what perfection should be.