“Comedown” by Bush

"Comedown" is where it all started for Bush: of the 12 songs on Sixteen Stone, their 1994 debut, it was the first one Gavin Rossdale wrote, and its lyrics never changed from that first draft. It went out as the album's third single, and it's post-grunge at its most brooding, a slow, heavy-lidded groove that coils and uncoils under Rossdale's raspy snarl.

He wrote it about an ex-girlfriend, and he has described it as caught between regret and celebration, a clear-eyed look at what happens when the high wears off and the feelings come flooding in. In 2017 he boiled it down further: every burst of euphoria carries its own comedown, that moment when the best night of your life turns into something you never asked for. You can hear both halves in the chorus, part hangover, part victory lap.

The groove has a surprising source. Drummer Robin Goodridge told Modern Drummer that the bass line and drum patterns were borrowed from a Massive Attack song, which explains the slinky, loping feel under all that guitar. Clive Langer produced it, and he mixed it with Alan Winstanley and the band. On stage it has become the song Rossdale can step back from, letting the crowd carry the chorus for him, which he calls the best feeling a songwriter can have.

Written with AI assistance from RockLists chart data, MusicBrainz and Wikipedia.