I still appreciate the song for what it is, but it's not even close to being a better ballad than Parachutes.

Parachutes is my favorite song on Avocado. I think.

Surprisingly, this song hasn't held up over time for me all too well. I loved it upon first listen, and the many times that I heard it afterwards, but even now when I listen to it occasionally, it comes off as stale. I still appreciate the song for what it is, but it's not even close to being a better ballad than Parachutes.

The best part of the song, for me, is still the guitar part after the last "it's okay" line and the beginning of the outro ("I'll be here"...). There's more feeling in that small musical section than in all of the lyrics combined, even though I think that a few certain lines are great. But overall, it's lyrically generic. And that's okay, because the song still gets it's point across just fine. It just doesn't have enough to be a real standout in the grand scheme of things.

A steadfast 3.5 I normally don't do the ".5" thing, but this is one song that just falls in the middle of the rating road for me. For the emotion, better than a 3, but for originality, less than a 4.

I think you pretty much got my thoughts across with this whole post, though I'd probably give it 3 stars overall.

Ed is a singer who i always really believe - i never question his sincerity, but i feel that on this track the typical ballady music that dominates the whole song (up until the outro) really hinders the emotion he's trying to put across. I'm not sure if that makes sense...but i guess i'm saying that because the music doesn't feel fresh, it almost appears lazy, and that can affect the way a song hits you.

I also thing the lyrics are perhaps a little too straight forward for me to really appreciate, this may be intentional to be more blunt and powerful, but i just much prefer an Ed lyric with a bit more umm...substance. For instance...Given the themes of songs like Light Years and Hail Hail, there's all the potential for the lyrics to turn into a cheese-fest, yet Eddie pens some of his greatest lyrics and really shows off his strengths. I don't feel that there are many lines in Come Back where i could say to someone "woah! look at this section".

That said, you can hear a lot of heart in Ed's vocal delivery, and combined with this, the outro really saves it from becoming a 2 star affair.

I really like this tune, although I think the overdriven solo at the end is fairly cheeseball rock power ballad stuff that undercuts the song's quiet loneliness a bit.