The Internet is going crazy today about the new U2 single “Get On Your Boots,” from their forthcoming album, No Line On the Horizon. Hardcore U2 fans are up in arms because the song isn’t a stadium anthem like past U2 top tens. Instead, it has more of a groove to it, and what’s more, it’s almost a Nine Inch Nails groove.
Just as the Edge told Rolling Stone a few weeks back, the song starts out with some fuzzy guitar and drums, but Edge’s trademark clean sea of delayed layering is missing. Instead the pair kicks off the single with some industrial sine wave riffing that would fit perfectly on Trent Reznor’s Year Zero concept album.
Bono’s vocals are also reminiscent of Reznor’s clean, too-close-for-comfort vocals of late. And rather than let his voice soar above the music with melodramatic lead, Bono lets his lyrics ride the beat a lot more. I wouldn’t be surprised if a placeholder name for this song was “Get On Your Groove.”
Give it a listen here or embedded below: