Bono Comes Up Man-Sized

noah | January 19, 2009 7:00 am

ARTIST: U2 TITLE: “Get On Your Boots” WEB DEBUT: Jan. 19, 2009

ONE-LISTEN VERDICT: In a development that probably shouldn’t be all that surprising—yet still is—Bono is sorta channeling Radiohead’s Thom Yorke on the lead single from his band’s forthcoming No Line On The Horizon—seriously, when his half-falsetto first kicked in, I thought Yorke was actually making a cameo on the track. From there, “Get On Your Boots” turns into a twisty, kinda weird little song, with a chugging, blown-to-bits bass line, a pre-chorus where the vocal harmonies can (I swear to God) only be described as “Alice In Chains-ish,” and a lot of chaos that recalls the prime days of 120 Minutes. (OK, so the lyrics are terrible—”Free me from the dark dream / Candy bars, ice cream / All the kids are screaming / but the ghosts arent real”—but that shouldn’t be too much of a shock.) I guess the idea is that coming back with the big, anthemic supersingle a la “Vertigo” would be something of a silly gesture in these degraded times for the pop-star archetype, but really, this track is definitely not what I was expecting. And I mean that in the best way.

WHERE TO FIND IT: Well, it’s on iTunes, but those of you who want to try before you buy can hit up the band’s official site—or if that isn’t working, there’s always YouTube:

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