"Get On Your Boots" is really no better or worse than the rest of the late period singles the band has intermittently pumped out since 2000's "return to form" record All That You Can't Leave Behind. Lyrically, it's no prize winner – "If someone's into blowin' up/We're into growin' up" – but then again, who could forget the "mole diggin' in a hole" from "Elevation" (or "El!Ev!A!Shun!")? Sonically, "Boots" is in keeping with promises that No Line on the Horizon would be a more adventurous record than its immediate predecessors: low end up front with the bass pushed to the edge of distortion, the vaguely "Sunday Bloody Sunday"-esque drum-stomp at the bridge, the substitution of fuzztone for the Edge's typically windchimey guitar – it's fair to say that U2 haven't tried to sound this interesting since Pop. On the whole, it will help the band sell 2 million copies of the record, and give them at least one new song they can play on their inevitable forthcoming world tour that won't send fans streaming for the restrooms. Given the recent Springsteen debacle, I suppose that's more than we can ask for from our rock and roll dinosaurs at this point.
On the bright side, "Get On Your Boots" gave me an excuse to listen to one of my favorite U2 songs, "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)". The video, directed by Wim Wenders and based upon his Wings of Desire, features, if possible, an even douchier Christ-complexified Bono:
On the bright side, "Get On Your Boots" gave me an excuse to listen to one of my favorite U2 songs, "Stay (Faraway, So Close!)". The video, directed by Wim Wenders and based upon his Wings of Desire, features, if possible, an even douchier Christ-complexified Bono:
