U2 premiere new single Get On Your Boots

Get On Your Boots is a rip-roaring first track from U2's upcoming album
Get On Your Boots is a rip-roaring first track from U2's upcoming album

U2 have come roaring back with Get On Your Boots, the first single from their upcoming album No Line On The Horizon.

The song, released to radio and iTunes today, is a balls-out, and at times surrealistic rocker, driven by Edge's gnashing guitar (wonder if he's using that Supersonic Fuzz Gun pedal?) and Adam Clayton's booming bass, which is much higher in the mix than usual.

The verses find Bono playfully echoing the riffed-up rock and roll poetry cadence of Bob Dylan's Subterranean Homesick Blues mixed with Elvis Costello's Pump It Up, singing about "submarines, gasoline" and refusing "to talk about wars between nations."

From the first listen, you're in; by the third time you hear it, you're hooked big-time.

The song suddenly shifts into a shimmering, slinky chorus in which Bono and Edge sing "Hey, sexy boots/ get on your boots, yeah." Fun stuff!

Thrilling first track

Many have hinted - some of them in the band, no less - that No Line On The Horizon could be U2's finest work, and Get Your Boots On is indeed a thrilling debut track. From the first listen, you're in; by the third time you hear it, you're hooked big-time.

Check it out for yourself on U2's website. We think you'll agree: U2 have done it again.

Joe Bosso

Joe is a freelance journalist who has, over the past few decades, interviewed hundreds of guitarists for Guitar WorldGuitar PlayerMusicRadar and Classic Rock. He is also a former editor of Guitar World, contributing writer for Guitar Aficionado and VP of A&R for Island Records. He’s an enthusiastic guitarist, but he’s nowhere near the likes of the people he interviews. Surprisingly, his skills are more suited to the drums. If you need a drummer for your Beatles tribute band, look him up.