Get on Your Boots (Universal): A-
Last fall U2 producer Daniel Lanois took time off from working on the Irish superband’s 12th studio album, “No Line on the Horizon” (due March 3), for a solo tour of his own. But talking to the Herald, he had this to say about U2’s first recording in five years: “The president of the company is singing better than ever and the tracks are wildly innovative ... I believe rock ’n’ roll has been reinvented one more time.”
Grandiose words. But pretty accurate, at least judging by “Horizon’s” flagship single, “Get on Your Boots,” which Monday became available for the world to hear for free on U2’s Web site.
Unlike the band’s play-it-safe singles “Beautiful Day” and “Vertigo,” “Boots” is U2 at its most eccentric. Bono’s vocals swing wildly between the detachment of his old alter egos the Fly and Mephisto and the big, passionate bombast of “Rattle & Hum.” The Edge’s guitar is full-frontal once again with riffs as jagged and distorted as “Zoo Station” and snatches of layered, echo-y leads recalling “The Unforgettable Fire’s” “Wire.” The rhythm section follows Edge’s lead by blending “Wire” thump with the fuzz and jerk of “Zoo Station’s” rock electronica. Lyrically Bono leaps from post-9/11 to post-Bush. He’s ready to leave behind war, terrorism and our fear-obsessed world as he sings about liberating himself from “the dark dream.” “I don’t wanna talk about wars between nations,” he tells us.
Nope, it sounds like the boots we’re being chided to don aren’t army issue but electric, neon go-go style. We may be living in troubled times, but there’s still hope, and still time to get freaky.
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