First impression after listening to a YouTube cutting:
"Hmm... nice drums. The first few verses are a little... hollow, maybe? Chorus lacks spike... but catchy. Love the ending"
After hearing it in the car this morning, with the stereo at 10:
"Damn. The drums kick ass. The riff's better than I thought! It just isn't meant to be played solo, without drums. The whole song needs to be knitted together to make sense. The chorus is more clever than I thought; it's textured and melodic. This song is meant to be played Loud! LET ME IN THE SOUND, SOUND! I'm going to head-bang to this at some point. I want to hear it again."
As usual, I never 'get' a new U2 song at first listen. Then one part hooks into my brain, drags the rest of the song into it, and then I'm addicted. For a while anyhow. This might still be pure sugar - a quick hit, wearing off quickly - or it may be Turkish Delight, Lokum, flavored with rosewater, and insatiably addictive.
Some joker's going to say U2's lost it's 'deep' lyrics, and compare this song's finale to Vertigo's "yeah yeah yeah yeah.." ending, but they'd miss the point. 'Let me in the sound" might be the perfect manifesto for this album, one which Bono claimed was an opportunity to 'lose himself in the music' again.
If that means leading off with a rocker (like Vertigo was a rocker, the only similarity), and then using these few minutes as a hammer to break down the Bomb and open up a new vista for the band...
Well, it's done that. Those drums at the end, relentless kicking ass, kicking down doors, put force behind Bono's proclamation, and signal that the rest of the album will not be going easy on the listeners.
If ATYCLB was the band playing, "Listen to us again.." music, and BOMB was ".. and now sing along..", BOOTS signals a forceful "NOW hear this!" I haven't really heard since War. That's what the prominent drumming reminds me of, more than AB, or any of the other comparisons going around.
Yup, there's a hint of the Wild West in there, and Elvis (Costello this time). But like another review said, it's evocative and not a rip.
And sure, when Edge's guitar turns from and out-front riff to a buzzing background circular saw of a sound, I did think of The Muse for a second.
But here's the thing.. U2 sits at the center of a sonic (mine)field that has their influences on one side, and bands they've influenced themselves on the other. GOYB touches left, touches right, but never for more then a second before swelling up and under, engulfing everything with this new sound they've brought to the table.
This wasn't what I expected, and this wasn't what anyone else did either. That's a good thing, and shows that once again U2 aren't content to follow, or dive into the current musical stream.
They're diverting rivers, here. With the Edge's saw and Larry's hammer, they've just chiseled out a path to move music away from the U2 tributes that Coldplay and the Killers are producing, leaving those directions as mere tributaries.
A lot to extract from two listens to one song? Maybe, but I've seen U2 play this sort of gambit before, and I'm betting it pays off again.
It's just a matter of how well the public receives this offering.
