Whats with all the hate of Get Out of Your Own Way?

[Vox]

i didn't really like it at first and found the chorus to almost irritate my ears, but now, like a lot of the songs on the new album, it has really grown on me.  still not one of my favorites on the album, but i like it.

I was a bit like this - didn't really get it at first but has really grown on me

This is me, as well.  Same goes for “You’re the Best Thing About Me.” 

I listened to those songs a lot pre-album release.  Then after December 1, I’d skip over them to hear the new stuff.  But a few weeks ago, I started listening to those two songs again and something’s really clicked for me.  I really like them both, and more often than not, they’re the songs I wake up with in my head each morning. 

I still remember the parts of those songs that used to sort of…  bug me… for lack of a better word…  But now those are the parts I particularly dig. 

So far, this album is doing good for me on repeated listens.  I almost stopped listening to the album for a while from mid-to-late December.  But then I started to “put it on” a lot more throughout January.  A few weeks ago, the whole album morphed into something else for me.  I’m really enjoying it.   

F*&k what Quincy Jones said yesterday…  Sounds like he’s gone off the deep end, anyway…  LOL! 

[Albono]

the "sh*thole countries" line at the grammys gave it a whole new perspective.
now I freakin' love it! Bono turned it to a rebel song!

[xy]

Never hated it, but I do think Best thing is the better pop tune between the two of them.

[Billy Rhythm]

the "sh*thole countries" line at the grammys gave it a whole new perspective.
now I freakin' love it! Bono turned it to a rebel song!

I've thought that it was a "rebel song" all along, even before I initially heard it and knew of the title which is a brilliant bit of advice...  What eventually warmed me to the song was the live versions though (BBC/Grammies)...  I like how The Edge's guitar is more prominent when the vocals first start...  In fact, it's The Edge who really shines on this one, in my opinion...  I have trouble deciding between whether his solo here, or on 'Lights of Home' takes home the 'Best Solo' award for the new album...  Outstanding...:-) 

[Rasmus]

Because its another example of the safe and boring U2. The song is not bad but it's not exciting either is it? Also I dont like the lyrics in the verses.

[imaginary friend]

I love the song, but not the arrangement. To me, that song is screaming for a Pop-style treatment.

[Argo]

I quite like it but feel it could have been stronger. This album more than most seems to have drawn very diverse opinions on so many songs. the good thing out of this is that there is something there for everyone but little consensus on the best songs on the album (although Little Things seems the most consistently rated in various polls I have seen). At the end of the day - to each, their own.

[Beneathadesertsky]

The music video I know turned people off. I know where the band stands on the world right now but at times they almost seem like they cram it down your throat and that brings up certain emotions....That is all I will say.

For me its just nothing special. I think the problem is the band is trying to remain fresh and unfortunately they are going down the same path as a lot of bands before them who have done everything there is to do.

The last album I honestly thought they brought a piece of gold to the table was all that you cant leave behind and that was what 2000?

Still one of my favorite bands though

[laoghaire]

The pre-chorus needs improved (that's the Irish grammatical construction there). I'm immune to the sanctimony that bothers people. I fell in love with them at the height of their sanctimony so I obviously can handle it. I like that they care, that they have something to say.

Politically speaking, it's comforting to me, because I am having a hard time with the world right now in the sense that I actually have feelings of anxiety and dread on a daily basis. I know that's rich given that I am not (yet) personally affected. But I do have those feelings. This is a tough love song in the way that Stuck in a Moment tells us to stand up straight and carry our own weight - which I take as empowering, not belittling at all. You've got to fight back. I can help you but it's your fight. I appreciate that.

But what the hell is up with these lyrics?

The slaves are looking for someone to lead them
The master is looking for someone to need him

I mean, what in the actual eff? I don't think U2 get to talk about American racial slavery. Also, given the juxtaposition of the lyrics it sounds like he's saying the slaves are looking for a MASTER to lead them (and the master looking for slaves to need him). On subsequent listens I finally realized that can't be true, they must be looking for the likes of Nat Turner. But this is stuff they really aren't going to be able to get the nuances on; this isn't their story to tell. Wish these lyrics never made the cut.

[ian ryan]

Like others here, it started off slow for me. It was too similar to Beautiful Day/Always. Now it has really come into its own. I really enjoy it now.

[ian ryan]

But what the hell is up with these lyrics?

The slaves are looking for someone to lead them
The master is looking for someone to need him

I mean, what in the actual eff? I don't think U2 get to talk about American racial slavery. Also, given the juxtaposition of the lyrics it sounds like he's saying the slaves are looking for a MASTER to lead them (and the master looking for slaves to need him). On subsequent listens I finally realized that can't be true, they must be looking for the likes of Nat Turner. But this is stuff they really aren't going to be able to get the nuances on; this isn't their story to tell. Wish these lyrics never made the cut.

I think they’re awesome, a very prescient political commentary on the current American situation. He could be commenting that the American population wasn’t thinking during the last election, but rather that it wanted to be led. It reads to me like he’s saying that the current leader wants followers but finds himself being abandoned. And if he’s not allowed to talk about U.S. slavery, do they need to retract Silver & Gold? Are they still allowed to perform songs like Pride and MLK that are about the historical results of slavery?

[Clarky]

Agreed that this song could have used a POP style treatment. Its much too safe sounding. It has potential to have some sour with the sweetness. Right now its just a forgettable vanilla song.

[bonorules]

But what the hell is up with these lyrics?

The slaves are looking for someone to lead them
The master is looking for someone to need him

I mean, what in the actual eff? I don't think U2 get to talk about American racial slavery. Also, given the juxtaposition of the lyrics it sounds like he's saying the slaves are looking for a MASTER to lead them (and the master looking for slaves to need him). On subsequent listens I finally realized that can't be true, they must be looking for the likes of Nat Turner. But this is stuff they really aren't going to be able to get the nuances on; this isn't their story to tell. Wish these lyrics never made the cut.

I think they’re awesome, a very prescient political commentary on the current American situation. He could be commenting that the American population wasn’t thinking during the last election, but rather that it wanted to be led. It reads to me like he’s saying that the current leader wants followers but finds himself being abandoned. And if he’s not allowed to talk about U.S. slavery, do they need to retract Silver & Gold? Are they still allowed to perform songs like Pride and MLK that are about the historical results of slavery?

Well said and I agree that this is probably what Bono was going for with those lyrics.

I also really like the song. Wasn't a favorite right away, but has definitely grown for me.

[laoghaire]

And if he’s not allowed to talk about U.S. slavery, do they need to retract Silver & Gold? Are they still allowed to perform songs like Pride and MLK that are about the historical results of slavery?

I would say he can talk about US slavery but needs to be careful not to try to speak like it's his story. Jay-Z isn't trying to talk about the Troubles like he knows what it's like for the people who lived it. Pride and MLK are fine, imho, because they honor a specific man, but the songs don't try to speak for a people about a subject that Bono doesn't have the nuance on.

Bono once famously complained on-stage about "Irish-Americans, who haven't been back to their country in 20 or 30 years, come up to ME and talk about the resistance, the revolution back home." He was 100% correct. Irish-Americans can be interested, they can have an opinion, but they have to realize, they can't speak for the Irish anymore. And people who aren't even Irish-American, who were actually born in America, perhaps to Americans, perhaps who don't have much or any Irish ancestry, can speak even less because they don't know. We think we might know but we don't. So Bono needs to be as careful as he rightly thinks non-Irish need to be careful.

Silver and Gold was different from Pride and MLK. Musically, I love that song - the R&H version was a family favorite when I was growing up. Very powerful, makes me really feel something. But Bono uses the first person in the lyrics, and that would be like me (an American) writing my own version of Raised by Wolves in the first person, imagining what it was like. (I realize Bono used the first person to describe his friend's experience and not his own, but they fully share that culture and he could capture the nuance of his friend's experience very accurately). In Silver and Gold there are lyrics that try to describe the racial oppression of Apartheid (which he has never remotely experienced), and with a dramatic license, without that shared culture.

In Pride and MLK, he doesn't try to speak for MLK or tell King's story in Bono's words with a dramatic license. He simply honors him, and that is a good thing.

[TheRealEdge]

If we're gonna talk about 'slavery' then I personally think that there's not enough black American music artists writing about it.

But maybe you could say that current day 'racism' is more important to those black artists and their audiences?

But then again, you never hear of any black artists releasing a 'popular' song that addresses the matter.

A song like Pride that got a lot of air-play because of its 'popular' melody and made U2 even huge-er. (Even though I understand that U2 didn't use any Marting Luther King Jnr imagery because MTV feared it would upset their viewers - do you remember how racist MTV was before Michael Jackson broke through?).

But are those artists too worried about causing and courting controversy and sales rather than addressing it?

Nobody wants to go to a concert by either a white or a black artist and have to sit through 2 hours of lecturing and preaching about the injustices of life, but somebody has to say something sometime surely?

Writing this I even hate having to say 'white' and 'black' when it's obvious we're all human beings together.

Writing this I don't even know where I am going with it, but I do think if a middle-aged white Irish millionaire doesn't say something then who will?