Two Songs Sent to Radio: “Get Out of Your Own Way” and “American Soul”

Original Story by Aaron J. Sams (2017-11-22)

On Monday we wrote a quick piece about “American Soul” being sent to radio in the UK. Since that time we’ve received a few pieces of information which leads us to update the article at this time.

Back in late August fans were left wondering what U2 were up to when they delivered “The Blackout” in video format and “You’re The Best Thing About Me” to radio. The Edge later explained that they wanted to make sure that people knew there was a mix of sounds on the album, and the poppy first single wasn’t the only sound. However, they were clear, “You’re The Best Thing About Me” was the single.

Now it appears for their second single from the album they are doing something similar. Both “American Soul” and “Get Out of Your Own Way” have been released to radio. Like the first time around one song is poppy (“Get Out of Your Own Way”) and the other is a rocker (“American Soul”) and it is likely that each are being delivered to different radio formats.

Image: Release Information for Radio Delivered Digital File

“American Soul” has been delivered in the UK to radio starting on Monday, November 20. The track is being sent out with the album cover attached as digital art, without the blue border. The song is the same length and the same edit that is currently available on iTunes and other digital services, although the mix is a little lower in volume.

IMAGE: Single artwork from “American Soul” as delivered to UK Radio

“Get Out of Your Own Way” is being delivered in the USA as of today Wednesday, November 22, and is being pushed on AAA radio in that country first. The single is being sent out with the picture of the band on the beach staring off into the distance. The official add date for the song is December 4, 2017. There is a note that some stations will be adding the track early. The song was also sent to radio in Poland on November 2, although it has had very little play at this time so stations may have been asked to hold off on play until a later date. In both cases the song is an edit of the album version, and the edit runs 03:21 in length, and does not include Kendrick Lamar at the end. This edit of “Get Out of Your Own Way” can be listened to on the Interscope Promotional site.

IMAGE: “Get Out of Your Own Way” Artwork from Interscope

Both songs are related, as “American Soul” follows “Get Out of Your Own Way” on the album, and Kendrick Lamar does a spoken word piece that bridges from one song to the other.

VIDEO: “American Soul” (Lyric Video)

“American Soul” is also being promoted with a lyric video for the song. The video, released to the Vevo service is done by the street art group Broken Fingaz. More information about the video can be found in our earlier article, including some interesting tidbits from the video. “Get Out of Your Own Way” has had two videos filmed that we know about to date. When in Mexico in October, U2 filmed one video on the rooftop of the Expo Reforma building. At the time, it was identified to Mexican media that the song would be the next single from the album. A second video was filmed in London in November, as U2 performed in Trafalgar Square in advance of the MTV EMAs. That video featured the crowd holding up a variety of protest signs. As “Get Out of Your Own Way” is expected to be added to radio on December 4, expect to see a video possibly released on December 1, the same day the album is released.

To further confuse the issue of which single is released next, “The Blackout“ is being released commercially on Black Friday, November 24, 2017. The live video, previously only available on Facebook, was uploaded to the U2 Vevo account on November 13, 2017 in a higher quality than what was previously available.

VIDEO: “The Blackout” (Live Video)

As more stations add the tracks “American Soul” and “Get Out of Your Own Way” we will have a clearer picture of the promotional efforts for this next single. We expect they will each be sent to different types of stations, to which they are best suited, “Get Out of Your Own Way” to poppier stations, while “American Soul” may be used at more rock oriented stations. All are available now when streaming or pre-ordering the album on most platforms. “Get Out of Your Own Way” and “The Blackout“ both became available with the announcement of the album on November 1, 2017. And although “American Soul” was accidentally made available through U2.Com that same day, the song became widely available on most services on November 17, 2017.

Please note, we are seeing a large number of promotional items listed on eBay for these new songs, claiming to be promotional CDRs for these new releases. We have been told that most of these are fake items and that the promotional songs are now being delivered digitally. Buyer beware.

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