Sunday night was a special night musically speaking, as it marked the worldwide debut of a new U2 track. “Get on Your Boots,” the first single from U2’s upcoming album “No Line on the Horizon,” was being broadcast for the first time on Ireland’s RTE 2FM radio at 8:10 a.m. Monday Dublin time, on a show called “The Colm and Jim-Jim Breakfast Show.”

The single is also available for sale from Apple's iTunes Music Store. In addition, U2's official Web site is streaming it, so you can easily check it out yourself. Actually the single officially goes on release on February 13th, two weeks in advance of the new U2 album "No Line on the Horizon" which will be released in Ireland on February 27th and worldwide on March 2nd. This is their first album in five years.

The single had been kept under wraps until today although one fan managed to record several tracks from the new album using his mobile phone when Bono played them too loudly from his beachside home in the village of Eze-sur-Mere, near Nice, during the summer.

The disc, produced by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois, and Steve Lillywhite, was recorded in Fez, Morocco, and continued in the band’s Dublin, Ireland studio; New York City’s Platinum Sound Recording Studios; and London, England’s Olympic Studios.

The U2 Web site said Monday that "No Line on the Horizon" will be sold in an unprecedented five formats: a standard CD case with 24-page booklet; a "digipak" edition with a fold-out poster and rights to download a U2 film; a 64-page magazine version; a box edition that includes a DVD and hardback book; and a limited-issue vinyl LP.

This first single is a very special but still authentic U2 experience, a wash of vocal harmony that sets things up nicely, and then Bono comes soaring in, insisting (to whom? who knows?) that "you don't know/you don't get it do you/you don't know how beautiful you are." It’s an enjoyable song to listen to, but in my opinion it belongs to that category that usually requires for one to listen to it more than once in order to really discover it and fully enjoy it.

However the online reviews of "Get on Your Boots" have been generally positive. Musically adventurous, the song features a quickly paced Bono vocal delivery over polyrhythmic percussion and a scuzzy guitar riff. Many have hinted that “No Line on the Horizon” could be U2's finest work, and included it among the albums that are expected to reach selling records this year. This current single is indeed a thrilling debut track.

The band is expected to embark on a lengthy worldwide tour to promote the album. The Irish shows will most likely take place in Croke Park sometime in August/September of this year.