Exit (song) - Composition and Theme

Composition and Theme

"'Exit' — I don't even know what the act is in that song. Some see it as a murder, others suicide — and I don't mind. But the rhythm of the words is nearly as important in conveying the state of mind."

"Exit" runs for 4:13. It is played in common time at a tempo of 120 beats per minute.

"Exit" portrays the mind of a psychotic killer. Hot Press editor Niall Stokes stated the song "trawls the area occupied by either or both, getting inside the head of a protagonist who's careening into psychosis." He added that the point of "Exit" was "to convey the state of mind of someone driven, by whatever powerful urges, to the very brink of desperation." Stokes felt that "the undercurrent of religious imagery" in the song was a response to "the fanaticism implicit in faith", and that the song allowed U2 to " own demons, their own anger and fury at the vicissitudes fate had thrust upon them. Another Hot Press contributor, Bill Graham, said "Exit" allowed U2 to "finally confess their gradual recognition of the Anti-Christ in everybody."

Clayton said the line "He saw the hands that build could also pull down" was a jab at the US government's conflicting roles in international relations. Two songs from The Joshua Tree, "Bullet the Blue Sky" and "Mothers of the Disappeared", focused on the foreign policy of the United States. In describing "Exit", Bono said "It is all very well to address America and the violence that is an aggressive foreign policy but to really understand that you have to get under the skin of your own darkness, the violence we all contain within us. Violence is something I have quite a bit about. I have a side of me which, in a corner, can be very violent. It's the least attractive thing in anyone and I wanted to own up to that."

Don McLeese of the Chicago Sun-Times believed "Exit" " the evil that can result from moral self-righteousness." Music journalist Bill Graham wrote "For the first time, was owning up to the dangers of the dualism implicit in Christianity", comparing the song's spiritual and musical tone to that of the Virgin Prunes. David Werther, a faculty associate in Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, compared "Exit" with U2's 1991 song "Until the End of the World" in an examination of the role music can play in catharsis. He noted that both were powerful songs, but that while "Until the End of the World" allowed the possibility of purification, which he described as the cleansing of the soul "through pity and fear", by placing the listener in the position of Judas Iscariot, "Exit" was an example of purgation, a freeing from excess pity and fear. Werther noted "'Exit' evokes feelings of fear, fear of losing control, giving into one's dark side, perhaps even taking one's life", contrasting it to the "waves of regret" experienced by Judas.