"Ass Back Home" (edited version titled as "Get Yourself Back Home") is a song by American group

Gym Class Heroes Gym Class Heroes was an American rap rock band from Geneva, New York. The group formed in 1997 when Travie McCoy met drummer Matt McGinley during their high school gym class. The band's music displays a wide variety of influences, including ...

featuring British singer-songwriter

Neon Hitch Neon Hitch (born 25 May 1986) is an English singer and songwriter. She was signed to Mike Skinner and Ted Mayhem's label, The Beats, before it closed down. She was later discovered on MySpace by Benny Blanco, who flew her to New York City to ...

. The song was first released on October 31, 2011, as the second single from the group's fifth studio album, '' The Papercut Chronicles II''. The track was co-written and produced by

Benny Blanco Benjamin Joseph Levin (born March 8, 1988), known professionally as Benny Blanco (stylized in all lowercase), is an American record producer. He is the recipient of the 2013 Hal David Starlight Award from the Songwriters Hall of Fame. He is al ...

, who also produced previous hit "

Stereo Hearts "Stereo Hearts" is a song by American group Gym Class Heroes featuring Adam Levine of Maroon 5. The song was released on June 14, 2011, as the lead single from the group's fifth studio album, '' The Papercut Chronicles II''. Composition and re ...

". "Ass Back Home" became the group's third biggest hit on the ''

Billboard A billboard (also called a hoarding in the UK and many other parts of the world) is a large outdoor advertising structure (a billing board), typically found in high-traffic areas such as alongside busy roads. Billboards present large advertis ...

'' Hot 100 when it peaked at number 12, also reaching number one in Australia, 11 in New Zealand and number 10 in Ireland.

Composition

"Ass Back Home" is a midtempo pop song that runs for 3 minutes and 39 seconds. It follows through a percussive beat influenced by electro. The song contains influences of dub, rock and reggae and features the use of a "shimmering" guitar. The overall sound of the song has been described as "breezy". The lyrics are centered around the troubles a couple experiences when one partner is away on business. The male protagonist sings praises to his partner as the female protagonist urges her partner to come home. Melinda Newman of HitFix.com interprets that the state of union between the two protagonists are strong. Matt Lovett of The Lantern found the lyrics to be "hollow" and interpreted them as an attempt "to discuss some sort of personal conflict about being where "one belongs."

Critical reception

Kyle Anderson of ''Entertainment Weekly'' praised the song as "stealthily sincere". Rick Florino of ARTISTdirect praised the song's unique style, writing "Neon Hitch's gorgeous line entwines with McCoy's rapping for a combination like no other." Chad Grischow of

IGN ''IGN'' (formerly ''Imagine Games Network'') is an American video game and entertainment media website operated by IGN Entertainment Inc., a subsidiary of Ziff Davis, Inc. The company's headquarters is located in San Francisco's SoMa dist ...

named "Ass Back Home" the best track on the album, writing "The breezy dub rock flavor of shimmering guitar and an adorable hook from Neon Hitch turn 'Ass Back Home' into the best of the album, as McCoy's beat-riding flow works wonders as he sings the praises of his patient woman." Jordy Kasko of The Tune wrote that the song could be a potential hit, along with "The Fighter". Matt Lovett of UWIRE wrote that the song, along with "Holy Horseshit, Batman", "sound like reflections of a 13-year-old finally using the naughty language he learned at school in his diary." Austin Gordon of Mind Equals Blown wrote that "could easily stir lots of radio play if they choose". Megan Westerby of Live Music Guide finds the song to be "directionless and overly repetitive." Robert Copsey of

Digital Spy Digital Spy (DS) is a British-based entertainment, television and film website and brand and is the largest digital property at Hearst UK. Since its launch in 1999, Digital Spy has focused on entertainment news related to television programmes, ...

rated the song four out of five stars, writing that "The result makes for a more fascinating collab than if, say, they'd roped Ke$ha in on the track (although we wouldn't be adverse to that either), as Hitch's fresh but distinctive vocal ticks make for a far more interesting listen. In fact, she easily steals the show here, cracking the whip on an AWOL Trav on the head-nodding and Big Mac-sized chorus. That she manages to succeed on that alone is a huge achievement in itself."

Chart performance

"Ass Back Home" made its first chart appearance in Ireland on the chart week ending February 2, 2012 – when it debuted at number twenty-seven on the

Irish Singles Chart The Irish Singles Chart is the Republic of Ireland's music industry standard singles popularity chart issued weekly by the Irish Recorded Music Association (IRMA) and compiled on their behalf by the Official Charts Company. Chart rankings are b ...

. On its second charting week, the single rose seventeen places to number ten, marking the group's fourth top ten hit in the country; after "

Cupid's Chokehold "Cupid's Chokehold" is a song by American rap rock band Gym Class Heroes, featuring the vocals of Patrick Stump of Fall Out Boy. The song relies heavily on the music and chorus from Supertramp's hit song "Breakfast in America" written by Roger Ho ...

", " Clothes Off!!" and "Stereo Hearts".

Music video

A lyrical music video was made available onto YouTube on October 31, 2011 to accompany the release of "Ass Back Home", at a total length of three minutes and forty-four seconds. An official music video, directed by Dugan O' Neal was then made available on December 9, 2011—amassing over eighty-three million views as of June 19, 2021. The music video features Neon Hitch as Travie McCoy's girlfriend. It shows clips of him and the rest of the band on the road and on tour also showing clips of Neon Hitch at home and sad without Travie. At the end Travie returns home and embraces Neon Hitch.

Track listing

Charts

Weekly charts

Year-end charts

Certifications

Release history

Covers

Post-hardcore Post-hardcore is a punk rock music genre that maintains the aggression and intensity of hardcore punk but emphasizes a greater degree of creative expression. It was initially inspired by post-punk and noise rock. Like post-punk, the term has bee ...

band,

Secrets Secrecy is the practice of hiding information from certain individuals or groups who do not have the "need to know", perhaps while sharing it with other individuals. That which is kept hidden is known as the secret. Secrecy is often controvers ...

, covered the track for the compilation album '' Punk Goes Pop 5'', which was released on November 6, 2012.

References

{{Authority control 2011 singles Gym Class Heroes songs Number-one singles in Australia Songs written by Ammar Malik Songs written by Benny Blanco Songs written by Matt McGinley Songs written by Robopop Songs written by Travie McCoy Torch songs