"Get Off on the Pain" is the title of a song written by Brett James

Brett James

Brett James Cornelius is an American singer, songwriter and record producer. Signed to Career Records as a solo artist in 1995, James charted three singles and released a self-titled debut album that year...

, Bill Luther and Justin Weaver, and recorded by American country music

Country music

Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...

 singer Gary Allan

Gary Allan

Gary Allan Herzberg is an American country music artist, known professionally as Gary Allan.Signed to Decca Records in 1996, Allan made his debut on the United States country music scene with the release of his single "Her Man", the lead-off to his gold-certified debut album Used Heart for Sale,...

. It is the second single from his 2009 album of the same name

Get Off on the Pain

Upon its release, Get Off on the Pain received generally positive reviews from most music critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of 84, based on 5 reviews, which indicates "universal...

. The song is Allan's twenty-fourth single release overall.

Critical reception

Of the song, Brian Mansfield

Brian Mansfield

Brian Mansfield is an American writer and journalist. A longtime music writer and critic for USA Today, Mansfield is also the writer/producer of syndicated weekly radio program America's Opry Weekend for American radio network Dial Global Radio Networks and author and co-author of a number of books...

 of USA Today

USA Today

USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...

cited the lyric "I don't know why my life sounds like a heartbroke country song" as setting the tone of the album, saying, "Allan sides with long shots, dark horses and lost causes more apt to revel in their misery than celebrate their good fortune." Country Weekly

Country Weekly

Country Weekly is an American tabloid style weekly magazine established in 1994. The magazine focuses on country music stars and events, and regularly features exclusive interviews with recording artists and country music news...

reviewer Jessica Phillips described the track as "set[ting] the stage" for the rest of the album. CM Wilcox of The 9513 called the song "grinding swagger" and described it as beginning a "story arc" that continued through the album's first half. Bobby Peacock of Roughstock gave the single four-and-a-half stars out of five, saying that it "suits him in a way that very few of his previous singles have ever done."

Chart performance

"Get Off on the Pain" debuted at number 42 on the U.S. Billboard Hot Country Songs for the week of April 3, 2010. Like his previous hit, "Today," this song peaked at number 18 on the country chart. >

Chart (2010)	Peak position
US Billboard Billboard (magazine) Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis... Bubbling Under Hot 100	1