U2 - The Joshua Tree
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Free Music Notes for The Joshua Tree
Free Music Review: Tops on my desert island disc list
Hit: 5 Stars
Not counting compilations or greatest hits collections, this is perhaps the greatest single studio album ever recorded. It is utterly indespensible; a masterwork that continues to thrill, amaze, move, anger, soothe, comfort, and motivate listeners more than 17 years after its initial release. THE JOSHUA TREE has remained the standard by which all U2 albums are measured, and as such, remains a standard for musicians everywhere, in every genre. Its disarming honesty is at times raw and at times almost innocent. Bono, Edge, Larry, and Adam sing and play with passion and intensity, tempered with grace and dexterity. Each track is a revelation, a riveting story filled with hope and heartache. Here is my song-by-song commentary:
"Where the Streets Have No Name" - My favorite single rock and roll song, period. Driving, anthemic, longing...the spiritual music and lyrics propel the listener into a place of transcendence
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" - A gospel-tinged heartcry; a quest for meaning backed with a nice ringing shuffle. It connected with listeners so much that it hit #1 on the pop singles chart in the USA.
"With or Without You" - A pretty, brooding, bluesy love song filled with pain and hunger. This lovely lament also hit #1 on the pop singles chart in the USA.
"Bullet the Blue Sky" - This is to U2 what "When the Levee Breaks" is to Led Zeppelin...a searing passage of hurt, fear, anger, and helplessness pealing through the heavens like heavy metal thunder
"Running to Stand Still" - A heart-rending indictment of addiction, sung as a heroin-esque reverie
"Red Hill Mining Town" - A huge, grand, dramatic testimony of solidarity with those who live and labor in spirit-crushing surroundings...the sweeping chorus is sung with incredible pathos and power by Bono
"In God's Country" - A strong, propulsive, insightful mid-tempo rocker that re-visits some of the same themes of "Where the Streets Have No Name" both lyrically and musically
"Trip Through Your Wires" - A very bluesy/countryfied take on desire and infatuation
"One Tree Hill" - A contender for my favorite U2 song, this rhythmic tour de force was composed in honor of a young man, a friend of the band, who passed away tragically...its a powerhouse song about hope and eternal values wrapped in a beautiful, unforgettable melody, and performed perfectly by the band
"Exit" - Extremely dark and intense and scary; reminds me to some degree of Pearl Jam...Bono gets inside the head of someone going down the wrong path
"Mothers of the Disappeared" - One of the saddest and most beautiful, heartfelt songs U2 has ever performed...the emotion, the sense of loss, and the achingly gorgeous melody stick in your gut long after the song is over
There's not a weak moment here. This is the sound of artists reaching for the stars, and succeeding. U2 has had many peaks and successes since THE JOSHUA TREE, but it remains a titanic acheivement artistically and commercially. With the impending release of their latest CD, entitled, HOW TO DISMANTLE AN ATOMIC BOMB, it's worth revisiting this earlier highlight from their career.
Free Music Review: It just keeps getting better and better!!!!!
Hit: 5 Stars
I've been listening to this album for probably 8 years now, and really it was the album that introduced me to U2... I remember I heard With or Without You on tv, and well I found a tape that my brother had, and I have been hooked ever since... just to point out, I'm 18, so when this album first came out, and was being played on the radio and stuff, I was only 5 years old, so I wasn't really listening to radio music at all... that's why I didn't really start listening to the album till around 92 or 93... I've always loved this album, but it seems that recently I've found new, and greater love for it... first when you listen to it, you enjoy the catchy melodies, and cool guitar work and stuff, but there is a deeper sound, and a deeper meaning to each song... firstly, my new found love of this cd has a lot to do with the lyrical content of the songs... while I've had interpretations of each song for quite some time, I just recently began to see the correlation with my own life... the songs talk about being lost, and trying to find answers I guess, but more specifically talk about struggles with Christianity... songs like I Still Haven't Found what I'm Looking For, and With or Without You (yes, I choose to interpret this as being about God, rather then another person, cause well, it makes more sense to me) talk about the struggle with living a the Christian life, and living the "worldly" life... and well, I can relate cause I've struggled with that myself... you can really hear the desperation in Bonos voice when he sings... Where the Streets have no Name can be interpreted as a song about being lost (although I have read other interpretations) which can also relate to Christianity... so yeah, the themes about Christianity really speak to me I guess, because I've gone through the same things, in a different way obviously, cause I'm not a rock star, but it's still the same... secondly, my new appreciation for the album is with the music... I've always like the melodies, and thought they were incredibily catchy, but the music is so dense... I recently watched a show called Classic Albums on The Joshua Tree album, and it really shows the density of the sound... I truely appreciate the genious of Where the Streets have No Name, and With or Without You, and Bullet the Blue Sky... on the show that I watched, The Edge played the guitar part for Where the Streets have no Name, and well, it's just beautiful... but another thing that I appreciate is Brian Enos contribution to the album... when I first listened to the album I had no idea Brian Eno was an experimental artist, dabbling in ambient techno, but now I know, and I can really appreciate the opening of Where the Streets have no Name, and With or Without You to name a few... plus, now I know how they generated that weird sound in The Mothers of the Dissappeared... it's actually Larry's drumming put through a certain machine... anyways, I just love this album... I've been listening to it for 8 or 9 years, and I'm still not sick of it... I played it straight through last night and I just love every song... if you haven't bought it yet, what are you waiting for? Go and get it... I've always said that Achtung Baby was there best album, but now I'm beginning to think The Joshua Tree is... it's just beautiful...
Free Music Review: Un clásico de verdad
Hit: 5 Stars
En una era de U2 en la cual no existía internet, no existían muchos video clips, en donde no se inventaban historias ni se hacían falsas promesas, estos - entonces - 4 jóvenes de Irlanda conquistaron el mundo, a base de todo lo contrario que son hoy en día. Eran una banda honesta, fuerte, decidida a luchar por la igualdad de derechos, de oportunidades, que peleaban por los más pobres, que no robaban dinero a sus fans, que decían SÓLO la verdad, etc.
U2 habían llamado mundialmente la atención desde su album War, en 1983. Eran los años de la bandera blanca. Luego cambiaron radicalmente - que diferencia con lo que son ahora - su sonido con Unforgettable Fire, en 1984, y realizaron una gira que se coronó con la mítica actuación en el Wembley Stadium el 13 de Julio de 1985, rindiendo la más salvaje y bella versión de Bad que jamás hayan realizado hasta el día de hoy. Luego de un Ep el mismo año, prácticamente desaparecieron del mapa, y sólo se supo de ellos a mediados de 1986 cuando junto a artistas como The Police, Peter Gabriel y otros realizaron la gira de Amnesty International durante un mes por Estados Unidos. Después de ello, Bono y su esposa se fueron a América Central, donde surgieron muchas temáticas para su próximo album, como Bullet The Blue Sky y Mothers Of The Dissapeared.
¡ que distintos eran aquellos tiempos, en los cuales U2 sí eran un clásico ¡. De la noche a la mañana sacaron su disco The Joshua Tree, en Marzo de 1987. Ello ya marca un acontecimiento y una gran diferencia con estos señores iPod de hoy en día: se atrevieron a lanzar un LP en Marzo, cuando todos saben que es mejor lanzarlo en Octubre o Noviembre ( como sus albumes All That You Can't Leave Behind o su fallida "Bomba" ) ya que en vísperas de navidad las ventas aumentan sustancialmente.
U2 soprendía alcanzando un récord inédito en los 80: alcanzar disco de platino a ambos lados del Atlántico a las 48 horas de haber sido puesto a la venta ( How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb recién el 16 de Diciembre logró el millón de copias en el Reino Unido, mientras que este disco hizo lo mismo en dos días... y sin esa máquina de promoción ).
Este disco es una pieza de arte en la historia de U2, sorprendentemente rico musical y líricamente. Contiene fragmentos de incalculable valor como sus 5 primeras canciones, One Tree Hill, In God's Country o Mothers Of The Dissapeared. Bono Sí tenía una gran voz para cantar, además de los pasajes musicales - entonces originales y sorprendentes - de The Edge ( ahora agotado creativamente ). La producción en esos años era mil veces mejor que la que han hecho desde el año 2000.
Este disco es uno de esos que hay que escucharlos en forma completa, ya que te atrapa y te hace ser un soundtrack de tu propia vida. Inolvidable, elocuente, magnífico. U2 cuando sabían ser U2.
Free Music Review: Where the U2 sound crystallizes.
Hit: 5 Stars
Let me add my voice to the hundreds that believe this is a classic album.
Without one iota of hyperbole, this is one of the greatest albums of the last thirty years.
There hasn't been an album as breathtakingly cinematic since "Born To Run."
It is an album where skipping a song truly lessens the experience.
In their catalog, "The Joshua Tree" is where the U2 sound crystallizes. The first album was filled with ambition and experimentation. The second plagued with doubt and so meanders. The third was gloriously proud and defiant. The fourth, "The Unforgettable Fire", was where it began to come together.
Here...it's perfect. Each song is exquisitely crafted, yet clearly belonging to a whole greater than the sum of its' parts.
"Where The Streets Have No Name" begins with that orchestra-pit crescendo, and opens into a sweeping anthem. It soars; it acts as the introduction to an epic.
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" continues in that vein, beginning low, ending in a joyous soulful high.
"With or Without You" is introspection on a grand scale. It has a restraint that literally breaks free as it ends...you can hear Bono's voice elevate to a higher plane.
Very few albums open with three time-tested classics...and the key to the three is Adam Clayton's subtle yet powerful bass lines. They're the frames the songs are draped across.
"Bullet The Blue Sky" used to bother me...until I saw it live. Then, I got it. It's not a pleasurable tune...in the same way "Treasure of the Sierra Madre" is not a pleasurable film. But you're better off after experiencing them. It's bold, angular.
"Running To Stand Still" echoes their previous tune, "Bad". It's a beautiful slow tempo song.
"Red Hill Mining Town" again shows U2 trying to paint an incredibly vivid picture with their music...again, "cinematic".
"In God's Country" is a galloping freight train of a song, with incredible momentum. You find yourself unconsciously holding your breath before that captured-lightning guitar solo by Edge comes crashing in.
"One Tree Hill" is a song written in response to an unexpected passing of a close friend. You hear and feel anguish and release at the same time. It's one of the great unrecognized jewels of U2's career.
"Exit" is the one song I usually skip. It used to be pretty cool in concert, but it's the most unfocused song on the disc. But now I return to it for the rousing dynamics and Larry Mullen Jr.'s spectacular drumming.
"Mothers of the Disappeared", most people forget, wasn't on the original album. It was one of the first "CD bonus" tracks. It now seems indispensible. Pair this song with Sting's "They Dance Alone" (released not too long after...) and you'll get some sort of sense of the horror going on in South America.
This album has not aged a day.
I've tried to limit my enthusiasm to a line (or two) per song, but really, one could go on and on. This remains a most impressive album nearly twenty years later.
The only thing more impressive is that they've made many more albums nearly as good...
Free Music Review: The Joshua Tree
Hit: 5 Stars
The U2 album The Joshua Tree is one of the greatest rock n' roll albums of all time by one of the greatest rock n' roll bands of all time. Any rock n' roll fan has The Joshua Tree sitting in the front of their collection. It won a Grammy for album of the year in 1987 and includes several hits that a true music fan knows the words to-such as "With or Without You" and "Where the Streets Have No Name". The Joshua Tree hit number one in twenty-two countries. The band consists of the lead singer Bono, Larry on the Drums, Adam on bass guitar and The Edge on guitar. The band was originally formed in Dublin, Ireland in 1976. The Joshua Tree is the fourth studio album U2 released and was produced by Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois.
You do not have to be a music expert to understand the necessary components of a great album. The Joshua Tree has no filling or track you can skip through, you can listen to it from start to finish. There are eleven tracks on the album: "Where The Streets Have No Name", "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", "With or Without You", "Bullet the Blue Sky", "Running To Stand Still", "Red Hill Mining Town", "In God's Country", "Trip Through Your Wires", "One Tree Hill", "Exit", and "Mothers of the Disappeared." The album is powerful, uplifting, and beautiful. Bono's amazing voice has a passion and soul that comes to life in every song as he cries of powerful themes concerning religion, love, and politics. In addition The Edge's legendary guitar sound and Adam's pulsing bass lines add to the album's incredible sound. The album begins with the song "Where the Streets Have No Name" where Bono sings, "I want to feel sunlight on my face, I feel the dust cloud disappear without a trace, I want to take shelter from the poisoned rain, where the streets have no name". These words are an influential and powerful way to begin an album, setting the tone for the rest of the musical journey. One of my personal favorite songs on the album, a song of self-reflection and discovery, is "I Still Haven't Found What I am Looking For". It is amazing when a song can speak to you in a different way every time you listen to it and still always relate to your life in some manner. Many of the songs on The Joshua Tree are able to do that because they are so substantial. Bono talks of being "one with the night" and "speaking to eternal angels" but yet he "still hasn't found what he is looking for." The poetry of U2's lyrics is unsettling.
It is difficult to compare The Joshua Tree to any records of today's times because it is in a whole other field. Each song on The Joshua Tree has a history and meaning. For example, the song "Bullet The Blue Sky" is about the political relationship between America and Central America. Also, "Mothers of the Disappeared" refers to 1970's Chile when it was ruled by Pinochet, who killed thousands of innocent people in Santiago's National Stadium, a soccer stadium in Chile. The Joshua Tree is a far cry from today's music which consists of violence, swearing, and an image to sell records. Any person can find meaning in the music.