U2 - The Joshua Tree
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Free Music Notes for The Joshua Tree
Free Music Review: Spiritual and Committed
Hit: 5 Stars
I've had this album in my collection for many years, but I only played it a couple of times. A friend who was over to work with me on a project put it on the CD changer, and I was bowled over.
I probably should not waste too much space commenting on the first three songs, all huge hits, but they are so beautiful! Organ chords and bell-like guitar lead into a driving, hypnotic "Where the Streets Have No Name." By a few seconds, this is the largest work on the album. U2 tips its hand, invoking the desert as the setting of a desire for meaning.
In "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," a deeply moving song, the lead intones "I believe in Kingdom Come," but even this is not enough to bring a purpose to life. Love is insufficient to realize this goal. The style is that of a rock anthem, with a serious tone.
The more subdued "With or Without You," is meaningful to me personally, and no doubt to many who have experienced the same paradox, the satisfaction and pain that love brings.
"Bullet the Blue Sky" is apocalyptic, an abrupt change of tone, hard rock, driving home a message that meaning is found through action against tyranny and militaristic, capitalistic American foreign policy.
"Running to Stand Still" is a welcome respite, contemplative and melodic.
"Red Hill Mining Town" is another gem on this consistently excellent album. The soaring vocal line rises to magnificent desperation and hope, hanging on to love that slowly slips away.
This is followed by the short and perfect "In God's Country." This is the culminating point of the album, a quick and extremely high peak.
A bluesy harmonica introduces the less challenging, and enjoyable "Trip Through Your Wires."
"One Tree Hill" is a less driving, quieter reprise of the mood set by the megahits at the outset of the album.
"Exit" begins with gospel and very slowly builds into another driving lament.
"Mothers of the Disappeared" brings this endlessly creative and masterful collection of songs to a fitting end. In your face protest has never appealed to me, but art does, and the words accompanied by a march are easily interpreted, but satisfyingly indirect.
I am reminded, in listening to this song, of the strong role that effective imagery plays in this album. So, buy it, and read the words as you listen. This is a deep album, about the challenges of life. Bono teaches us to have the courage to face the truth about the world in which we live.
Free Music Review: U2 - Poetic, Introspective, Divorcing Themselves from the Past
Hit: 5 Stars
The subtle undercurrent of U2 is a poetic breeziness. Where the Streets Have No Name and I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For are introspective, visceral passages that they magically turned into anthems. Those two songs may be the stars of the album but the meticulous music and words for With Or Without You really showcased their inescapable talent. Mixtures of poetry, love lost, passion and the flavors of their authenticity. Few artists can make you see their music videos in your head.
U2's musical arrangements, softer alternative guitars and drums unless an anthem, really are their Rattle and Hum and they, especially Bono, is heavily influenced by Gospel themes mostly Catholic even if fans miss it. I Haven't Found What I'm Looking For brings out as much as possible. Critics say U2 is just a single song band but really are a album band. The first introduces the other then the next with few exceptions.
Bullet in The Blue Sky was criticized but is a gem; it was a glimpse of Salvation and Hell and why and even says, "...Rattle and Hum." Definitely an alternative twist of U2's fate as songwriters, and performers. It shows just how poetic U2 can be. A glimpse into their subconscious. As this song, it is darkly lit except the first two cuts; Anthems with a purpose to divorcing themselves from past works to diligently provide a masterpiece that rivals the greatness of AC/DC's Back in Black.
The rest of the album is solid work. Of all the songs of The Joshua Tree, another Biblical reference, With Or Without You is a hypnotic trance with "See the thorn twist in your side," a Biblical reference, and many other poetic lines. Who is Bono waiting for? It sounds like a lover but really is more than life. Bono is waiting for Eternity. The song proves U2 can deliver a cryptic message within and with many messages. Rare for a band. It had a short and powerful buildup to something to relish.
The Joshua Tree meanders, albeit powerfully and with purpose, between alternative rock to punk. Considering the massive ground they cover in this work, it is their finest work. "...hear the city groan...outside it's America." If a casual U2 listener, you will be treated to why U2 exists. If a fan, you'll be drenched in the nector that has made U2 one of the finest bands in history that can't be definded. Joshua Tree is a masterpiece in its complexity as much as AC/DC's Back In Black was just so much fun. Both filled stadiums.
Free Music Review: Journeys to the desert of the soul
Hit: 5 Stars
Even though U2 had always played it broad and blaring, it was always the inner message that kept the band's integrity above the pomp. Even in the anthems "Sunday Bloody Sunday" and "Pride," the message was delivered with earnest bombast. That didn't stop those songs from being terrific rock and roll, and Bono is, simply put, a frontman that rates with the likes of Springsteen. The Edge, well, he just got more and more amazing as each album appeared.
Still, "The Joshua Tree" is the band's masterstroke. It was as if they entered a spiritual retreat and emerged with a greater focus and an alarming, newly subtle, clarity. The politics don't completely vanish ("Bullet The Blue Sky" remains as timely today as it did during Reagan's South American misadventures), but things suddenly became more personal. "With Or Without You" is a bitter emancipation statement, and the gospelish "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" finds Bono chiding himself for both his overblown personality and his own questions of faith. For a band that staked its reputation on being carriers of grand statements, that first single was a daring proclomation.
The rest of "The Joshua Tree" maintains that bravery and wonderment. The trio of Daniel Lanois, Brian Eno and Steve Lillywhite brought their strongest production game to the studio for this album, and the grace to a song like "One Tree Hill" and the other sonic lighteners (like the gradual build of "With Or Without You") brought out the best in the band, challenging them to outdo all their prior work. And they did so handily, baring their souls in the process.
"Where The Streets Have No Name" is still an amazing call-to-arms and "Red Hill Town" paints a portrait of the band's coal mining countrymen and shares the same kind of empathy that Sting's "Island Of Lost Souls" brought to shipbuilders on "The Soul Cages." This was U2 at the peak of their early years, and though I'd have a hard time giving up any of their early albums from my library, "The Joshua Tree" is probably the one I'd take to a desert island.
(While we're at it, why has this album and the U2 catalog not been upgraded? U2 are easily one of the best and most influential bands on the planet, and their early albums deserve more than to have shoddy liner notes and a late 80's quality CD transfer.)
Free Music Review: Perhaps the Greatest Album of All Time
Hit: 5 Stars
Stop with all the nonsense about "Achtung Baby" being U2's best album. Achtung Baby is a tremendous record, probably their second best, but this is in spite of, and not because of, the fact that it is a U2 album. In Achtung Baby the group was looking to transform its music from the soaring guitar tracks of "The Joshua Tree" and "The Unforgettable Fire" to a more dance-based style more "appropriate" to the 90's. The thing is, it worked; Achtung Baby is strong from start to finish. It moves, it grooves, and it even has a couple pretty tracks like "One" and "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses." But this, as great as it is, is not what U2 does best. I like Achtung Baby a lot, but where is Edge's huge, faraway guitar and Adam's brooding base?The first three songs on The Joshua Tree are three of the greatest songs of all time. Imagine any memory, any place that you love, and these songs will take you there. That they are placed one right after the other-and right at the start of the album-makes them even more effective. The rest of the album is almost irrelavent after the opening trio. It's just a bonus that the rest of the album is strong as well. One could seemingly make the argument that the last eight songs off of The Joshua Tree pale in comparison to the consistency of Achtung Baby, but the rest of The Joshua Tree in truth is as strong as Achtung Baby. It's just that those eight seem a little weak after "Where the Streets Have No Name," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," and "With or Without You." In fact, "Running to Stand Still," "In God's Country," and "One Tree Hill" would be centerpieces of almost any other U2 record.
Achtung Baby is a cool album, but "One" and "Who's Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses" don't stack up to the first three off The Joshua Tree, and the groovy rhythms and riffs of "Zoo Station," "Even Better Than the Real Thing," and "The Fly" are not enough for Achtung Baby to compare to what just might be the greatest rock album of all time. The Joshua Tree is adrenaline-pumping and beautiful all at once. It is simply a must-have for any fan of rock music; it is certainly the centerpiece of any U2 collection.
Free Music Review: Divine Synthesis
Hit: 5 Stars
'The Joshua Tree' has to be one of the top three classics by U2. At the time critics needed to catch up to this incredible masterpiece. (Perhaps their reputation as a Christian rock band made them too easily dismissed.) It covers many themes related to the struggle of man in his most desperate circumstances. Musically, it is transcending like 'The Unforgettable Fire' before it, but the crystal clear production taken on again to more pleasing effect by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno shot this album and the band to superstardom. All players are more accomplished, and the music is more varied.
Passion is rock's hallmark, and U2 harnessed passion like few bands have. That's why the throbbing "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is one of their most enduring classics. Throbbing with troubadour musicianship and sincere, longing lyrics, this song became to the summer of '87, what "A Little Help from My Friends" was in the summer of '67. "With or Without You" also hits the mark with almost as much passion and all the universality. Then, humankind is sung for on "Where the Streets Have No Name" and the angst of "Red Hill Town". They cover the agony of South America torn by the superpowers with the Led Zepplin influenced "Bullet the Blue Sky". Then, U2 manages to slow it down on "Running to Stand Still," a brilliant portrait of drug addiction and desperation with tight musicianship that expertly proves you don't have to be loud to be passionate. The second half, if anything, is even more brilliant. "In God's Country" is a more lively and succinct diagnosis of the desperation of modern people than "A Sort of Homecoming" is. "One Tree Hill" is a beautifully eloquent elegy for a fellow slain musician. Then, "Exit" is a remarkably frenetic and disturbing portrait of struggling despair. They end the album as they began with "Mothers of the Disappeared," another portrait of human right's victims. The quiet angst of that song is somber, yet disturbing. Oddly, as uncompromising as the subject matter was on 'The Joshua Tree,' they managed to get hordes of new followers.
'The Joshua Tree' is still a great album. It is passionate and showcases a variety that scotches any blueprinting that can be found to a minor degree on their other albums.