U2 - The Joshua Tree
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Free Music Notes for The Joshua Tree
Free Music Review: `I Stand With The Sons Of Cain'
Hit: 5 Stars
I first purchased a copy of `The Joshua Tree' on tape when I was 15 years old after I had bought `Rattle and Hum'. I loved many of the new songs on `Rattle and Hum' like Heartland, Desire and Hawkmoon 269 so `The Joshua Tree' was a natural purchase. This is where the problem starts and where I differ from a lot of other `Joshua Tree' fans but the reason may be lost on the CD generation. (Side A / Side B) Bands often put all their best material on Side A of a record through a sometimes pain staking selection process. The problem I have with this album is that I prefer and believe side B to be infinitely superior to Side A.
I always thought Side A of the `Joshua Tree' was average yet it contained many fan favourites as well as hit songs. `Where The Streets Have No Name' felt like an empty epic opener, similar to the song `Zooropa', and the reason for all the desert metaphors. `I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' with it's gospel flavour didn't appeal and never felt like the real deal, although the older I got the more it appealed lyrically. `With Or Without You' I couldn't identify with at 15 and still can't, although it is a decent song. `Bullet The Blue Sky' felt like a return to War era material and is much better live (just listen to the live version on Rattle And Hum). So the only song on Side A that I liked was `Running To Stand Still' with it's Ry Cooder-like intro probably influenced by Wim Wenders `Paris, Texas' (1984) soundtrack. The problem is that Side A just feels like it's laboured and lacking any real spark.
However flip over the Record to side B we have a completely different and much better record. First up was `Red Hill Mining Town' about the UK miner strikes and damage it caused to relationships. Then `In God's Country' comes flying out of the blocks with The Edge's guitar sounding like lightning breaking up the desert sky. Bono's vocal delivery is impassioned and earnest, like he had something to say and you were going to hear it whether you like it or not. Not only that but one actually starts to notice that Larry and Adam are actually in the band, both punching a hole through the mix. `In God's Country' and `Trip Through Your Wires' continue in much the same vein slowing down a bit for `One Tree Hill' by which time Bono's vocals have become virtually hoarse. Then the next song is what I believe to be one of U2's greatest, darkest and my personal favourite on the album then and now: `Exit' a menacing song about a man on the edge with only one alternative left. Larry literally sounds like he's trying to beat the living daylights out of his drum kit. The song reaches such a climax that there's almost nowhere else to go other than down for `Mothers Of The Disappeared' inspired I believe by Luis Puenzo's `The Official Story' (1986).
Free Music Review: Essential in any rock collection
Hit: 5 Stars
This album is quite possibly their crowning glory and is what all their other albums are judged by. It continues in the direction that Unforgettable Fire paved the way for. The opening three songs show U2 looking inward, loneliness, relationships, have become rock anthems and a staple for their concerts. The sound is carried over to In God's Country & One Tree Hill. The other tracks display U2's interest in America and it's music. And the way Exit builds is simply superb. An essential album in the annals of rock history and an essential addition to any music collection. Their recent offerings pale compared to this. What do you mean you don't own it yet? Free Music Review: time for change
Hit: 5 Stars
4 1/2 stars give me a break amazon you need to change this cd to 5 stars its almost 20 years old and it still is better than anything else. Its time for u2 to release a remastered version of this classic rock album with an inclusion of all the killer b sides they put out in that era.Free Music Review: ohh noess
Hit: 5 Stars
It's a beautiful, soaring album, ummm mostly. I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For? One Tree Hill? IN GOD'S COUNTRY?? All great in the way u2 are great. That is, not making lame rockers like Vertigo or umm Elevation (which isn't THAT bad but still lame) or crappy dance music on the lines of Poop and Zorpoopa. Naw son The Joshua Tree is filled with all the jaw-dropping U2 balladry that you love! Well except for Exit.... which just sucks, sucks bad, it sucks a lot, very much it sucks, it just keeps on sucking. BASICALLY if I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For makes you drop your pants then you SHOULD love this album (unless there's something wrong with you) with all it's great melodies and textured (but not in a gay, faggy way) backgrounds (via Brian Eno--rmous!) and weird Edge guitar and BONO'S FREAKING BEAUTIFUL VOICE THAT'S SO GOOD I WANT TO KILL MYSELF.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.