U2 - The Joshua Tree
|
Our Price: $19.97 Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $0.01 (click here) Category: Music CD See more new music releases 
|
|---|
Buy this Music CD at online store in your country
Canadian Music Store
Canadian Music Store
Free Music Notes for The Joshua Tree
Free Music Review: U2's masterpiece
Hit: 5 Stars
U2's Joshua Tree release from 1987 is a classic and essential for rock music lovers. This disk regularly makes the Top 50 best records of all time. An excellent bridge between the atmospheric experimentation of Unforgettable Fire and R&B tinged American feel of Rattle and Hum, Joshua Tree finds U2 leaving behind the edgy New Wave-ish sounds of their early releases for a fully realized and arena ready sound.
The first four tracks alone are worth the purchase: "Where the Streets Have No Name" has a slow build, and then you feel like you've been propelled onto the back of a speeding train, with your hair blowing in the wind. "I Still Haven't Found What I've Looking For" has a spiritual theme and a gospel-like sound. "With or Without You" is U2's most moving ballad to that point. "Bullet the Blue Sky" is a simmering dark indictment of US policy in Central America in the 1980s. Bono's vocals are top-notch, as is the expert layering of guitars by The Edge. As always, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen, Jr. hold down the rhythm section.
Many of the songs in this cycle deal with themes pulled from the mythos of the old American West. "Running To Stand Still" with its twangy slide guitar and "Red Hill Mining Town" are full of such imagery.
One of my favorite U2 songs is "In God's Country" with its powerful guitar parts and Bono's powerful vocal. There are beautiful lyrica couplets, such as "sleep comes like a drug...in God's country...sad eyes crooked crosses...in God's country." At the end there are images of the Statue of Liberty. "Trip Through Your Wires" is a spiritual love ode with a nice jangly melody.
"One Tree Hill" is a song for a departed friend of the band, Greg Carroll.
As with most U2 releases, the disk closes with quiet, meditative pieces. In this case, "Exit" about a suicide and "Mothers of the Disappeared" about sons and daughters taken away by political regimes throughout the world. It's an Amnesty International song like Sting's "Gueca Solo" from the same period.
So, front to back, this is a powerful set of songs.
Free Music Review: A Classic Album.
Hit: 5 Stars
U2 have continued producing great albums into the new decade, but "The Joshua Tree" remains the classic that really made their presence known to the world. It is a masterpiece of melodic brilliance and just wonderful music. It manages to incorporate almost everything that's good about rock n' roll from it's blues, gospel, folk and even hints of metal into one epic statement of grace and power. Like "Achtung Baby," "The Joshua Tree" shows each member of the band doing their best with their sections like few albums do. "Where The Streets Have No Name" is still a soaring achievement, a classic opening of driving melody, Bono's powerful vocals, the Edge's frantic yet passive guitar and Larry Mullen Jr.'s rhythmic beats. It is said that "The Joshua Tree" was U2's truly first journey into American music, previously their influences were more along the lines of Patti Smith, here they dig into the mountain of sounds that are traditionally American. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" for example, is an all-out gospel song where Bono shows his great range. "Bullet The Blue Sky" is more fire and passion, a roaring assault with Zeppelinsque guitars from The Edge and Bono sounding more ferocious than he had or has. Yet the album achieves moments of grace, such as "In God's Country" wich has fast guitar licks, but it somehow achieves a more dreamy, almost blissful tone. "With Or Without You" is a beautiful ballad, one of U2's best cuts with an elegant guitar melody. "Mothers Of The Disappeared" is another one of the album's more evocative moments. "The Joshua Tree" is one of the few albums from the past decade which achieved a classic level where it's not just a rock album, it's an album of defining, wonderous music. Anyone who appreciates good music would surely find the wonderful melodies, words and moments found in this album. "The Joshua Tree" achieves what all great music does, a sound that is timeless.Free Music Review: The Heart of U2
Hit: 5 Stars
The Joshua Tree catapulted U2 from a popular and pretty successful rock band to megastars and cultural icons. The album retains all of U2's integrity, while creating a crisper and more commercial sound. Under Brian Eno & Daniel Lanois' guidance, the songs have an ethereal sound to them. Songs like "With Or Without You", "I'll Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", "Running To Stand Still" & "Exit" have simple beats, but the production gives them a strength and density, that turns them into powerful pieces. The subject matter goes into politics, life, death & God. "Red Hill Mining Town" & "Bullet The Blue Sky" are political songs. "Bullet" comments on the US involvement in Central America and has a break when Bono goes into a sermon-like rap. "One Tree Hill" is an elegy for one of the band's road staff who died in a motorcycle accident. The song is one of the prettiest the band has ever done and the symbolism and life and death as a river running into the sea is beautiful. "With Or Without" was the first single and the band's first number one. It's slow opening that builds into a guitar crescendo is perfect pop music and the song leaves you questioning whether Bono can't live without a lover, God or the band's fans? "Running To Stand Still" is another song about the struggles to overcome a heroin addiction. Unlike their other addiction song, "Bad", this is a piano-based number. "In God's Country" may well be the best song on the album with it's ringing guitars and it's biblical lyrics. with its harmonica and guitar riff, "Trip Through Your Wires" has a bluegrass sound. "Exit" and "Mothers Of The Disappeared" both explore loss. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" was their second number one song and really sums up what U2 is all about. They are searching for answers, but no matter where they look, they still haven't found it.Free Music Review: The Joshua Tree
Hit: 5 Stars
There are albums that define a generation. Bob Dylan's "Highway 61 Revisited", The Who's "Tommy", Bruce Springsteen's "Born to Run", Nirvana's "Nevermind", and, recently, Green Day's "American Idiot". These are all masterpieces, but they do span across generations like The Joshua Tree. The only other album in it's league is the Beatles "Sergent Peppers". Yes, it is that good.
U2 is a unique band, one that has been able to spread itself through four generations and 25 years of music. Some remember it's edgy earlier work, like Boy. Others remember the beautiful unforgetable fire. Their modern masterpiece Achtung baby is another one of their finest. Today, we are all in a place called vertigo, and it is a beautiful day. But the Joshua Tree seems to stand about all of the others. From the slow building intro to "Where the Streets have No Name" to the last painful note of "Mothers of the Disappeared", you are taken on a painful ride. You are left bruised, battered and changed. This is the only record where I left chilled. The more famous tracks on the record are the first three, it is the latter half that makes this record great. Two stand out songs are One Tree Hill and Running to Stand Still. The first is a painful look inside Bono, and the loss of his friend Greg Carroll. The latter is a harrowing look into the world of heroin abuse.
The music on this CD is, of course immaculate. Bono's voice shirlls and moans, allowing us to feel every emotion inside him. The Edge's minimalist guitar is what defines the band, and all of his best work is on the record. And Larry Mullin Jr. and Adam Clayton are thumping away here, keep the tempo and giving us the most memorable rythmn line of our time (With or Without You).
When they finished this record, The Edge was afraid. He said that he thought that is was not connected and did not follow a pattern. But in the end, it all seem connected. If you want to hear the last great musical group of our time, listen to this one first, their best record.
Free Music Review: The closest to perfection that you can get
Hit: 5 Stars
Before I picked up this album I knew the standard U2 radio hits, including the first three on this one, so I was a "fan" of what I had heard, but nothing prepared me for "The Joshua Tree". Every single song on it is great. Even some of my other all-time favs like "Exile on Main Street" and "The White Album" have a couple songs that are not as good as the others, but with this one you're given pure beauty. It's got the perfect opening track, "Where the Streets Have No Name". I think the great part about this song is how each member of the group comes in to it separately. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is probably Bono's most well-written, best-sung song. "With or Without You" is obviously one of the best love songs ever written. Edge's guitar really hit me hard on this one. "Bullet the Blue Sky" really showcased the rhythmic qualities of Larry and Adam. This is one of their real rockers. The fifth track is my favorite on the album, "Running to Stand Still". Bono's vocals are very calm and beautiful and Edge plays some nice slide guitar; the lyrics are terrific. "Red Hill Mining Town" and "In God's Country" are terrific "in between songs". The eighth track, "Trip Through Your Wires" is U2's most fun and joyous song; Bono does some great harmonica work on this one. "One Tree Hill" really does a great job preparing you for the end of the album; the backing vocals are incredible. "Exit" struck me as more of a darker song, but it nevertheless got its point across. Finally, you get "Mothers of the Disappeared", which just proves that U2 has created a masterpiece.Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno do a bang up job with the production. They seemed to really know how to get the best out of the band. Even though I didn't own this album before my senior camping trip, before I graduated from high school, I listen to "The Joshua Tree" now and I can easily remember how much fun I had with my friends before we all left each other. Bottom Line: Do yourself a favor and get this album.