U2 - The Joshua Tree (CD 1987)

had the album on vinyl, like many of us it's gathering dust in the loft....What a great purchase, and a fantastic CD ! U2 should have this!

One of the best all time albums. This is very influential album ask rolling stones magazine.
This is the album that made U2 a super group. Every track is great and we will always remember the videos

This is a 5 out of 5 album and should be in every ones collection

I got this album, after hearing an unreleased track on the radio (Red Hill Mining Town). A song that Bono is reluctant to sing live these days due to the high note the chorus takes. It's a fabulous song!

I had this album, in vinyl, some years ago. I actually saw U2 in Murrayfield, Edinburgh way back when they did the tour that went along with this album, and it has been etched in my mind forever!

Listening to this cd brought back some of those terrific memories from the live gig. The album is a little treasure in my book. Not one you just listen to then put away on the shelf. It stays out and is played daily in my house now!

Can't say enough good things about it :-)

For many U2 fans, this album would be their first U2 aquisition and the sheer quality of songs and production would spoil them for subsequent purchases of back catalogue and future releases.
This album coupled with a hugely successfull world tour propelled U2 into a different league, and the rest as they say is history.
Amid all the hype of this album and U2 in general it can be difficult to appreciate what a groundbreaking piece of work this is.
It is quite simply a rock masterpiece appealing to varying tastes and ages and should be on every Cd shelf in every home.
Even my mum likes some of the tracks!!

U2 - The Joshua Tree (CD 1987)

As music goes i am a fan of U2 they have concept albums, this album is unique in the sense that their music decided to be more punchy and forceful, the daniel lanois factor comes into this album, i have given an average 3 all the u2 fans will be in up roar! for that total, reason is the music was too much in parts a real mix bag of heavy sound and tangent lyrics, but thats an opinion.

All the same 3!

In 1987 U2 were huge. They'd already done four successful studio albums, sell out tours on both sides of the Atlantic and had taken Live Aid audiences by storm two years previously. The Joshua Tree made the band the rock giants they still are, and is considered one of the classic albums of all-time featuring some of U2's most notable songs including "With Or Without You" and "Where The Streets Have No Name".

Lyrically, there are a number of main themes that run through this album: The Joshua Tree itself which provides for the Christian content, Gregg Carroll (Bono's friend who died in 1986), Loss, America, Water and Desert.

Musically, the band begin to incorporate American folk and blues influences into their songwriting, most evident on "Running to Stand Still", a rustic ballad about heroin addiction, and "Trip Through Your Wires", a harmonica-filled blues romp. They would examine these influences in greater depth later in 1988.

The album continues the sonic experimentation of The Unforgettable Fire. The album opener, Where the Streets Have No Name, begins with a soft organ fade-in (appropriately similar to the end of MLK from The Unforgettable Fire) over which guitarist The Edge plays a simple echo-laden arpeggio, ringing each note out twice, an elegant effect that gives the band a deceptively detailed sound. With or Without You, the album's first single, uses a technique called infinite guitar to distort the notes into an eerie wail. One of their first and most political songs also features - Bullet The Blue Sky - one of their most aggressive tracks about the USA treatment of El Salvador. This album eventually spawned four singles, but every track is worth careful listening.

A beautiful and thought provoking album - a great follow up to "The Unforgettable Fire" and a precursor to "Rattle and Hum". U2 at their most classic.