Stairway2Drew's Full Review: The Joshua Tree by U2
Irish quartet U2's 1991 album Achtung Baby, while a radical departure from previous works, served a specific purpose--- to reflect personal growth in the band's choice of subject matter as well as stylistic approach. Back in 1987, The Joshua Tree served, on a less abrupt scale, the same purpose, minus the drastic shift in style.
In 1981 or thereabouts, when U2 first hit, they were known for being angry, politically-minded young men, obsessed with taking on as many causes as time would allow and clueing in the general population about these pressing matters. With The Joshua Tree, U2's 1987 breakthrough, they presented another, more personal side to the music--- they were still angry, politically-minded young men, but this time around, they were angry, politically-minded young men with crappy love lives just like the rest of us poor shlubs.
You'd be amazed at what a little relatability can do for a band.
Stylistically, the shift was a little more subtle, but it was still there. They'd moved ever-so-slightly away from straight-up rockin'roll, and had begun to decorate their anguished punky attitude with touches--- or, in some cases, broad brush strokes--- of pop. Whether it was the relatability factor or the newfound pop accessibility, The Joshua Tree was, and still is, widely regarded as the "big daddy" of all U2 albums.
Now, is The Joshua Tree U2's best album? Certainly, to people who have never heard of Achtung Baby, the album that, in a perfect world, would be far-and-away lauded as the finest album to be recorded in pop music history. Failing that, though, Joshua Tree IS deserving of a great deal of its praise.
Make no mistake: The Joshua Tree personifies everything U2's detractors hate about them. It's grandiose, poppy, melodramatic shmaltz, granted. But LISTEN to the album--- how can you be unforgiving of the (admitted) pomposity of U2's musical landscape when lead singer Bono sounds so frigging EARNEST, and when guitarist Edge's guitar chimes sound so bleedin' ANTHEMIC, and when the entire thing sounds so HUGE?
Listen to "With or Without You." It's the perfect love song. Listen to Bono's voice--- you'd think, from listening to him, that Bono truly believes that if he can get this one girl to love him, to take him back, that everything will be right with the world. It's the be-all-end-all power ballad--- a work of fantastic subtlety that, somehow, manages to sound absolutely enormous.
Then there's "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," which, while fantastically overblown, exemplifies EXACTLY what Bono does best: he liberally blurs the line that divides love songs from gospel songs, and shapes them into an entity that can be interpreted as either one. Whether what he's looking for is romantic love or religious security is moot--- the song's lyrics could so easily be either one that it's quite frightening just how universal this man manages to be with his songs.
In fact, the songs are SO good that The Joshua Tree features the least amount of missteps of any U2 album save for Achtung Baby. The only discernable misstep is "Trip Through Your Wires," a goofy Aerosmithalicious attempt at Americanized rock that ended up being far superior when it was called "Desire."
Though much of the album attempts the samey sort of anthemic power ballad rewrite, the finest song here, arguably, is the album's centerpiece "Red Hill Mining Town," which is a gorgeous love song as much as it is a showcase for Bono's impressive vocal range. "I'm hanging on/ you're all I've got to hold on to/ and I'm still waiting," he sings, and the listener's skin leaps from his/her's back and crawls its way around the entire body, unrelenting until every last hair is on its end and every possible goosebump is standing at attention. While Joshua Tree is a really friggin' fine album, this song transcends the album's mythos and presents itself as an EXPERIENCE in and of itself.
The bottom line is that, overblown and pompous as The Joshua Tree may be, these guys could make "The Thong Song" seem like an impassioned plea. Even if it's too grandiose for you, you just have to give you to an 'A' for bloody effort.
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