The Joshua Tree

I have definitely heard The Joshua Tree enough times to be able to declare that I heard it before I died. We listened to this record constantly when it first came out; it had some inspiring instrumentation and was fun to sing along with while driving around. But then I got sick of it and haven't listened to it since. So it was fun to hear it again today, but I doubt I'll go back to it anytime soon.

Of course I have to mention that hearing "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" immediately called to mind the hilarious Negativland track "U2" that sampled that song and made fun of U2 a bit. At the time we thought it was absurd for Island Records to sue little Negativland over that? But they may have had a point, seeing as that's always the first thing I think of when I hear the original song.

3 stars for U2, 5 for Negativland

This is good, not great. This album falls flat beyond the singles. 3.45 stars

Jamais écouté avant.

Un album compétent, très bien produit, mais parfaitement lisse, calibré et sans aspérités. Comme un super frigo design, c'est indéniablement bien fabriqué, mais c'est froid et ça ne procure aucune émotion.

Top : Exit
Flop : With or Without You

2/23/26 - Listened during "work". This is my favorite U2 album and I don't really like U2. The radio hits are all classics but the album tracks are all good to great as well. Where the Streets Have No Name is probably the best overall song here with an iconic opening.

Top Song - Besides the radio hits, Bullet the Blue Sky.

I'm very familiar with this album.

If the entire album was as good as the first half, this would be an absolute high-water mark for albums. But the second half of the album just doesn't have the same quality. If it were two separate albums, it would be a 5 for the first half and a 4 or 3 for the second half.

Wow, yet another one from these guys! This one is clearly my favourite of them, but apart from the 3 big hits I am not familiar with album tracks, so this might go for 4 stars unless those album tracks are super amazing.

Boring but pleasant. Like sitting around waiting in someone's lounge but they have very nice wallpaper.

This is all objectively very lush and very well-produced, but personally it somehow didn’t grip me much outside of a few highlights. It felt a bit like Coldplay’s Parachutes in that I remember liking the band’s big hits a lot growing up, but felt a bit let down by the album despite it not being all that different from their usual style.

Still the best I’ve heard of U2 to date!

Standouts: I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For • With Or Without You • Bullet The Blue Sky • Mothers Of The Disappeared

This one’s really boring, there’s like nothing going on. If you like this, suit yourself, but it’s just not doing anything for me. Everything just falls kind of flat for me. Most of these songs sound like old ringtones or bland commercials.

Red Hill Mining Town is kinda good. In God’s Country sounds like an old Nokia ringtone at the beginning. I swear I’m not trying to be oh so different, but I hate the hits the most. No, hate is a strong word. It’s not like they are bad musically. They are boring. They don’t make me feel anything at all. They are all also kinda the same? I don’t understand why they became hits in the first place.

The second half of the album is honestly more solid than the first. Still not great, but a bit better. I’m not saying you have to overcomplicate everything, but this album is so simple, just too simple. That makes it easy to garner a wider audience, I suppose. You can’t go wrong with simple.

3.27

Hot damn the intro to "Where the Streets Have No Name" is one of the most amazing-sounding things ever. Across the entire record, The Edge gives some of the most amazing guitar performances ever recorded. His sound was so distinctive and carried their sound so hard. Those punchy stings he builds up to on "With or Without You" are so emotive. Brian Eno is also a huge asset here with his timeless, full production. While the deep tracks aren't nearly as good as the big singles, they are still quite enjoyable.

There’s front loading an slbum and then there’s the Joshua Tree. The first three tracks are unashamedly classics, but it does feel there’s only one way to go from there and whilst the rest of the album is good it was an almost impossible task to live up to that opening.
Bullet the blue sky’s mainly spoken vocal provides an interesting contrast straight of the bat.
For all the attention Bono gets Joshua really showcases the rest of the band, whether this is Edge’s chiming guitar sound that was made for large scale gigs or the driving rhythm section of Mullen and Clayton.

Overall it’s a 3.5/5 but as no half marks i guess it’s more a 3 than a 4 (just)

Obviously, like many people, I find Bono insufferable, but given this is clearly such a massive album, I wanted to try and give it a fair shot...

... I still don't get the attraction in U2. I think I liked this less than the previous U2 album the generator gave me, and I gave that a 3 while thinking it was more like a 2.5. So I'm giving this a 2 while thinking it's more a 2.5.

2/5

They lock in here and really find their sound, very good

It wasn't until I got half way through this that I realised I have it on cd in my collection.

I'd stick my neck out and say this is probably their last great album before being totally suffocated by Bono's ego. It's certainly the last U2 album I ever bought.

But I'm really glad to have the reason and opportunity to reaquaint myself with it.

Really influential album. So many bands have taken something from this - creeping build ups, throbbing basslines and Bono's pleading wail. It's heavily front loaded with THE HITS. I don't have any issue with that, but the rest is clearly not as strong or interesting as the first 3 or 4 songs, even though it had it's moments for sure.

As if it would get less than 5

An interesting and even good album with being amazing .

The first 3 songs are all great but never really get going - sounding like continuous intros if anything

Taking the new wave sound of bands like echo and the bunnymen to heart. Weirdly songs about desert by a bunch of lads from Ireland are better than you would think .

The edge and bono are great together but are no Maca and Sullivan or Moza and Mar .

Tries a little to hard to be meaningful

I'll give it credit, they managed to make an album that sounds 20 years ahead of its time, but when that sound fits in with your Matchbox 20s (who I actually like the singles of, for the record) and other bands of that late 90s, early 2000's adult contemporary ilk, its not as glowing an endorsement to say it was ahead of its time.

The first three tracks were the soundtrack to the most bland radio rock I heard in the 2000's that I was waiting to end for the next song to come on, hopefully that I liked. And it doesn't help all the big songs off this album that I remember hearing all sound the same, with the same high pitched guitar sound (tremolo picking?).

Bullet the Blue Sky is a straight rip off of Ted Nugent's Stranglehold (good song, but being compared to Ted Nugent is not something you want). Yeah, I just don't like U2. Some of the most toothless sounding music I've ever heard. Apparently they have cutting political commentary, but I wouldn't know with the music being so ineffectual and dull. Writing political lyrics but setting it over really bland, uplifting stadium rock isn't a good mix.

Well, their biggest hits are on there, but the rest of the album is just kind of 'eh'. U2 is decent in what they do, just what they do is not for me.