THE JOSHUA TREE
| U2
THE JOSHUA TREE
The Joshua Tree is the fifth studio album by Irish rock band U2. It was produced by Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, and was released on 9 March 1987 on Island Records. In contrast to the ambient experimentation of their 1984 release, The Unforgettable Fire, the band aimed for a harder-hitting sound within the limitation of conventional song structures on The Joshua Tree. The album is influenced by American and Irish roots music, and through sociopolitically conscious lyrics embellished with spiritual imagery, it contrasts the group's antipathy for the "real America" with their fascination with the "mythical America". -Wikipedia
Critic Reviews
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BBC
It remains their finest moment to this day.
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All Music
...a powerful, uncompromising record that became a hit due to its vision and its melody.
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Slant Magazine
The album might not be as magnificent as the masses claim, but it’s not without its share of magnificence.
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Cleveland
U2's 'The Joshua Tree': Despair, not hope, survives after 30 years
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Hot Press
The Joshua Tree rescues rock from its decay, bravely and unashamedly basing itself in the mainstream before very cleverly lifting off into several higher dimensions.
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Record Collector
It’s all too easy, in 2007, to poke fun at the group’s worthiness, at the supposedly self-important grandeur of their exalted place in the rock firmament and at Bono’s ever-growing reputation as a thorn in the side of world leaders, but almost every aspect of their modern-day persona can be traced back to this one bold and uncompromising near masterpiece.
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Tarka Blowpig Music
The Joshua Tree deserves its place in the echelons of the great rock albums.
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NZ Herald
Joshua Tress is water in a desert. There aren't many bands with the vision and the power of U2. There are even fewer who can translate that to record and sustain it for over 50 minutes.
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Immortal Reviews
U2's Views Of America From "The Joshua Tree" Are Relevant Once Again
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Classic Rock Review
U2 has had a long and storied career which continues into its fourth decade. The Joshua Tree has been the apex of this long career and has held up excellently a quarter century later.
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Sputnik Music
Resplendent and transcendent.
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Sun-Times
(Reprint) ...represents U2 's most cohesive and coherent musical statement to date, as well as its most ambitious.
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AV Music
...one of rock's most powerfully moving experiences, nakedly emotional on a deeply personal level, yet sweepingly universal in a way few bands even shoot for.
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Punk News
It's one of those pieces that becomes a part of you.
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The Austin Chronicle
Though the songs still struggled with discontentment, the spotlight turned inward.
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Treble
The Joshua Tree stands distinctly apart from the rest of the band’s work. Everything about it has become legendary, from its incredible music to its iconic images...
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Puluche
...proved that it was possible for the band to transcend genres and produce the same quality work while displaying their versatility in various forms of rock music.
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Chorus FM
Looking back on The Joshua Tree 30 years later, U2’s fifth record and magnum opus still seems undeniably timeless.
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Anderson Envy
This was the first album (tape) I ever owned, and to this day on of my favorites.
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Orlando Sentinel
U2, in exploring the depths of social and political darkness on The Joshua Tree, has reached upward still, producing a rock 'n' roll album of exultant power.
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Robert Christgau
Let it build and ebb and wash and thunder in the background and you'll hear something special--mournful and passionate, stately and involved.
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