U2, “The Joshua Tree”

Tom Heerman:
I have to admit, I have always overlooked U2. I acknowledge their skills at writing songs. I love a few of their more love oriented songs. But the serious stuff doesn’t appeal to me. I think its the way Bono comes off as intensely committed to stuff. It makes me kind of uncomfortable. So I have shied away from the “back catalog”, if that’s even an appropriate term for an album track off an record with this high of a stature. I honestly had never heard half this record before last week. Coming from me (old and experienced), that is saying something. I have a shit ton of music, and I am constantly seeking more, old and new. But, I got off on the wrong track with Bono, probably because of the people who worshiped him. His fans were preppy and shallow, and I was deep and cool (in my own mind).

So now I listen to the record and hear the giant hits, which are all really great, and the other ones, which are really solid too. A highlight is the lyric “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For,” such a simple, yet defiant thing to wail. And it ranks up there with “Cause I’m Free… Free Falling” and “I’m So Unsatis-fied” as great cries from Generation Xers. I respect the power in that song. It’s something that will always keep the U2 faithful, faithful. If I had had different friends back in the heyday of U2, I may have come in in less of a prejudiced manner. And that is is a shame. But it is what it is.

I realize that that is a very personal reason for my opinion, and I should be more objective as a reviewer.  You’d think my issues would be over with with so much time passing, but it lingers. I just don’t care that much, Bono Vox. Its not you, its me. Score = 28.

Chris McJaggerly:

I’m not going to do a full review for The Joshua Tree just yet, but I appreciate yours. Sometimes you get off on the wrong foot with an artist, and sometimes it’s because the artists’ fans are annoying. I don’t feel that way about U2, but I did feel the same way about other bands. For example, the Cure. Fifteen years after high school, I realized they were awesome, but I had disregarded them because the dweeb I sat next to in homeroom wore Cure t-shirts.

There is one thing about U2 that I would like you guys to comment about. Isn’t it remarkable how much Edge gets out of the guitar? He’s not much of a player in the traditional sense. During the The Joshua Tree era (and before) it sounds like he would find a chord, use a foot pedal, and make it chime over and over again, sometimes varying the rhythm to make it more interesting. He created a sound, and did a really effective job of adding color and power to the songs. (Later on, Edge starting writing riffs. But he never became a soloist.) He turned his limitations on the guitar into a strength of the band. In fact, his guitar sound might be considered U2’s calling card.

That’s what it means to be an artist.

Kevin Decker:

If we’re going to grade albums based upon the dweebs encountered in homeroom then this list is just going to be a ranking of music we made out to in high school (which then rockets the first Bel Biv Devoe album way up my list).

Chris McJaggerly:

The Joshua Tree was the biggest album of my teenage years. Acclaim was pretty much universal. U2 was on the cover of Time magazine. Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure featured a utopian future inspired by music that sounded exactly like U2. Is there higher praise than that? U2’s sound – with Edge’s chimey guitar on repeat – was a genre all to itself. That’s quite an achievement. There are lots of examples of bands who are the best of their genre (such as the Clash in punk or Bob Marley & the Wailers in reggae), but I can’t think of many other bands that occupy their genre all by themselves.

Back in the late 80s, lots of kids thought side 1 was vastly superior to side 2 (this was when a lot of people bought 2-sided cassettes), because side 1 had all the hits. I never got into “Where the Streets Have No Name,” but I liked the other big hits, “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “With or Without You.” I think they still hold up, for the reasons you stated in your earlier review, although the live version of “Still Haven’t Found,” featuring the gospel choir, is even better.

I was slightly contrarian as a teenager, and I remember claiming to like side 2 better. Listening to the second half of the album now, I don’t think that was an absurd position to take. “Red Hill Mining Town” is sung about as well as a rock song can be sung. When Bono screams in the high register, I feel my teenage self being swept away, like listening to the chorus of “Livin’ on a Prayer,” only without the cheesiness. “One Tree Hill” is also a vocal high point, and it has a catchy little guitar riff, too, which was rare for U2 in those days (see my previous comments). Too bad the last two songs are both duds.

Although it wasn’t my fave back when I was a teenager, my favorite song from the album now has got to be “Running to Stand Still.” I love the mood, the slow build, and the sermon-like lyrics. And I love how the name of the song reveals itself at the very end.

Typically, I like my rock music to be about cleverness, suspicion, regret, and even anger. I’m not usually one for spirituality, redemption and searching for sense of purpose. U2 is definitely the latter rather than the former. But they pull it off. I’m not sure how they do it, but I think the credit goes to Bono. I give The Joshua Tree a 31.

Kevin Decker:

The Joshua Tree is one of the great albums of all time. The songs are almost all good, and many are very good to brilliant. More than that, the construction of the album is perfect. The album is seamless in its pacing. “Where the Streets Have No Name” immediately grabs you with the rapid, rhythmic drums and guitar play that has come to mark the boys from Dublin. With the hook set, you’re led through the band’s spiritual and emotional wandering with “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and “With or Without You.” Almost anyone actually listening to the songs will find those tunes speaking to them about a chapter in their lives.

The first three songs are the most popular, but the rest of the album is just as good. The band exercises all their talents in “Bullet the Blue Sky” – Bono belting out at his best. The Edge kills it on “Exit” (and Larry is right there keeping the pace. Every other song deserves its own discussion, but for the sake of keeping your attention I’ll say this: “Trip Through Your Wires” combines rock and blues in a way that only Mick and Keith had done.

There, I said it. U2 is the equal to the Stones. The Joshua Tree is as good as Exile on Main Street. The high points of Exile may be higher, but the completeness of the two albums is the same and the lasting effect of the music is indistinguishable. And with The Joshua Tree, there’s more meaning. Exile makes me want to party; The Joshua Tree makes me think, makes me feel.

The Joshua Tree gets a 32.5 from me.

Chris McJaggerly:

When you said “makes me think, makes me feel” I knew you were going to go sky-high with the rating. Sounds like The Joshua Tree is going to land way up there on your personal Top 100.

I’ve got no issue with your review, except that I don’t agree wholeheartedly about the record speaking to the listeners about a chapter in their lives. A few songs fit the bill — “I Still Haven’t Found …” and “With or Without You” – but others are about U.K. mining towns and humanitarian crises. There’s nothing wrong with writing about those topics, but it isn’t exactly “chapter in your life” material. You thought my rating of Elvis Costello’s This Year’s Model was too high, but I feel like EC reflects my life more than U2, even though U2 was the soundtrack of my teenage years.

Tom Heerman:
As the erratic Moe Bandy sang, “Hank Williams, you wrote my life.”

Kevin Decker:

When do we get to review Jay Z’s Blueprint?