The Joshua Tree (studio album) by U2

The first three songs on this album are the best first three songs on an album ever

Superbe album avec des titres qui s'enchaînent parfaitement. Le chanson With or Without You me donne toujours autant de frissons.

This album is half of a masterpiece. Side a is phenomenal, but side b lags miles behind it.

From Graeme2 12/12/2020 21:36

Everything said about U2 good and bad has some truth in it. Bono oversings, huffs and puffs when there's no need which always brings things down a bit. I think this was tempered somewhat by time they did Achtung Baby which is their zenith. The band is great and the songs are too, even with odd cringe bit courtesy of Hewson. Probably only one slight filler in Trip Through Your Wires which points to R&H styles. There's a Lou Reed Rip off track and a track strongly influenced by Patti Smith. I've been listening to this a lot though never had it at the time. Can see the appeal even with the drawbacks. Great even with the grunts and sighs. BTW people don't like Bono because he aims to be the arbiter on the ills of the world while at the same time going to extreme lengths make sure he pays as little tax as possible.

Really solid, enjoyable album with a lot of heart, every song is at least decent - if not more - but I find it hard to consider it great. Overall, 70/100.

3 excellent tracks and the rest fillerrrrrrrrrrrr!!!!
all U2 albums are mediocre with 2-3 good singles

From buzzdainer 07/11/2020 18:33

It's actually a little gratifying to see The Joshua Tree sitting as the #1 album for 1987 here on BEA. When I was in high school, U2 were an indisputably cool band that was not only loved by people from my generation, but also my parents' generation. That's a rare thing. But then, over the past few decades, there's been a fairly intense backlash against U2, focusing mainly on Bono's cult of personality. I've always felt that such criticism was pretty off base when you consider the far worse things other celebrities have done compared to Bono's penchant for short-term political causes and wearing sunglasses indoors because he has glaucoma. Cut the dude some slack, I say. And if you need reminding, play the opening minute and a half of "Where the Streets Have No Name" really loud, and try to remember what it was like hearing the building intensity of that great rock song for the very first time.

From AAL2014 06/30/2020 04:18

I have an interesting relationship with this record. I like it a lot, I understand why people are crazy about it, and I've even seen it in it's entirety live from the front row. But I wouldn't put it on the list of very favorites just yet. Side A is pretty consistently of astronomical highs, but other than the album's end, Side B isn't my favorite bundle of U2 tracks.

I think this is the record to point to as "The U2 sound", or at least for me, I think of these songs first.

From llibnanoon 06/24/2020 15:11

This was just the beginning!

From Timestarter 05/30/2020 01:15

Fav. Tracks: Where The Streets Have No Name, I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For, With Or Without You.