U2:
THE JOSHUA TREE DELUXE:
ISLAND:
SUPER DELUXE:
OUT NOW:
Thirty years ago, one of my first jobs at Our Price was to offload a few large boxes of U2's latest album from the back of a Parceline van, carry them up a flight of stairs (roughly 200 copies across three formats, mostly weighty vinyl), count them, price them, 'masterbag' them and then rack them out ready for another busy Saturday - and this was four months after its release in March 1987. It was the first U2 album that was 'anticipated', rather than just merely expected and it sold bucketloads. Accompanying single With Or Without You was on the radio almost permanently, its follow-up I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For helped ensure the album reached number 1 across the globe and The Joshua Tree sold a staggering 25 million copies.
Perversely though, it isn't U2's most satisfying album. The Joshua Tree tails off at the end quite dramatically, its overbearing swagger on Bullet the Blue-Sky is frankly embarrassing and better songs from the same sessions got dumped on various single b-sides. So how and why did it sell so well? Hype? Reputation? Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois creating a perfectly engineered atmospheric mystique? Bono being seen as some sort of humble preacher-man? The preceding album Unforgettable Fire was way more tantalizing and the 'proper' follow-up Achtung Baby is arguably more consistent. Rattle and Hum? Forget it.
Arguably, The Joshua Tree's strength lies in its opening three songs, perfectly sequenced and a terrific springboard for what was to follow and, aside from Bullet The Blue Sky, the album transcends expectations with stormers like In God's Country, Trip Through Your Wires and the emotional One Tree Hill. For all of Bono's prairie posturing, U2 had finally crossed borders and boundaries with an admittedly stellar set of songs.
Meanwhile, somewhat more experimental b-side songs such as the swampy Deep in the Heart, the perky chiming and somewhat simplistic Spanish Eyes and the celestial Luminous Times remained as afterthoughts until some bright spark at Island resurrected them for this album's 20th anniversary edition. Ten years later, another clever mogul has unearthed a welter of decent unheard material, including the intense Rise Up with its farty bassline, the portentous Wave Of Sorrow and the filmic Beautiful Ghost. Pool all these songs together and you have an album more credible than their last few, the clunky Songs Of Innocence for example or the flat How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. U2 are always more interesting when experimenting and not blustering.
Live takes and remixes fill up the other discs with varying results but overall, it's deep enough for the most discerning U2phile.
8/10
THE JOSHUA TREE DELUXE:
ISLAND:
SUPER DELUXE:
OUT NOW:
Perversely though, it isn't U2's most satisfying album. The Joshua Tree tails off at the end quite dramatically, its overbearing swagger on Bullet the Blue-Sky is frankly embarrassing and better songs from the same sessions got dumped on various single b-sides. So how and why did it sell so well? Hype? Reputation? Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois creating a perfectly engineered atmospheric mystique? Bono being seen as some sort of humble preacher-man? The preceding album Unforgettable Fire was way more tantalizing and the 'proper' follow-up Achtung Baby is arguably more consistent. Rattle and Hum? Forget it.
Arguably, The Joshua Tree's strength lies in its opening three songs, perfectly sequenced and a terrific springboard for what was to follow and, aside from Bullet The Blue Sky, the album transcends expectations with stormers like In God's Country, Trip Through Your Wires and the emotional One Tree Hill. For all of Bono's prairie posturing, U2 had finally crossed borders and boundaries with an admittedly stellar set of songs.
Meanwhile, somewhat more experimental b-side songs such as the swampy Deep in the Heart, the perky chiming and somewhat simplistic Spanish Eyes and the celestial Luminous Times remained as afterthoughts until some bright spark at Island resurrected them for this album's 20th anniversary edition. Ten years later, another clever mogul has unearthed a welter of decent unheard material, including the intense Rise Up with its farty bassline, the portentous Wave Of Sorrow and the filmic Beautiful Ghost. Pool all these songs together and you have an album more credible than their last few, the clunky Songs Of Innocence for example or the flat How To Dismantle An Atomic Bomb. U2 are always more interesting when experimenting and not blustering.
Live takes and remixes fill up the other discs with varying results but overall, it's deep enough for the most discerning U2phile.
8/10