lazarus said:
...and you would be wrong. In terms of thematics, The Joshua Tree is mostly about America, the country and the continents, and if you watch the Classic Albums documentary the band members and producers explicitly say that it was conceptual.
Bono says in the recent RS interview that Zooropa was a kind of concept album. I was hearing that back when it came out. At the end of Achtung Baby we exit the personal where Bono says "dream out loud", which becomes the opening call on the next album--"she's gonna dream up the world she wants to live in/dream out loud". This seems to be the point of departure for the rest of the recording.
One could even argue that POP has a thematic cohesion, with its ruminations on crises of faith. That doubt is found on Discotheque, MOFO, If God, SATS, LNOE, Gone, Playboy, Please, and WUDM. That's sounds like a theme to me.
How many songs on JT are really about America(s)? Bullet the blue sky, Exit, Mothers of the dissappeared, In god's country. Musically, I agree it is influenced by American music.
Streets, I stil haven't found... WOWY aren't about any specific place. Running to stand still is about Ireland, Red hill mining town is about the coal miners strike in England. Trip through your wires doesn't seem to be about US, One tree hill definitely isn't.
The only theme Zooropa has is "let's experiment" IMO.
I could see a theme going for Pop, though. (I don't see Mofo, Gone or Please being about crisis of faith, and I have a different interpretation of SATS but anyway)
On the other hand, every song on AB can be seen as a part of the story of a broken relationship. The whole album tells a single story, the way I see it.
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