Is Joshua Tree overated?

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and by the way... Love and Peace was mentioned as a weak song by someone here.... HELL NO!!! that songs rocks!!! Loved it the first time I heard it and loved it even more live. :drool:
 
I don't think there are any overrated U2 albums, (well on here, probably Pop) they are all really dang good.

The Joshua Tree has the best chance of being seen as overrated though, given that it's pretty much the greatest album in the history of life, imotbqh. So I guess it's possible someone may think that, if they don't accept the actual and factual truth about TJT's superiority :wink:
 
Zooropa man said:
and by the way... Love and Peace was mentioned as a weak song by someone here.... HELL NO!!! that songs rocks!!! Loved it the first time I heard it and loved it even more live. :drool:
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I like Love And Peace musically. Don't love it but I do like it. The lyrics are pretty bad though.
 
The Joshua Tree is my favorite U2 album and probably my favorite album period. I few others pointed it out but it was a radical departure from what most of the music was like at the time. Alot of people seem to think its too commercial, U2 made it that way by selling millions of albums. I can still put that album on and listen to it all the way through and it still sounds great to me. There are very few albums I can say that about. Even Achtung Baby (which I think is also a great album) I will skip certain songs and I really have to be in a mood for it. Not Joshua Tree though, anytime, anywhere it sounds good to me. :shrug:

I think the most overrated (by diehards that is) is Zooropa. That album does nothing for me. I really like about 2 songs on it. Zooropa and Dirty Day. I could do without the rest of it as I think the rest is average. Sounds rushed to me, maybe because it was.
 
Ya Ya its overated. So are the Beatles and so is Zeplin:mad: :mad: :mad:

Ya Ya as a matter of fact U2 is overated Ha ha ha ha ah :laugh:

Ya ya ya ya you speak the truth oh Nostradamus of the U2 world:eek: :eek: :eek:
 
kawai17 said:
I'm wondering if there's anyone else out there sharing a thought I had...I'm beginning to feel like Joshua Tree is overrated...held in high regard only because of its place in U2 history (being the album that vaulted U2 into superstardom).
Obviously, the first three songs are absolute classics... Running to Stand Still is another great one...But I've always felt there were some real weak tunes (especially on the second half like Trip, Red Hill, Exit). As a whole, I think HTDAAB is much stronger as an entire album than JT...Or am I just on crack...
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Can't judge, on what you are - it's just your opinion, that's all. But I couldn't disagree more: I bought the album just, when it came out, heard it over and aver again - every single tune, every single minute, from the start to the beginning. These were the vinyl days by the way - no skipping, just diving into these sounds and a poetry of lyrics, I've never heard before. I didn't care about stardom, about hype - by the way it wasn't that way then (no internet, na massmedia overkill).
I was 15, just listening to a new album that opened a musical landscape, a new world for me. A time, when you're very young and really haven't found, what you're looking for, when you start to think about both sides of things, persons and politics. That said, for me the album has alway been a unity in my mind: from 1987 until now. There are no stronger tracks, no weak ones. I've loved the album as a full circle: from the intro of "Streets" to the dark dancing rhythm for the "Mothers".
From that on, especially since '92 - when I started touring - tunes from my all-time-favourite-album always were special, when played live in U2-concerts, I attended. I was so happy to listen to beautiful versions of
- "Where The Streets Have No Name" (still this haunting song sometimes makes me cry, folks!),
- "I Still Haven't Found..." (always gripping me by the heart, when sung with emotion - as lately done in Auckland II),
- "With Or Without You" (even when it sadly has become a crowd-pleaser now with too much "everybody sing oh-oh-oh-oh now" at the outro, it still means much too me, when U2 perform it with grace - as lately done in Melbourne I),
- "Bullet The Blue Sky" (it was U2's eternal political manifesto then and still it is today, even though the voice of the "accuser" Bono might have become a touch too diplomatic in '05/'06),
- "Running To Stand Still" (no song for troops of anybody anywhere, friends - but a beautiful moment of reflection, a Lou Reed kind of narration about personal loss, about losing your way. And that's why it's a matter of taste, if you prefer Edge with electric guitar or piano during this moment)
- "In God's Country" (great tune, great words, a kind of musical painting, where you can feel the desert, see the sun. The version, I heard in '01 in Miami was not the album's train-like stomping, but the pure essence: Edge's acoustic guitar giving the drive, Bono concentrating on singing the words with pure feeling and adding howling harmonica sounds - a dream came true)
- "One Tree Hill" (what to say, maybe my mate @Axver - regards from Germany by the way - could help me out. This prayer like song has it all for me. Seeing, hearing and feeling it soundchecked in Melbourne and being there when performed in New Zealand, the song's setting, was just perfect)

Also the other album's tunes mean so much too me:
- "Red Hill Mining Town" (a great topical song with a beautiful melody, a demanding vocal line, a near single to be but sadly it didn't make its way in U2's setlists),
- "Trip Through You Wires" (a kind of "Angel Of Harlem"-predecessor, for me pure vitality & fun - with words, you should read carefully - it's not that simple as it might seem),
- "Exit" (great drums, great bass, aggressive guitar and very special lyrics. A real dark one in U2's oeuvre, the mother of all "Until The End...", "Dirty Day", "Last Night On Earth" or "New York" to come. I really do wish, the band will dust it off next tour)
- "Mothers Of The Disappeared" (a perfect closer for a perfect album, a prayer coming out of the silence and disapearing there, like a melody carried to you with the wind. Word for word strong images, a mantra-like melody. I'd love to listen to it live)

Sorry, folks, this was a long answer - but it had to be. "The Joshua Tree" overrated? Nope, at least not nor me ...
 
I can't believe the indifference for Mothers of the Disappeared :huh: IMO it is the most beautiful song U2 have done musically and lyrically.
 
Bones58 said:
I can't believe the indifference for Mothers of the Disappeared :huh: IMO it is the most beautiful song U2 have done musically and lyrically.
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I agree, it's one of the most beautiful tracks, very haunting and touching, perfect closing track. And no I don't think the album is overrated. It's one of the albums that absolutely defined the 80s and for a reason. I just don't think all of U2 later work should be measured by JT, because the album just fittet its particular time perfectly. For me, what really makes it a classic and gives it this special atmosphere is everything beginning with track 4.
 
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Maybe you had to be there. I could see someone discovering the record years later thinking it was over-rated.
 
I learned to love MOTD when I heard it live. Something about TJT tour version and being able to hear that cool, weird sounding drum beat, that was a lot more quiet on the album, made me love it.
 
No. The only bad song is TTYW, which is balanced out by having some great B-sides.

The Joshua Tree is my second favorite album of all-time (behind Born to Run).
 
gherman said:
Ya Ya its overated. So are the Beatles and so is Zeplin:mad: :mad: :mad:

Ya Ya as a matter of fact U2 is overated Ha ha ha ha ah :laugh:

Ya ya ya ya you speak the truth oh Nostradamus of the U2 world:eek: :eek: :eek:
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The Beatles ARE overrated 2. A handful of albums in a decade.... sure they had a big impact, but the fact that they broke up and were surrounded by tragedy (Lennon, etc..) gave them that increased the mystique.
 
The Disciple said:


The Beatles ARE overrated 2. A handful of albums in a decade
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I dunno: by my count, they've got multiple masterpieces in six years - 63-69. Won't spend the time to argue numbers, but the Bealtes career and the body of work is pretty staggering. I would say the sheer number of songs that the Beatles have produced that are firmly lodged in the world's psyche is nothing to sneeze at. And these boys hustled. The work ethic (even while suffering pretty outlandish drug habits) was enviable.

BUT . . . I can see how you can argue that it was a different era. Babe Ruth was great, but he played against some chumps, too.

On one hand, they only had to be better than the Dave Clark Five. On the other hand, fucking "Yesterday," you know.
 
Bumping up an old thread is like approaching someone you know and continuing a conversation you had three years ago.
 
ahittle said:


BUT . . . I can see how you can argue that it was a different era. Babe Ruth was great, but he played against some chumps, too.

On one hand, they only had to be better than the Dave Clark Five. On the other hand, fucking "Yesterday," you know.
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Hwa? You're saying that the Beatles' greatest contemporary was the Dave Clark Five? :lol: You're forgetting:

The Who
Rolling Stones
Kinks
Bob Dylan
Led Zeppelin
Jimi Hendrix
Pink Floyd
The Doors
David Bowie
etc...

Unless you were only referring to 1962-1964...:wink:

I hate it when people try to make it seem that music in the 1960's was unevolved and simple, and that today's music is somehow superior. All today's music is is the music of yesteryear watered down and/or mutated into something not as good. There are amazing albums and bands around nowadays if you know where to look, but in the 60's and 70's you really didn't even have to look.
 
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