Isn't the Joshua Tree quite a good record?

[The Sad Punk]

I have never been entirely sure where I stand on TJT. Certainly, WOWY is what got me into U2, and there are some damn fine classics, and some underappreciated classics, and all that... but something about it just doesn't click with me. Stupid as it sounds, but I think it was the first album of theirs that sounds like it's, well, trying too hard. All the talking up of it beforehand, and all the talking up of it afterward. The biblical lyrical cliches. The warhouses that I've grown sick to death of. The slow realisation that I don't like One Tree Hill as much as I did when I first heard it. It's complicated. Me and TJT is tite, but we like to stay apart a few months at a time, so we's can look at each other afresh. It hovers around the middle of the list for me, and by no means do I hate any song from it, I just find it to be a bit middling, on the whole.

 

[kpod]

For me it is tied for my favorite best modern rock album of all time - with London Calling and The Bends

 

[last unicorn]

Joking aside, TJT is easily the U2 album which, for me, is closest to perfection. I rediscovered the album as a coherent piece with the remastered edition, before that I tended to skip the first three songs because I had become so tired of hearing them. Now I feel the album isn't complete without them and I've learned to appreciate them again. Love the atmosphere, the lyrics, the whole "classic" U2 vibe about it. With the Unforgettable Fire and possible NLOTH, I think it's in my top 3 U2 albums.

 

[bigjohn2441]

But OTH was good on the album, but then they destroyed the song totaly on 1989-12-26 - Dublin, I hate that version.

yeah, i absolutely HATE when edge shreds on guitar. he does it waaay too much.

 

[65980]

The Joshua Tree is the best album by the best post-punk band. In fact, it might be the best album by anybody after the 60s. It's the musical equivalent of Ulysses by Joyce.

 

[PookaMacP]

It's a great album for sure, but not my favorite.

My feelings too. In U2 terms, there's this:

Its a great album, but AB

And there's a number of other records I'd put ahead of it in my 'all time favourites' list, but there are times when The Joshua Tree just hits that spot. You know, the 'I can listen to this from start to finish without pause and without getting bored' spot?

 

[Vlaco]

It's a pretty damn good record.

 

[gump]

The Joshua Tree is the best album by the best post-punk band. In fact, it might be the best album by anybody after the 60s. It's the musical equivalent of Ulysses by Joyce.

There are tons of other albums I would think of before TJT as the musical equivalent of Ulysses.

Perhaps the musical equivalent of On The Road?

 

[PookaMacP]

There are tons of other albums I would think of before TJT as the musical equivalent of Ulysses.

Perhaps the musical equivalent of On The Road?

I agree I would think of something other than Ulysses, but definitely not On The Road. It's too coherent. The musical equivalent to On The Road - and, if you read the book the album makes a hell of a lot more sense - is Bob Dylan's Highway 61 Revisited, which also just happens to be the greatest album ever made.

 

[The Sad Punk]

The Joshua Tree is the best album by the best post-punk band. In fact, it might be the best album by anybody after the 60s. It's the musical equivalent of Ulysses by Joyce.

Wow, you could so totally get a job writing for a shithouse magazine.