The Joshua Tree | 
 enlarge | Artist: U2
Label: Island
Category: Music
List Price: $29.98
Buy New: $25.47
You Save: $4.51 (15%)
New (9) from $25.47
Rating:  20 reviews
Sales Rank: 21065
Format: Original Recording Remastered
Media: LP Record
Discs: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.5
Dimensions (in): 12.3 x 12.2 x 0.4
UPC: 602517509498
EAN: 0602517509498
ASIN: B000WTNCQI
Release Date: December 11, 2007
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new Item. CD, DVD, Book, VHS more than 400 000 titles to choose from. ALL days Low Price !
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| Tracks:
Disc 1
| • | Where the Streets Have No Name | | • | I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For | | • | With or Without You | | • | Bullet the Blue Sky | | • | Running to Stand Still | | • | Red Hill Mining Town | | • | In God's Country | | • | Trip Through Your Wires | | • | One Tree Hill | | • | Exit | | • | Mothers of the Disappeared |
Disc 2
| • | Luminous Times (Hold on to Love) | | • | Walk to the Water | | • | Spanish Eyes | | • | Deep in the Heart | | • | Silver and Gold | | • | Sweetest Thing | | • | Race Against Time | | • | Where the Streets Have No Name | | • | Silver and Gold (Sun City) | | • | Beautiful Ghost/Introduction to Songs of Experience | | • | Wave of Sorrow (Birdland) | | • | Desert of Our Love | | • | Rise Up | | • | Drunk Chicken/America |
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| Editorial Reviews:
Amazon.com essential recording
Having nearly exhausted their capacity for pop-song politics on War and The Unforgettable Fire, U2 turned toward themes of personal identity and complex relationships on The Joshua Tree. Not that the group was willing to come down off the barricades entirely: "Mothers of the Disappeared" and "Bullet the Blue Sky" turned a jaundiced eye toward Central America and the United States' role there. But the predominant mood here is one of self-discovery and the hunger for something more on tracks like the pulsating "Where the Streets Have No Name" and the gospel-ish "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." The album's masterstroke, however, is "With or Without You," a nasty love song dressed up as an ode of devotion and care. It ranks with the Police's "Every Breath You Take" as the most misread smash hit of the '80s. --Daniel Durchholz
Amazon.com
U2 have made a lot of grand music, but 1987's graceful, powerful Joshua Tree stands as their masterwork. It is by turns moving, inspiring, and exhilarating. Each member contributes his best work, and each song shines. Would that all rock records were made with the same care, the same passion and invention. The ubiquitous opening salvo of "Where the Streets Have No Name," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and the tense "With or Without You" may define this album to many, but its real strengths lie in the brilliant second half: "Red Hill Mining Town," "Trip Through Your Wires," and the surging "One Tree Hill" (the latter being one of rock's--hell, all music's--truly finest moments). --Michael Ruby
Album Description
The CD format features remastered audio, liner notes by Bill Flanagan (author of "U2 At The End Of The World") and previously unseen Anton Corbijn photos.
Album Details
Same as USA Version.
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| Customer Reviews:
 I LOVE DISC 1 November 4, 2008
Bob (Yellow Springs,Ohio)
The sound of the original cd is good,but the remastered
of disc one and disc two of U2:The Joshua Tree cd's is
better.I've listened to the joshua tree analog cd alot.
Disc two's track list,i havent listened to before except
"Silver And Gold","Sweetest Thing" and "Where The Streets
Have No Name".If there were more unused tracks COOL!.I
hope there will be a remastered of U2:The Unforgettable
Fire cd.
 5 Star Album, 2 Star Version October 15, 2008
SilentFilmStar
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Duh! It's a great album. If you don't like this record, you're just not a fan of this band so why are you here? Go away dork who thinks Boy and October are the only U2 albums worth having because you saw them at a club in 1981 and blah blah blah. Get a life (and a job - you're almost 50 now for Chrissake!). Now the rest of you: Oh, you're probably here because you want to know if this reissue is worth it. My answer unfortunately is 'no'. I have a copy of this on vinyl from 1987 and of course a couple CD reissues. They all sound better to me - even the first very thin-sounding CD reissue. This version is mastered really heavy on the bass end for some reason. I guess maybe Adam Clayton was in charge of the process. I don't know. At any rate, if you can pick this up for ten bucks go for it. Don't pay what Amazon or other retailers are asking though. You'll feel buyer's remorse - like I do. You've been warned.
 Do I have to wait another 20 years for a proper remaster? June 30, 2008
Peter Rasmussen (MN)
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
I'd like to add my thoughts to those that think this product is poorly remastered. I disagree that the original CD sounds better. To me, the original CD sounds 'like blankets over the speakers' to quote another reviewer. And the new one still does. The only difference in the new version (to my ears) is an increase in the low end. Unfortunately, I don't think this was necessary.
My preference would have been to pursure a more aggressive remaster like sound of the Joshua Tree tracks on the 18 Singles cd. These same songs sound much better because the masterer had to make them even with later songs such as Vertigo and Beautiful Day. These versions offer much more clarity in the high end and overall eq balance. This is what I was hoping for from this remaster version.
The album itself is 5 stars. Updating the horrendous CD cover to be more like the vinyl is 5 stars. The bonus tracks are 5 stars (as far as B-sides go). But this remaster is not what I expected and hoped for. I hope I don't have to wait another 20 years for this to be corrected. And I hope the Boy/October/War reissues coming soon will follow the sound on U218.
 "Joshua Tree" is great, but the bonus CD is unnecessary June 10, 2008
J. Green (Los Angeles, California)
2 out of 3 found this review helpful
I didn't discover U2 until "The Joshua Tree" came out (I must have been living under a new-wave rock or something). But this is still my favorite U2 album - I can even enjoy all the songs on the B side. And since my cassette from way back then was finally starting to sound a little stretched out I figured the 20th anniversary re-mastered reissue would be an excellent choice to replace it. And the songs sound just as good as they did 20 years ago.
The "bonus" CD however is an example of why some songs don't make it on the finished album - they just aren't that good (and believe me, I feel bad saying that about one of my favorite bands). At best some of the songs are listenable, but it really wasn't worth the extra money. The version of "Sweetest Thing" included on it isn't as good as the "Single Mix" on the greatest hits CD, and neither version of "Silver and Gold" is as good as the live version from Rattle & Hum. I wish I'd bought the single disk CD and spent the extra cash on replacing my "Under a Blood Red Sky" cassette tape or something else. I'm sure some of the songs will eventually grow on me and it comes in a cool case, but I could have been more satisfied with something else.
Wide awake & America June 5, 2008
Tom Benton (North Springfield, VT USA)
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
On "The Joshua Tree," their fifth album, U2 climbed the Everest of rock. Every rock band since has been attempting to do the same, but none have come close. Never in history has rock music sounded so free and so beautifully harmonious as it did on "The Joshua Tree."
"The Joshua Tree" came after 1984's "The Unforgettable Fire," an ethereal dream of an album that was a far cry from the anthemic rock found on the group's first three records, 1980's "Boy," 1981's "October," and 1983's "War," arguably their first masterwork. The Police were considered the world's biggest band after the release of their massively successful fifth album, 1983's "Synchronicity." When Sting declared that the group was finished at the peak of their popularity in 1984, the world was more than prepared to accept U2 as their new saviour. But the surprise ambience of "The Unforgettable Fire" left even the band's most dedicated supporters unsure what to do (though, in support of that album, Miles Davis reportedly asked that it be played on his deathbed). Additionally, the band realized, according to vocalist Bono, "U2 had no tradition. We were from outer space." They had toured the United States extensively, and were profoundly affected by the country, its open spaces, and what it stood for.
America. The band had found their tradition.
Producer extraodinaire Brian Eno, who also produced the Talking Heads' and David Bowie's finest albums and released some darn fine records himself, capitalized on the group's desire for music with a sense of location, a cinematic quality, urging the band to build its songs from the imagery found in the American writings they had been reading. Drummer Larry Mullen Jr., who had narrowly escaped blending into the background on "The Unforgettable Fire," built a strong foundation for the album's soundscape, just as Franklin, Jefferson, and the gang fashioned a sturdy base for America. The Edge's guitar had echoed to infinity on "The Unforgettable Fire," but now he was surrounded by mountains and plains. The Edge used his surroundings to create a sense of direction that he didn't quite have on the previous album, and in doing so, he escapes his boundaries. To fill U2's America, Adam Clayton's bass became its people, and Bono - who might as well be applying for the job when he sings, "I have spoke with the tongue of angels" on the album's second song - Bono became their voice.
One doesn't have to venture far into the record to hear how far U2 had progressed since their debut began with that iconic, buzzing guitar part seven years before. Whereas that album's opener, "I Will Follow," was a pounding love song, "The Joshua Tree" begins with "Where the Streets Have No Name." The group realized that they didn't need to fashion the loudest opening they could. Instead, the song begins with a dreamy synthesizer part that sounds like it has more history than any person ever could. Then the Edge's guitar starts ringing, softly, dreamlike ... Larry Mullen's drums burst in, and at that point, U2 broke down the walls of popular music in the 1980s. "I want to run / I want to hide," Bono sings. "I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside / I want to reach out and touch the flame / Where the streets have no name." One believes him, too, which is no small accomplishment considering the grand nature of Bono's lyrics. More importantly, though, the music makes one feel what Bono's singing. By the time Bono has entered the song, we too want to run and tear down the walls.
The group took their gospel influences and turned them into the album's second track, one of U2's finest and most recognizable songs, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." On "The Joshua Tree," the music conveys each song's message as well as Bono's lyrics ever could; "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is a prime example of this. Once again, the world's most famous Irishman sings of loneliness and a spiritual search for fulfillment, utilizing the image of barren American countryside for dramatic emphasis:
"I have climbed the highest mountains
I have run through the fields
Only to be with you
Only to be with you."
But he still hasn't found what he's looking for.
By the time we reach track three, however, he may have found what he was looking for - but if so, it wasn't what he needed. So goes one of the most misunderstood love songs of all time, and the second-best thing the group ever recorded: "With or Without You." Nowhere is that cinematic quality the band was shooting for more richly realized than on this song. When the song begins, all soft, steady drums, thumping bass, and uncertain guitar, one feels the sense of loneliness and romanticism oft associated with the landscapes of midwestern America. Bono backs it up with some of his greatest lyrics:
"See the stone set in your eyes
See the thorn twist in your side
I wait for you.
Sleight of hand and twist of fate
On a bed of nails she makes me wait
And I wait without you
With or without you
With or without you."
Everything comes together on this one, but by all the heavens and the earth, the highlight is the Edge's guitarwork. The climax of the song features one of the greatest and most powerful guitar parts in history, created using "Infinite Guitar," a device which allows each note played by the electric guitar to echo infinitely. And echo it does: it echoes to the sky, it echoes through the hills, it echoes across the plains, and it hits hard in the hearts of any listener who has any life left within him or her. Particularly during the climax, images abound. Bono standing atop a high mountain, whailing in heartbroken agony, the Edge's searing guitar his words rolling down into town.
Things take a different turn on "Bullet the Blue Sky." First it's just us and Larry Mullen pounding the heck out of his drums. Then Adam Clayton and the Edge come in, and it's like someone dropped an atomic bomb. One of the darker songs the band has recorded, "Bullet" deals with Bono's frustrations with the Reagan-led United States during the 1980s. When Bono growls, "This guy comes up to me / His face red like a rose on a thorn bush / Like all the colors of a royal flush / And he's peeling off those dollar bills / Slapping them down," he's singing about Ronald Reagan. Bono was not a fan.
It spoke volumes about the band that they could seamlessy transition from the pounding, portentous rock of "Bullet the Blue Sky" to "Running to Stand Still," one of the group's most powerful compositions, a song that is sad, regretful, and as beautiful as anything U2 ever composed.
"Step on a fast train
Step out of the driving rain, maybe
Run from the darkness in the night.
She is ragin'
She is ragin'
And the storm blows up in her eyes
She will suffer the needle chill
She's running to stand still."
The song deals with drug addiction, inspired by a girl Bono knew from his hometown in Ireland.
"Running to Stand Still" closes side one of the album. Where side one is all grand anthems, side two is more simple anthems. "Red Hill Mining Town" and "In God's Country" are two loving odes to old-fashioned America. "One Tree Hill," which, yes, the popular television series was named after, was written in memory of Bono's friend Greg Carroll, who died delivering Bono's motorcycle during a rainstorm in 1986. "Trip Through Your Wires" was written as a companion piece to the ruthlessly bittersweet love song "Sweetest Thing," which the band released a single before the release of "The Joshua Tree." It seems bizarre for Irish rock star Bono to open a song playing a rusty harmonica like a good ol' American boy, but he pulls it off. It's the final two songs of this side that are the most interesting.
The first of these is "Exit," which is unquestionably the most sinister song U2 has ever recorded. The song revolves around a once-religious man who becomes fueled by dark impulses when he can't work out life's mystery with the "hands of love." Unfortunately, the song motivated Robert John Bardo to murder actor Rebecca Shaeffer in 1989.
The closing song, on the other hand, titled "Mothers of the Disappeared," sounds light, bright, and dreamlike, inspired by the tale of the "Disappeared," thousands of people who resisted the Argentine military regime that took power in 1976. Bono learned about the Disappeared during the 1986 Amnesty International Conspiracy of Hope tour, where U2 appeared alongside Lou Reed, Bryan Adams, Peter Gabriel, and Sting.
Now here we are, just past twenty years after the release of the album. The Joshua tree on the album cover - which, by the way, is the most appropriate and one of the best covers of all time - has been dead for eight years. U2's "Joshua Tree," however, is as strong as it ever was. When "Rolling Stone" compiled its list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, "The Joshua Tree" was ranked 26th. On VH1's 100 Greatest Albums list, it was ranked 15th. And on the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame's list of the Definitive 200 albums, "The Joshua Tree" was ranked the 5th greatest album of all time.
Today, U2 is frequently ranked just behind the Beatles on lists of the greatest rock bands of all time. Both spread messages of love, love, love, and both evolved in unpredictable ways with each new album. Since the release of "The Joshua Tree," U2 has continued to evolve, chiefly in the '90s. The first record they released that decade, 1991's "Achtung Baby," was fittingly described by Bono as "the sound of four men chopping down 'The Joshua Tree.'" That album, which I would also very strongly recommend, is U2's second masterpiece, just one of many beautiful albums that they have released throughout their career. But never has the band recorded so natural and smooth a work as "The Joshua Tree."
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