The Joshua Tree [VINYL]

Product Information

Thanks to critical and public excitement generated by successive hit singles, popular MTV videos and exuberant live performances, U2 were on the cusp of international stardom. After a period of experimentation to prime their artistic muscle, the band consolidated and refined the unfinished elements from all of their previous records, developing said textures and attributes into an anthemic, expressive and hard-hitting set of songs linked by an artistic objective that would fully separate them from the post-punk scene they were once so closley associated with. "The Joshua Tree", released in 1987, was their most focused album yet, heavily influenced by spiritual imagery, Irish roots music and mythical America. Its savage beauty and ominous disposition, courtesy of Bono's superb songwriting, is pervasive, but not to the extent that it becomes overwhelming. In fact, this is possibly the most uplifting album in U2's catalogue.

Where The Streets Have No Name" and "In God's Country" were made to be sequenced together, IGC takes the momentum built by WTSHNN to the next level. It entered the US album charts at No. 7 and reached No. 1 three weeks later. It was U2's first album to reach No. 1 in the United States. In 1999, it was awarded the RIAA's highest certification, Diamond, with 10 million units sold. The album also peaked at No. 1 on the UK, Canadian, West German, Dutch and Australian charts. In Switzerland, the album reached No. 1 on the charts and stayed there for a total of 33 weeks. The VINYL of my copy is exactly the same as this BUT the sleeve has 9 (nine) lines of text incl additional credit and asterisk after Red Hill Mining Town. Bought new on day of release.

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From the moment they started making waves in 1980, U2 earnestly pandered to high-brow musos and were determined to be taken seriously. Naturally, such emphasis on lyrical obscurity and musical minimalism meant that their early albums were more often detrimentally abstruse. Contradictorily, as the desire to play bigger venues and broaden their audience took effect, their music became increasingly distinctive and melodic, not to mention commercially successful, thus alienating those who had invested in them primarily due to their political and social consciousness. In spite of a significant leap forward in terms of realising their true potential, none of the albums they produced during this time would be a definite contender for "classic album" status.

The 7LP vinyl version of this super deluxe edition box features exactly the same audio and exactly the same books and prints as the four-CD set. The only difference is that the audio is across 14 sides of vinyl! Good price in Germany right now for this vinyl edition. I bought the album in April '87 but have never really been able to get into it, I have tried and struggled over the years, the sound is just too "grown up"/overly serious in a middle of the road kind of way [pun intended].I have a Joshua Tree vinyl with the matrix run out side b as U26 B //4 (upside down triangle) 420 H.