A more lumpen collection of pompous music is quite hard to find. Camouflaged under faux 'rock' stylings, the limited lyrical and musical imagination of Paul Hewson, David Evans, Larry Mullen & Adam Clayton has long been held up as some kind of classic. The arguments in support of this are very lightweight but nevertheless it is still common currency. But with the exception of the first three tracks (Where the streets have no name, I still haven't found what I'm looking for, With or without you) most fans and critics alike would be hard pressed to name any other 'tracks'.
The reason for that is simple, they aren't any good. Most vaguely decent albums of any era can easily muster as many if not more standout tracks - The Joshua Tree simply does not stand the test of time. It is music for students, management graduates and footballers. An album that is devoid of any emotional depth, lyrical sidesteps or political substance (on either a micro or macro level), the only saving grace (and boy am I clutching at straws) is some of Steve Lillywhite's production. The aspects of which are too dull to convey.
U2's rise to prominence is still a thing of genuine mystery. The real pretenders to the post-punk/psychedelic/straight rock world were Liverpool's 2nd best band of the 80's Echo & the Bunnymen (the first being The Teardrop Explodes, who were genuinely psychedelically enhanced and prepared to challenge the normsoc rock that bumped along in the lower reaches of the charts). The Bunnymen looked and sounded the part with Messrs McCulloch, Seargent, De Freitas & Pattinson creating a cohesive and dynamic sound that out stripped the Dublin wannabes easily in the early/mid years. If New Order were Champions League contenders, The Bunnymen were upper reaches of the Premiership then U2 were strictly div 2. (NB On this ranking, The 'mighty' Fall were runaway winner of the World Club Championship).
There is much to detest about The Joshua Tree but the thing that tops it off is the 'iconic' cover... Da boyz all standing nicely huddled in... a... wait for it... desert.... where Gram Parsons' alcohol engorged body was torched and the... Grateful Dead peddled super strength Acid - How very rock 'n roll! They could have only topped it by standing round Jim Morrisons grave in Pere Lachaise or doing an accapella version of Heartbreak Hotel by Elvis' final resting place.
Anyway, enough of this.
There are only two types of music - good & bad. The Joshua Tree fits firmly into one of these types and you know exactly which one.
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