The Joshua tree

"Not only are Bono's lyrics obsessed with America, but country and blues influences are heard throughout the record, and instead of using these as roots, they're used as ways to add texture to the music. With the uniformly excellent songs - only the clumsy, heavy rock and portentous lyrics of "Bullet the Blue Sky" fall flat - the result is a powerful, uncompromising record that became a hit due to its vision and its melody. Never before have U2's big messages sounded so direct and personal".

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"The Joshua Tree, released in 1987, is U2 at their biggest: 11 sweeping, aching anthems to self-doubt, humanity, hope and America-focused anxiety - all straightforward and pop-savvy enough to propel them from arenas to stadiums ... With three other discs and a book of the Edge's moving black & white portraits of the band in the California desert, the box is a thorough portrait of a band on the verge, ready to burst into the arms of America and the rest of the world".

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"Not only are Bono's lyrics obsessed with America, but country and blues influences are heard throughout the record, and instead of using these as roots, they're used as ways to add texture to the music. With the uniformly excellent songs - only the clumsy, heavy rock and portentous lyrics of "Bullet the Blue Sky" fall flat - the result is a powerful, uncompromising record that became a hit due to its vision and its melody. Never before have U2's big messages sounded so direct and personal".

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"Af de tre bonusplader er liveoptagelsen fra Madison Square Garden i New York mest interessant. Lyden er god, og valget af sange går ud over "The Joshua Tree"-pladen. Bandet fremstår skarpt og sultent, og så holder Bono sig ikke tilbage fra at være i dialog med sit publikum. Sådan var han. Sådan er han stadig ... Det kan diskuteres, om det samlede indhold i bokssættet er pengene værd - ca. 800 kr. for cd-boksen, mens lp-udgaven koster godt 1.000 kr. Derfor må udgivelsen nøjes med fire stjerner. Til gengæld kan der ikke sættes spørgsmålstegn ved, at "The Joshua Tree" har nogle evigtgyldige sange med forskellige slags kvaliteter".

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"Med ’The Joshua Tree’ brød U2 for alvor igennem for 20 år siden. Selv om albummet var helt ude af takt med samtiden, var afsøgningen af myternes USA en øjenåbner, der bragte rocken væk fra firsernes kynisme og sortsyn. Nu er klassikeren genudgivet med diverse tilføjelser".

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"Whilst barely the less interesting sonically, its songs are stronger, more focused and - sod it- more uplifting. It remains U2's best-loved, most-bought album, and for good reason ... If they made music as good again, they made none better".

"Twenty years on, their reinvention of stadium rock sounds as impassioned as ever ... It's still the album that bands most want to emulate".