The Joshua Tree

I initially, like many of us, remember when Joshua Tree came out years ago. I was blown away with the words and lyrics from Bono and musically from Edge, Bono, Adam, and Larry. For me personally all of their songs strike a personal place or another and quite a few get me emotional, as I'm sure they do for many.But the songs on Joshua Tree will always be very personal for this fan for many reasons. And they were AMAZING to see live on that tour (as with any tour - highlights of one's life)Best band ever 😀

Great CD, arrived on time, brand new. I'm glad I can find CDs on Amazon because you can't find many in stores anymore.

To say that this was probably a red-letter day in the history of music ... is an understatement.When this first album came out, I missed it completely. I just wasn't listening to anything this mainstream at the time and was caught up in the beginning of absorbing myself with classical music. I was young once and couldn't possibly be that hip to catch everything on the early adoption tip. I view this album probably as important as Beethoven's Missa Solemnis, as that may be what they were going for, or Vivaldi's Stabat Mater. These albums are all equally important and affected both music ever after and the listeners as well.To date, April 2008, The Joshua Tree has several different releases now.The Original Studio Release - c. 1989The Superbit `Gold CD' Release - c. 1990The Remastered Release - c. 2007Amazon also has a combined 460 reviews on this product now and while most of the populous enjoy this, a contingent of listeners don't feel that this measures up to be one of the great rock albums of all time.While I do feel that this is one of the best albums of the last 100 years, easily, it is not a Rock album, per se. I know that may sound deviant to you, but it's very simply explained.The bulk of the songs on this album are ballads. You may not want to hear that, but it's the truth. Some may just be realizing this for the first time, and it's okay, too. While I have no problem with ballads, being big fan of Beethoven and Chopin, masters of just such a thing, I wouldn't dare call Moonlight Sonata (Sonata Quasi una Fantasia) Rock Music at any time. Ballads are just that, they're ballads. They're beautiful and they typically speak on the subject of love, loss, frustration or isolation. That's not a rigid rule, but just a personal observation.1. 'Where the Streets have no name' - Ballad. A song about feelings of isolation and love.2. 'I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For' - Ballad. Another song about the feelings concerning isolation, loss and love.3. 'With or Without You' - Ballad. Another song about the feelings concerning isolation, loss and love.4. 'Bullet The Blue Sky' - Rock Song Primo. A song about political discord, military might, poverty, etc.5. 'Running To Stand Still' - Ballad. A song about isolation6. 'Red Hill Mining Town' - Ballad. A song FULL of double entendres about sex, love and frustration.7. 'In God's Country' - A Bluesy Ballad. A song about a girl ...8. 'Trip Through Your Wires' - Rock Song.9. 'One Tree Hill' - A bluesy ballad. A song a bout a girl, and emotions of love.10. 'Exit' - A unclassifiable song about frustration, danger and isolation11. 'Mothers Of The Disappeared' - Your guess is as good as mine on this one.So ... what's the score here? The ballads heavily outweigh the Rock anthems. While this isn't necessarily an indictment on this album it's just an opinion placed casting light on seeing this album in the proper context. U2 has been branded passion rock since this album came out, and it's probably fitting to say the least, but they are one of the best RnR bands on the planet. People should just see this release for what it is. If one day, the bulk of us decided to start referring to Sting's Ten Summoner's Tales as Rock or even Hard Rock and not Easy Listening, then more of his listeners would be displeased by that as well.The Joshua Tree is a groundbreaking album where a lot of U2 fans split off after this, unhappily. But over the years they gained even more fans with the releases after Joshua Tree, myself included. But it is a masterpiece in every sense of the word.

This CD is truly a musical masterpiece. The audio quality is wonderful. It captures the brilliance of one of rock and roll’s all-time greatest bands. It is certainly one of my best CDs ever.

STILL GOOD TO PURCHASE AFTER ALL THESE YEARS'

Note: this is a review of the MFSL Gold CD version of The Joshua Tree.Since many other reviewers have amply debated the artistic merits of this album (the phrase, "beating a dead horse," comes to mind), I'll direct my review solely to those people considering purchasing the MFSL version, who might be wondering if it offers any sonic improvement over the standard CD version of the album, and, if so, if those improvements are worth the price of purchase.There is no question that the sound on this MFSL release is an improvement over that on the Island Records CD, still featuring the original 1987 mastering, done when the album was first released. However, the improvements on the MFSL disc are subtle. The most noticeable difference between the two discs upon first listen is the difference in volume; the MFSL disc is decidedly louder. I decided to rip a few tracks from both CDs into waveform and then compare them in a wave editor to see just how much louder the MFSL disc is. The MFSL's signal gain is roughly 50% greater than that of the original CD. If one were to compare the two discs without compensating for the difference in volume, that difference would contribute to the perception of improved sound quality in the Gold version. This perception is not entirely inaccurate, however; the signal-to-noise ratio on the original version is lower, and by increasing the volume of the original version to match that of the Gold version, one is also increasing the base noise level. There is noticeably less background noise on the Gold version, even when played at higher volume levels. This helps present a cleaner sound picture. That aside, once I compensated for the volume difference, I really had to focus closely to hear the differences in sound between the two discs. The MFSL disc has consistently cleaner, more focused, more dynamic sound than the original, and generally sounds like a higher quality mastering, but those differences presented themselves to my ears only upon close listening on good equipment. In many "real world" listening situations, the differences will be subtle, to say the least, and quite possibly unnoticeable.The MFSL mastering does not improve the basic quality of the recording or the mix, which is still dense with atmospherics and highly ambient. Reviewers who complain about the sound quality of the original disc and blame it on old mastering techniques may have missed the mark: U2 specifically asked engineer Flood for this kind of sound (as he explained in the "making of" DVD), and as such, I suspect a lot of what is considered poor mastering is actually intrinsic to the original recording. The MFSL version does not alter that. It just presents a slightly cleaner, more accurate version of a rather murky soundscape.So, is it worth getting? Cost and availability notwithstanding, this is definitely the better CD version of the album to have. However, those expecting miraculous improvements might find themselves disappointed. The diminishing returns theory applies here: you will spend a lot for incrementally slight improvements. Moreover, Island Records can't hold out forever; one of these days, they'll likely issue a remastered version of The Joshua Tree, one which most likely will improve on MFSL's nearly two-decades old mastering, for a much lower purchase price. Until that time comes, the MFSL version is the best one out, but given the cost, I suspect only collectors or those whose ears are extremely particular would find it to be a worthy investment.

The dynamic of the CD is not bad. Some songs are better recorded than others