Originally
published in The Aquarian Weekly
December
5, 2007
U2
/ The Joshua Tree: 20th Anniversary Re-master /
Universal
The
Joshua Tree has always
been
at or near the top of my list
of
the best albums of all time.
Even
casual U2 fans like me see
it
as the band's masterpiece.
The
re-mastered 20th
anniversary
edition of the great
album
does not disappoint. This
is
not a case of a band cashing
in
by making fans purchase
something
thatÕs been released
over
and over in different forms.
This
album has never before
been
re-mastered, and the
sound
of the new disc is brilliant.
The
songs are familiar to
anyone
who has been attentive
to
popular music since the album
was
released. After years of shouting
from
atop the barricades, this album
found
the band looking inward, and
producers
Brian Eno, Daniel
Lanois
and Steve Lillywhite
provide
perfect aural settings
for
the mostly introspective
songs.
The stark Anton Corbijn
photographs
that accompany
the
CD perfectly reflect the music
within.
The
deluxe package includes
a
second bonus audio disc of
b-sides
and rarities from the JT
sessions.
What makes these
songs
particularly interesting is
that
they seem to recap where
the
band had been and where
they
currently were, while
presaging
the direction in which
they
would soon be headed.
The
boxed set edition includes
the
two discs, plus a DVD that
features
a concert filmed in Paris
in
1987.
In
A Word: Unforgettable
Original
Disc: A+
Bonus
Disc: B+
—by
Ken Shane