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The songs deal with quests for spiritual and personal transcendence or questioning one's faith in times of upheaval and strife. But it is Bono's rich, soaring voice that imbues every song with drama, meaning, and grace and elevates it to a different and higher plateau. They brimmed with lyrical ambitions but despite the status it enjoys today, this record's weighty aspirations were fueled by introspection. The songs had strong cinematic qualities where every nuance, meaning, symbolism, contrast, and contradiction were carefully and spontaneously interwoven into the fabric of the songs. It was a record that took its listeners to some dark locations. The resulting album was a politically and spiritually charged record where difficult and heavy subjects stood shoulder to shoulder with subjects of intimacy, matters of the heart, and the geography of America's wide-open spaces. As such it was also far removed from the standards of the '80s pop or rock music. It was a marked departure from their previous efforts and it showed a new level of maturity both in their writing and performance. The Joshua Tree represented a different creative landscape for the band. All of this wasn't surprising as the band toured constantly through the US since its beginnings and these issues already provided inspiration for their previous records, most notably in The Unforgettable Fire (Island Records 1984). At one point, the working title was "The Two Americas," referring to "Mythic America and the Real America." This dichotomy between the ideal of the "Promised Land" and the "Real America" is one of the driving forces behind the album. As a result, the songs deal with this country's landscape, ideals of freedom, violence and duality. Over 30 years later, it is still one of the bestselling albums in the history of popular music with more than 30 million copies sold and is rightfully considered to be among the best rock albums of all time.Īt the time, the band was enamored with America and its cultural legacy, and they found inspiration in America's politics, music, social issues, and literature. The album marked the point where U2 made the jump from respected and moderately successful rock band into being rock icons, while it also confirmed their staying power. Released in 1987, The Joshua Tree was U2's fifth album and it topped the charts in 20 countries. The author's prose keeps the reader engaged, as he offers fluid, accessible descriptions of the stories behind the music.
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It is a fine companion for this journey through the stories these songs tell and the meaning this album had and still has.
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Morgan is a media arts professional based in Chicago and this is his debut book. An album has always been considered the highest form of recorded experience an artist could offer. An album is considered the epitome of any artist's art as the songs are a statement of their voice and state of mind as well as a reflection of their surroundings. And yet, albums rather than just singles tell the whole storythey represent definitive, long-standing artistic statements and they tell us where the artists were at that specific moment in time. The unlimited availability and easy access to music, people's short attention spans, and the ways we perceive and consume music, have eroded the mysteriousness that a single record can have and the ways it can send ripples through space-time. These days, it's difficult to perceive the importance of a single album and the impact it can have on culture. Author Bradley Morgan's book U2's The Joshua Tree: Planting Roots in Mythic America dives in deep and takes a closer look at U2's iconic album through the prisms of the many themes that the songs deal with, thus illuminating its depths and its meaning in context of today's divisive world. One such record was U2's The Joshua Tree (Island Records) which reigned supreme back in 1987. Some records simply entertain us and some records simply testify about the times we live in, shift the current tides, open new vistas, and have the power to enhance our understanding of music and culture in general. In this regard, we can view popular music and records as artifacts through which we can better understand the times and places in which they were created rather than being viewed as mere entertainment. The artistic and experimental shifts in music have often reflected the changes that have occurred in our societies. Popular music, like books or visual arts, is often one of the best ways we have through which we can view our own cultural orientation and the times we live in. U2's The Joshua Tree: Planting Roots in Mythic America