When I first got into listening to music, my mom told me that “music was a gateway to the soul.” I listen to music a lot and the reason I listen to music is to block out the noises outside because music, to me, brings me to my place. Everyone has their own different tastes and no two music tastes are 100% the same. I've always been into classic rock and I like anything from the 1960s, 70s, and 80s. The Joshua Tree just so happens to be one of my favorite albums, and it is a big contributor to taking me away from this world. The Joshua Tree is by an Irish band called U2 and this album is what put U2 on the charts. They released it on March 9th, 1987, and it is by far their most successful album, containing their most successful hits.

I always find myself listening to The Joshua Tree. There are a lot of elements to the album that makes it so good and so unique. Most people are familiar with three songs from the album, “With or Without You”, “I Still Haven’t Found What I Am Looking For”, and “Where The Streets Have No Names”. I am not one to listen to the most popular songs from an album or band.  A lot of bands I listen to, I try to refrain from listening to their most popular songs because I feel like I hear them too much on the radio. But there is something about these three songs that I just adore. “With or Without You”. I particularly didn't like it very much. It was the band's most successful song, but that's not the reason I didn't like it at first. My mom would constantly loop the song, which bothered me a lot. I learned to appreciate it though. I think what really brought me and the song together was this one time when my mom and I had a fight, but I had to go somewhere, so my mom had to drive. The car was full of silence until I decided to play “With or Without You” on my phone, and I quietly heard my mom sing. I still don't listen to “With or Without You” as much as I think I should. But when I do listen to it, it sweeps me off my feet. It's so memorable and Bono’s lyrics and Adam Clayton’s driving bass line really makes the song what it is, plus the guitar The Edge provides. He makes his guitar soft where it needs to be, but he'll be harsh in other places. The song is a chef's kiss, and now I see why it's U2’s most popular song. As for “I Still Haven’t Found What I Am Looking For” and “Where The Streets Have No Names”, I don't have an interesting story to tell. The songs are still special. “I Still Haven’t Found What I Am Looking For” brought me, and still brings me, back to my religion, and my faith, especially with the last verse of the song mentioning Jesus. “Where The Streets Have No Names” is nothing special, but The Edge provides the most memorable guitar riff in U2 history at the beginning of the song and the tone of the whole thing is just so nice. I understand why it's a fan favorite.

I'll keep it brief as I go over the songs that don't appeal to me off the album. The songs being "Running to Stand Still" and "Mothers of the Disappeared". If I were to be honest, I don't think I’ve actually properly listened to either of these songs. Neither of them appealed to me and, in my eyes, they seemed way too slow. I'm not against slow music, I like some slower songs, but these ones just aren't on that list. 

The next couple of songs I want to go through are personally my favorite from the album. "Red Hill Mining Town", "In God's Country", "One Tree Hill", "Bullet the Blue Sky", "Trip Through Your Wires", and “Exit”. I don't know what I fully like about these songs. I'm not sure if it's the tone, the melodies, the way the instruments are played, or the fact that they are less popular than the three previously mentioned songs. "In God's Country" and "One Tree Hill” have a certain tone to them that I like. They are very similar to “With or Without You”, “I Still Haven’t Found What I Am Looking For”, and “Where The Streets Have No Names”, but they seem brighter and happier. I always regarded "One Tree Hill" as sounding like a hymn from church. The chorus to my ears sounds so beautiful, and the lyrics really contribute to the song. "In God's Country" is a lot like “One Tree Hill” and “Where The Streets Have No Names”. It's never particularly been my favorite or one I like, but I can't condone it because it sounds like the songs I prefer on the album. "Bullet the Blue Sky” is the oddball of the album. While all the other songs on the album seem very whimsical and mysterious, this song is hard. Larry Mullen Jr. provides insane drumming that makes the song so tough, and Adam Clayton provides a very solid bass line, but the main aspect of the song is the various guitar noises that The Edge makes that I can not put into words. Plus a guitar solo. The only way I can describe the guitar noises is that it sounds like war and chaos, which fit the song's theme so perfectly. Next, we got "Trip Through Your Wires". Excuse me? Might I ask, did Johnny freaking Cash walk into the studio when U2 was making The Joshua Tree? This song has a solid southern feel to it. I particularly like this song a lot because I'm very into country and southern-sounding music and this song makes me want to walk into a saloon and order a beer. “Exit” made a recent impression on me, mostly because I like the live version they do of the song where they combine it with “Gloria” by Them. I watched U2’s Documentary Rattle and Hum, which introduced me to this killer song. The song to me has no real structure to it, it's just chaos. Bono yells some random stuff, Adam Clayton plays a solid bass line, Larry Mullen Jr. goes ham on the drums, and The Edge plays a killer guitar solo twice and that's the whole song, but it's really the simplest songs that leave an impression on someone and this song left a massive impression on me. It may be simple, it may not be my favorite, but it screams. And finally, last but not least, we have “Red Hill Mining Town”. I could go into so much detail about why this song is my favorite off the album. This song takes me to another universe every time I listen to it. Bono provides such powerful lyrics throughout the song and the song just provides this sort of magical feel. I’ve been caught so many times blasting this song into my ears, and I'll probably go deaf because of this song. There are so many extraordinary aspects to this song that make it so great. For example, the post-chorus sounds so enchanting and the lyrics are so freaking magical. 

Overall, The Joshua Tree has so many great things that makes it such a great album. The popular hits are just the surface of this album. As you dig deeper into the album, you find an array of different songs; slow songs, fast songs, hard songs, soft songs, rock songs, country songs, the list goes on. This album gives you songs that all sound the same but all sound different, and it is such a great album to consider listening to. This album almost guarantees that there is a song for everyone to enjoy. For me, I just like all of them.