10 Most Frontloaded Albums In Rock History
1. U2 - The Joshua Tree
On the album that propelled them to world conquering megastardom, U2 didn’t just open proceedings with the biggest songs on the record, they kicked things off with four of the most famous songs they’d ever record.
The A side of 1987’s The Joshua Tree is ludicrously stacked. The anthemic “Where The Streets Have No Name” runs into the soulful “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” and the plaintive “With Or Without You”, then kicking up a gear with the bombastic (and slightly embarrassing) “Bullet The Blue Sky”.
The rest of the album isn’t too tonally different from this sequence, but The Joshua Tree’s back half doesn’t have the strength in songwriting as this unimpeachable quartet of tracks. “Trip Through Your Wires”, for example, is solid roots rock but can’t compare with the transcendence of the early tracks.
U2 were on a mission to become the world’s biggest band, and the intention is clearly to capture listeners early on this album. When you get the job done with the first side, it’s fine to relax a little on the second.