10 Perfect Albums That Defined The '80s
4. The Joshua Tree - U2
One of the eternal questions that happens in rock and roll is what happens when you grow up. After being a loud and angry teenager trying to rally against authority, it starts to feel a bit hollow once you've been in the business for a while. If you take it from U2, you don't lose that emotion...it just gets redirected sometimes.
Ever since their early days of post punk, these Irish lads had been working their way to the top slowly but surely, with each respective album getting more and more poignant as the years went on. By the time they hit the Joshua Tree though, they were ready for anything, with songs that could work on an almost spiritual level. From the opening notes of Where The Streets Have No Name, it's almost like you're being beamed into the future, with each song after measuring up with the beating heart of rock and roll.
Though not every song is a barnburner or anything, there's always that spiritual edge in Bono's voice that speaks to something more than what Chuck Berry had suggested all those years ago. These were men who were convinced that the music they were playing would be able to tap into something much greater than just a couple of people jamming in a garage. With over 30 years in the rearview, Bono was right. Music has more value than people realize.