10 Perfect Rock Albums Of The 1980s
1. The Joshua Tree - U2
When talking about rock in the '80s, you normally had to look at everything through a specific lens. Either a band was doing forms of alternative rock, new wave rock, heartland rock, or they were just the type of pinups that you would forget about once the video was over. Even though it was expected to be artificial, U2 hit the rock world right on its wound with the Joshua Tree.
After years of being one of the greatest post punk acts on the back of records like War, this is where U2 started to really meld their sound into what we know them as today, making for amazing guitar textures on songs like Where the Streets Have No Name. Aside from the new affects, the humanity in Bono's vocals were in stark contrast to the pretty boys of the day, sounding like he was on the verge of tears on some of these songs.
Even the songs that weren't picked out as singles still hit with the intensity of a sledgehammer, from the intense subject matter behind Bullet the Blue Sky to some of Bono's greatest ever vocals on songs like Red Hill Mining Town. Alongside some of the greatest acts of the day, this wasn't just some summer album that you'd forget about next year. These were songs that had the power to change the world.