10 Perfect Rock Albums That Almost Destroyed Bands
9. The Joshua Tree - U2
Considering the sound of the '80s that was happening at the time, U2's the Joshua Tree feels like it's coming from a different universe entirely. Where most of the biggest rock bands of the time were jumping on the synth rock train or going to the Sunset Strip, the sounds coming from the Edge's guitar created some of the most ethereal tones the rock world had ever heard. Which is practically a miracle, considering the rest of the sessions were absolute hell.
When U2 initially got together with Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno to put these tracks together, most of the songs were sketches rather than actual fleshed out songs. Even though tracks like In God's Country are a bit more barebones from a production perspective, it took ages before they settled on the final single cuts, with I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For not gelling until Bono stumbled upon a traditional melody and laid a gospel feel on top of it all.
Nothing compared to the production of Where The Streets Have No Name though, which got so painstaking that Brian Eno actually brought out a blackboard mapping out how the intro arrangement was supposed to be. This was no longer the carefree vibes of the early days. This is practically rock and roll boot camp.