U2
The Joshua Tree

"The Unforgettable Fire" was U2's "Revolver," "The Joshua Tree" is their "Sgt. Pepper's." Naturally, making the necessary comparisons. The Dublin-based band, led by the undisputed leader Paul Hewson, aka Bono Vox, surprises everyone and conquers the hot, very hot zones of the hit parade: "The Joshua Tree" will remain in the charts for nearly a year and will sell, overall, a figure very close to 12 million copies. For heaven's sake, nothing if compared to the success (yet deserved) of Jackson's "Thriller" (over 50 million copies sold), but we are still talking about crazy, dizzying numbers.

"The Joshua Tree" is the definitive U2 album, the one perhaps less genuine and more calculated, but certainly one of the most overwhelming. Thanks to the considerable help of old friends like Daniel Lanois and Brian Eno, U2 becomes the lords of rock, or rather, the best advocates of that political and committed rock that sees the Dylanian turn (1965, "Highway 61 Revisited") as the true starting point for an entire generation of committed and slightly dark rockers.

In this "The Joshua Tree," there are perhaps fewer ideas, and also less courage, compared to the previous "The Unforgettable Fire," but the songs are stronger and better focused, definitely more incisive. The beginning of "Where The Streets Have No Name" would be enough to understand that we are witnessing something epoch-making: an almost understated start, pulled with the handbrake on, and a rock acceleration as powerful as it is vibrant. Clandestine tracks, sometimes even brilliant, intersect in this sparkling masterpiece: the disdainful rhythm of "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" and the vaguely sugary melodies of "With Or Without You." Not to mention some high-chart pearls: "Exit", "Bullet The Blue Sky", "One Tree Hill" and the superb "Running To Stand Still".

But U2 are not just great musicians, they are also great creators of atmospheres and exquisite lyricists. "The Joshua Tree" is a reactionary album (not in the common sense of the term) and political, dark yet at times even sunny. Stage animals, storytellers of a language eternally suspended between the nostalgia of recognizing themselves in a people and the desire to escape towards less cumbersome paths, leads Bono Vox's band to create an album where every note and every syllable seem to intersect perfectly in a sort of visceral creative knot. Where the streets have no name (translation of "Where The Streets Have No Name"), U2 give them a name: courageous in seeking their own cultural identity, fascinating when they try to remodel, without however cutting with an axe, the mid-eighties rock without being either enticed or tempted by the dance fashion (rampant in those years). Theirs is a genuinely wholesome rock, perhaps a little classicist but undoubtedly effective and powerful, capable, with few notes, of giving body and soul to a sort of revolutionary musical poetry: it is no coincidence that the band is formed by just four elements and, essentially, only three instruments: drums, guitar, bass. Perhaps, even because of these musical restrictions, their tracks appear fluid and incandescent.

"The Joshua Tree" will not be the last great U2 album; "Achtung Baby" will come after, and in between, there's "Rattle and Hum," in short, strong stuff. Albums that, whether you like it or not, have made the history of a certain type of rock, less elaborate compared to the very early Rolling Stones but certainly gritty and (almost) devastatingly impactful. It's a shame that starting from 1993 with "Zooropa," even U2 felt compelled to give up and ridicule themselves with often banal, sometimes even terrible songs ("Discotheque" is the best example). But "The Joshua Tree," with its dark and icy cover, is still today an unmissable must for all rock lovers and for all who love the logical temporal connection between music and lyrics. A masterpiece, of course.