Since the start of the 21st century, Irish rock band U2 has done exactly two things that it’ll be remembered for.
Remember those iPod commercials — back when your music library wasn’t on your phone — in which frontman Bono belted out “Vertigo” while a silhouette with earbuds in danced around? Sure you do.
That ad campaign is iconic. It’ll forever be associated with both the iPod and the early 2000s, before mobile technology really started its Black Mirror-type stranglehold on modern life.
The other major headline U2 has made this millennium isn’t as fondly remembered.
Apple CEO Tim Cook called it “the largest album release of all time,” and Bono hoped his band would “deliver a pint of milk to people's front porches,” but the 2014 release of U2’s Songs of Innocence was a disaster.
The album was automatically added to all Apple users’ iTunes libraries; for those with automatic downloads enabled, it was immediately downloaded onto their iPhones or iPods. Songs of Innocence isn’t even a bad album, but the response from both critics and listeners to the album’s undesired appearance in their libraries soured the reception of the record.
For many — especially those who weren’t fans of the band before Songs of Innocence — U2 will forever be associated with that disastrous experiment in album marketing. But before Songs of Innocence, before the iPod, before Bono wore sunglasses, U2 released one of the most ageless albums: The Joshua Tree.
The Joshua Tree is U2’s biggest success, spawning hit singles and being certified diamond by both the Recording Industry Association of America and Canadian Recording Industry Association. Politically charged and socially conscious, the messages of The Joshua Tree are still pertinent 31 years after release.
The album’s first song, “Where the Streets Have No Name,” is Bono’s hard look at world poverty. The song’s title alludes to the idea that you can guess a person's income and religion just by knowing what street they live on. That contrasts with life in a developing country — Bono wrote the lyrics on a humanitarian trip to Ethiopia — where, as the song title suggests, the streets are unnamed, and there is no such subdivision of people.
Today, at a time when the political climate is harshly divided, “Where the Streets Have No Name” is Bono’s vision of a world in which humanity is united.
“Bullet the Blue Sky,” perhaps U2’s most obvious political statement, criticizes war and the wealthy politicians behind it. Bono calls out politicians for paying their way through problems, and, on the final verse, he poignantly remarks on the strife of war-torn refugees: “See the rain comin' through the gapin' wound / Pelting the women and children / Who run into the arms / Of America.” As the Rohingya people of Myanmar flee genocide, this song’s power continues to resound.
But the most timeless concept alluded to on The Joshua Tree comes on “In God’s Country,” the second track of the album’s second side.
“In God’s Country” is an homage to the Statue of Liberty which, for Bono, idealizes the American ideals of freedom, liberty and ambition. The desert imagery described by Bono — “Desert sky, dream beneath the desert sky / The rivers run but soon run dry” — combines with The Edge’s pulsing, distant-feeling guitar riffs create an isolating, almost sad song.
The difference between dreams and reality is a tough pill to swallow. “In God’s Country” presents two Americas: a romanticized one that embodies the American dream, and the true America — desolate, calloused and unromantic.
Songs like “In God’s Country” should be, and hopefully will be, U2’s true legacy. Well, that and the iPod commercials.
Alex McCann is a junior studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note that the views and opinions of the columnists do not reflect those of The Post. What do you think of U2 and The Joshua Tree? Tweet Alex @alexrmccann.
