And then added some shitty tinsel just for laughs. They just took a buzzsaw to the old machine and rebuilt it from the ground up, smashing the shards back together with abandon. The actual tree itself, is still in the desert, but not where everyone thinks. U2 is one of the biggest bands in the world, and perhaps their most famous album, The Joshua Tree, was released in 1987. The dizzy “Even Better Than The Real Thing” and snarling “Until The End of the World” lay the groundwork for an old-school-U2 catharsis on “Ultraviolet.” “Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses” is your romantic radio hit. Monument to the fallen Joshua Tree from U2s famed album cover / Darwin, CA. It’s all big stuff, but it shouldn’t obscure the fact that Achtung still contains everything fans love about U2. Alone among all the groups to emerge from the post-punk era, U2 channeled their yen for moody, experimental aural textures into clearly defined rock.

Watching Europe change, and The Edge’s marriage dissolve, right before the band’s eyes. U2 have spent the vast majority of their career as the biggest rock & roll band in the world, a title that captures not only their popularity but their importance. The magic moment when “One” cohered in the studio. Achtung received plenty of praise back in the day, but as it pushes 30 (yikes), the stories surrounding its recording are turning it into an untouchable Exile On Main Street-style legend: Sessions with Eno and Lanois in Berlin as the Wall crumbled. The album’s named after a line from Mel Brooks’ Nazi-clowning comedy The Producers, for godsakes. But this is my favorite version of the band: Funny, sly, sometimes angry and world-weary, but raging against a wounded heart with booze and smokes and roaring laughter with great friends. This was the U2 I started with, which some might consider mid-period, or an aberration from their truer, more earnest selves.

The distorted vocals, the psychedelic guitars, the unmistakable European-ness made my spine tingle.

It scared me (a Catholic school kid in rural Iowa). Lured by the single “Mysterious Ways,” I bought this album when I was 12 years old.

U2 the joshua tree cover lake mead