Search - U2 :: Joshua Tree (Remastered / Expanded) (Super Deluxe Edition) (2CD/DVD)

A classic album gets the royal treatment

Giacomo Holdini | Portland, Oregon | 11/20/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Nearly 21 years after the original release of The Joshua Tree, the CD version of the album has finally gotten its due. In what must be considered an embarrassment of packaging riches, this new "Super Deluxe" 20th Anniversary Edition of the album more than does justice to the original album art (poorly served on previous CD releases), and the music has been given a spanking new mastering, supervised by none other than The Edge. The "Super Deluxe" edition comes in a sturdy, 6" x 8" x 1.5" box with fully restored cover art. Inside is a 56 page hardcover book containing liner notes, lyrics, pictures, single-sleeve art, technical information, and a number of essays, including ones by Bono, Daniel Lanois, Adam Clayton, Anton Corbijn, Brian Eno, and The Edge. An embossed envelope contains five more Corbijn photos, printed on 5" x 7" sheets of textured, "antique" paper. The three discs all come in their own mini-LP gatefold sleeves: the album disc is in a quasi replica of the original LP sleeve, whereas the bonus CD and DVD are in similar sleeves featuring alternate photos. No detail has been overlooked - even the CD labels are patterned after the spindle label on the original LP. This is a truly "super deluxe" package.



But what about the sound? While the original 1987 mastering was never great, much of what has been lambasted over the years as murky sound is really intrinsic to the original recording and/or mix. It is important to note that this is a remastered version of the original mix, not a remixed version of the original session tapes. Thus, the overall qualities of the original mix remain, such as dense atmospherics and an ambient soundscape. However, this version definitely improves matters. The volume is roughly 50% greater than on the original mastering, and the continual tape hiss that was present even in between tracks on the original CD has been removed. (Some hiss intrinsic to the original analog tapes remains, but is greatly reduced from the original mastering.) Overall, instrumental textures are fuller, and bass response is improved. Audiophiles will also be happy to note that a visual analysis of the waveforms reveals no clipping. Comparison between this release and the mastering on Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab's Gold Ultradisc II release (out of print) reveals very little difference between the two. Whatever differences are present are extremely subtle, and a judgment as to which version presents better sound becomes more a matter of splitting atoms than splitting hairs. Generally speaking, though, all but the most critical and particular listeners can feel confident they are getting the best sounding version of this album yet released with this new mastering.



The 14-track bonus audio disc contains a number of b-sides and unused tracks from the period that have previously been available elsewhere, but have never been collected in one place before. Six of the fourteen tracks were either previously unreleased or were very rare prior to this release. The songs range from excellent to barely worthy of release ("Drunk Chicken"), but are all worth having if you are any sort of completist. For those who have always imagined that The Joshua Tree was the best double album never made (an erroneous notion, as Edge makes clear in his essay), the bonus disc provides them the perfect opportunity to construct their own version of the fabled opus.



The concert presented on the DVD goes a good distance toward filling a gap that has existed in the U2 catalog for the last two decades - namely the absence of a full-length concert video from The Joshua Tree Tour. This video (the liner notes say it was filmed, but industrial-size video cameras are clearly visible onstage) features the entire concert U2 performed in the Paris Hippodrome on July 4, 1987, minus three cover songs (the concert openers "Stand By Me" and "C'Mon Everybody," and a rendition of "Help!" that they played between "Electric Co." and "Bad"). The band is in top form, playing a classic lineup of their songs, many of which have not been heard on later tours. Notably, they did not perform "Where the Streets Have No Name" at this concert, an omission that occurred a number of times on the European leg of the tour. The video direction is refreshingly plain, avoiding the overly moody lighting Phil Joanou employed in Rattle and Hum (the Paris footage was directed by Gavin Taylor), and without the short-attention-span jump cuts of the band's recent concert videos. The sound is an excellent LPCM stereo mix - not surround, it's true, but every bit as good as you would expect from a live album on CD. The sound is actually better than either the live tracks on the Rattle and Hum CD, or the fan club only release of the 1989/1990 New Year's concert at the Point Depot.



The documentary, "Outside it's America," basically plays like Rattle and Hum's little brother, only in color and not as well shot - and, frankly, not as interesting. On the other hand, it does not have the myth-making posturing that so marred Rattle and Hum. Both this documentary and the concert video show a more human, down-to-earth, less "god like" side of the band. Still, the documentary has a lot of footage that will likely be of interest to die-hard fans only. (It is worth noting that the documentary was directed by Barry Devlin and Meiert Avis, not Phil Joanou, and therefore is not an assemblage of rejected Rattle and Hum footage, as has been speculated elsewhere.) The two music videos are fair makeweights, but are hardly essential. The selling point of the DVD is without question the concert video, which many fans will find invaluable, making this set an easy choice over the two-disc Deluxe edition.



On the whole, this is an outstanding issue that more than makes good on its promises. Thoroughly recommended."

"We stoop so low ... to reach so high"

Steffan Piper | Palm Desert, CA | 02/02/2008

(1 out of 5 stars)

"
Dear Bono, Edge, Larry and Adam ...





I love you guys, your music and your energy. I have been a fan of your music since the early 1980's when I was but a boy growing up in Felixstowe, England. When I first heard "The Joshua Tree", I was given the tape by a school friend. I slapped it in my auto-reverse walkman and began shoveling the snow from my walkway during a cold winter in Anchorage Alaska. When you launched Zooropa and Achtung Baby, I thought both albums were magnificent and purchased them several times during the next few years - even though your American audience dwindled, unsure of whether they could get behind a heavy Euro-electro beat in the midst of Nirvana. I've happily supported you guys for a long time. Your music has always made my life seem bearable even its darkest moments. I will always be in your debt.



Bono, several years ago, you wrote a letter of thanks and posted it on Amazon for the review I left of The Million Dollar Hotel Soundtrack. I've trimmed that review down over the years, but it's still up for anyone to read. A few months later, you had your letter of thanks removed from Amazon for reasons of your own. I never emailed you about this as I thought it was not necessary, but should your loyal fans also retract their love of you? I hope not. However, this release though of "Joshua Tree" will probably win you little friendship.



My loving wife (the audiophile) recently bought the $50 version of this release for me, I could barely contain myself when I saw it. But I was severely disappointed by the audio quality of the re-mastering (which in fact it wasn't re-mastering at all - but some joker with a bank of equalizers and too much diet Pepsi). The result of this process has made this music even less-dynamic than the original release, and comes across badly and poorly planned. I'll save you all the technical info regarding the re-mastering process used here as it's currently flooding the internet like a California flash flood after fire season. The current wave of MP3 re-compression is not re-mastering by any measure, regardless of what the sales rep told you before you agreed to sign on for this. Needless to say - a lot of people have been egregiously bruised by this.



I don't mind paying $50 for the other materials enclosed, but labeling this CD as a re-master is misleading. Even paying $22 for the other edition is also suspect. This is a CD for people who listen to music on bud headphones or senior citizens who buy BOSE equipment, for those of us who listen to, and enjoy sound - this release comes off like a slight-of-hand bamboozle aimed at an unsuspecting audience.



The record labels have done a great deal to push away their oceans of loyal fans over the years and thus record sales have severely dwindled. Please don't blindly fall into line and knowingly or unknowingly have a hand in the same type of behavior.



In your "U2 Go Home - Live From Slane Castle" DVD, you thanked all your fans, including me, for spending about $500 on your products over the lifetime of the band. I was happy to have spent that money and always will be, but allowing this type of stuff to go on with your catalog is irresponsible and unforgivable.



I don't know what the answer is, or the best way to solve this. I'm a writer. I don't work in the music industry or for a record label. Most of my friends that do work for labels, here in Los Angeles all hate their jobs and are always on the hunt for something better. Only a concerted effort can rectify this issue. If you care as much for your own work as you do for world policy then maybe we can get somewhere with this. With all the respect in the world.





Sincerely ... and very much concerned,



Steffan Piper

Los Angeles, California



"

Caveat Emptor

El Grande | Fort Wayne, IN | 11/20/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"So... Just like 20yrs, 8mos ago, I was standing in front of the local CD retailer to be the first to pick up The Joshua Tree. I succeeded yet again. :-)



Being the looney that I am, I bought the "one-up your friends" version with the DVD and the book. I've had a little time with each of the above, and I thought I'd share my findings with those who WEREN'T the first in line to grab the 20th Anniv. Ed.



The first CD, the reissue of the original material, is what you're REALLY buying this for, of course. I haven't listened to every second of the CD yet, but after listening to about 20mins of it (pieces of every song), it definitely is an improvement over the original release. Whereas the 1987 release sounded murky and muddy, with poorly-defined bass being its worst "feature", the new one is noticeably clearer. It won't knock your socks off, but they did clean it up. It also plays a little bit louder than the original, but not massively so.



The best feature of disc 1? They no longer have the end of "One Tree Hill" cut off and tacked onto the beginning of "Exit"... The chapter break (or whatever you call it) is now in the right place. I don't know if later pressings of The Joshua Tree had this problem, but my first-run copy did (and does).



The second disc is mostly material that we've seen before, either as b-sides or in the singles collection of a few years back. Only the last five tracks are "new", or at least new in the sense that you probably haven't heard them before unless you're a fanatic. I'm not going to review these songs, or indeed the rest of the audio, since if you're interested in buying this set you probably don't care if the add'l material is any good, now do you?



The DVD, however, could affect your decision about whether or not to buy this set instead of the audio-only set. To the contrary of the logo on the back of the box, the video material is NOT in Dolby Digital. I thought that I'd made a mistake with the setup of my player, but after switching back and forth between a couple of other discs, I can only conclude that this is in fact NOT in surround sound.



The concert on the disc is a good show, near as I can tell after a half-hour of watching. It's shot on video (in 4:3, like all the video on the disc) and is filmed at least partially at night, so there are occasional instances where the stage lights "smear" as the camera pans across them, but it's nowhere NEAR as bad as the Red Rocks show (which I bet we'll NEVER see on DVD). It's interesting to finally have an official video from the era that's not "Rattle and Hum", and the performance of the band at the peak of its powers is quite engaging.



The two music videos are interesting but, again, nothing earth-shattering. The alternate video of "With or Without You" isn't a giant departure from the one we're all familiar with, but I will say I'm glad they didn't use that one. The video for "Red Hill Mining Town" is presently up on YouTube so you can take a gander and decide whether or not you think it's something you MUST have.



The documentary is pretty cool (again, from what I've seen of it). It even includes video of the shooting of the now-famous Time Magazine cover, among other things. I think this and the concert make the DVD worthwhile.



Also in the box is the hardback book and a few photos. The pictures are Anton Corbijn shots that are printed on heavy paper stock and sheathed in a cardboard envelope. They're "suitable for printing", as they say, but I'll probably just leave them in the box. The hardback book contains pieces written by several of the gents responsible for the original record, some more photos, the lyrics to all the songs, and several pages of credits at the end. A nice piece that I haven't read every page of yet, but I will definitely set aside a half hour to pore through it.



So there you have it. I'm giving this four stars instead of five because of the decision to not mix the audio for the DVD into Dolby Digital or DTS. Another reason for the 4 stars is that I feel the remastering could've been a little more impressive... It should've been in the SACD or the DVD-A format, for instance, and a little more time could have been taken to make it even clearer-sounding.



I'm sure that Island will happily produce a hi-res audio version of this at a later time and I can buy The Joshua Tree AGAIN."