U2

Those who love bluster and are scared of Germany wrongly believe that ‘The Joshua Tree’ is U2’s best album. That’s simply because this particular leg of their journey to rock’s dusty holy grail houses their most famous songs: ‘With Or Without You’, ‘Where The Streets Have No Name’, ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For’. Their best effort is actually ‘Achtung Baby’, but given that ‘The Joshua Tree’ is their biggest album, you’ll already know whether you’re going to fork out for this three-disc, super-deluxe, digitally retooled edition. The real fun here comes on two bits from the behind-the-scenes documentary from when they had a sense of humour about themselves: Bono being cradled by a fat topless man in dungarees singing ‘Break On Through’ by The Doors and, later, saying the immortal words: “This is a gospel song with a kind of restless spirit!” Quality!

Dan Martin