Year of release

1987

Global sales

25 million

Genre

Rock

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Finally nailing their combination of politically-aware lyricism and cinematic soft-rock, The Joshua Tree was the album to launch U2 into the stadium stratosphere - where they've resided ever since

Best tracks:

With Or Without You
Where The Streets Have No Name
I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For

Top facts:

• The album's tracklist was apparently decided upon by the late Kirsty MacColl, who ordered the songs in order of personal preference - starting with her favourite (Where The Streets Have No Name) and ending with her least favourite (Mothers Of The Disappeared).
  
  
• The dark-edged Exit, which Bono once likened to the "black beauty" of Nick Cave's music, became embroiled in a court case when a disturbed stalker claimed its lyrics incited him to murder the actress Rebecca Schaeffer.
  
  
• Bono has since admitted that many of the album's lyrics were hastily composed: "There were a lot of lyrics that were written in five minutes instead of five hours. I remember the Eighties for that. The first two lines of Where The Streets Have No Name were just written on the mic - 'I want to run, I want to hide / I want to tear down the walls that hold me inside'. It's teenage poetry!".
  

If you like this, try:

Coldplay: X&Y
Bruce Springsteen: Born In The U.S.A.
R.E.M.: Out Of Time

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