For anyone tired of 'With Or Without You', go watch how it was used in the final episode of The Americans. It's worth listening to the 30th anniversary edition, as not only is the entire original album remastered, but you get a great concert from this album's tour in 1987. It's almost the definition of a quintessential album. The three hit songs from this album are arguably the three most popular of the band's career. This was the moment for U2 when everything fell together, and they finally reached an audience who somehow missed their landmark performance at Live Aid two years earlier. Bono can get on my nerves pretty fast, but I have to think even his harshest critics have to give him props for a lot here, especially With Or Without You and my favorite track on the album, Running To Stand Still. And upon listening again, 51-year old me is pleased to agree with my younger self.

Seventeen year old me chalks this up as an easy 5. One of my Top 10 albums of all time, The Joshua Tree is one of my favorite representations of why an album is greater than the sum of its parts, even though each individual song is so powerful! Initially One Tree Hill was not a popular song, but it made it onto several mix tapes that Scott and I made. I know each one personally and have meditated on each with endless hours and emotional intention. There isn't 1 of the 11 songs that I don't love and that doesn't spark contemplation and joy in me. I could write on and on about how each song has influenced my own writing, spirituality, and outlook on life, and how the musicianship from Bono, Edge, Adam and Larry in this piece of art framed a sound that I gravitated towards back in '87 as well as inspired my search for more of the same moving into college and beyond. Its symbolic and poetic lyrics are rich with very human truths and contradictions, as well as spiritual longings.

There was no album I knew better that year. When I grabbed The Joshua Tree on cassette when dropped my senior year of high school, it was exactly what I needed and solidified that U2 was my favorite band.

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