U2 release "The Joshua Tree" in March 1987 and proved to be both a commercial and artistic success. On the commercial side, their album sold 300,000 copies in one week and three singles reached the top ten with "With or Without You" and "I Still haven't found what I'm looking for" hitting the no 1 spot on the Billboard. But it was artistic in a sense that U2 had got most of the sounds right and Bono this time had started writing music.

  Loneliness and emptiness are the first words that tend to describe the album, as seen by the cover photo of U2 in the desert. And this is what "The Joshua Tree" is - an exploration of the dark side of life and its adversities, and how people thrives or fails in such and environment. Furthermore, "The Joshua Tree" does another first for U2, introducing relationships as part of their exploration into life - seen in such songs as "With or Without You" and "Trip through your wires".

  "With or Without You" is one song that looks into the complexity of relationships and how it is almost a no win situation if one finds the wrong lover or they decide against the idea of a relationship - pitting them to a life of loneliness and depression. The song states that one case may force the other to give too much - "You give it all, but I want more...". At the other end, loneliness could mean an endless yearning for companionship - "I'll wait for you". As the song progresses, it works up the volume with Bono singing loudly over the Edge's soaring guitar, thus emphasising the desperation of the song.

  If there was a song that explores the richness of living in a world of adversity "Where the streets have no name" is one that tops the list. The song is about human sacrifice at different levels. At one level is the lives of the starving people in Ethiopia and how they are able to retain their love for each other despite the fact they have lived through war and famine. At the same time, the song looks how people in the cities have lost their love and respect for the people suffering from these adversities, as well as each other - ".,.but our love turns to rust". The song is performed by an inspiring and energetic accompaniment that suceeds in introducing a sense of restlessness and escapism.

  U2 also use America as a backdrop in displaying the theme of the album while also displaying the band's love (through "In God's Country") and dislikes ("Bullet the Blue Sky") of the country. Bono - "I love America and I hate it. I'm torn between the two. Last year I spent some time in El Salvardor and Nicaragua and saw the other side of America - Amerika with a k! I saw American foreign policy affecting the everyday lives of farmers and children. I'd gone to America and embraced America and America had embraced U2. But now I had to re-think, and a song like "Bullet the Blue Sky" is a result of that. I have two conflicting visions of America, one is a kind of dream landscape, and the other is a kind of black comedy".

  Throughout the making of "The Joshua Tree", the quality of the songs were also high, with many good songs not making it to the album, but to the B-sides. Songs such as "Sweetest Thing" where Bono sang for his affection for his wife and "Spanish Eyes" were some of those songs that didn't make it because (as Bono says) U2 did not want to be known as artists who write "untypical" songs. Ironically, this song was re-released and remade as a single in 1998.

  By now, U2 had successfully achieved what they wanted to do through "The Joshua Tree" and have thus made it their most successful album. ""The Joshua Tree" is the best record we've made to date, but it well not be our bes record by a long shot" - Bono.

  As soon as the album was released, U2 had already set out on a 6 week tour around America starting from April 1987. And wherever they went, they attracted attention. But there was no one more excited than the press, with the "Time" magazine printing them on the cover with the words "U2 - Rock's hottest ticket" boldly labelled on the front cover. This made them the third rock band to appear on the magazine after "The Beattles" and "The Who".

  U2 then returned to Europe to finish off their tour. As they toured, they had supporting acts such as Lour Reed, the Pretenders, UB40 and BAD. They then return back to America at the end of summer performing in front of even larger crowds - reaffirming their status as the hottest band in the world.

  But their return also signalled a yearning to discover their musical roots, even though U2 had done so in their new album. Their yearning was driven by their stunning success with their recent album - "After "The Joshua Tree" I really fell we can do whatever we want to. I don't feel that there's any area of music that we can't get involved in." - The Edge. So after their Los Angeles concert, Bono set down with Bob Dylan and T-Bone Burnett and wrote a whole series of songs for singers he admired. One such singer was B. B. King where Bono wrote "When Love Comes to Town" and "Lucille" for him.

  This proved to be another significant step for U2 when they decided to again document their learning experiences on to film. "Under a Blood Red Sky" and their recent video of "The Unforgettable Fire" were music videos that were slightly irrelevant to what they were doing now and so the scene was set for their future film "Rattle and Hum".