U2

The Joshua Tree: Deluxe and Super Deluxe Editions

Island/ Ume

originally published December 12, 2007

Remember the U2 of the late 1980s, that determined gang of earnest Irish lads who mixed Euro-political concerns with West Coast rock and roll and introspective balladry? Remember the Bono of that era, before the awful S&M club-inspired videos, before the gigantic stage-dwarfing prop fruit and before the unflattering "South Park" parody many would argue isn't far removed from reality? Well, if you do, then certainly you remember - and maybe even have a lyric tattooed somewhere on your person from - the band's landmark 1987 release The Joshua Tree.

Twenty years after its initial release comes The Joshua Tree in both Deluxe and Super Deluxe Editions, double- and triple-disc sets that tack on an additional volume of rarities and outtakes, as well as a jam-packed DVD in the case of the three-disc box. So, does the album carry the same mystery and inspirational grandeur as it did two decades previous? Mostly yes, but a little no.

Time passed between the album's release and now reveals an osmosis effect from even the album's most obscure tracks. The thing leads off with not one, not two, but four sharp, FM-buffered singles ("Where The Streets Have No Name," "With or Without You," "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For," "Bullet the Blue Sky"). It's notable, too, how even the deeper album tracks ("One Tree Hill," "Trip Through Your Wires") have since been woven into various facets of American pop culture.

However, the new digital remastering job subtracts more from the album's resonance than it adds. The arrangements sound even sparser; the band sounds more like separate pieces than a formidable whole, and, at times, Bono's vocals don't match up equally with the output of Edge, Clayton and Mullen, Jr. Though U2 was never a group known for its volume or heaviness, something still sounds absent from The Joshua Tree's new remaster. The original Daniel Lanois/ Brian Eno job was sparse and atmospheric enough, but the new one doesn't add anything especially relevant to that initial work other than more space.

The set's bonus disc contains assorted outtakes, edits and session tracks. It's a nice add-on, though most tracks are probably already old-hat to dedicated U2 buffs. However, with inclusions like "Spanish Eyes" and the soulful "Silver and Gold," the disc provides an interesting, scattered blueprint of the album's conception. The box set's DVD is, though, a bonus well worth shelling out the extra bread for. It compiles the out-of-print travel documentary Outside It's America and a steamy '87 Paris concert to provide a fitting companion piece to the Rattle and Hum flick released one year previous.

So, if you began sporting the Black Flies, pressed leather and silky Bono coif following The Joshua Tree's original release (or still do), you likely can't go wrong with the triple-decker reissue. If you have just a casual interest in the album that endeared U2 to America and the rest of the freakin' universe, you might want to start with the double-disc version. Any way it's cut, diced and repackaged, the original Joshua Tree remains a genuinely visceral and introspective listen with no disco balls or mechanically-altered remixes to be seen for miles.

Michael Andrews

Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes

The Jukes

Hip-o Select

originally published December 12, 2007

Some suckers may still insist, "He ain't nothin' but second tier Bruuuuce!" But it ain't so, sweet baby, it just ain't so! Jersey rock's durable third man on base (behind Springsteen and Bon Jovi), Southside Johnny and his Asbury Jukes have a back catalog ripe for re-examination. Their 1979 release The Jukes was the street-singing rockers' first for Mercury after a three-year stint on the Epic imprint; it also paired Johnny and his Jukes with Muscle Shoals producer/ session man Barry Beckett in place of the E-Street Band's Steve Van Zandt.

With Van Zandt already having established himself as a top songwriter and tutor for the band, his departure is noticed. The group sounds slicker and more laid-back than on previous releases, like '78's Hearts of Stone. Fortunately, Beckett's incorporation of Shoals-style horns and back-up vocalists works more often than not. Also, guitarist Billy Rush was able to pen many good - and a few great! - songs like the climactic crooner "Wait In Vain" and the Dion-inspired "Living In the Real World."

It may not be the Southside's quintessential heartbreaker or hellraiser, but The Jukes is nonetheless a somewhat more refined but still enjoyable-as-hell footnote in the catalog of shades-wearing Johnny and the boys.

Michael Andrews

The Chambers Brothers

People Get Ready… It's The Chambers Brothers

Collector's Choice

originally published December 12, 2007

Remembered for their flower power garage soul single "Time Has Come Today," the Chambers Brothers were one of several blues/ folk club stalwarts whose profiles received a significant boost thanks to the late '60s tie-dyed rock explosion. Now, with several of the group's out-of-print catalog releases making the rounds, analog soul and garage buffs are being treated to a taste of the Bros. before and after their one and only big single.

People Get Ready…, their live debut from 1965, stands out from the rest of the pack thanks to its energetic live feel and the band's rapport with an at-times indifferent crowd. Recorded at small L.A. and Boston venues, it was the first of several live recordings from the Chambers and it captured them as a straight up, gospel-tinged R&B powerhouse. Most of People's inclusions are covers, but the group's spins on Lowell Fulsom's "Reconsider Baby" and the Isley Brothers' proud ode to polygamy, "Your Old Lady," are impossible to resist.

Then, the fellas really knock it out of the park with the harmonious "Louie, Louie"/ "Hang On Sloopy" rewrite "Call Me." If you like your R&B live, loud, loose and greasy, best get to steppin' towards owning a copy of this one.

Michael Andrews