THE JOSHUA TREE...ORIGINAL RECORDING REMASTERED DELUXE EDITION...

Nearly 21 years after the original release of The Joshua Tree, the CD version of the album has finally gotten its due.

In what must be considered an embarrassment of packaging riches, this new "Super Deluxe" 20th Anniversary Edition of the album more than does justice to the original album art and the music has been given a spanking new mastering, supervised by none other than The Edge.

While the original 1987 mastering was never great, much of what has been lambasted over the years as murky sound is really intrinsic to the original recording and/or mix.

It is important to note that this is a remastered version of the original mix, not a remixed version of the original session tapes. Thus, the overall qualities of the original mix remain, such as dense atmospherics and an ambient soundscape.

However, this version definitely improves matters. The volume is roughly 50% greater than on the original mastering.

Overall, instrumental textures are fuller, and bass response is improved.

The 14-track bonus audio disc contains a number of b-sides and unused tracks from the period that have previously been available elsewhere, but have never been collected in one place before.

Six of the fourteen tracks were either previously unreleased or were very rare prior to this release.

The Joshua Tree was the best double album never made (an erroneous notion, as Edge makes clear in his essay), the bonus disc provides them the perfect opportunity to construct their own version of the fabled opus.

 Click here to purchase.