The Joshua Tree

What lies at the intersection of psychedelia and folk music? How can the land speak through us? These are some of the questions that Betty Benedeadly & Braden Guess sought to answer on their month-long journey into the Joshua Tree desert. Their reply took the form of a 7 song instrumental LP that invites the listener into old-time, foot-stompin' pickin' circles, as well as that wide-open, ambient country air, all while maintaining their signature cinematic sound.

A rock & roll open secret: U2 care very much about what other people say about them. Ever since they hit the big time in 1987 with The Joshua Tree, every album is a response to the last – rather, a response to the response, a way to correct the mistakes of the last album: Achtung Baby erased the roots rock experiment Rattle and Hum, All That You Can't Leave Behind straightened out the fumbling Pop, and 2009's No Line on the Horizon is a riposte to the suggestion they played it too safe on 2004's How to Dismantle an Atomic Bomb. After recording two new cuts with Rick Rubin for the '06 compilation U218 and flirting with will.i.am, U2 reunited with Brian Eno and Daniel Lanois (here billed as "Danny" for some reason), who not only produced The Joshua Tree but pointed the group toward aural architecture on The Unforgettable Fire.

Captive is the first full soundtrack album created by a member of U2. Released over a decade before Million Dollar Hotel and a few months before The Joshua Tree was recorded, Captive is music written and performed by the Edge for a somewhat obscure European thriller…