from Amazon's website:

Having nearly exhausted their capacity for pop-song politics on War and The Unforgettable Fire, U2 turned toward themes of personal identity and complex relationships on The Joshua Tree. Not that the group was willing to come down off the barricades entirely: "Mothers of the Disappeared" and "Bullet the Blue Sky" turned a jaundiced eye toward Central America and the United States' role there. But the predominant mood here is one of self-discovery and the hunger for something more on tracks like the pulsating "Where the Streets Have No Name" and the gospel-ish "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For." The album's masterstroke, however, is "With or Without You," a nasty love song dressed up as an ode of devotion and care. It ranks with the Police's "Every Breath You Take" as the most misread smash hit of the '80s. --Daniel Durchholz




I was a junior in high school when Joshua Tree was released. I didn't understand the big deal surrounding the album and in fact ended up getting sick of all the talk and the constant sounds of  the hit singles on the radio. Bono irritated me for no reason I could explain.

But then last year I was driving home late at night, when the dashboard lights and the quiet hour make everything seem surreal and the mind is more vulnerable to loneliness and heartbreak. "With or Without You" came on unexpectedly on Jack 102.7 and suddenly I found myself bawling like a baby.

I thought it was the most beautiful thing I'd ever heard, that it perfectly explained how you could both love someone and hate them at the same time. Of course I knew and know U2 is about far more than heartbreak and personal feelings...that they can be tied up in political messages as well...but that song haunted me for days afterward as did "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" when I finally listened (really listened) to Joshua Tree for the first time.

Now I can't imagine not owning the album!

The summer of 1994...my  friends and I were driving along the hills surrounding historic Ellicott City late at night, enjoying the windows rolled down and the feeling that usually comes with having a weekend and few things to worry about. Our fearless leader was driving just a tad too fast and blaring his van stereo as usual when a song I had never heard before came on the radio....synchronized beats and raw energy and lyrics about "f$*cking like an animal."

I asked one of my pals what the song was and she told me right away. "Closer" by Nine Inch Nails. The guy singing was someone named Trent Razor and words like 'isolation' and 'absence of faith' and 'my whole existence is flawed' filtered out to me amidst all the carnal rage of the music. I loved it almost immediately, even though it was more harsh than the stuff I was regularly listening to at the time. But it felt wild and more honest than most anything I'd heard that summer.

To this day I think about that summer night whenever I hear Nine Inch Nails and I wonder how sixteen years have gone by and carefree times with old friends on summer nights is harder to come now that we're all on different paths. Somehow...summer seems more connected to songs that leave you open and ready for anything...

"Coming Around Again" is my favorite Carly Simon song, even if it does make marriage sound like the bleakest thing ever. The opening line: "Baby sneezes, Mommy pleases, Daddy breezes in" sets up the whole idea of how people in love can get into a rut so bad, nothing feels like feeling anymore and falling apart is preferable because "there's more room in a broken heart." And yet amidst the sadness, Simon insists so earnestly (and with such touching pain) that she does believe in love, with the rising back-up vocals to support her.

Not only are the lyrics themselves truly affecting...the way Simon sounds so real just makes it all the more heart-breaking. It's a far cry from the infamous "You're So Vain."

Macy Gray, whose gravelly voice and quirky charms have somehow always oddly calmed me, really delivers on her new album The Sellout. It's rare that I like every song on an album, especially in the digital age when you can be impatient and picky about wading through an entire CD. But tracks such as the highly danceable "Lately" and tough girl optimistic "Beauty in the World' have me listening over and over again. Not since she sang with Beck on her album The Trouble with Being Myself have I felt such a thrill at hearing new Macy Gray.

I close my eyes to "Lately" and not just the words, not just the music, but the whole spirit of it gets to me. It's about a woman who dumped her boyfriend because she was terribly insecure and now that she's got her act together  (she's popular and "been comin up like a palm tree") she wants him back. I love the way the chorus swirls round and round like great disco songs do and the male background's cynically chanting "uh huh" brings it all together.

I recently received a free sample of Tide's Swash Fresh it Up. The directions on the side of the bottle, "lay flat (the clothes, not you!)," cracked me up, but other than that nothing special came from the experience of using it.  The idea of "refreshing" last night's clothes just doesn't turn me on...