U2 - Joshua Tree

When you see the success that Savage Garden has had in the US with their first album, you start to think how an Australian band could have cracked the hardest of all markets. Take a band from Ireland and you'll probably find it even harder to believe but that's what U2 did back in 1987. Born with a style that was ahead of it's time, Joshua Tree went on to become one of the biggest albums of the 80's.

The story of the making of the album is one for all fans to watch as it's not everyday that you get to learn about certain events that could have led to the album not appearing at all. We don't know about these things when the album is released and we go out and buy it. This documentary paints the picture of everything that went on before the album was completed and is an excellent companion to those who enjoyed Joshua Tree as much as I did.

An excellent transfer again from Warner Vision. I applaud them constantly for making the most out of the space provided and giving us the best compression possible. What this gives us is the best looking video sourced material currently on dvd. That's a bold statement but it's the best that I've seen so I can say that with confidence.

The full frame transfer on this disc is as clean as they come. Black level is excellent and video noise is kept to a minimum, if present at all. When they revert back to older footage you inevitably end up with a poor image but it's the source at fault here and not the dvd. Even then though, the image is pretty good considering.

There is some noticable edge enhancement in certain interview scenes and some color hue is off when looking at flesh tones, particularly scenes with Steve Lily-white.

Warner Vision have reverted back to 2 channel Dolby Digital. Hmm, I would have prefered an uncompressed Linear PCM soundtrack as this time around the audio is a little lacking in some aspects.

Dialogue is clear at all times but there did appear to be some audio synch problems toward the 33:50 mark that is most likely attributed to that short edit rather than a player problem.

Another nice touch is the themed music playing over the warning/copyright splash screen at the beginning of the disc. Nice touch.

This whole disc is an extra in itself. There is a little section which showcases some upcoming dvd's which is a nice simple touch.

The menus are nicely laid out and this second series of Classic Albums also has chapter stops throughout rather than one entire 60 minunte chapter.

An excellent companion to the Joshua Tree album indeed. Now all warners need to do is either include the actual album on the flip side and they'd have big winners on their hands.

Highly Recommended to U2 fans.