The verses hold on to the tonic chord for several lines, to drop down to a IV, to pull up to vi, to V. There’s a sense that this song MUST be performed.
#Bullet the blue sky topic full#
It’s an epic, driving, pulsating sound: full of atmosphere and determination. The song feels like a stadium, even within the studio.
Drums begin to beat as the guitar grows in scratchy urgency. Bass guitar rolls in, filling the bottom layer. Then, The Edge’s clean electric guitar with tempo-synched delay creates a fractal-like driving texture. The album opens with atmospheric synth pads fading in, morphing into the sound of an organ playing chords. I love the sound of this album, especially the guitar. I made great use of 3/16 and 5/16 tempo-synced delays in my electronic music over the past 10 years, directly inspired by The Edge. Without the delay, these are still good guitar riffs, but so much simpler than what we’re hearing on the album. To summarize, The Edge frequently syncs the delay to dotted 1/8 (aka 3/16) or 1/8, and isn’t afraid to have several repeats to create depth of space and rhythmic textures. There is a great study of The Edge’s use of Delay at. In most cases, Pink Floyd’s delays were either synched to the 1/8th note or a triplets, that’s 1/3 of a 1/4 note, with several repeats. This can be heard on the bass in “ One Of These Days” from 1971 or the guitar in “ Run Like Hell” from 1979. Pink Floyd, especially guitar David Gilmour, made frequent use of delays synched to the tempo of the song. Les Paul’s guitar in “ How High the Moon” features one of the earliest uses of delay created using tape. The Edge’s Use of Delay EffectsĪ musician, especially a guitarist, would find it impossible to talk about this album without mentioning The Edge’s use of delay. They’ve managed to naturally find a brilliantly glowing spot between the genre’s of post-punk, pop, and rock here I still think of this as their most perfect album. For a musician and songwriter, it provides rich and exciting possibilities for sound within the context of a rock song. I always loved “The Joshua Tree” no matter what my tastes were at the time. My opinion on some albums have come and gone as I’ve progressed through different stages of my life. That means I undoubtedly heard and listened to it many times when I was ten years old. My parents bought a copy of this CD soon after it came out. This week, I’ve been listening to U2’s amazing fifth album “ The Joshua Tree” from 1987.