"Where The Streets Have No Name" has just the right amount of everything to make it a fantastic start to the album. In my opinion, the intro is very beautiful. The first time I heard The Joshua Tree in its entirety, I listened to the first minute and 45 seconds over and over. Because it was written about El Salvador's economic problems, Bono once told Edge to "put El Salvador through his amplifier".
"I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" is a great song about (I figure) U2's eternal search for God and the answer to the big question. The beginning keeps one guessing about what's gonna happen next, but it's a very good song, and it never fails to give me chills.
"With Or Without You", the famous song as to which in concert, Bono chooses someone from the audience to join him on stage, is a beautifully written song. The song's mood changes often during the song. At the beginning, it's very quiet and restrained, with some very subtly played guitar. When the drums come in noticibly, you can just sense it growing more emotional and powerful.
"Bullet The Blue Sky" is kind of a confusing song, because it completely contrasts to "With Or Without You". It's got a very distinguished beat, and the guitar really matches the mood of the lyrics. When I first heard it, I was completely unimpressed. After listening to it a few times however, I started to get very into the lyrics, and I found it was actually written about conflicts in an European country (Poland, I believe...), and I realized it was actually a very good song.
"Running To Stand Still" is one of my absolute favorite songs of all time. It's just always impressed me. It's not even a very musically intricate song, but the lyrics are amazing. The piano is beautifully played by Edge.
"Red Hill Mining Town" is one of those few songs by U2 as to which they never speak the full title of the song. It's not a bad song, but wasn't ever one of my favorites.
"In God's Country" is an upbeat song with good guitar, and some easily misheard lyrics. I read someone's interpretation of the first few lines. "Desert Guy...dreamed I saw a desert guy..."
"Trip Through Your Wires" is a kind of bluesy tune. I got pretty confused when I first saw the title, but after you listen to it, it's not so confusing. The guitar is fancy, and the mood is somewhat different from most of the other songs on this album.
"One Tree Hill" was written for someone's funeral (I can't remember the man's name), but it's very different. The intro to this song was very unlike everything else written by U2 up to that point. Later, this particular sound could be heard in lots of songs, like off of Achtung Baby, for example.
"Exit", an extremely good song with very strong, powerful lyrics, melts with the guitar to make it a real 'brouhaha' of sounds. It's very serious, but I love the live version in the movie Rattle and Hum.
"Mothers Of The Disappeared", a song dedicated to those mothers who lose their children in war, is a solemn song, but yet at the same time very beautiful.