Release of Rattle and Hum

In October 1988, the group released Rattle and Hum , a double album and theatrically released documentary film that captured the band’s experiences with American roots music on the Joshua Tree Tour. The record featured nine studio tracks and six live U2 performances, including recordings at Sun Studio in Memphis and collaborations with Dylan and B.B. King . Intended as a tribute to American music, one Rolling Stone editor spoke of the album’s “excitement” and another described it as “misguided and bombastic”. The film’s director, Phil Joanou , described it as “an overly pretentious look at U2″. The film underperformed at the box office and was withdrawn from theatres after three weeks, having grossed only US$8.6 million . Despite the criticism, the album sold 14 million copies and reached number one worldwide. Lead single ” Desire ” became the band’s first number-one song in the UK while reaching number three in the US. Most of the album’s new material was played on 1989–1990’s Lovetown Tour , which visited Oceania, Japan, and Europe. They had grown dissatisfied with their live performances; Mullen recalled, “We were the biggest, but we weren’t the best”. With a sense of musical stagnation, Bono hinted at changes to come during a 30 December 1989 concert near the end of the tour; before a hometown crowd in Dublin, he said on stage that it was “the end of something for U2” and that they had to “go away and … just dream it all up again”.