Critical Reception
Upon the release of The Joshua Tree, critics praised "Where the Streets Have No Name". Steve Morse of The Boston Globe noted the "bell-like tones from the Edge fram a search for heaven" and along with the subsequent track on the album, "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For", these songs showed how the group were "pilgrims still on a quest; not preachers who claim to have found answers". The Bergen Record echoed these sentiments, saying the tracks demonstrated how the band was on a personal and spiritual quest. Rolling Stone called it "assertive rock" in their review of The Joshua Tree. The San Diego Union-Tribune said of "Where the Streets Have No Name", "the music charges, like someone fleeing for life". The Washington Post said the track is "a bit oblique lyrically, but the implications are clear in Bono's resolute delivery, Dave (the Edge) Evan's quavering guitar, Adam Clayton's cathedral bass and Larry Mullen's rolling thunder drums".
NME lauded the song as the opening track by saying the album "starts by spitting furiously". The publication praised Bono's impassioned singing and The Edge's guitar playing, which transformed the instrument into "something more than an endlessly abused piece of wood". The review commented that the "last ten seconds are breathtakingly beautiful". The Rocket wrote that the song builds a "wall of sound" that Bono's vocals cut through with a "wail of desperation, as the lyrics agonize the need for personal spirituality". The reviewer compared the opening riff to Simple Minds' "Ghostdancing". Reviewing The Joshua Tree, Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic called the song an "epic opener". The service's Steve Huey, in a review of the song, praised its "insistent, propulsive rhythmic drive and anthemic chorus", qualities he singled out for making it a fan favorite. He called the song the "perfect album-opener", crediting the "slow build of its arrangement toward a climactic peak". Huey also called Bono's delivery "passionate and grandiose" and "his commitment to the material unshakable". He believed the combination of his vocals and the band's "sonic power" is what gave U2 its "tremendous force".
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