Just when I had given up on R.E.M. I didn't buy Monster because
I didn't like any tracks I heard from the CD, they relaese the new and
I think very solid "New Adventures in Hi-Fi." I like this album because
it creates a mood that is slightly melancholy (what R.E.M. does best) and
because it finds Michael Stip still in a questioning mode about things
like spirituality despite his multi-millionaire status. The new music
is also quite nice with Perter Buck playing not just guitar but Buzoki,
and Banjo as well.
My theory with R.E.M.'s recent albums is that they are an every
other album sort of band N.A.Hi-Fi is good, Monster stunk, Automatic
for the people good, Green stunk, Document was good, and I pretty much
like all the R.E.M. albums before Document though I don't listen to them
much these days except Reckoning very occasionaly.
O.K. what do y'all think?
67 responses total.
Actually now that I think about it Out of Time was before AFTP and it stunk as well so much for the every other album theory.
NEW ADVENTURES, after three plays, has left me utterly cold and uninvolved. It must be my age. I've been an R.E.M. fan since RECKONING, and I found something worthwhile in every album up through AUTOMATIC. (I've got a great car tape of the best halves of GREEN and OUT OF TIME.)
((( linked from the first music cf to the second. ))) I'm linking this because I can't believe that no one else has responded. R.E.M. is supposed to be THE great American rock band; does their new $80 million contract mean that they are washed-up has-beens?
No, it just means they join the ranks of the grossly operpaid and undertalented ;)
I thought, that you were, a rock band,
I think I thought I heard, you, could play
That was just a dream . .
That was just a dream.
honestly, R.E.M. kinda scares me...I like some of their older stuff, but... well, monster just scared me and I didn't like it at all.
The only albums I own are Green and Automatic. The only one I like is Automatic.
actually, on the new REM New Adventure in Hi-Fi album, the b side songs were mucho better than the first ones.... But i also consider REM to be like any other band, they are not perfect and they have crap out sometiems as well. Course living only a hour and a half from their home bases is a bit of a fun thing. I am fed up with Shiney Happy People though,.... i think i gag every time i hear that damn dong.
I seem to be in the minority here, but I *loved* New Adventure...with the exception of e-bow the letter, the overplayed radio single. It's fairly different from the other album of theirs that I own--Automatic for the People--but I still like it. Just don't expect it to sound like their previous stuff. As for the $80 million contract, just because a band is popular and rich doesn't mean they have no talent. Of course, it is easy just to coast on momentum once you're *that* famous, but...
i know, and even the talented people have bad ones. Heck, i think all artists, be it music, art, writing all have a few bad ones. If they were perfect i am sure they would be bored enough to try imprefection! =P
What's a damn dong?
It's a typo for "damn song," d and s being adjacent keys. <krj stifles the Clarence Thomas jokes.>
From the gossip pages: Bill Berry quits! The brain aneurysm the drummer suffered on the last tour gave him a new perspective on life, or something like that. The rest of the band promise to continue with hired drummers.
So is he going on to a solo career of some sort, or leaving the Music Business altogether?
RE#13 -- The rest of the band is probably under contract to continue, wether they want to or not, that $80M doesn't come cheap.
re #14: Supposedly he's retiring but what does that ever really mean with a rock star? re #13: I think I'd quit, too. They've got piles of money and seem to have run out of things to say. Seems like for the last couple of years they've been running on ego..
There's a new R.E.M. item out for the holidays. It's a collection of single 'B' sides and other obscurities, and it seems to have some overlap -- maybe 30%? -- with DEAD LETTER OFFICE. It covers the years the band was on the IRS label, and it's released by EMI as part of their 100th anniversary celebration. There was a time when I would have grabbed this up on sight. Now it's, ho hum, maybe after the holidays. There are similar packages for David Bowie and Blondie.
Looking at the track list it looked like the rest of the tracks included in that collection had a high degree of overlap with the so-called bonus tracks that they stuck onto the end of the "IRS Vintage Years" editions of the IRS albums that they released several years ago. IMHO the great majority of those tracks really sucked, but of course I am an R.E.M. dilettante compared to Ken...
I think Mike is right, that much of this new R.E.M. collection appeared on those "IRS Vintage Years" editions. I should check to see if the R.E.M. version of "Tighten Up" is on there, that's one of the best R.E.M. obscurities.
hmmm.. didn't like that one much, though I've never really dug the Archie Bell (and the Drells!) version, either.. In my opinion the band was quite right in wanting most of those tracks buried, they're substantially inferior to their officially released work, even the B-sides on "Dead Letter Office."
Well, that tends to be the case with most rarities collections - there's a reason some things stay rare.
Well, that's sometimes true and sometimes not. Some artists are very picky about what they release and wind up holding back good material. For example, Ken didn't you tell me that Richard Thompson didn't like "Small Town Romance" and would just as soon have not had it released? Wasn't that why it wasn't available for quite a while (though I'm glad to see that Hannibal/Ryko has re-issued it..)?
Yes, the buzz at the time that "Small Town Romance" was withdrawn was that the deletion was Thompson's price for co-operating with Hannibal/Ryko on the "Watching the Dark" anthology. I have not been keeping up with my Richard Thompson mailing list subscription -- it's too high volume with little real news -- and so I did not see any information about why "Small Town Romance" was reissued.
(supposedly, the band has been experimenting with a drum machine...)
So I've heard. I dunno, I've heard some damn good stuff made with a drum machine, but it's a big departure from where they started.
well, it's not like the stuff they're doing lately is anything like "where they started", so I'm not sure that's an issue.. I think they should recruit "Echo" from Echo and the Bunnymen..
I need to listen to some Echo and the Bunnymen material..
Oh, it's not like I'm condemning them for it. I just think they're another band - like U2 and the Beatles - that's drifted so far you almost have to consider them two separate bands with the same name.
*shrug* Change is always inevitable for music groups, especially those that want to survive. Depeche Mode was changing their sound with almost every album-- for the most part, each one is drastically different. I mean, compare _Speak & Spell_ with _Ultra_. Madonna, on the other hand, was not necessarily changing her sound as often, but she seemed to be having an identity crisis that frequently. I could probably go on with other examples..
re #23: Richard Thompson, SMALL TOWN ROMANCE: The reports on the RT mailing list is that RT consented to have the album reissued because he was horrified that fans were paying $50 and up for a copy, and there was the increasing likelihood that it would be bootlegged. (end drift)
Good choice. Some fans will do anything when something goes out of print. But then, there are the groups that are so fanatic they've got to bootleg everything. It reminds me of the time I learned Strange, a Depeche Mode video collection, went out of print. It was one of those Anton Corbijn/Richard Bell director/producer projects, and I remember the DM mailing list had one person who was desperately trying to find a legitimate copy. As of right now, it's still impossible. I wanted one, so my sister merely copied her own pirated copy for me. I'd prefer to buy it, but it's yet not an option.
That's my first post in this conference. Just to say that I'm only a 90's R.E.M. fan (my first album was out of time, than i buyed the previous document and green). I love all of New Adventures and i quite like "let me in" from Monster. luca_
Do you specifically dislike their earlier stuff or just have no opinion on it?
Not at all :-) I consider myself a *new* R.E.M. fan, i mean i discovered their music only in 1992. I remember me loving songs from Out Of Time and Automatic For the people. These 2 albums makes me love the voice of Stipe. I've read some previous postings badly speaking of Monster and decided to post my previous message. Also I do not very very like Monster but i quite love "Let me in". I think it's just their album i like less (there must be one :-) And considering songs like the last tracks of NAIHF i think they're still very creative. luca_
Change is something we have to deal with. And R.E.M. hasn't gotten that horrid.... they still make a couple of good songs on thier new albums. I did love them in the good old days. But then again, I only lived an hour away from Athens and had a chance to see them in smaller venues and sometimes they would surprise customers at local bars by playing.
Did you ever get that fortune with the B-52's?
jiffer writes >they still make a couple of good songs on thier new albums. What songs do you like most in NAIHF?? I love Electrolite and Leave. Considering my tastes (Green, Out of Time, Automatic) and the fact that cd cost a lot in Italy which previous albums do you suggest me to buy? > and had a chance to see them lucky :-), i would like to see Stipe singing things like "talk about the passion" and "Time after Time". You all are in America, what are they doing now?? luca_
People's favorite R.E.M. albums seem to correlate pretty well to the albums that they first listened to, so your opinions may turn out to be pretty different from my own, but my favorite R.E.M. albums are "Life's Right Pageant" and "Murmur"..
In my case that's true for 2/3 (I bought Green AFTER NAIHF) I'll buy "Murmur" (when i'll have the money :-( and then i'll say you my opinion on it luca_
To attempt to answer sironi's last question, "What are they doing now?" I get the impression that the last world tour really wore them out. Drummer Bill Berry, who suffered a brain aneurysm on the European part of the last tour, has quit the band. Everybody else has been pretty quiet except for guitarist Peter Buck, who has been turning up in various other projects. I haven't heard any rumors of when there might be a new R.E.M. album.
I wonder when Spinal Tap might put out a new album. Maybe throw some free-form exploritory jazz on there.
I don't think they are going anything at the moment... i like Murmur alot as well. A lot has gone on, and I suspect that with the leaving of Berry, the band doesn't feel as complete. I never got to see B-52's like that, but I have heard rumours of such happenings. And with one of the brothers that died from AIDs.
That would be Ricky Wilson, as I understand it. His sister Cindy couldn't handle the stresses of being in the band after he died, so she left after _Cosmic Thing_ was made, apparently.
Just seen today: a new album from Peter Buck's side project, the band Tuatara. The band has gone from a trio to (maybe) an 8-piece; the tune being played in the cd store sounded sort of latin-jazz-ish. Also, I've been meaning to mention that Michael Stipe has published a book of photographs about Patti Smith's return-from-retirement tour.
I've heard a voice about a Stipe solo album with Patti Smith. luca_
Now that could be interesting...has anyone else heard about this?
I've heard it on the italian mass-media. I'll never bet on it :-) luca_
Interesting Michael Stipe interview at: http://www.canoe.ca/JamMusic/oct18_stipe.html Part of the press torrent for the new album, no doubt.
OK, so who will be the first to buy and review the new R.E.M. album? The critics are falling over themselves to praise it.
hehehehehe..that could be a bad sign..
I'm about three or four albums behind at this point and not well motivated to catch up..
I heard a snippet on NPR, and am not interested in the least bit.
It tells you critics are subject to their own tastes at the expense of objectivity, I suppose. But to each their own.
I've listen Day Sleeper in mp3 format. It's a good song, i think I'll buy the album for Christmas. luca_
I read somewhere today taht Day Sleeper is not going to be like the rest of the songs on the album. Day Sleeper is more like their old stuff but the rest is "experimental"
I hope not in the way Monster was :-) luca_
REM have announced a tour schedule for summer 1999. If I read the confusing schedule on the NME web article correctly, they will be appearing at Pine Knob (the big Detroit-area music amphitheatre) on August 23. In the NME article, REM denies that they reversed their decision on touring because of poor album sales for UP.
They've got to have enough money by now that poor sales of one album don't force them into a tour they don't want to do..
REM is doing a Special Guest Star appearance on the Fox TV show "Party of Five" next Wednesday, according to the coming attractions which we just saw. I just picked up a used copy of UP so I hope to report on it soon.
I caught REM on tour in Hannover, Germany on June 29, and I'm on orders
from Ken to report on the experience. ;-)
Though I hadn't seen them in concert before, I feel secure in saying that
it was damn good. They played a lot of old stuff ("So. Central Rain",
"Fall On Me", "Cuyahoga", and one other song off of Lifes Rich Pageant.),
the usual staples from _Document_ and _Out Of Time_, and 4 tracks from
_Automatic_ ("Everybody Hurts", "Man On The Moon" "Sweetness Follows", and
what Stipe called the 'second cousin' of "Find The River" (it was faster,
and with more guitar, but still about as good as the original). 4 tracks
from _Up_ (all pretty decent -- "Lotus", "Suspicion", "Daysleeper", and
"At My Most Beautiful"). Two new songs, which, I am pleased to report,
were very good. Kind of a mix of _Up_ and _Automatic_. Three complaints --
three tracks from _Monster_ were on the playlist, Stipe made the "Ich bin
ein Berliner" joke that I'd already heard four times since I'd been there,
and this German behind me had the lyrics all wrong. I wanted to hit him.
Oh, and I went with a bunch of hot chicks. Yeah, baby.
So, go see them at Pine Knob. You'll enjoy it. I promise.
I wish I'd seen them at the Michigan Theater back in the day. I liked them a lot better when Michael Stipe mumbled. They seemed much more mysterious...
Let's revive this ancient item for the new R.E.M. album, REVEAL, which is scheduled for release Tuesday. Tuesday night, R.E.M. are scheduled to play a song from the new album on the Letterman show.
*nobody* had any comments on the new R.E.M. album?
I'm about three R.E.M. albums behind at this point and don't expect to ever catch up (or, for that matter, proceed any further..)
I agree, there is just less...joy? in listening to these albums? They kinda lost me a monster
I thought New Adventures was okay, but that might just be that I've listened to it enough to get used to it. Monster was the only album of theirs I've actively hated; since then, it's all just been mediocre.
i like old rem. like fables and stuff.
You have several choices: