R.E.M. news - yay

Hmm, they've been playing "Discoverer" a lot on the local alt-rock station so I assumed that was the single.

TO THE FINAL FAIL

lol. yeah, it's sad.

i thought the phrase was "my shit smells like roses"

Somewhere Bill Berry's all "Man, glad I got off that train."

meh. just after he left the band, berry did an interview where he said, "oh geez, i leave and they make their best album yet -- up!" tr: bill berry has dick cheney-like credibility.

(ah. maybe in his heart-of-hearts he is glad he got off that train.)

well, he's always seemed like a gentleman, and "hey, they're doing a great job without me!" is what a gentleman would say.

but "mine smell like honey" is some boxcar shit.

yes, you are right. berry does seem like a gentleman. they all seem like gentlemen, to be honest.

i'm just bitter about what's happened to the favorite band of my youth.

yeah, i just watched youtubes of three songs off this album. kind of crushing. i'd successfully avoided the disappointment for years.

Intro to this is pretty funny!

is that also supposed to be 3d?

uhh . . . i've grown to kind of like this single with the terrible, embarrassing title?

still generic and indistinct -- and i've heard some other songs from the album that are just awful -- but i can still appreciate this one song, at least.

There is something of the muse with R.E.M., especially apparent given that a lot of Stipe's lyrics come from dreams. Surely, someone doesn't think to take some of these very same themes (simple encouragement, "the end") and re-work them once again in simple, childlike terms like this?

And then to put it into a three-chord anthem? R.E.M. are amazing.

This is better than the stuff on the previous album, but I seriously hope this one will also contain some great partly acoustic ballads or semi-ballads, in the style of "Wendell Gee", "Losing My Religion", "Drive", "Try Not To Breathe" and "Daysleeper". All among their best moments.

Well, "Uberlin" seems to fit that category:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/mike-ragogna/emhuffpost-video-exclusiv_b_812864.html

That's the best of the songs I've heard from this album so far. For whatever that's worth.

"This is, song for song, the best thing we've ever done." Buck
"our best record since Out of Time," Mills
"A lot of people say we did our best work in the early Nineties. But 15 years later, here we are again." Buck again

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/r-e-m-roar-back-with-collapse-into-now-20110207

oh, ILICISCOMK. actually, FFS, i'm SMDH. no, in fact i'm ROTFLMAOWTIME. now i have to GPF that opinion is so appalling. mills and buck must have their HWUA to even suggest that.

____________________________

got this from the CLOAKA btw.

A lot of people say we did our best work in the early Nineties

he's off by a decade.

A lot of people say we did our best work in the early Nineties

he's off by a decade.

bah.

Bassist Mike Mills agrees, calling Collapse Into Now, out March 8th on Warner Bros., "our best record since Out of Time," the group's 1991 hit. "We took the shackles off and wrote whatever sounded good — balls-to-the-wall rockers, slow sad songs, great mid-tempo songs in the tradition of R.E.M. We had quality, top to bottom."

slow, medium, AND fast!

Accelerate is no better than the 2 preceding albums despite all the hype beforehand so i shan't hold my breath this time. glad THEY like it though. that's something.

Isn't it maybe on the journalist, though, to ask questions that might get responses other than the little soundbites we've already heard several times?

"this is our best record in terms of tempo"

When the band itself adopts the hoary "best album since ..." line, I steer clear, because inevitably, doing press for their next album ("the best album they've done in years," natch) they relent and admit all the things wrong about the previous record.

I stick with what I said earlier in the thread: get these guys in a room and have them make a simple, few-overdubs album. Hell, just get T-Bone Burnett (who did a good job capturing that last Mellencamp album, a one-mic in a room deal). Get this band away from anything digital and see what happens.

in fairness, r.e.m. always says their new album is their best, iirc.

Still, that's lame. That's like a band calling their new album a return to form.

Mike Mills should just start calling the new one their best one since "Some Girls" and see if anyone notices.

Is it true, though? I mean, I've certainly heard them say it before, but I don't think they always say it. Don't seem to remember it for the last couple of albums.

Someone cited the Bill Berry quote about Up above, but, you know, you can look back and see why he might have said it.

that was me. i can't see why he said it, but i guess i'm more tied to r.e.m.'s past than the band is?

My guess would be that due to their expansiveness and Michael's development as a lyricist, they might have thought that New Adventures, Up, and Reveal were, at least from a certain perspective, the best records they'd done up to that point.

slow, medium, AND fast!

huge lol

But 15 years later, here we are again.

This is so weird to say when your band NEVER LEFT.

Also what "shackles" could explain their last few albums

It's their best album since Scary Monsters, oh wait

I hear it's their best since "Blood on the Tracks."

i am looking forward to this new album less and less -- and i liked fucking Reveal, i mean come on

this is gonna be baaaaad

Meanwhile, what *are* the Decemberists up to with this track, I mean it's so blatant.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0_gykjRkVec

Um, I think the REM single is miles better than any lead-off single they've done since E-Bow Shite.

MaresNest, yes, that one is a blatant R.E.M. rip, BUT, considering Peter Buck plays guitar on that one, its kind of hard to fault the Decemberists.

Ah righty, but that's kinda worse no? 'Hey Pete, yeah buddy, 1984's where it's at, brought yer Ricky I hope'

Of all the albums to say it's the "best since," Out of Time seems a weird choice to me. Sure, it was their most popular, but I think it might be the patchiest in their whole discography (mind you, that's not saying it's their worst). Never mind that Automatic came after OOT!! /nitpicking

Like they had a run of three more albums after OOT that were all superior.

Sure, it was their most popular

I would not be surprised if an artist of such rarified wealth/fame/acclaim eventually convinces themselves that their most popular album is also their best. Because it sold the most copies, you see?

that plus the "15 years and we're back" (which dates back to their last multi-platinum album) does suggest they're quite conscious of their commercial heyday

can a mod plz change thread title to "R.E.M. news - *sigh*..."

thx much

Then again, I can see why bands grow to underrate or outright resent their formative works. It reminds me of a time I went to see Eleventh Dream Day. A fan went up to Rick Rizzo and told him he'd been to two dozen EDD shows. Rick Rizzo was impressed, but then quipped "well, I've been to all of them." So, like, as long as we have all lived with "Murmur," it's not nearly as long (or as deep) as REM themselves have lived with it. Therefore, whatever's freshest may seem the best by default. Call it the delusion of the now.