This is the Thread Where You Bash REM's Monster

This is R.E.M's best post-"Automatic For The People" moment:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKbBiR89KSo

man i hate that song. and i used to love r.e.m.

and i like melody, too.

I wonder how much, if any, of this was an unconscious nod to Achtung/Zooropa/Zoo TV U2 - it previewed REM's biggest tour to date and although I'd assume the band had given up/stopped caring about the 'biggest band in the world' mantle once Bono etc were back. For all the 'return to rock' it doesn't sound like Document or any of their other rockier albums although I think they admitted as such at the time. I like the way 'You' and 'Circus Envy' seem to follow that REM tradition ('I Remember California', 'Oddfellows') of discordant oddball songs, the kinda thing Peter Buck talked up before recording 'Document' but it was almost as if they couldn't help themselves and consciously dropped those songs towards the end.

I'd be curious to know the order in which songs were recorded for Monster. I remember reading a Rolling Stone article around the time. The sessions were apparently difficult, with lots of stops and location changes. By the time the following year's tour commenced they were already playing a batch of new songs, some of which made it onto New Adventures. These songs were, for the most part, pretty bland and awful - "Revolution" (a crowd favorite, supposedly, which never made it onto New Adventures), "Departure", "Undertow"...terrible terrible songs. Maybe "Tongue", "I Don't Sleep", "You", "Circus Envy" were the first batch of new songs they had after Automatic for the People, as these were the bulk of the quality material. Maybe one day they started fooling around with "Crush With Eyeliner" and decided to take the album in the direction it went.

Sucked then. Sucks now.

liking good music is boring.

Departure", "Undertow"...terrible terrible songs.

suggest ban

^^^^^

what's so good about those songs?

"Departure" has a good riff and Stipe delivery; it goes on too long, maybe.

i was never a fan of stipe's Dylan Phase, where he just rattles all stream-a-consciousness-like. "Undertow" is the best of that bunch. they're always the songs i skip on New Adventures though. i don't think they stack up to "How the West Was Won" and "Electrolyte".

of course, none of those songs are as bad as "Wake Up" bomb...maybe the worst REM song?

there are, from what i can remember, 5 - 6 really good songs on here. the attack may have been a bit miscalculated, but the tunes are still there.

but i'm the guy who's ok w/ Green so wtf do i know

but i'm also the guy (tho i doubt 'm the only one) who would have been a-ok had they not done a single thing post-LRP

i like Green. do people not like that?

Their worst album. But, as I said upthread, it is possible there may be some good songs there. But I can't hear them. I just hear guitar noise.

Geir, kindly stop listening to Loveless and give Monster another shot.

geir you have a vagina for a heart and a mellotron for a dick

Reclaiming 'Monster': Reflecting on R.E.M.'s Most Misunderstood Album with Michael Stipe

Obv it was true of monster before most but basically any multi platinum cd is easy to find cheap now. Every rem cd is in the clearance bin at amoeba.

Monster rules.

Thanks for that interview link. Yeah, Monster is great.

I'll take a youtube clip of the live version of Let Me In over everything on the cd.

great album

Only REM record I listen to on a semi-regular basis.

geir you have a vagina for a heart and a mellotron for a dick

― snorgfaced germans (M@tt He1ges0n), Wednesday, March 17, 2010 7:57 PM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Is it wrong to think of this album as REM's Zooropa?

Love it.

I'm gonna listen to "Circus Envy" now.

xpost depends on what you make of zooropa right?

Atypical album that is more arch and ironic and less earnest than the group's typical fare that if not quite a match for their early heights may end up with less burnout factor and more staying power.

Eh it's really an achtung move with new adventures the zooropa

Only "strange currencies" wasn't their "one"

zooropa was also partially recorded on tour iirc

both albums = maybe get some traction from non-fans who want an album or two from each band, usually their taste is nothing like typical REM/U2

REM has casual non-fans in 2014?

In teh 90s

REM casual non-fan in 2014 = Someone with just "The One I Love", "It's The End of...", and "Losing My Religion" on their iPod.

If you were to list the very biggest acts from 1980- with any sort of longevity, I would imagine REM would be near the bottom of casual non-fans at this stage.

Atypical album that is more arch and ironic and less earnest than the group's typical fare that if not quite a match for their early heights may end up with less burnout factor and more staying power.

― Dear Catastrophe Theory Waitress (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, September 26, 2014 9:46 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

r.e.m. doesn't really do arch and ironic very well, though.

Monster's maybe my favorite RE
M album, it's so glammy.

Obv. didn't mean the space between RE and M, damn bus

Eh it's really an achtung move with new adventures the zooropa

And yes, arch and ironic poor choice of words, "glammy" much better.

why bash a classic? the only way they could imrpove this is by upgrading the audio quality to 24 bits/192kps or at least remaster it to pono quality. but even then, you're only converting a 9.5 into a full 10. just my 2 cents

Never really thought about it until now but with zooropa and pop tracking pretty neatly critically/commercially with new adventures and up, I don't think the relative difference in respect given to achtung and monster comes down to their handling of "irony" so much as novelty/zeitgeist (U2 got to sunglasses and glampop first) and more importantly big popular power ballads - as the film purple rain taught us, they are the key to immortality.

Imagining "Strange Currencies" taking off like "One" did is like imagining a nineties with Poppy Bush reelected.

"Strange Currencies" is the only dud on the album.

"Bang and blame" is as close to a dud as it gets for me

But the album sounded more charming than ever when I put it on last week. Nostalgia for the era helps.

Knew there was some sort of comparison to be made, just was waiting for da croupier to rake it in.

Euler, what? Your philosophical logic has temporarily deserted you. As punishment you will have to walk through the Old Town of Königsberg crossing each bridge once and only once.

with "Circus Envy" on my Walkman

Ha sorry to railroad you redd - wouldn't have come up with that on my own

re B&B: I like the verses and the mixing decision to let the riff fade at the end of each bar, but the chorus is a serious letdown.