This is the Thread Where You Bash REM's Monster

^^^^^

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.

I love the chorus; the "guitar solo" is pretty hilarious, but I like Berry's attempt at funky drummer

If there's YouTube of one of this tour's better performances, I'd love to watch it. From my pov much of the backlash came from watching them try to do these flash/"ironic" moves onstage and flailing in a gawky and self-conscious way; all they needed was "Pop Music" and Golden Arches to foreshadow POP Mart.

my first time watching REM too. Radiohead opened and they killed (I'm not a fan).

Berry is kind of a funky drummer in his own writeright. Not of the Clyde or Jabo variety, but in the sense of guy who plays in a rock band and is creative but not studio pro slick.

So Monster = Achtung Baby? I'm good with that, Achtung's also my favorite U2 album.

I like Monster now more than I ever did in the '90s, and find myself enjoying most of it these days. If there's a dud on this album for me, it's definitely 'King of Comedy'. Overall, I prefer New Adventures In Hi-Fi though, which I rank up there as one of their all-time best.

I always liked this album. It's my favourite of their major label albums, probably. I'm glad that it seems to be getting a reappraisal, at least here. Nice guitar tones and production. I'm not really sure what makes this 'arch and ironic' in a way that Document or Green are not, tbh. I never thought 80s REM was earnest in the way that 80s U2 was: if anything, obliqueness was part of their schtick.