REM: Classic or dud?

Aw, I really liked Mills' backing vocals.

I'm really weird though because Monster is one of their albums that holds up best for me. Probably my favourite of the major-label years, not that I've heard anything since Up.

Didn't even clue in as to why there were two or three R.E.M. threads near the top today--I just heard the news from Amerindie icon Wolf Blitzer! I stopped following them album by album very early, around #4 or #5, but the rest of the way they'd regularly catch me by surprise with a song I really liked (enough so that they topped one of my year-ends with "Man on the Moon," and again came close with "The Great Beyond"). Even when I'd find a cheap CD from the 2000s, there'd be one or two good ones. I was lucky enough to see them in a club their first time through Toronto, July 9, '83, $10.

Just downloaded LRP. I haven't listened to this in ages. My cassette is at my parents'. Sounds pretty great.

I hated everything from Lifes Rich Pageant onward, so fuck these guys for not staying together so I can keep pointing and laffing at them.

Not even Automatic for the People?

more like fartomatic for poophole

R.I.P.

you were a good band most of the time

...in the '80s.

Uh this is not even accurate regarding Murmur let alone any of the other records

yr right I forgot that one song on Murmur with the piano. how exciting

christ in hindsight that jokey NYE 99 split would have been amazing

In reality, the '03 best of would have been a good way to do it. Seen a couple of great shows in Brixton Academy in support, like it was 1987 or something

RIP Berry Buck Mills Stipe

I just find the unvarying sound of those 60s John Coltrane albums - tenor saxophone/bass/drums/piano - with no overdubs or other instruments ever just really fucking boring

Looking forward to post-band endeavours, though. Peter Buck mezcal, Michael Stipe publishing house... Mike Mills Navajo jumpsuits

any Michael Stipe solo 'project' is going to be the worst thing mankind's produced

never mind the fucking 'guest appearances'

I just find the unvarying sound of those 60s John Coltrane albums - tenor saxophone/bass/drums/piano - with no overdubs or other instruments ever just really fucking boring

LOOOOOOOL at comparing any of the guys in REM to Coltrane's classic quartet

rock and jazz, the same thing!

Didn't make any such comparison between the two groups, just pointing out the silliness of singling out instrumentation in and of itself as the source of a band's successes or failures.

Always liked them! Always! Every album had something that pulled me in, something that moved me.

RIP!

rem twerp is the sister twerp to u2's doofus bass player. they both dressed in the dark.

mike mills/adam clayton should form a band: sister doofus twerp.

X-Post Even "Around The Sun"? :)

(Well, OK, "Leaving New York" was a great song)

Squaring off the two behemoths of '80s mushheadedness, I'd take R.E.M. a thousand times over U2.

Yes, I quite like Around the Sun. On the whole, I think it and the most recent one are my two favorite post-Bill Berry albums.

Any excuse to watch this is a good one. (Tho it's from '83 not '85.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nmWW8pZS7ys

Murmur is, i think, one of the better rock albums of the 80s. love it so, so much.

also, New Adventures in Hi-Fi is my personal cut-off line. "New Test Leper" and "E-Bow the Letter" are rather good, especially the production on the former.

but yeah after that eh

Like them as far as "Up" ('daysleeper' is a great song). "Around the sun" was pretty wretched but even those songs didnt sound too bad live tbf. A little dissapointed at the level of hate towards them here......

I had no idea what "Carnival of Sorts" was actually about, but not yet out of school and still living in a small town at the time, it meant leaving. Great, great song.

yeah, the clip tipsy posted is nice. i also checked-out a 1984 performance of driver 8 and carnival of sorts, and some really, really early demos, including a high-pitched version of the lion sleeps tonight that i've always loved.

the 80s were a long time ago.

i have to admit: i was obsessed with REM when i was about 15 years old, in 2000-2001. don't really understand why that happened, but nonetheless, really can't understand the hate for them. they WERE a great band and released some amazing records... jesus, i was even in a band that COVERED some REM songs. Cello, stand-up bass, and acoustic guitar version of "Try Not to Breathe" was a show-stopper.

i was older than 15, i realize. *sigh*

They were an important band for me, saw em on each tour for the first 5 albums or so. Including once the night after the circus left Madison Sq Garden, peeeeeeeeeeyuuuuuuuuu.

Seen REM several times over the years... First was an amazing show at the Pomona Valley Auditorium soon after Murmur was released. Maybe about 20 people there.

Haven't seen them live since the LRP tour - always thought that REM quality was proportional to length of Stipe's hair.

I wish Warren Zevon was still around so they could do another Hindu Love Gods album.

i'd say r.e.m. were pretty great through up. been dead to me since then tbh.

i was both late to them and (slightly) early to leave. but they were certainly great for 15 years.

aftp has more than a couple skippable tracks but drive and try not to breathe among others are peerless.

always thought that -- on AFTP -- find the river was a better sappy ballad than either (the cloying) everybody hurts or even nightswimming.

everybody hurts sux, nightswimming rules

"Ignoreland" describes itself.

I wonder if they'd have relegated it to a b-side if they'd known that Clinton would beat Bush that year.

they needed a rocker

that's for sure

http://www.thegoodtimber.com/FinalPics/rockingChair.jpg

the secret jam on aftp is monty got a raw deal--that song rules

maybe they should have put circus envy on AFTP.

but yeah, "Find The River" is a keeper. I love how it goes from its sweet lament into menace with its closing line, "all of this is coming your way".

"Circus Envy" is one of my favorite REM songs: as snotty as they ever got?

maybe they should have put circus envy on AFTP.

― Daniel, Esq., Wednesday, September 21, 2011 9:16 PM (1 minute ago) Bookmark Suggest Ban Permalink

lol oh man, circus envy. i listened to that shit a couple weeks ago for the first time in probably a dozen years.

monster had its production flaws, but it had a lot of very strong (if somewhat bland, for rem) songs, and circus envy is a corker.

yeah, snotty as they ever got. it almost snarled.

what's the frequency kenneth is a total classic but i'm honestly not sure what else i would save from monster.

i like to imagine that R.E.M. had been privately lobbying Lou Reed for years to make an album with them, and when he picked Metallica instead it just broke their spirits

Pitchfork is reporting that the R.E.M. website is announcing the break-up of the band.

Stipe's comments about knowing when to leave the party are a bit laughable as the dried vomit has already been scraped off the floor and the lampshade hat has been returned to its proper perch.

I didn't care for much they did after Document; still, enough to be a bonafide classic.

of monster, i'd save the following:

• what's the frequency, kenneth
• i don't sleep, i dream
• circus envy
• i took your name