This is the Thread Where You Bash REM's Monster

https://i.imgur.com/WSy9a6j.jpg

haha, the Special Editions were exactly how I felt about the songs on the recent Stereolab reissues that had different fade outs or mixes or whatnot. I'm sure it applies here as well. The need to tamper with original works and "improve" them is frustrating, especially when the original gets erased.

Wait, is this new version replacing the original?

no

ok I can see tweaking levels on some of these tracks to get more separation or whatever but negating the whole point (drenching guitars) of something like Let Me In is just laughably stupid

nothing will ever replace the original because there are hundreds of copies of it in every retail establishment in the world, enough to last millions of years

I do kinda want to hear the remastered version of the OG mix.

See more of a point to the "Let Me In" mix than the Kenneth one. I like it OK.

the remaster has been on streaming services since they announced this. it sounds pretty good.

> nothing will ever replace the original because there are hundreds of copies of it in every retail establishment in the world, enough to last millions of years

Is anyone buying those hundreds of copies? CD stores have closed across the developed world, CD sales have plunged even online, and more and more people today don’t even own a CD player. As the world moves to streaming, it is certainly possible for remastered and reworked versions to obscure the original releases.

One of the best things around the original Let Me In mix was the extent to which Stipe's vocal sounded like it was drowning in the guitars. That and the organ line at the end. Obviously the remix dispenses with both those elements.

smdh

in the future all home will be insulated with copies of Monster

xpost exactly what I said before. everything good about the song got ditched in this! well not everything, the song itself is actually a good song. but everything good about the production. this just sounds like an unmixed version. it's stupid.

I like hearing Stipe's performance on it clearer. It's kind of like a Husker Du song. Very sad song.

Also: maybe it's just that one guitar on the original, just more processed.

Mills on guitar iirc

Buck on Farfisa

Berry on Heineken

Tambourine!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19hhctlleNo

Haha, I thought so (but couldn’t resist the joke)

Stipe’s comments about the song at the time have always stuck with me, that he felt that if he too had become super-famous at a younger age, that he wouldn’t have survived it. R.E.M. were nice guys.

I'd like to hear Document with a little less of the eighties production, that's for sure.

xp xref “How to Disappear Completely”

lmao wait til y'all hear the "king of comedy" remix

make your money

nothing will ever replace the original because there are hundreds of copies of it in every retail establishment in the world, enough to last millions of years

― akm, Friday, October 11, 2019 10:04 PM (one week ago) bookmarkflaglink

lol seriously. there were always 3-4 copies of this album and new order's republic in every used CD bin in the late 90s.

And it's in 50% of the charity shops in Britain right now, alongside Free Peace Sweet, Onka's Big Moka and every Robbie Williams record.

SPICEWORLD

the Best Of Bread of the digital era

New interview, some good lines: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/amp/entertainment-arts-50206491

I like how they’re basically — “Scott’s new remix is whatever, we had nothing to do with it....”

The band built an app so you can A/B the two versions: https://www.engadget.com/amp/2019/10/29/rem-monster-25th-anniversary-remix-compare-web-app/

All these years later, I'm finding that "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?" not a highlight for me at the time, has totally held up for me. I want to sing along with it at the top of my lungs whenever I hear it.

lmao wait til y'all hear the "king of comedy" remix

In the vernacular of the era: "Could the vocal BE any drier and more upfront?"

https://66.media.tumblr.com/1ab7daff8828955c68405b62752224d5/tumblr_p4trcpBLJD1x4bi9zo6_250.png

I'll admit it's interesting to actually hear (parse) the lyrics of "Star 69" for the first time.

It sounds like they purposefully used the murkiest, lowest-quality dub of the original album they could find for purposes of that A/B listening page

Remastered 'Crush With Eyeliner' sounds tremendous.

That's the one that hit me too.

Wavered between "Ehh?" and "OK?" to "I guess?" on most of these, but Litt did a pretty good number on "Crush".

Still like the original tho'.

You guys talkin bout the REMastered or REMixed tracks?

the surf guitar touches on the remix of “crush with eyeliner” are interesting but distracting imo

“crush with eyeliner” remix is actively unlistenable

er i meant “king of comedy”*

Oh I'm not bothering with the remix, I'm only talking about the remaster here, which is much the same as the original but really pops in all the right places.

yes the remastering job is sweet, i was reminded of the mirage and tango in the night remasters in that a lot of subtle detail gets raised up very tastefully

I’m actually kind of enjoying the remix(!), now that I’m listening to it straight through. It definitely makes a... different impression.

I went thru the rough/unfinished demos on my drive... a few of them sound like they could have made good songs, but most sound like super-generic R.E.M. jams.

I really like the remix! "I Don't Sleep, I Dream" is fabulous: Litt draws consistently on the doomy side of the album, in emphasizing the bass, and it lifts this song into something new (rather than just subtracting something old, like on WTFK).

i find the extremely audible amp hiss on "i don't sleep i dream" p much ruins it

listening to the remix r/n and finding it totally hapless for my own ears --- there's definitely neat "revealed details" but it's sorta missing the whole reason i wanna listen to Monster. pulling stipe's voice out and pushing the band back... it sounds like a solo album demo tape, or a late-period REM album maybe. and some of the lyrics that are going for camp menace end up sounding just goofy, idk. like idk, "star 69" and "bang and blame" and "tongue" come through okay, but "circus envy" without everything brickwalled and fuzzed out sounds a lot like "ignoreland" in the "squares trying to be a heavy caveman riff band" kinda way.