pitchfork is dumb (#34985859340293849494 in a series.)

The review does a great job of analyzing the album’s artistic deficits (IMO), putting them in the context of its creation.

I was hoping the reissue would get an 8.0 - I mean I'd go higher personally but Up feels like an album whose stature has risen (at least a bit) over the years.

Left, I was born in 84 and I was absolutely fucking obsessed with REM in like 99-2000. I didn’t know any other kids who were, mind you, but alas.

R.E.M's American cultural cachet in 1999-2000 remained considerable.

Oh for sure, but not among many 15 year olds

Reminds me of watching the video of "All the Way To Reno" with a friend when it was new. It shows the band playing in a high school, and my friend said all the kids must be going, "who are these guys?"

this baldy is way less funny than fred durst

Cuter.

hmmm

https://prabook.com/web/show-photo.jpg?id=2743019

https://resizing.flixster.com/-XZAfHZM39UwaGJIFWKAE8fS0ak=/v3/t/assets/67446_v9_bb.jpg

https://pbs.twimg.com/profile_images/1271530504827875331/3Ka8BTK6_400x400.jpg

https://i.dailymail.co.uk/1s/2021/07/29/02/46026027-9837449-A_new_look_Fred_Durst_looked_nearly_unrecognizable_in_a_selfie_t-m-137_1627522319616.jpg

I have to admit he is pretty gorgeous maybe I should check out his band

Pretty funky iirc

Gotta admit, Durst is aging well

#dadvibes

https://scontent-den4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/391678937_637184325259633_4281669757391491422_n.jpg?_nc_cat=111&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5f2048&_nc_ohc=hkQrkd2fNU4AX8FJlx3&_nc_ht=scontent-den4-1.xx&oh=00_AfBEvkDTe7dtoofWu1sU3vvIbMTgm0-KVcDMkJPUaBvH_A&oe=65560893

yeah i mean part of Stipe’s appeal for me from the beginning was that he was an obviously queer, good-looking weirdo poet.

that was billie joe for me (well not sure about "poet") - I feel like I missed the boat on this one

what's the one everyone likes? murmur?

yeah that or reckoning

I like them all in varying degrees through NAIHF.

yeah i mean part of Stipe’s appeal for me from the beginning was that he was an obviously queer, good-looking weirdo poet.

I remember in high school, when there were rumors about Stipe being queer, a friend of mine reacted (in all seriousness): “Michael Stipe? No way!” …As if he was, like, the last celebrity you’d possibly expect, lol

this is pretty good shit would have loved it when I was 15

it's like if the byrds could actually write songs

When he remarked in a Details interview, "I'm an equal opportunity lech" it was as if Jesus had said he enjoyed Henry James.

Alfred always boils things down to their essences.

I have never listened to early R.E.M and this thread has finally convinced me. All I really have to add to the conversation is 'oh this* is really good innit?' but there we are. Happy Sunday.

*Reckoning.

do older millennials like REM? what's the cutoff?

I'm Oregon Trail Generation so I guess as old as millennials get, REM had a very sharp peak with my peers. The first radio hits were kind of there in the cultural background but Monster was absolutely huge in my junior high, fuck yeah that "Losing My Religion" band can rawk. "Crush With Eyeliner" was a necessary cover for every band whose shitty solid state practice amp had tremolo included.

I don't recall New Adventures making an impact but then Up was beloved by the kids who didn't gel with the butt rock turn of late '90s radio.

That’s cool to hear…

Old millennials were probably the last micro generation to be radicalized/partially radicalized by R.E.M. because I don’t think ‘New Adventures in Hi-Fi’ and ‘ Up’ were bringing in new recruits.

Is the perception/reality that REM's rep has fallen with younger generations who "weren't there"?

As opposed to Pavement who I think have maybe grown in stature with people who "weren't there"?

Radicalized by REM? They were the coffee table band of my teenage listening experience but tell me more

Interestingly, “Leave” from Hi-Fi might’ve been some manner of formative experience, but I’m not sure; amazing album tho

for me the song from Hi-Fi was "New Test Leper," I just remember listening to that song over and over again

sorry to break topic here but in today's archive review of the ace of bass album, they say the group's success was "preposterous." fan-tastic use of the word. i'm not even joking, what an absolutely perfect summary of how it went.

anyway, it made me chuckle. as you were.

Boygenius and Timothée Chalamet Play Troye Sivan in SNL Sketch: Watch

This is like one of those competitions to see how many words I’m not interested in can fit into a single headline

a generational shibboleth

this is a good way of putting it. i was born in early '90s, REM was an adult contemporary band that my parents liked; didn't realize they had "cred" among e.g. record collector folks and music obsessives until i was an adult and started having friends 10+ years older than me

Is the perception/reality that REM's rep has fallen with younger generations who "weren't there"?

i'd say so. i really don't think anybody under 30 gives a fuck about REM or even knows who they are.

fwiw i can't stand REM. to me they just sound like the most boring possible band. their appeal only makes sense in the context of the austerity of 1980s midwest when there probably just wasn't a lot of interesting "rock" music available besides the dinosaurs

Yes, but when midwesterners heard R.E.M. back then the often burst into flames.

But kudos for making a 2001 style ILM post in 2013

I love when Vernon Reid (I think) described hearing Nirvana as like a cross between Metallica and R.E.M.

lmfao wow

It was in an SFJ article apparently!
https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/r-e-m-breaks-up

Twenty years ago, I spent an afternoon shuffling around Rocks In Your Head, a record store that once did business on Prince Street. (It closed in 2006.) My friend Jim worked the counter, and we were listening to a new album, over and over: Nirvana’s “Nevermind.” At some point, Vernon Reid—the guitar player and founder of Living Colour—came in. He listened to four songs, nodded approvingly, and approached the counter.

“Metallica plus R.E.M. That’s really smart.” He bought a copy and left.

Like an observation so perfect that it leads an article about another band entirely.

irrelevant interruption: i recall ozzy osbourne describing nirvana in a similar way: "led zeppelin meets the beatles." (not much better than vr's, tbh)

anyway shrug, i'm 43 in a few months and my most intense rem fandom was about a decade ago. i definitely remember the big early 90s hits and at the time i just figured them to be another pop band. when "losing my religion" was popular, there's no way i knew about "radio free europe" or even "end of the world" so there was no history for me. that was also just... not the kind of music i liked. i only went back and got into them properly because i was bored in my early 30s. they're definitely a classic band with some total barnstormers in their catalogue tho.

and idk, michael stipe has always looked weird to me. i guess he was quite dreamy for the time. doesn't mike mills look sorta like thom yorke these days? i mean, without the gammy eye and with glasses ofc.

Ha when I first heard Helmet on the radio, the DJ introduced them as a cross between Metallica and Nirvana.

Helmet is a cross btw Kustom Karnal–era Unrest (who recorded w/Wharton right before they did) and being boring.

morris pls clarify: do u mean the act of being boring or the pet shop boys song of the same name?

new romantic-influenced free jazz STOP STEALING MY RAD IDEAS

okay, i'm gonna start flagging myself for such flippant misuse of the h tag. anyway -- morris?

i'd say so. i really don't think anybody under 30 gives a fuck about REM or even knows who they are.

― budo jeru, Monday, 13 November 2023 00:18 (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Their rep has fallen - no one has R.E.M. shirts - but this isn't true at least among under 30s who (to use the above counterexample) know about Pavement

But kudos for making a 2001 style ILM post in 2013

― Beyond Goo and Evol (President Keyes), Sunday, November 12, 2023 6:26 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i aim to please!

fwiw i can't stand REM. to me they just sound like the most boring possible band.

this is me w/all the REM that everybody considers classic -- the mystical kudzu mumble jangle stuff. I get a little interested with "green" and after that I like some of the singles, like when they let Bill Berry loose a little it's fun, but I'll just never get the love for the other stuff, didn't understand it then, have tried and had people tell me where to look and what they hear in it, it's just very boring music to me.

under 30 here: rem are just a good-not-great band who became far less interesting as they got bigger. none of their albums are classics but the first four are all pretty good, and they still had their moments until up. the best thing about them was their vocal arrangements with stipe/mills/berry all singing often largely-unrelated vocal lines, but they largely abandoned that approach around the time of document. i don't really understand the level of acclaim they used to have and i don't really have much fondness for their hits or anything.