REM: Classic or dud?

yeah Green kicks the arse of Document and Out Of Time. it does seem to be the album that most fans have changed their mind about in recent years. used to be in everyone's top few REM albums; much less so now cause i guess it's too shiny, too 'pop' and so on. i still love it.

used to be in everyone's top few REM albums;

Not when it came out -- as I remember it, old-time fans saw it as kind of a sellout and it was always the lowest-ranked record on rec.music.rem, back when that was a going concern.

"Pop Song 89" is killer but the acoustic take that's the b-side on the single is even more killer.

I don't care for "I Remember California" or "The Wrong Child" & "World Leader Pretend" is only ok. I'm not sure what I think about "You Are The Everything"; the opening crickets make me nostalgic for Georgia, but Stipe's singing is...ugly? Spider-like? Are those vocals treated? It's a wonderful melody, though it's only finally resolved when it leads into "Stand" with its opening chords, so I think of "You Are The Everything" as an album track in essence. Whereas "Stand" is something more.

I still vote for "Turn You Inside Out" as the best song. It shoulda been a hit on rock radio.

I'd forgotten how often Stipe uses his high register on Green, and it's fuckin annoying.

I still vote for "Turn You Inside Out" as the best song. It shoulda been a hit on rock radio.

I seem to remember that it was. In Chicago, at least, the album-rock station ("The Loop") played it often.

they played it a lot in the Twin Cities, too

I wish REM had dome more bubblegum stuff like Pop Song 89, Stand and Get Up. Ah well.

I think The Wrong Child is the only thing I'm not 100% behind on Green. I'm not sure they made an album after it that I prefer (though I certainly like large chunks of Out Of Time/Automatic/New Adventures, and all of Monster).

Listening through now, still have a slight dislike of the wrong child, but otherwise pretty perfect. Never noticed the similarity between I Remember California and Oddfellows, but I can see where you're coming from (except that I love I Remember California).

I prefer 'I Remember California' over 'Oddfellows Local 151', myself. 'The Wrong Child'... I can see why some dislike it, but it's always felt like quite a heartfelt thing to me, especially the outro where Stipe sings 'I'm not supposed to be like this/but it's okay'. I just love the prettiness of the choruses.

It's funny that another person here mentioned rec.music.rem - I've been getting a bit nostalgic recently, and looking up at old newsgroups I used to post on in the '90s (and, of course, a lot that I didn't)... but I found myself reading people's reactions to Monster when it first came out...

http://groups.google.com/group/rec.music.rem/topics?start=44698&sa=N

also, re: Green.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwZkYc7GCL8

This might be old news to everyone, but it just struck me that "Nightswimming" is like a wistful nostalgic version of "Gardening at Night", celebrating the same subjects - youth, friendship, freedom - only this time in retrospect.

whoever put T H I S together should get some kind of Grammy or whatever cause it really is fantastic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c2xclbhrQGw

That bit at the end with the different logos is the best thing about REM in about 10 years

Everybody loves you when you're dead...

Master OTM.

xxp ha yeah fricking AMAZING that. love it.

should've announced their breakup in a press-conference today, then ascended to heaven during the rapture.

Well, gave up on this band as a youngin after 'Green' dashed my hopes for them. Really did not pay attention at all after that!

Due to their breakup and some sorta weird nostalgia I just grabbed the 90's Warner Bros lps. had not really heard and given them any due. 'Automatic for the People' is just incredible. Incredible.

call me late. just don't call me late for dinner

Is it fair to call this new collection "the band's first career spanning anthology?" I think it's more accurate to call it the first anthology that spans the beginning to the end, but what was "Eponymous" if not then a "career spanning anthology?"

So what do we make of the final three REM songs on Part Lies... ? Both quite odd and even slapdash sounding. Month of Saturdays is a b-side at best, kinda fun. Talk of Pylon-esque guitars, but that's a bit generous. Hallelujah doesn't try to avoid the Leonard Cohen allusions... Not particularly strong REM ballad, but decent enough with some nice Bill Rieflin drumming. Some weird distorted guitar that's dropped in halfway through then forgotten about. Ends on a typically REM suspended chord.
Since they broke up I've gone back to Collapse Into Now and found some lovely songs. It's a pretty obvious 'goodbye' in retrospect - Walk It Back in particular.
Of these last three songs We All Go Back Where We Belong is far away the best, a lovely way to go out.

A Month of Saturdays
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVB2IXzLwL8

Hallelujah
http://youtu.be/otAqA2gPsOg

Glad you like it!

Well, wouldn't say I liked it - Month of Saturdays is pretty weak. In a perverse way, I quite like the fact it's trying to be quirky but fails. Hallelujah isn't much cop either. But at least We All Go Back is a nice send off.

http://www.thesinglesjukebox.com/?p=4487

Oh, I meant "...Belong". I conducted!

nice, the strings sound really lovely there! great job. that song is great, sounds effortless in a way that REM hasn't in a while.

It's a great song. I may prefer it without the arrangement, it had an honesty to it.

http://www.salon.com/2011/11/14/michael_stipe_why_r_e_m_called_it_a_day/

This interview with Stipe is interesting though the fact that they still won't acknowledge their time as a trio coincided exactly with the length of their major label contract is pretty damn coy, esp when its joined with this:

Salon: But most bands, like most athletes, stick around too long. Was that R.E.M.’s final lesson: Let us show you how to bow out gracefully?

Stipe: No one’s ever done it before, as far as we know.

He then undercuts the idea of it being a "lesson" but it looks like they still know how to push a narrative.

their "last, precedent-breakingly giant major label contract" I mean

someone should also remind stipe about led zeppelin, and that it's too soon to say whether REM bowed out more gracefully than the who.

There was a thread on this:

Bands That Bow Out Gracefully

Though I guess Stipe means bands that went out on a high note and did it without an acrimonious break-up, which narrows the field considerably.

“New Adventures in Hi-Fi” is in my top-two records we’ve made.

And the other one?

“Collapse Into Now.”

Favorite song?

“Supernatural Superserious.” I took my abilities as a fiction writer and pushed them as far as I could with that song and I’m really proud of it. It does that beautiful thing at the end where the vocals go faster and the drums come in and accentuate that.

I wish Salon had selected a less enthusiastic fan.

Though I guess Stipe means bands that went out on a high note

so ain't giving him that one

and we have to take his word for it that the dissolution wasn't acrimonious.

mills and stipe are at least still able to shell peas together

http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/hugh-achesons-neo-retro-southern-cooking

super curious if either guy will bust out a solo album. sure buck will just stay a robyn hitchcock sideman

Buck can finally get Tuatara back together.

mills seems to be up for continuing to work w/ buck

AVC: Do you foresee collaborating with the other members under a different name or set of circumstances?
MM: Oh yeah, I wouldn’t be surprised. There could be any number of things. One thing I do want to do is write songs with people, and since Peter and I have always written songs together, we might continue to do that at some point. I would not be surprised at all.

also mentions doing a solo record, though nothing specific.

are they just decreasing overhead by breaking up or something?

sort of! will there be a buck/mills record with different lead singers, a la no talking just head!?

(hoping for lou reed ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^)

R.E.(E.D.)M.

http://www.avclub.com/articles/rems-mike-mills,65206/

major points to mills for acknowledging the contract in this.

Who would expect a band to walk away when they’re hitting creative heights? But that’s just what we decided to do.

points revoked

AVC: The two songs that are probably most identified with you personally are “(Don’t Go Back To) Rockville” and “Nightswimming.”

WHITHER TEXARKANA???

not near enough!

Fuck a Texarkana, how about maybe SUPERMAN?