This is the Thread Where You Bash REM's Monster

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.

Let's not forget 'Everybody Hurts', though!

arch ironic earnest

Sorry, still trying to think of new words. Maybe "self-aware" or "self-reflexive" as opposed to just sort of tunneling forward?

Something too fey or twee or weak about certain tracks on Green. Something too oblique about Document.

Although maybe Life's Rich Pageant was sort of a similar move, but without the dark sunglasses and eyeliner.

My Crush With (Dark Sunglasses and) Eyeliner

This is a very good and somewhat overlooked documentary based around the Monster tour rehearsals, broadcast originally in the UK at exactly the same time as 'I Just Wasn't Made For These Times', duh.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYG7nNhzpN0

I'd love to know what Stipe regrets about "King Of Comedy", I think that's a spectacular track.

he's not commodity

I gave up around Green, when they decided to stick with "plodding and deliberate" as an instrumental approach. Based on advance word, I thought Monster would be different, but if anything, it was worse. I always found it overwhelmingly bland and faceless. But it got them on the road, and their renewed joy in playing live at least resulted in a decent studio record (Hi-Fi), so it wasn't all for naught.

Is that doc the one in which the two Michaels look at the sheet music for "Galveston"?

Yep.

I strongly suspect that Automatic-Monster-Hi Fi is their secret creative peak (I am definitely a non-fan)

i mean i would agree but i always thought that was because i was an impressionable teen at the time

I think this is the album where you look to Berry when people talk of his 'restraint' - like in the Pavement tribute song.

He could have been all over this album, given the fact that it was him who seemed to make most noise over the 'return to rock' - but it's not heavy on fills or overplaying at all. Having said that that was pretty much his approach for the duration of the band.

I loved this record, but probably because I was 18.

no recall of ever flipping through this. somebody on here must have one?

http://eil.com/images/main/REM+-+Monster+-+Book+Pack+Sealed+-+CD+ALBUM-549992.jpg

holy fuck i had no idea about this

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XsCsv996bZw

i remember seeing that special edition.

in retrospect this album isn't nearly as bad as I remember. I like more than almost anything that came after by them.