REM: Classic or dud?

I view the breakup as akin to Jay Leno retiring: love the early 80s stuff, haven't had much of a reason to pay close attention since.

rem is ok but although i like pavement god damn they can be so arch it's gross. feel like stephen malkmus has got to be a smug asshole.

will still rep for Reckoning

what is my autographed copy of Chronic Town worth?

Noo! Cut down in their prime. They had so much to offer. R.I.P. R.E.M.

No overdubs on the 80s albums? There are like a million guitars all jangling away on Murmur and Reckoning. You can't get that lush ringing sound with one track. Not many other instruments, granted, but then it's what you do with them innit? And they were a fantastic band. Check those mid 80s live clips on youtube - they're on fire.

yeah i dunno, i'm always struck by how layered their early records are. in a subtle way i guess. but they were always a canny band in the studio, using bits of reverb, weird sounds, treated keyboards, etc.

Sad to see them quitting, even though they have been kind of uneven after "Automatic For The People". Everything from "Monster" onwards is pretty controversial, with people not being able to agree on which albums are good or not (well... OK .... everyone seems to agree that "Around The Sun" sucked monkey shit).

Still a great body of work behind them. Great until 1992. And, as you guys may know, I also like "Up" and "Reveal" a lot.

should've quit in 1983. /challopsing (but not really)

No, you're right. Major, major wrong turn for music almost from the beginning, on so many levels. I can't think of many other bands with a worse legacy.

"Stipe's penis: flaccid or wood?"

yeah i've found this band pretty hard to take the last 15 years. i don't mean the new releases from the last 15 years--i mean i found nearly all their music pretty hard to take for those years. prob mostly due to michael stipe. horrible singer.

I mean, in many ways their career was as if Disco Demolition Night had gone on for 30 years.

Please expand on this interesting theory about why nearly the entire career of R.E.M. was so damaging to all music everywhere.

ha what? rem, destroyers of disco?

This isn't sad, guys -- it's a relief. Enough with these mediocre records. Better to break up and start new projects. Like John Lennon said, we have the old records if we want to reminisce. What depressed me was the run of uninspired, redundant albums of the last thirteen years.

This piece actually does a nice (albeit inadvertant, I think) job of crystalizing everything they fucked up...

http://www.nj.com/entertainment/music/index.ssf/2011/09/rem_breaks_up_the_athens_band.html

I read through paragraph after paragraph thinking, "Fuck, yeah,they did do that, didn't they. Fuck."

I dunno. Whatever else, Out of Time is "focused."

It also happens to be my favorite album of theirs at the moment.

I think you linked to the wrong article. Or else you just need to spell out your issues for us.

(xpost)

Nope, right article. Ha ha.

I haven't figured out why an album as perfect-in-its-own-way as AFTP has left me cold for almost fifteen years. I loved the thing in '92 yet now I can't be bothered; I'll reach for three other REM albums instead. I can't think of a single crippling thing wrong with it though.

for me it'd be "everybody hurts" -- i don't even hate it that much, but lord knows i never need to hear it again.

it's boring as hell except for like 2 songs

I think if "Automatic" almost as its own thing, and when I most recently took it out - last year? - I was struck by how, indeed, perfect in its own way it was.

Take the influenced acts or leave them, but both Radiohead and Pearl Jam wouldn't be the same without R.E.M., I'd suggest. It just shows how strong this band's impact was. Me, I think "Up" would have been a great swan song. Because whomever upthread said that had they called it quits after that album they'd be doing an awesome reunion tour this year was OTM.

hmmm yeah I can see the Pearl Jam connection. another band I have no use for.

It's getting to be the time of year when Automatic sounds best.

No consensus exists about which album was the most appropriate swan song, fortunately.

I mean, in many ways their career was as if Disco Demolition Night had gone on for 30 years.

Still trying to get my head around this.

although I sensed real danger when Michael Stipe danced in a sarong to the rhythmless "Airportman" at the '98 Tibetan Freedom Concert.

No consensus exists about which album was the most appropriate swan song, fortunately.

probably because they never really made a "perfect" album besides Murmur

I was never a huge fan, liked some stuff, bored by other stuff (especially after they signed to Warners,) but I found this complete concert from 1982; a great trip down memory lane:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPE-l-tfN0I

Their epic peak!

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

I'm still hoping dlp can explain why R.E.M. was such a destructive force. I mean, linking to a relatively praising obit for the band doesn't really help.

A good obit.

When Green was printed with the number "4" in the tracklisting replaced by "R," they rolled with it.

I thought the whole idea was that the 'R' on the cover had a transparent '4' printed over it and so therefore the '4' on the disc etc.

singing 'midnight blue' at the rem memorial karaoke tonight, might do 'harborcoat' also.

I just find the unvarying sound of those 80s albums - clean electric guitar/bass/drums/vocals + occasionally backing vocals - with no overdubs or other instruments ever just really fucking boring

Uh this is not even accurate regarding Murmur let alone any of the other records. I mean you quite literally are 100% wrong.

Cripes, by Fables they're using horns and string quartets and everything. By Green they're already starting with the mandolins, and p sure the SMASH HIT Stand has a damned farfisa on it If you're gonna troll, troll harder.

"occasionally backing vocals"

Yeah, like, on every occasion!

and the worst backing vocalist in the history of rock too. that's nothing to sneeze at.

Yeah, man. All that singing.

What depressed me was the run of uninspired, redundant albums of the last thirteen years.

Most R.E.M. albums from the past thirteen years are better than what they did in the mid 90s. "Monster" was horrible and "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" was not much better. It was sort of a relief when they did "Up" and "Reveal", realising they were never meant to be a rock band.

and the worst backing vocalist in the history of rock too. that's nothing to sneeze at.

Mills or Berry? Either way you're wrong, but I'm just curious.

xpost I like the idea of that, those albums being the sound of a group realizing they were never meant to rock.

probably because they never really made a "perfect" album besides Murmur

"Automatic For The People" was perfect. And also the one R.E.M. album that always performs best at surveys of the best 100 albums ever made. Sure, if you don't like acoustic 12 string guitars, mandolins, accordions and strings, it may not be your cup of tea. But it is generally considered to be their best (well, maybe besides "Murmur").

A group realizing they were never meant to rock, as middle aged men, which is why they should have broken up before they recorded them. They should have just released the occasional awesome single. Hell, most bands should do this.

the twerpy dude who played bass. his voice. ugh. makes yoko sound like mario lanza. as far as backing vocalists go.

x-post

"Murmur" is almost like an accidental masterpiece, the honor accorded after the fact. "Automatic" showed the band could do it on purpose.

perfect albums feh

itt people who are deaf

A group realizing they were never meant to rock, as middle aged men, which is why they should have broken up before they recorded them.

They weren't a rock band to begin with either. Those first two albums were jangle pop. They tried rocking on "Document", some liked that, I did not. Otherwise, they have done best when they were more mellow.