Man, LRP is holding up really well. Just realized there is a little break in "Superman" that sounds like it came from the early Beatles - "Hold Me Tight," I think.
― Pollabo Bryson (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 September 2011 21:31 (twelve years ago) link
I always kinda slept on LRP, rediscovered it a couple years ago, and now really think it's one of their best records. (Nice it seemed to get a lot of favorable mentions here.)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvbGYt6KlJw
― Prostetnic Vogon Limbaugh (Dan Peterson), Friday, 30 September 2011 22:31 (twelve years ago) link
The whole story of how they got the title is great too.
"Fall On Me" has a snatch of melody that sounds like it came from "Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey."
― Pollabo Bryson (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 September 2011 23:19 (twelve years ago) link
And something else maybe not on this album seemed to cop the first bars of "Knowing Me/Knowing You" but now I can't remember what it was.
― So. Central Mayne (James Redd and the Blecchs), Friday, 30 September 2011 23:21 (twelve years ago) link
Every R.E.M. album is like A or A-.
Also, "Me in Honey" is about pregnancy and breakup, right? Certainly not lightweight imo.
― timellison, Friday, 30 September 2011 23:58 (twelve years ago) link
Male pregnancy according to Q, who occasionally liked to make things up.
― Peas, Ants, Pigs & Astronauts (PaulTMA), Saturday, 1 October 2011 00:03 (twelve years ago) link
Seems fairly clear - "Baby's got a baby with me/That's a part, that's a part of me!"
― timellison, Saturday, 1 October 2011 00:04 (twelve years ago) link
LRP is patchy as shit after Cuyahoga
― Master of Treacle, Saturday, 1 October 2011 00:14 (twelve years ago) link
i hate that kid for being able to play underneath the bunker better than me.
― Daniel, Esq., Saturday, 1 October 2011 00:25 (twelve years ago) link
Listened to Out of Time on a long drive tonight Belong is really nice. Most of it hasn't held up.
When I mentioned earlier that Near Wild Heaven reminded me of the Moody Blues, I was wrong. It's Texarkana.
― john. a resident of chicago., Saturday, 1 October 2011 02:58 (twelve years ago) link
Also, "Me In Honey" = "Can't Hardly Wait"
― shake it, shake it, sugary pee (Tarfumes The Escape Goat), Saturday, 1 October 2011 07:09 (twelve years ago) link
Me In Honey was a 'reply' to 10,000 Maniacs' Eat For Two wasn't it? or that's what i've read. hence "what about me?" etc.
― piscesx, Saturday, 1 October 2011 12:06 (twelve years ago) link
Read yesterday that the three new tracks on the compilation album that's coming out were recorded over the summer in Athens.
Just occurred to me - I wonder if they feature you-know-who on the drums!
― timellison, Sunday, 2 October 2011 05:31 (twelve years ago) link
that would rule
― reggie (qualmsley), Sunday, 2 October 2011 12:01 (twelve years ago) link
i just loaded up onto my ipod, resequencing it as suggested by stylus magazine a few years ago (except i (a) deleted lotus, which i don't like and (b) dumped the rest of the songs discarded by the stylus article at the end (by the way, they axed airportman, which i actually liked a lot as an exercise in hazy atmosphere)).
― Daniel, Esq., Sunday, 2 October 2011 12:15 (twelve years ago) link
those "playing god" articles were nice features.
"why not smile" is probably my least favorite track so i could never get my head around the logic of that running order
― some dude, Sunday, 2 October 2011 12:53 (twelve years ago) link
man i totally forgot "lotus" exists
― da croupier, Sunday, 2 October 2011 13:14 (twelve years ago) link
CLASSIC SIDE
Chronic Town: A-Murmur: A+Reckoning: AFables: ALRP: A+Dead Letter Office: A_Document: AGreen: A- (would be A but for "The Wrong Child" and "Worth Leader Pretend," which between them foreshadow most of the mistakes the band would make later)Out of Time: A
POST-CLASSIC SIDE:
Automatic: CMonster: A-New Adventures: A-Up: CReveal: DAround the Sun: only one I didn't buyAccelerate: B-Collapse: B-
Also, "Stand," "Shiny Happy People," and "Radio Song" are triumphs of the human spirit.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Sunday, 2 October 2011 14:06 (twelve years ago) link
The Oxford American version of "Why Not Smile" is pretty great; it's on the "Daysleeper" single.
― Euler, Sunday, 2 October 2011 15:07 (twelve years ago) link
eephus otm re. Green
eephus off teh markh re: Automatic
― t**t, Sunday, 2 October 2011 15:31 (twelve years ago) link
would be A but for "The Wrong Child" and "Worth Leader Pretend," which between them foreshadow most of the mistakes the band would make later
http://i.ytimg.com/vi/BNyDjkPO8l0/0.jpg
― Age ain't nothin' but a Tumblr (Phil D.), Sunday, 2 October 2011 15:39 (twelve years ago) link
eeph notm re: "the wrong child" and "world leader pretend" being bad but otm about how the templates they set never approached the originals
― reggie (qualmsley), Sunday, 2 October 2011 15:40 (twelve years ago) link
I don't think either of those songs set significant templates for their later output.
― timellison, Sunday, 2 October 2011 16:23 (twelve years ago) link
"world leader pretend" = first rem song with the lyrics printed in the liner notes. a template for the michael major label message song? "the wrong child" is peter's first mandolin dirge iirc
― reggie (qualmsley), Sunday, 2 October 2011 17:58 (twelve years ago) link
Listening to Green this morning for the first time in ages, I could barely get through "You Are the Everthing," which I used to love.
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 2 October 2011 18:00 (twelve years ago) link
were you drifting off to sleep, with your teeth in your mouth?
― reggie (qualmsley), Sunday, 2 October 2011 18:02 (twelve years ago) link
Eviscerate the memory!
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Sunday, 2 October 2011 18:04 (twelve years ago) link
all you hear is time stand still in travel
― reggie (qualmsley), Sunday, 2 October 2011 18:11 (twelve years ago) link
R.E.M. remembered by some folks in the Athens community
― Brad C., Sunday, 2 October 2011 18:59 (twelve years ago) link
I don't think "world leader pretend" and "the wrong child" are bad, i just think they're less good than everything else on "green."
I should have added "Drive" as portender of future mistakes -- there is speak-singing earlier on the records (notably "Belong," but Stipe also used to do it a lot in live shows in the 80s) but the particular kind of rhythmically dead speak-singing that mars lots of later tracks starts with "Drive," I think. Not that it's always bad. "Belong" is wonderful.
Finally, "You Are The Everything" is the best song of its kind they ever wrote, only I'm having a hard time specifying what the kind is. But it includes "Nightswimming."
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 3 October 2011 00:40 (twelve years ago) link
"world leader pretend" is completely fucking awesome, probably my favorite song on green
man what a pretty dirge
― mutant slow drum (BradNelson), Monday, 3 October 2011 01:48 (twelve years ago) link
From the album that contains the execrable, interminable "Hairshirt", I can't accept that at all. Definitely the worst of 'that kind' of REM song.
― Master of Treacle, Monday, 3 October 2011 02:17 (twelve years ago) link
Or at least certainly one of the worst during the bigtime era
― Master of Treacle, Monday, 3 October 2011 02:18 (twelve years ago) link
you might be right, will relisten to "green" to make sure. i still hate the title of "pop song 89" but jeez, what a song. though the riff doesn't seem as HUGE to me as it once did (e.g. I think I once thought of it as comparably huge to the similarly deployed riff in "Begin The Begin," but now I think so.)
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 3 October 2011 02:30 (twelve years ago) link
I've listened to this so often in my life that it's hard to listen to it with sustained attention. Also, I'm working on something else. After "PS89" and "Get Up" I'm reminded again of how much I like how big and upfront the vocals (both Stipe and Mills) are on this record. Also, the King Missile cover of this is surprisingly good.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 3 October 2011 02:35 (twelve years ago) link
When this record came out I thought "You Are The Everything" was a boring mood-killer between "Get Up" and "Stand." How could I have been so dumb?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 3 October 2011 02:38 (twelve years ago) link
I share enough of Stipe's pride in "World Leader Pretend" to forgive him for printing the lyrics. "Get Up" and "Pop Song '89" are good dumb-smart pop. "Stand" too. I don't care for the rest, including "Turn You Inside Out."
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 3 October 2011 02:39 (twelve years ago) link
uh boy i hate stand and pop song 89, but there's a lot on this album i still love, including the admittedly generic-sounding world leader pretend.
― Daniel, Esq., Monday, 3 October 2011 02:41 (twelve years ago) link
On the other hand, when I listened to this cassette for the very first time, the day it came out, "Stand" came out and I was like, "holy crap, this is going to be the biggest hit of the year and it is also the best song I have ever heard" and I think I was not so dumb about this.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 3 October 2011 02:42 (twelve years ago) link
Green is the first CD I ever bought with my own money and by lucky coincidence a stone cold classic
― da croupier, Monday, 3 October 2011 02:43 (twelve years ago) link
"World Leader Pretend" -- the slide guitar -- it sounds like a theremin to me! -- makes this non-generic for me. The part that's mostly piano is the song of which "Nightswimming"is a cheap third-gen photocopy.
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 3 October 2011 02:47 (twelve years ago) link
Almost as scary as the cello in "World Leader Pretend": Stipe's hair in the sleeve photo.
― Anakin Ska Walker (AKA Skarth Vader) (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 3 October 2011 02:49 (twelve years ago) link
elvis costello's favorite r.e.m. apparently!
LOVE:get upuntitled
love:you are the everything (note: have not heard in 20 years)orange crushturn you inside out
like:pop song 89standworld leader pretendi remember california
no thanks:the wrong childhairshirt
― balls, Monday, 3 October 2011 02:49 (twelve years ago) link
this alone makes me hate the album
― Daniel, Esq., Monday, 3 October 2011 02:51 (twelve years ago) link
I stand by my claim that the line "tell me what it's like to go outside / i've never been" is almost impossible to sell, and stipe doesn't do it -- but i had forgotten how bracingly weird and dissonant the mandolin arpeggios are on this song, and i'm not sure now what i meant by calling it a foreshadowing of later bad decisions. the final "it's ok, ok" works for me but he does the same thing better with the final "what about me" in "me in honey"
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 3 October 2011 02:51 (twelve years ago) link
i never think about "orange crush" but this song is unimpeachable. noticing today the way the rat-a-tat that opens the song is echoed by the guitar, quietly, in other non-obvious places throughout the song. one of the best of mills's wordless backing howls (this is where i get to say how much i like "belong" again)
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 3 October 2011 02:55 (twelve years ago) link
"hairshirt" is slight but pleasant. the refrain of "the wrong child" is so gorgeous and yet must crawl out of the weird verses half-compromised. i think i like the song a lot for that reason.
it's one of my favorite r.e.m. records because it reminds me of fables in its construction: a lot of styles surveyed, and yet they all feel of a piece.
― mutant slow drum (BradNelson), Monday, 3 October 2011 02:55 (twelve years ago) link
"turn you inside out" was another one i didn't care for when i first listened to the tape, but the live version won me over. just noticing tonight how the first two measures of guitar quote the opening of "superman." maybe THIS is where the speak-singing in its 1990s form really begins?
― Guayaquil (eephus!), Monday, 3 October 2011 02:58 (twelve years ago) link