rem's 'ignoreland'

exactly what i didn't mean

Re: Ignoreland -- it's never going to be anyone's favourite REM song, but I love the way Stipe sings "undermine the social democratic downhill slide into abysmal" (or something like that.) He does long words better 'n Billy Bragg at least.

Yeh definitely. I think their ironic Dadaist posturing was lost on most though. Everyone who says "I can't stand that Shiney Happy People Song, it's too jolly!" etc.

i still like 'ignoreland'. it speeds up the record unexpectedly. otherwise, 'automatic' is too sophisticated. feels like i should be savouring a slice of brie and a glass of shiraz while listening to it.

"it speeds up the record unexpectedly."

yeh, rite, 'xactly!!
:)

(you wouldn't believe how fukken hard i laughed for full three minutes after i saw that sentence, heheh)

p.s. after all these years - no love have i found in me for "ignoreland".

glad you liked the observation. :)

i've also been noticing that 'the sidewinder sleeps tonite' has a really rough vocal delivery to it. really cool song - i actually like the way it sounds like m.s is contending with a layer of phlegm at the back of his throat while singing it. sounds really interesting juxtaposed with the really polished, refined delivery of 'everybody hurts'. funny lyrics too

When I was younger I thought of this as some sort of weak link on the album, for some reason. Perhaps because it's not elegiac? Melancholy?? Anyway, for some reason it just came on the radio, and I turned it up, and it kicked ass.

Being mad at George H.W. Bush feels so fuckin’ quaint now.

not really

It’s really the only rock song of its type on either of the early 90s records, and thus it rocks in a strangely singular way that they never really did before or after this era

(ie. the idea of a few more “Ignorelands” from that period seems somewhat appealing to me now)

listen to orange crush instead

i like it mostly because it sounds absolutely amazing like the rest of the automatic, but i think that even tho it rocks a little bit more, it's using the same sonic palette as the sidewinder sleeps tonight and monty got a raw deal so it fits in on the album.

orange crush with eyeliner

i didn't hear automatic for the people in full until like 1998, but this has always been my favorite track.

i like it mostly because it sounds absolutely amazing like the rest of the automatic

i kinda disagree? i mean, not that i don't think automatic sounds really amazing, i agree with that part.
idk how to explain this exactly, but the negative space on that album sounds INCREDIBLE. it's like the whole album is set against a pure black backdrop, or maybe like a dark void in the space between the instruments. it's crazy.

except for ignoreland. in ignoreland there's like a wash of background texture that wrecks it. i know this sounds really silly, but i swear.

it's just like a gray wash to my ears. it doesn't have that cleanness, or that contrast. the emptiness on the other tracks is so incredible.

i was in college when this came out; the predominant questions were whether the album as a whole rocked at all and was that acceptable, whether the 'man in the moon' references were too dorky, and whether 'nightswimming' was too gay

pretty sure no one then or now has ever really cared about ignoreland (or its ill-begotten child, electioneering)

idk how to explain this exactly, but the negative space on that album sounds INCREDIBLE. it's like the whole album is set against a pure black backdrop, or maybe like a dark void in the space between the instruments.

This is so otm and also contrasts with the bright, airy space on Out of Time in a way that encapsulates the very different feels of the two albums, and why I greatly prefer Automatic.

whether 'nightswimming' was too gay

I'm curious what you were picking up on in that particular song. Until Stipe's "equal opportunity lech" interview (in '94), I had never given particular thought to his sexuality, or noticed any kind of queer aesthetic in R.E.M. (though I wouldn't be surprised to learn that others, who were more attuned, did notice).

or noticed any kind of queer aesthetic in R.E.M.

...and yes, I know:

http://www.thebackseatdriverreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/shiny.jpg

^
https://denisewymore.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/rem.jpg?w=584

i mean, it's a song about skinny dipping that goes "i'm not sure all these people understand/it's not like years ago/the fear of getting caught"

Huh, I guess I just took those lines at face value (about skinny-dipping).

it could be read that way, or not, and i think the ambiguity is fitting, like the most tentative romantic advances where there's a plausible deniability

(xp - and getting older, reflecting on the thrill of youth, etc.)

yeah, that's interesting... I'm feeling it.

As a whole, AFTP is a record which opens up a vast world when played very loud. The sound is beautiful and it becomes emotionally overwhelming, the photo of Stipe on the inner sleeve expresses exactly this feeling.

I just finished listening to it all the way thru (on headphones)... the final song reminded me of my friends and I trying to parse every lyric when it came out, and never getting "ginger, mint, and vetiver" right, until we finally read it somewhere (we had never heard of vetiver, I'm still not sure what it is!).

I don't hate Ignoreland but it seems like a song that deserves the production style of one of the earlier albums. And even compared to most of the rest of the album it's very cluttered-sounding.

Hate this song so much. This was the REM album that made me fall in love with them and hoover up all of their releases, singles, bootlegs that I could find around my podunk town.

It's a perfect album except for this song, and it's a bad song within the context of AFTP or standing on its own.

I recently tried to go back and hear it with fresh ears. Maybe I could have accepted it as an instrumental on the album? Probably not. The lyrics are so plain and simple, they flop out and wriggle on the floor. Even the title of the song is a dud. It has absolutely nothing that I like about REM. It's as though Stipe was mad about politics and wrote an angry Facebook post at 1am and immediately decided to set it to music, unedited. Ugh.

I always read it as satire, it’s pretty gauche from a writer who absolutely wasn’t

yeah I agree with all that. I hate this song. notably it is bad for the dumb slap bass & Stipey's braying vocal. also it's awfully smug. sheeple pop if you will.

er xp

"igNOREland!" always sounded a lot like "in YOUR land!", to me, which i always took as a nod to the idea of having living in someone else's world, their rules and norms, etc

XP = there's no slap bass on Ignoreland, there is a clavinet though.

I feel like it's the apex of Stipe's dumb vocal tic from that era of repeating words as punctuation.

JoeStork is right, it's really cluttered with guitar overdubs that remind me of some half-assed version of what Vudi from American Music Club was doing around the time of 'Everclear', hate those big 'Hooo' backing vocals too.

The middle eight is great though.

The verse about 'vitriol' is so very bad.

bad

The song's a little clunky and dorky-sounding, but also sort of endearing (due to those same qualities)... it's never occurred to me to hate on it the way some of y'all do. Even my least-favorite songs of the band's classic era (e.g., "Oddfellows"), I don't really hate or think are outright "bad."

The only two REM songs I hate are "Ignoreland" & "Strange Currencies". There are a few others, mostly on New Adventures, that I dislike, but those two are just awful.

I dislike some on NAIHF for sure (but that's where I get off the bus, anyway).

there are no bad tracks on new adventures

wack opinions itt

ignoreland is good

& I love "Oddfellows", I remember a trip to Athens in high school where I saw a sign for the local Oddfellows lodge & was so happy

looking through the discography and the first r.e.m. songs i consider "bad" don't show up until reveal

The only good thing about "Bittersweet Me" is the cover of "Wichita Lineman" on the single, and it is a very good thing.

xxp Just learned about that (via Genius.com) earlier today! I never knew that bit of lore, or what that song was actually "about" (Peewee, etc.).

this song is almost objectively bad on its own but I like it as a jolt of energy on what's otherwise a pretty sedate record

"Bittersweet Me" rules!

of all the songs on new adventures... "bittersweet me"????

one of their very best singles and songs

probably my favorite set of stipe lyrics ever too

To me, it felt like they were really repeating themselves for the first time with that song.

I do not like that song :/

oh my peer, your veneer is wearing thin and cracking

it felt like they were really repeating themselves for the first time with that song

I say this with love: between their 80s albums they have at least 50 songs that sound exactly the same

i know the band themselves weren't into "ignoreland"'s production but i kind of like the density, it's like this dark cloud of clashing ideas that stipe's trying to shout through

i have no issue with the lyrics. the paper's terrified to report anything that isn't handed on a presidential spoon, i'm just profoundly frustrated by all this, so fuck you man. fuck 'em!

"fuck 'em" otm, then and now

yeah i just looked up the video and this song rules. lots of wack opinions itt definitely

i mean it's evergreen, the latest xerox is pete buttigieg. fuck em.

between their 80s albums they have at least 50 songs that sound exactly the same

Gonna have to ask you to name a few!

(“7 Chinese Bros” / “Voice of Harold” don’t count 😉)

"The only two REM songs I hate are "Ignoreland" & "Strange Currencies". There are a few others, mostly on New Adventures, that I dislike, but those two are just awful."

Strange Currencies is kind of a perfect ballad, I just think you h8 ballads

"Strange Currencies" is sappy ott great!

"Ignoreland" is by far my least favorite song in the catalog.

we should poll ignoreland vs electioneering

The songs between "Be Mine" and "Electrolite" fade into grey but they're not terrible.

"Ignoreland" is fine. Y'all had to be there in October '92 at the tail end of a dozen years of Reagan-Poppy.

I like that we have a thread for this song, it can get moved to the I Love REM board that eephus and I have been clamoring for

xp oh I was there

strange currencies made a little more sense when they admitted during the 25th anniversary press tour that they were trying to write an INXS song.

xp I was there too. It fit the spirit of the times.

lol, watching the "strange currencies" video and boy they did not convince in velvets/grunge drag.

Looks like there have been two OKC pos on ILM, neither of which were titled 'I Trust I Can Rely on your VOTE' wtf