BEST/MOST "BON JOVI'S NEW JERSEY" ALBUM EVER

djp otm

all I really remember about Monster is that at the time I really loved "Bang and Blame"

worst song by far!

look it has prominent tom work in it, I know my biases and how helpless to them I am

it's always been pretty low in my estimation, too. In the documentary about the Monster tour, the band was really excited about playing it on SNL, though.

haha ok. "i don't sleep i dream" is the better tom tom slow burner though imo.

xpost isn't "dream" the one they played on SNL?

Best: Butterfly. I guess it was the start of her commercial decline, but the consensus (at least amongst fans) is that it's her artistic peak, so I don't really see it as a New Jersey.
Most: BSB

xpost they played those two AND kenneth, a rare gesture from the show at the time. Hosted by Sarah Jessica Parker during the godawful period right before will ferrell's era.

gonna vote use your illusion, because my friend dan had his license early and we drove an hour to mankato to buy it at midnight at musicland

is Butterfly really the consensus favorite for Mariah, or just among fans who got on the bus in the bare midriff era? (xpost)

if Butterfly is the consensus favorite for Mariah, it explains so much of what I find enraging about modern culture

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

michael stipe just begging people to sell their CDs back in this (esp at 4:15)

On second thought, Monster is a more listenable record than either Dangerous or UYI, and also one of the weirdest blockbuster albums ever - it's an "only in 1994" kinda record - but it never felt as monumental, perhaps because the modest-to-a-fault R.E.M. never telegraphed their ambitions or their megalomania the way Axl and MJ did.

i dunno if i'd call the clip above "modest-to-a-fault"

pretty sure it's bono's fault so many '90s rockers thought the way to deal with fame was to "ironically" sashay around like jackass

I totally love about half the songs on Dangerous - track-by-track it's clearly, indisputably stronger than UYI II, my pick of the GNR twofer - but somehow it's even harder to get through from beginning to end. All that broken glass gets wearing after a while.

Taking Sides: ACHTUNG BABY by U2 VS. MONSTER by R.E.M

i feel like Monster's weirdness was very relative, in the context of their career and of the era. taken on its own terms i don't know if it's really so strange or even bad.

xxxp - by "modest to a fault" I mean the image they projected more than the reality. Even though they pointedly went faux-glam with Monster it's not like anybody was bashing cars and turning into a panther or swimming with dolphins in the videos.

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

i think it was omar little that posted back when, as they go from the one Human Clay to the two Weathered hits shit gets ever more surreal

that posted the above clip back when, i mean

Yeah, however it was hyped and however much it disappointed people, Monster was, at worst, a little too darn serious (the gritty black and white of the videos and the booklet). And while it could lose 1-2 songs, it's not bloated by any stretch of the imagination. It just wasn't in REM's nature to do the kind of album that the title Monster and the New Jersey tag would start to suggest. It's certainly the record here that I have the most interest in listening to...

ah shit, you know what we forgot? Poison's Flesh & Blood. "Unskinny Bop" and "Something To Believe In" were totally the poor man's "Nothing But A Good Time" and "Every Rose Has It's Thorn" but they still got 3x platinum and released a DOUBLE LIVE album the year after.

I remembered it when watching Paula Abdul's "Vibeology" VMA performance, which reminding me of when CC couldn't even get through "Unskinny Bop" and just started playing "Talk Dirty To Me"

I'm listening to Monster right now. I think one reason it's not "New Jersey" is that it doesn't in any way presage THE WAY in which R.E.M. dropped out of the commercial megastar zone. Two alternate futures in which it would be more of a New Jersey:

1. R.E.M. makes four more steadily less popular albums which all sound like less-interesting versions of Monster (e.g. four "Accelerate"s.)
2. R.E.M., chastened by relative failure of Monster, makes four more steadily less popular albums which all sound like less-interesting versions of Automatic (I wouldn't say they even recorded one.)

those roads are ironic considering bon jovi took neither

is Butterfly really the consensus favorite for Mariah, or just among fans who got on the bus in the bare midriff era? (xpost)

I guess it's at the crossroads of fans who came on board the bus for Mariah finally going straight up R&B and fans who were still at this point on board who liked her vocal skills (this is when she started to go into whisper territory but could still belt & do her runs). It's at the midpoint where it appeases those who like "old" & "new" Mariah, so gets more broad consensus appreciation in the fanbase. Plus it's her ~personal~ album (dealing w/ her divorce etc.), and the one with her finally getting real artistic & creative control over the output which always codes well for a consensus critical favourite. Plus stuff like "The Roof" & "Breakdown" are hard to argue with.

Really convinced Monster is more of a US-style Be Here Now - aside from early sales gigantism, it lacks "event" status. But once again, I remain most interested in the New Jersey as the inevitable result of the era/ethos that said "try to get every album to be Thriller or Hysteria, spend a year a gazillion dollars in the studio, then unveil the treasures slowly." Albums that peak early on prior momentum and then totally lose the commercial plot, like Monster, are better understood in terms of the general rules of flops and audience-shedding "oops" moments. Not uninteresting, and it's true that it's only in the big-sales CD era could an album with the contents of Monster do 4x platinum - but the story doesn't have the same hooks for me.

those roads are ironic considering bon jovi took neither

― da croupier, Friday, August 10, 2012 3:06 PM Bookmark

they took the lost highway iirc

Albums that peak early on prior momentum and then totally lose the commercial plot

that's not what happened, though. Monster got it's fourth platinum trophy almost a year after it came out. The tour kept it selling.

Wow, damn, didn't realize that.

Sorta gives some lie to the "#1 used CD" story, which kind of implies people buying it, deciding it sucked, and selling it back. You'd think by six months in the word of mouth would be out and people would have stopped buying the thing.

i think it just took a while to happen, Monster being "acceptable in the '90s" and sticking out like a neon orange thumb a couple years later

voted Rattle & Hum as the most New Jersey album. "Angel of Harlem" remains supremely hollow: list a bunch of names & places, "tonight this city belongs to me". Angel, alright.

the Charles Manson opening

also on one of the singles you have

"Love Rescue Me" (Live from London, 16 October 1988; featuring Ziggy Marley and Keith Richards)

hoping they turn it into a reggae theme!

Voted for the only one of these I've ever heard. (Rattle & Hum)

you should hear Dangerous shamon, told you, uh-huh, it will change your life *breaks another glass*

I totally love about half the songs on Dangerous - track-by-track it's clearly, indisputably stronger than UYI II, my pick of the GNR twofer - but somehow it's even harder to get through from beginning to end

It tails off at the end but "Give In To Me" does megalomania/sexual hysteria – not to mention slash guitar actually played by Slash – better than "Dirty Diana."

"Who Is It?" is one of my favorite MJ songs

it took me a long time to admit dangerous qualified just because i liked so many of the tracks

"Who Is It" is top ten MJ imo

Really convinced Monster is more of a US-style Be Here Now - aside from early sales gigantism, it lacks "event" status

Whoa, it seemed like an event to me but I was a fan. Douglas Coupland's Microserfs (lol 90s) came out the same year and was half a tribute to the release of Monster.

yeah this kind of why i'm rmde every time somebody quibbles about "Event" status - if you're an established artist going multi-platinum, PLENTY of people think it's an event.

I'm sure he's happy and I'm happy he's happy but in song and performance Stipe was the most unconvincing queer. A year after my intense Roxy/Bowie fandom, I really dug the intentions of "Crush With Eyeliner" but it's not as sexy as he thought it was.

Most: New Jersey or Don't Look Back
Best: Monster

Was "Crush with Eyeliner" supposed to be sexy? It makes the most sense to me as a song about a closet case forcing himself to date a woman.

xxxpost hahaha seriously? makes me want to read that book! I didn't get into REM until "Bittersweet Me" so all this is me catching up on things after the fact - pay me no mind.

"Who Is It" definitely one of my fave MJ songs too, but man, this album! Surely this is the point where MJ the megastar begins to be overtaken by MJ the cartoon weirdo? Obviously tons of non-musical events playing into that but it's somehow exactly the kind of record that fits that transformation; preposterously self-confident, the tics and signature moves flying all over the place to constantly assert territory, this "doth protest too much" proclamations of BIGNESS against all comers. "Jam" is nearly six minutes long and never actually becomes a song - it's just state-of-the-art kitchen-sink dance production shuttling loudly along with a bunch of random crap in the mix and MJ periodically squeaking out verses and blurting out the title. Oh and hey here's a faceless rap! Are those sleighbells?! Just a mess. I'm reminded of Ismael's discussion of the "Bad Medicine" listening experience on the other thread. And this is the opening salvo!

Monster was definitely an event, magazine covers galore, biggest band in the world that hadn't toured in literally years getting back on the road. the "Kenneth" video premiere with the delayed reveal of BALD STIPE was a big deal! he even beat Corgan to the headshaving move by like a year and a half.

plus song about Kurt, health scares, it was a media circus.

That era produced the best REM interviews imo

"Jam" is nearly six minutes long and never actually becomes a song - it's just state-of-the-art kitchen-sink dance production shuttling loudly along with a bunch of random crap in the mix and MJ periodically squeaking out verses and blurting out the title.

just close your eyes and imagine this as a Skinny Puppy or Meat Beat Manifesto track

Noice. Glad to see that I'm not the only one using his period of self-isolation to trudge through musical mud (currently working my way through an array of previously-unheard pop albums from 1990).

True Colors is maybe the most truly disappointing of that lot. Such a sadly-massive decline.

oooh which 1990 pop albums?

I should check out the Bone Thugs-N-Harmony album.

I bumped yr thread from a few weeks back to address that very question!