REM: Classic or dud?

R.E.M. is one of my favorite bands ever yet I don't think I've ever made it through even half of New Adventures in Hi-Fi or Up or could remember three songs from either album, save for that E-Bow song, which I always thought was dumb.

If those albums are actually masterpieces then I'm in luck because I'll have something to discover but to me they barely exist and my eyes glaze over whenever anybody talks about them.

These guys were like the Dead for me, in a small way. Followed them for a bit on the Monster tour (summer after finishing high school), got into tape trading via usenet not long after. Haven't listened to any of the studio records in ages. I don't know if that's a common R.E.M. experience or not.

No way, Joe Boyd Biden in the 80's, man. Classic as hell. My favorite album of theirs.

― Austin, Friday, 16 June 2017 23:06 (three days ago) Permalink

threw it on a couple days back and holy hell i had forgotten that opening 1-2-3 might even be better than that on "reckoning"

I've never been a fan of the band. I liked "out of time" and "automatic" as a teenager but that's about it.
Like many people I bought "monster" upon release and quickly left it taking dust...
as for the E-bow song, I think that's the only one I heard from that album. I liked it alright at the time and listened to it again this week-end due to this thread.
I still like it. and I find there's a surprising... t-rex vibe in it ! especially in the intro.

New Adventures in Hi-Fi is one of the best records this band ever made.

If you only heard their 90s ones, it's definitely top three.

err they released 4 albums in the 90s !

ah no, 5.

I think post-Monster they tended towards over-indulgence with album lengths. I love much of New Adventures and Up but I feel like they could easily both do with losing three-four tracks each.

I know Monster is supposed to be their "rawk" record(I'm a little biased as it was the first album I owned that wasn't a copy of someone elses) and contrived though it might be, it still feels a more successful attempt at that sort of album than Accelerate was later. It also has the wonderfully atypical Tongue, which seems really disliked among some REM fans for reasons I don't quite get.

If you only heard their 90s ones, it's definitely top three.

― dorsalstop, Monday, June 19, 2017 10:33 AM (one hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I agree. Also, if you've heard their 80s, 00s and 10s work, it's still definitely top three.

Yeah, the albums from 1996 up to 2004 are longer than before, but it works on New Adventures in Hi-Fi. Up would definitely benefit from a trim. Around the Sun is really the only out-and-out awful record the band made. I prefer Accelerate to Monster, although New Adventures in Hi-Fi crushes both.

oh wow so New adventures is THAT good ? ok I'll give it a try.

Tongue, which seems really disliked among some REM fans for reasons I don't quite get.

― Pheeel, Monday, 19 June 2017 12:30

Never heard about this before, it's a great song

*checks*

my first kiss was to Leave. thanks REM!

― rebels against newton (Z S), Wednesday, September 21, 2011 10:01 PM (five years ago)

yep, already posted it. but for that reason alone new adventures will always be a nostalgically pleasing listen for me. i love e-bow as well, and i think how the west was won is a great opening track. has anyone ever done a re-sequencing thing for new adventures? i have to say that i've never really liked the wake up bomb and it's placement in the #2 spot always takes me out of it

Really?

"*last chord of 'How The West Was Won...* - *short pause* - *inhale* I LOOK GOOD IN A GLASS PACK!" is one of my favourite bits of sequencing on there. Still kicks my arse into gear all these years later.

the opening kicks ass, i agree. unfortunately, the rest of the song follows ;)

i'm not really a fan of monster-era r.e.m. though, and the wake up bomb sounds like a relic of that to me. before anyone answers...yes, i know that i'm wrong

I've always loved Up. It's got lots of MOR, indistinct songs, but it's also got some of the band's most interesting songs, i.e. 'Airportman', 'Lotus', and 'Diminished.' It's a great record, I've always maintained.

Aw, I love "Wake Up Bomb" - but it's also the most Monster-like track on NAIHF so if you hate Monster then it would follow you hate WUB.

The one track on Hi Fi that bugs me is "Leave".

I got off the bus after Automatic. Loved everything up to and including it, no use for anything after it.

leave bugs me too, actually! the siren guitar noise is fun for a while but wears out it's welcome on repeated listens

It's an ARP Odyssey doing the siren - I love 'Leave' but I suppose enjoyment of it does hinge on whether or not you can tune out the siren and focus on the song.

I like 'The Wake-Up Bomb' more than pretty much all of Monster, though!

'Tongue' is underrated - I didn't like it for years, but it grew on me.

The siren rules! The siren-less version on the Life Less Ordinary soundtrack (admittedly different in other ways) is a real slog IIRC.

it's also got some of the band's most interesting songs, i.e. 'Airportman', 'Lotus', and 'Diminished.'

"Hope"

'Hope' is fantastic!

'Diminished' and 'Sad Professor' would be the first two tracks on Up to get the chop ...

"Sad Professor" is great, and got three votes in the poll for this album! I do like "Diminished" okay, but agree that you could cut it without harming the album - I'd say that, "You're In The Air," and "I'm Not Over You" would be the easy ways to tighten up the running time.

The siren rules!

OTM, another big fan of New Adventures here, "Electrolite" totally rules btw

I wouldn't chop "Sad Professor" for a shorter Up either.

'Diminished' and 'Sad Professor' would be the first two tracks on Up to get the chop ...

― The Anti-Climax Blues Band (Turrican), Monday, June 19, 2017 10:47 AM (twelve minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

this sucks, these are like the two best tracks ffs

I still like "Daysleeper" when I chance to hear it. I kinda want to mash it up with "Nightswimming" some time.
I do like "Hope." Between "Diminished" and "Sad Professor," I'd keep "Diminished." But there's no real necessity to choose. If you don't feel like listening to the whole album you don't have to.

The only REM song I like post-Up is "Imitation of Life."

"You're In The Air," and "I'm Not Over You" would be the easy ways to tighten up the running time.

But then it would lose the line "I want you naked I want you wild."

Speaking of Up, does anyone else remember David Cross and Bob Odenkirk reviewing it among a selection of new albums (Archers of Loaf's White Trash Heroes was another) on MTV when it came out? I'd love to see that clip again.

I'll say it again: "Suspicion" is one of their best songs and terribly underrated.

I wouldn't cut "Diminished", it feels too important to the whole style of the album. But I honestly don't know what I'd cut. Maybe "Walk Unafraid".

"Walk Unafraid" was probably the song from this album that they did live the most. Still in their sets ca. 2008.

and it was a huge banger live

i'd cut "lotus" and "daysleeper" prob, not bc they're remotely bad songs (they're both amazing) but bc they're the biggest stylistic outliers on the record ("lotus" is so much louder than everything else, and "daysleeper" feels imported from out of time/automatic aesthetically)

The one track on Hi Fi that bugs me is "Leave".

leave bugs me too, actually! the siren guitar noise is fun for a while but wears out it's welcome on repeated listens

haha "Leave" is the only song on New Adventures that I've always loved, from first listen on.

Yeah, I'd also prune 'You're In The Air' ... 'Walk Unafraid' is one of the best things on the record, IMO, and worked fabulously live.

"Lotus" is on the short list of obnoxious REM songs.

'Suspicion' isn't one of my absolute favourites, but I like it and can understand why people consider it a highlight, even if I don't.

Bill Berry wrote the guitar riff to 'Leave', I think.

i find it hard to rank their albums because up to and including NAIHF there's such a quantity and quality of material...my favorite remains Reckoning, probably. i have a huge soft spot for Monster and i think it's a genuinely excellent LP. it sounds like no other album i can think of right now, let alone any other R.E.M. album. actually if there's anything that sounds like Monster, lmk.

monster is probably the only return-to-our-roots record i can think of where the idea went so wrong that it opened up a new space in their music

I love the one-two of Airportman to Lotus. But at the same time both are outliers to the rest of the record - they're never more subdued nor more garish. Maybe the chore of Up isn't the quality of any one song but rather that it takes a good 10-15 minutes to even settle into it's overall sound?

And the air of lassitude.

No, the chore of Up is a combination of overall length, slow-to-mid tempo tracks and everything is buffed to perfection and slicker than usual.

Like, Up was undoubtedly their slickest production to date - Berry and Buck liked to bang things down quick and went more for feel, Mills was more interested in slaving over things. Mills and Stipe were in the drivers seat for Up, Reveal and Around the Sun. Buck reasserted himself on the last two.

I get that but I don't think the "buffed" production is a drawback - I like Up and Reveal a lot. My challenge with Up is that I agree it's too long, but if I go track by track it's not obvious to me what should go. They're all good songs even if the album doesn't take off. Just a theory that maybe if you chopped those two outliers at the beginning (and maybe resequenced?), the feel of the album would change dramatically. I haven't tried it - just a thought occurring to me now.

I liked Reveal and Around the Sun a lot at the time because they seemed to involve a new interest in compositional concision. Neither is amongst my favorite R.E.M. albums overall but I think those charms still resonate and Around the Sun, in particular, is underrated. I like it more than Reveal.

I know I probably said that like ten times on here a decade ago!

I recommend the recently-ish released Unplugged two disk set, second disk, for good revisitations of Up and Reveal songs. and a killer Cuyahoga too