This is the Thread Where You Bash REM's Monster

And btw, Geir Hongro thinks Reveal is the best REM album ever. I'll just note that so he doesn't have to.

And "Crush with Eyeliner" sucks, but I really like the video.

I've understood the love given to "Tongue." *yawn*

It does sound better now than it did in '94. That said, I think history will be less kind to REM than they deserve.

Basically true, but I think "E-Bow the Letter" is one of the finest things they've ever done. REM was officially over for me when I heard the new song they wrote for the Andy Kauffman movie -- the musical equivalent of a faked orgasm.

Wha' happened?

I also like New Adventures in Hi Fi, but moreso for individual songs than the whole shebang. There's half a dozen songs I program out when I listen to it. Definitely not the first six however.

I can understand to a degree why some may consider it a mediocre effort, but it wasn't even considered good enough for mediocre reviews - from what I gather, most reviews written after 1994 called this among the worst albums of alltime, and the biggest mistake REM has ever made. It's almost gotten to the point where bashing this album is the equivalent of praising Sgt Pepper.

I enjoy nearly every song, and it's certainly among my 3 favorite REM records.

Here Here, Keith!
(it's an injoke, folks.)

By the way, what's the injoke. I don't get it? Did I make it?

http://www.metroactive.com/papers/metro/11.05.98/gifs/rem-9844.jpg
there

from

http://www.sem20.com/15-minute-interlude/rem.jpg
here

Monster got great hype before it came out. Don't they always? I can't recall ANY REM album ever getting a bad review, generally speaking, until, probably, Reveal (maybe UP too but I seem to remember the consensus generally being positive on that one too).

Crush With Eyeliner is particularly great as you get the sense that REM *knew* it was the one song that encapsulated everything they were trying to achieve on that record yet nonetheless spent the rest of the album chucking out pale Xeroxes of it.

that solo is also still hot shit imo

years later i finally hear all the 70s power pop / jangle / light psychedelia in r.e.m.'s sound. quite an achievement that they took it to the bank in the 80s and 90s. that sort of thing seemed really out of fashion esp in the 90s? at the time i don't think i really understood what i was hearing, too young.

Which bands in particular are you thinking of?

"Star 69" is a jam!

this was a live thing where Natalie was singing "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and Michael was singing a different cover song as a duet and then he starts singing "I've got the music in me! I've got the music in me!" -- I have confidence that someone reading this knows about this and that it isn't a rare thing at all actually.

― sarahell, Wednesday, October 20, 2021 9:26 AM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

Here it is

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJPvMub2JXI

Wow I had a LOT of REM boot cassettes back in the day and I assumed this was something I had but this one's new to me -- love loopy Stipe (same goes for the Tom's Diner Bingo Handjob tape)

Anyway I'm glad the forces of good have reclaimed this thread and made it into the Monster appreciation thread this record deserves

Star 69 forever

is bashing one's monster a euphemism

Which bands in particular are you thinking of?

― juristic person (morrisp), Wednesday, October 20, 2021 5:15 PM (ten minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

big star, the byrds

wonder if there's a timeline where r.e.m. relaunches the byrds like pearl jam relaunched neil young

i'm just shitposting, anyway monster is a cool album

xxxp I had never heard that Leaving on a Jet Plane / multiple-VU-songs mashup bootleg either... nice

this has aged p well actually

This was great then and is still great now.

Great album that I've never truly been able to get to the centre of. Much about it which is true is also not true.

Aged better than the remix.

I'm not
commodity

The first side is great.

Crush and Frequency, plus Bang, remain solid for me. Sorry if that's a basic opinion.

I only lose the plot at Reveal.

Monster was and is shit. Radiohead killed REM on that tour. Mike Mills wearing those ridiculous suits is just more shame accenting the end of REM.

strange currencies > everybody hurts

not really

We have to bash Rem as a whole

The final three songs are a final act almost as great as the final three songs on Automatic.

(I'm sure many would point to Circus Envy as the weak link there but I really like how infected and deep fried it sounds. The mid-point between Radio Friendly Unit Shifter and the Manics' My Guernica).

probably my favorite "rock" track on the album.

It’s significantly better and more cohesive than Document

not really
― not too strange just bad audio (brimstead), Wednesday, February 1, 2023 4:53 PM (yesterday)

I think you made a typo intending to say "no, really"

“bang and blame” is 75% of a great song, unfortunately the other 25% is the chorus

The second best thing about this entire album is the jangly rhythm guitar in the verse of Bang and Blame

The best thing about this entire album is the acoustic guitar in the verse of Bang and Blame

I keep hoping that 25th anniversary remaster box set of this will start popping up in used bins with the frequency of the original release, but no dice so far. Haha.

The guitar thing where it goes "what's the frequency Kenneth, is your Benzedrine uh uh" WOKKAWOKKAWOKKAWOKKA is one of the best sounds ever

otm

i.e. tremolo (unless you're Leo Fender when you call it "vibrato" on the amp because you previously named vibrato bridges wrongly)

I can still hum the melodies of all the feedback on this record

The first and last four tracks + Tongue are all good to great

This record is like your health as a fortysomething - not the best, but as good as it gets until you break up

I hear it more as a DUGADUGADUGADUGA

The first NEW rem album that came out after I became a super fan. I liked it at the time because it wasn't awful and I was IN on the band so much. I tried to listen to it the other day and couldn't get through it. "Tongue" is the one I still like because it isn't overworked. In a perfect world I would switch it with "Ignoreland" on Automatic, putting "Ignoreland" on Monster so I could toss the whole damn thing.

Radiohead did indeed slay on their opening slot touring.

Sonic Youth opened for REM on the Monster tour date that I saw (KC) and similarly upstaged them. REM had a lot of sound problems with the mix that night too, I don't know if that was atypical

i was at that show!

I saw REM on the Monster tour with Radiohead, at Milton Keynes Bowl (?), and "High and Dry" was the most out-of-tune vocal I've ever heard, like literally a whole field of people wincing. Great show though

As in, "Don't leave me [much too high] highhhhh, don't leave me [much too low] dryyyyyyyy"

Blur opened on one of the Milton Keynes dates. Bit weird to think about imo.

from what I read on Wikipedia, bill berry was really influenced by Echobelly for the Monster guitar sound. I think maybe they did that tremolo thing too?

Surreally, Dan Rather interviewing the band and even performing a bit of "What's The Frequency, Kenneth?"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96ucWfkML7g

the cover art is the worst thing about this album, in retrospect

special 12" remix of Dan Rather singing "Kenneth."

Banged by Blame

Warner Bros - release the Rather mixes, you cowards....