I remember disliking 'Beachball' with a passion in 2001. Love it now, though.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Wednesday, 20 March 2019 09:57 (five years ago) link
Re-listening to Reveal and 'Saturn Return' only improves with age. Stipe's voice sounds gorgeous on it.
― Le Baton Rose (Turrican), Wednesday, 20 March 2019 18:54 (five years ago) link
That's fair, but there's something brilliantly transcendent about the looking-back-as-farewell on Collapse Into Now. That record is magic.
man,'Discoverer' popped up on shuffle this am and I am fully on board with this.
― campreverb, Wednesday, 20 March 2019 22:46 (five years ago) link
I only listened to all of these albums for the first time in the last year or so and collapse into now is definitely the one I've gone back to the most often
― silverfish, Thursday, 21 March 2019 00:50 (five years ago) link
There are indeed some moments on "Reveal" where one admires Stipe being in fine vocal form and able to hit the high notes. And then you put on "Accelerate" where his singing has degenerated to a hoarse bark, and you wonder what exactly happened in his life in those 7 years to destroy his voice.
― Melomane, Friday, 22 March 2019 17:55 (five years ago) link
Their tours were fucking massive. But actually I don't know how they'd compare to other bands who did tours like that, but it must take its toll playing to huge audiences who mostly (?) want to hear radio hits.
Reveal has grown for me too. I agree "Saturn Return" is great and that "She Just Wants To Be" should have been cut.
We might have been over this before but were all the tracks recorded in acoustic? Because Buck said they had considered the idea of a whole acoustic album since some of the acoustic versions were so good.
― Robert Adam Gilmour, Friday, 22 March 2019 20:46 (five years ago) link
I thought I had every R.E.M. album ever, but I guess I missed Collapse. I don't know--I must have been at least aware of it at the time. I've been reading John Giorno's autobiography, which led me to "We All Go Back to Where We Belong" (missed that too), which led me to Collapse, and a nearby store had a cheap copy in.
I've played it twice in the car. Most of the songs barely register--not awful, just nothing. "Überlin" feels like something.
I do like "We All Go Back to Where We Belong," especially the two videos, so I'll take that as a much better farewell.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Gdyd8PX7Oc
― clemenza, Monday, 12 June 2023 19:00 (ten months ago) link
Don't seem to have Accelerate, either--that's the last one I need. (I mean, not really "need.")
― clemenza, Monday, 12 June 2023 19:05 (ten months ago) link
Up deserved to win but Reveal deserved close second place, not distant second place.
― you can see me from westbury white horse, Monday, 12 June 2023 19:10 (ten months ago) link
I have the ten with Berry and Up, but I generally put on a homemade comp when I listen to this era:
1 Lotus 04:312 At My Most Beautiful [radio mix] 03:333 Daysleeper [single edit] 03:314 The Great Beyond 05:075 I've Been High 03:266 All The Way To Reno (You're Gonna Be A Star) 04:437 Imitation Of Life 03:568 All The Right Friends 02:489 Bad Day 04:0710 Leaving New York 04:4911 Electron Blue 04:1212 Living Well Is The Best Revenge 03:1113 Man-Sized Wreath 02:3314 Supernatural Superserious 03:2315 Hollow Man 02:3916 Houston 02:0517 Discoverer 03:3118 Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter 02:4519 Überlin 04:1420 Oh My Heart 03:2021 It Happened Today 03:4822 We All Go Back To Where We Belong 03:35
― birdistheword, Monday, 12 June 2023 21:08 (ten months ago) link
I love "The Great Beyond" so much--I think it's very overlooked.
― clemenza, Monday, 12 June 2023 21:15 (ten months ago) link
I probably would have simply because it's a soundtrack number, but fortunately it was on the first WB "best of" (and IIRC in a better sounding mix too - I think the soundtrack had a much narrower spread when I later compared the two).
― birdistheword, Monday, 12 June 2023 21:17 (ten months ago) link
I take that to mean you would have left it off...I was surprised there was no ILM thread for Collapse--I guess (understandably) nobody much cared at that point. Seemed to do okay on the Billboard album chart, #5, though not as well as the previous studio album. They must get approached constantly about getting back together for something.
― clemenza, Monday, 12 June 2023 21:28 (ten months ago) link
Oh no, I think the song is great, but soundtrack-only items can slip through the cracks pretty easily unless they're a sizable hit or collected elsewhere.
― birdistheword, Monday, 12 June 2023 21:33 (ten months ago) link
Collapse is not their worst but it is their least impressionable. I like Discoverer a lot but I’m struggling to remember any of their other songs.
At some point a long long time ago (I guess before Collapse came out) I made an imaginary REM album that sequenced roughly 5 songs each from Around the Sun and Accelerate, and it wasn’t so bad. There are some great songs tucked into each album.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Monday, 12 June 2023 21:59 (ten months ago) link
I think whatever discussion there was about Collapse was probably relegated to some general REM thread.
I recently noticed that they are pulling over 17 million monthly listeners on Spotify, so perhaps in addition to reunion offers, I can imagine how hotly sought after their publishing catalog is.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, 12 June 2023 22:20 (ten months ago) link
I didn't pay close attention to Collapse until later, but at the time of its release, what stood out was the videos - they made a ton of them and contacted a wide variety of high profile names to make them. The only one I really remember was made by Albert Maysles and Bradley Kaplan: it was for "Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I" and they made it out of footage that had been shot by Maysles for Meet Marlon Brando (a pretty great film in its own right).
― birdistheword, Monday, 12 June 2023 22:26 (ten months ago) link
I posted in some other thread when I first heard "Oh My Heart" last year thanks to The Bear, but it really was the first time I heard a late-period REM song that blew me away: the arrangement, the lyrics, the whole thing.
― underwater as a compliment (Eazy), Monday, 12 June 2023 22:30 (ten months ago) link
Yeah, that was an easy one to include on my comp (which I burned a while ago, well before The Bear). I regret not seeing them when they were still together - it was pretty foolish in retrospect to lose any interest in seeing them just because Berry wasn't there.
― birdistheword, Monday, 12 June 2023 22:34 (ten months ago) link
I've probably mentioned this: saw them in a club soon after Murmur for $5...Not explicit in the lyrics, but they must have had Neil Young in mind when they came up with "Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I."
― clemenza, Monday, 12 June 2023 23:14 (ten months ago) link
"The Great Beyond" is terrific as a song, but -- here's a complaint I don't often lodge -- the production's thin on the ground.
― the dreaded dependent claus (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Monday, 12 June 2023 23:19 (ten months ago) link
sorry to fill sna with rem threads but i’m here to declare reveal their worst album
― ivy., Wednesday, 15 November 2023 22:45 (five months ago) link
otm
― "another slice of death, please." (Austin), Wednesday, 15 November 2023 22:47 (five months ago) link
the singles are awesome but the kitchen-sink production deprives the whole thing of oxygen. what if we layered every synth preset ever on top of every single track
around the sun, however tired, at least breathes (ventilator-assisted). actually think it would be much more fondly received/remembered had approx 15-20 minutes of it been cut
― ivy., Wednesday, 15 November 2023 22:48 (five months ago) link
Damn, Up cleaned up
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 15 November 2023 22:49 (five months ago) link
also damn, mares didn't even give it a full minute.
― "another slice of death, please." (Austin), Wednesday, 15 November 2023 22:50 (five months ago) link
(Up was the last album of theirs I heard in full.)
― The Triumphant Return of Bernard & Stubbs (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, 15 November 2023 22:50 (five months ago) link
ivy- i will also defend around the sun as their "not worst" album. it has highlights, but i also like its soft rock anonymity. def too long tho. and whatever, i like the one with q-tip.
― "another slice of death, please." (Austin), Wednesday, 15 November 2023 22:53 (five months ago) link
Reveal sucks really hard, the songs just plod along. It's such a drag.
― Phair · Jagger/Richards · Carl Perkins (morrisp), Wednesday, 15 November 2023 23:56 (five months ago) link
I love Reveal.
There is definitely some good stuff in Around the Sun though its imperfections definitely hobble it.
I like Accelerate and Collapse but they both feel kinda generic to me.
― sctttnnnt (pgwp), Thursday, 16 November 2023 01:55 (five months ago) link