This is the Thread Where You Bash REM's Monster

Ha ha, Garth Brooks was also my stab-in-the-dark guess

Monster hit #1 (but only sold 2,900,000)

It's a mystery to me how thousands of Monster cd's ended up in the $1 bins in the US. Perhaps here in Europe ppl were too ashamed to return their cd, idk? I'm not saying Monster wasn't rejected by some, but nowhere near on the scale like it was in the US. Regardless, this album still steams and rocks. One of those rare albums that will only gain praise and climb higher as time passes.

― Le Bateau Ivre, Tuesday, November 5, 2019 10:49 PM (one week ago)

I come across "Monster" in a lot of bargain bins here too. I think the bad reviews turned a lot of people against it. I never bought the album at the time but I heard some of it on the radio and I thought it sucked and REM were doing a big dumb rock move. I did like "Tongue" and "Whats the Frequency" at the time though. I love the album now though (after picking up a copy of it up in a bargain bin a few years ago!)

Didn't like it much then (and god knows I tried). Given the tenor of most recent posts here, I was surprised to find how strongly I still dislike it today.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbI0ry9bebE

I doubt there's anybody except Geir who doesn't wish Bill Berry was still in the group.
― Anthony Miccio (Anthony Miccio), Sunday, November 9, 2003 7:24 PM (seventeen years ago) bookmarkflaglink

Except maybe Bill.
― Keith Harris (kharris1128), Sunday, November 9, 2003 7:28 PM

lol

I sold my vinyl of this because $$$ but I really should get a CD rip, I was TOTALLY into this when it came out and still prefer both this and New Adventures to Automatic

I actually still have my vinyl of this -- it's possibly my fave along with Life's Rich Pageant and the early-ish live albums that include the Jacques Cousteau show song and the duet with Natalie Merchant

^^^ gets it

Photograph? I think my wife had it on the Born to Choose comp

I have a cassette in the attic of some live thing where they called themselves Bingo Handjob and covered Tom's Diner

I recently discovered there’s a super high-quality remaster of Photograph on a Natalie Merchant compilation.

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.

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

that tremelo effect was hot in the 90s

omg michael's outfit in the video was like the platonic ideal of what to wear in high school for me. a few years after the fact, as almost everything was in utah (96-2000)

that effect blew my mind when i was 11

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