Titled Life's Rich Pageant, R.E.M.'s fourth album was released in 1986. Yes that means it is as old as Natalie. THis would be the last album released under the IRS label. Let's try to have this one finished up by October 18, a Monday. Those of us that have been waiting until the last week to load the CD on our iphones should try to get that taken care of earlier this time.
Monday, September 20, 2010
Album 4: Life's Rich Pageant
Titled Life's Rich Pageant, R.E.M.'s fourth album was released in 1986. Yes that means it is as old as Natalie. THis would be the last album released under the IRS label. Let's try to have this one finished up by October 18, a Monday. Those of us that have been waiting until the last week to load the CD on our iphones should try to get that taken care of earlier this time.
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LRP marks a departure for the band. There are many big changes from the 1st 3 alblums. Gone for the most part is the swampy deep south feel and murky sound & vocals. The sound and songwriting are bigger as if the band is more confident and is starting to grow into it's arena sized future. The writing leaves the obscure literary references and rambling structure behind and is much more pop music oriented. The music is crisper and brings to mind an update of 60's pop music. The subjects are more varied with calls to action and songs about the environment dominating. Only Swan Swan H carries over the previous mysterious storytelling style. Also new is a sense of humor, from the title; taken from a Pink Panther movie, to Underneath the Bunker and the cover of Superman, the tone is lighter than before. As far as favorites, Cuyahoga and Fall on Me are REM classics. Flowers of Guatemala and Hyena are underrated gems. I think most "transitional" alblums from bands are very uneven as he sort out new sonds and ideas, but LRP is very high quality all the way through, one of my favorite REM alblums
ReplyDeleteLife's Rich Pageant definitely marks a transition from original R.E.M. to modern day R.E.M. The band no longer sounds like they all played their own thing and then tried to make it fit together as a song. They sound like a unified band, which probably has something to do with the fact that they had now been making music together for several years. Overall, the song feel like they are bigger and fuller then they were in the past.
ReplyDeletePerhaps the biggest change is Stipes' singing. He no longer mumbles incoherently, but instead sings nice and loud; however, this does not mean that the lyrics make any more sense than they did before. Also a new addition is the trademark echo that Stipe now uses on almost all of his songs.
I think that even though there are some stand out songs on LRP, it is more of a stepping stone from their older albums to their newer ones.