I never gave Green a lot of time or thought. Maybe because it symbolized REM’s move into the mainstream and large arenas from their days of playing small clubs and being the “underdog” band. I was no longer about the only person I knew that knew their music and that felt strange.
Listening to it now it’s easy to pick out the main weakness and also accomplishment of Green. It straddles 3 different ears of REM. First the arena rockers - Stand, Pop Song 89, Orange Crush and Inside Out. All still slightly quirky but at home in the mainstream music world. Then the songs still sounding of the early days - I Remember California and World Leader Pretend. And the songs that foreshadowed a quieter, folkier REM - Hairshirt and Wrong Child - that would come out even more on Out of Time.
This is the first album that really seemed to shove Stipe into the forefront. The songwriting is more direct and nearly all the lyrics are audible. When he’s good, World Leader Pretend and I remember CA, it’s up with REM’s best.
As a whole re-listening to Green several times boosted it up on my list of REM albums. After this album the band toured extensively, then did not for several years until Monster came out. It seems like they got as close as they wanted to being just another arena band, then revamped their sound, stopped touring and made their 2 top selling albums ever. I guess they knew what they were doing.
I never gave Green a lot of time or thought. Maybe because it symbolized REM’s move into the mainstream and large arenas from their days of playing small clubs and being the “underdog” band. I was no longer about the only person I knew that knew their music and that felt strange.
ReplyDeleteListening to it now it’s easy to pick out the main weakness and also accomplishment of Green. It straddles 3 different ears of REM. First the arena rockers - Stand, Pop Song 89, Orange Crush and Inside Out. All still slightly quirky but at home in the mainstream music world. Then the songs still sounding of the early days - I Remember California and World Leader Pretend. And the songs that foreshadowed a quieter, folkier REM - Hairshirt and Wrong Child - that would come out even more on Out of Time.
This is the first album that really seemed to shove Stipe into the forefront. The songwriting is more direct and nearly all the lyrics are audible. When he’s good, World Leader Pretend and I remember CA, it’s up with REM’s best.
As a whole re-listening to Green several times boosted it up on my list of REM albums. After this album the band toured extensively, then did not for several years until Monster came out. It seems like they got as close as they wanted to being just another arena band, then revamped their sound, stopped touring and made their 2 top selling albums ever. I guess they knew what they were doing.