The group's 8th album was released in 1992 and was released with great critical and fan appraise. Rolling Stone gave the album 5 stars and it was nominated the Grammy for album of the year.
I remember being kind of lukewarm on this album when it first came out. It seemed very quiet and restrained and cleanly produced and that’s not the style that had made me into a fan of R.E.M. originally. I had wanted something a little “wilder” after Out of Time. Sure there were some nice sounding songs, but at first I kept waiting for it to rock out and with the exception of Ignoreland, it never did. As I listened to it more and more I started picking up why this is such a great album, and as I listened to it again recently I found I still felt that it held up as one of their very best releases.
After the first 4 albums it seemed to me it was possible to assign a rough one or two word description to R.E.M’s work. Document was the political one. Green was the environmental one. Out of Time was the pop music one. Usually AFTP is often described as having to with with death. Obviously that’s a part of it,although I tend to believe it’s more of their “family” album.
There are several songs about loss, (and hurt) but also songs about family/friends and some very optimistic ones also - I think Drive and Find a River are very forward looking. Nightswimming fits in with some of their previous nostalgia type songs and Sidewinder and Man on the Moon reference for me growing up and family environments.
It was hard for me go get into the music originally. But if you listen carefully all the strings and woodwinds and piano melds together beautifully. The lyrics are for the most part understandable, and I think the songwriting/storytelling is excellent. In listening to it recently Drive stood out, and of course the final three songs are all amazing - perfectly done. Overall in the top group of R.E.M. releases for me, and I can understand why people would pick this as their best one ever.
This was a huge popular success for R.E.M. and several of these songs continued to be mainstays in their concerts for years after this release. Looking back on it if their intent was to make the best “pop” album they could, and still retain the R.E.M. signature storytelling, they certainly succeeded. What is interesting is that not only they did not tour after releasing AFTP, but that they next time they released music and toured, they had gone from fairly clean cut folk/pop musicians to Stipe wearing foil suits (and often no shirts), with make up, Buck saying he never wanted to play mandolin again, and Mills sporting a white guy’s ‘fro and wearing a rhinestone studded country music suit in concert, while they rocked harder than they ever had before. It’s like they thought they’d mastered the style they worked on through Out of Time and AFTP and were ready to move on. They could have taken the easy road and kept churning out the same type of music and made it easy on themselves. That they did not just proves again why they were such a great band, never predictable and always interesting.
Some quick song notes: 1) Drive- One of my favorite REM songs. The guitar and his voice just sound great in this song. Watching the video does make the song a little more "interesting".
2) Sidewinder- Fun from the first line, eeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeee! Also, the line about calling from a pay phone and letting it ring a long long time reminds you that there weren't always cell phones and voicemails or answering machines.
3) Instrumental- Sounds like something Radiohead might have heard and said "We can do something more with this".
4) Ignoreland- Maybe the most upbeat song on the CD, at least tempo wise, and probably my favorite song off of the CD.
5) Man on the Moon- What does it mean to slee something?
Overall feelings: This CD could have easily turned into a snooze-fest with all of the slow paced songs, like Star Me Kitten, Everybody Hurts and Night Swimming, and been lost in the back of our minds forever, similar to Around the Sun. Instead, it showed how varied REM could be and I think it holds its own against their other albums. A song like The Sweetness Follows seems like it has no business being on an R.E.M. CD, at least up to this point, but it's an enjoyable song that fits very well in this CD. When I was looking up a picture for this CD there was a picture of Peter Buck in a long sleeve flannel shirt instead of the outgoing pirate style shirts that he usually wore. I think that image is similar to how this album fits into the rest of R.E.M.'s work, it's doesn't carry as much energy as their previous works but that does not mean it isn't good. From the albums we have listened to so far this has been my favorite.
I remember being kind of lukewarm on this album when it first came out. It seemed very quiet and restrained and cleanly produced and that’s not the style that had made me into a fan of R.E.M. originally. I had wanted something a little “wilder” after Out of Time. Sure there were some nice sounding songs, but at first I kept waiting for it to rock out and with the exception of Ignoreland, it never did. As I listened to it more and more I started picking up why this is such a great album, and as I listened to it again recently I found I still felt that it held up as one of their very best releases.
ReplyDeleteAfter the first 4 albums it seemed to me it was possible to assign a rough one or two word description to R.E.M’s work. Document was the political one. Green was the environmental one. Out of Time was the pop music one. Usually AFTP is often described as having to with with death. Obviously that’s a part of it,although I tend to believe it’s more of their “family” album.
There are several songs about loss, (and hurt) but also songs about family/friends and some very optimistic ones also - I think Drive and Find a River are very forward looking. Nightswimming fits in with some of their previous nostalgia type songs and Sidewinder and Man on the Moon reference for me growing up and family environments.
It was hard for me go get into the music originally. But if you listen carefully all the strings and woodwinds and piano melds together beautifully. The lyrics are for the most part understandable, and I think the songwriting/storytelling is excellent. In listening to it recently Drive stood out, and of course the final three songs are all amazing - perfectly done. Overall in the top group of R.E.M. releases for me, and I can understand why people would pick this as their best one ever.
ReplyDeleteThis was a huge popular success for R.E.M. and several of these songs continued to be mainstays in their concerts for years after this release. Looking back on it if their intent was to make the best “pop” album they could, and still retain the R.E.M. signature storytelling, they certainly succeeded. What is interesting is that not only they did not tour after releasing AFTP, but that they next time they released music and toured, they had gone from fairly clean cut folk/pop musicians to Stipe wearing foil suits (and often no shirts), with make up, Buck saying he never wanted to play mandolin again, and Mills sporting a white guy’s ‘fro and wearing a rhinestone studded country music suit in concert, while they rocked harder than they ever had before. It’s like they thought they’d mastered the style they worked on through Out of Time and AFTP and were ready to move on. They could have taken the easy road and kept churning out the same type of music and made it easy on themselves. That they did not just proves again why they were such a great band, never predictable and always interesting.
Some quick song notes:
ReplyDelete1) Drive- One of my favorite REM songs. The guitar and his voice just sound great in this song. Watching the video does make the song a little more "interesting".
2) Sidewinder- Fun from the first line, eeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEEeeeeeeeeee! Also, the line about calling from a pay phone and letting it ring a long long time reminds you that there weren't always cell phones and voicemails or answering machines.
3) Instrumental- Sounds like something Radiohead might have heard and said "We can do something more with this".
4) Ignoreland- Maybe the most upbeat song on the CD, at least tempo wise, and probably my favorite song off of the CD.
5) Man on the Moon- What does it mean to slee something?
Overall feelings: This CD could have easily turned into a snooze-fest with all of the slow paced songs, like Star Me Kitten, Everybody Hurts and Night Swimming, and been lost in the back of our minds forever, similar to Around the Sun. Instead, it showed how varied REM could be and I think it holds its own against their other albums. A song like The Sweetness Follows seems like it has no business being on an R.E.M. CD, at least up to this point, but it's an enjoyable song that fits very well in this CD. When I was looking up a picture for this CD there was a picture of Peter Buck in a long sleeve flannel shirt instead of the outgoing pirate style shirts that he usually wore. I think that image is similar to how this album fits into the rest of R.E.M.'s work, it's doesn't carry as much energy as their previous works but that does not mean it isn't good. From the albums we have listened to so far this has been my favorite.
ReplyDelete