It’s definitely the end of an era, and a bit sad that R.E.M. has quit. There seem to be a lot of opinions out on the internet that Collapse Into Now gave plenty of hints about the end coming, but I did not really hear it that way. Though I guess the re-appearance of some characters and even lyrics pulled from other albums does reinforce a sense of nostalgia. I’m not shocked, they had always threatened to split up at midnight on New Year’s Eve 1999, and I had taken the last words sung on New Adventures - I’m out of here - as a sign they were done. And then when Bill Berry left, I was not sure if they would carry on. And I wondered after they put out the lifeless Around the Sun if they would continue. But they did and seemed to rediscover some energy in their music at least on the last two albums.
I guess I feel the need to do some sort of summary, although there seem to be a lot of those on the web too. Simply put R.E.M put out 9 great albums in a row - if you count Chronic Town. I’ve collected and heard a lot of music in the last 31 years and I am pretty loyal to the musicians I like, and I am hard pressed to come up with anyone who even put out 2 or 3 “great” albums consecutively. I won’t belabor how different and strange R.E.M. sounded when they started, you can check the Murmur post if you want my take on that, but they managed to always inspire that sense of wonderment all the way through Automatic for the People. I never did get too into Monster although there were a couple of good songs, it just seemed like a stunt to me, not sincere. But they then put out New Adventures, which is one of my favorites.
Much was made of Bill Berry’s departure from the band and certainly Up was different, but listening to it again lately made me realize if a new band came out with that album it would have been given great reviews. It just was not what the mainstream at that time expected R.E.M. to be. I have always felt with Up and maybe half of Reveal, the band was trying to move where Radiohead and Wilco later went, with many layers of music and a more atmospheric sound. It seemed they were purposely staying away from sounding like they did during the “Berry” era. But by doing that they limited themselves musically I thought and when they could not for whatever reason come up with their “Kid A” or “A Ghost is Born”, they started to tread water. Much of Reveal and all of Around the Sun has a lot of lazy lyrics and songwriting to my ear, Stipe even sounded bored and I figured they would pack it in. But they rebounded with some energy at least musically in Accelerate and Collapse Into Now, though I still thought the lyrics and vocals were “off”. But it seemed like they gone as far as they could with that direction as well, and I guess the only other options were to go back to Up, or Automatic for the People type sounds and I guess they were not interested in that as a group.
Even though the later albums were uneven, I thought their concerts remained strong. I have to rank 2 of their early Fresno shows in the top 5 of shows I’ve ever seen, and they are the best live band I’ve ever seen. And going back years later for the Monster, Up, Greatest Hits and Accelerate tours still saw them as an excellent band live. I do wish they’d have maybe done one more tour in smaller venues, as I no longer thought of them as an arena band. I am glad the whole family got to see them together in Berkeley for what turned out to be the last tour, that was great. I would hope they don’t do a reunion tour or anything, the last thing they should want to be is like all the geezer bands that hit the Save Mart Center for a paycheck.
I guess there’s a lot of rumors going around as to what comes next for the band members. Certainly Buck and Mills are excellent musicians, but I have a hard time seeing them come up with anything as creative as what REM had. I don’t have much interest in this point in anything Stipe would put out, I always preferred the albums where he was more part of the group as opposed to the typical “frontman”. Maybe he and Thom Yorke can make an a whole album of weird music fragments mixed with weird lyrics, that seems about up his alley. Who knows though, I never would have thought biking over to the record store 31 years ago that I would still be following REM and be so affected by them calling it a day. Maybe I’ll discover something new again in their next projects whatever they may be.
was going to do this after finishing the “REM listening project” but I feel like doing it now. If anything changes after re-listening to the rest of the albums, I’ll amend with a post. REM Albums Ranked
Reckoning Life’s Rich Pageant Mumur New Adventures in Hi Fi Fables of the Reconstruction Document Automatic For the People Green Out of Time Up Accelerate Collapse Into Now Monster Reveal Around the Sun
Now.. back to the REM Listening Project!! Thanks to Conlan for setting it up, it’s been great hearing all this wonderful music again.
Wow, where to start? Listening to Murmur for the first time and wondering how it could sound strange and familiar and old and new all at the same time. Standing 10 feet away from Peter Buck while they blew everyone away at a small club. Great conversations with friends and family trying to figure out not only what the lyrics meant, but the lyrics themselves. Turning the car radio up really loud when they finally got some radio play. Road trips to the bigger venues where you always felt a sense of community among the fans. The feeling like it was Christmas Day each time a new album was released and picking it up the first day it came out at the music store. The kick I got having my kids - 2nd generation R.E.M. fans - with me in the crowd on the last tour. Thanks guys, for the amazing music... and also for the memories.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteIt’s definitely the end of an era, and a bit sad that R.E.M. has quit. There seem to be a lot of opinions out on the internet that Collapse Into Now gave plenty of hints about the end coming, but I did not really hear it that way. Though I guess the re-appearance of some characters and even lyrics pulled from other albums does reinforce a sense of nostalgia. I’m not shocked, they had always threatened to split up at midnight on New Year’s Eve 1999, and I had taken the last words sung on New Adventures - I’m out of here - as a sign they were done. And then when Bill Berry left, I was not sure if they would carry on. And I wondered after they put out the lifeless Around the Sun if they would continue. But they did and seemed to rediscover some energy in their music at least on the last two albums.
ReplyDeleteI guess I feel the need to do some sort of summary, although there seem to be a lot of those on the web too. Simply put R.E.M put out 9 great albums in a row - if you count Chronic Town. I’ve collected and heard a lot of music in the last 31 years and I am pretty loyal to the musicians I like, and I am hard pressed to come up with anyone who even put out 2 or 3 “great” albums consecutively. I won’t belabor how different and strange R.E.M. sounded when they started, you can check the Murmur post if you want my take on that, but they managed to always inspire that sense of wonderment all the way through Automatic for the People. I never did get too into Monster although there were a couple of good songs, it just seemed like a stunt to me, not sincere. But they then put out New Adventures, which is one of my favorites.
Much was made of Bill Berry’s departure from the band and certainly Up was different, but listening to it again lately made me realize if a new band came out with that album it would have been given great reviews. It just was not what the mainstream at that time expected R.E.M. to be. I have always felt with Up and maybe half of Reveal, the band was trying to move where Radiohead and Wilco later went, with many layers of music and a more atmospheric sound. It seemed they were purposely staying away from sounding like they did during the “Berry” era. But by doing that they limited themselves musically I thought and when they could not for whatever reason come up with their “Kid A” or “A Ghost is Born”, they started to tread water. Much of Reveal and all of Around the Sun has a lot of lazy lyrics and songwriting to my ear, Stipe even sounded bored and I figured they would pack it in. But they rebounded with some energy at least musically in Accelerate and Collapse Into Now, though I still thought the lyrics and vocals were “off”. But it seemed like they gone as far as they could with that direction as well, and I guess the only other options were to go back to Up, or Automatic for the People type sounds and I guess they were not interested in that as a group.
ReplyDeleteEven though the later albums were uneven, I thought their concerts remained strong. I have to rank 2 of their early Fresno shows in the top 5 of shows I’ve ever seen, and they are the best live band I’ve ever seen. And going back years later for the Monster, Up, Greatest Hits and Accelerate tours still saw them as an excellent band live. I do wish they’d have maybe done one more tour in smaller venues, as I no longer thought of them as an arena band. I am glad the whole family got to see them together in Berkeley for what turned out to be the last tour, that was great. I would hope they don’t do a reunion tour or anything, the last thing they should want to be is like all the geezer bands that hit the Save Mart Center for a paycheck.
I guess there’s a lot of rumors going around as to what comes next for the band members. Certainly Buck and Mills are excellent musicians, but I have a hard time seeing them come up with anything as creative as what REM had. I don’t have much interest in this point in anything Stipe would put out, I always preferred the albums where he was more part of the group as opposed to the typical “frontman”. Maybe he and Thom Yorke can make an a whole album of weird music fragments mixed with weird lyrics, that seems about up his alley. Who knows though, I never would have thought biking over to the record store 31 years ago that I would still be following REM and be so affected by them calling it a day. Maybe I’ll discover something new again in their next projects whatever they may be.
ReplyDeletewas going to do this after finishing the “REM listening project” but I feel like doing it now. If anything changes after re-listening to the rest of the albums, I’ll amend with a post.
ReplyDeleteREM Albums Ranked
Reckoning
Life’s Rich Pageant
Mumur
New Adventures in Hi Fi
Fables of the Reconstruction
Document
Automatic For the People
Green
Out of Time
Up
Accelerate
Collapse Into Now
Monster
Reveal
Around the Sun
Now.. back to the REM Listening Project!! Thanks to Conlan for setting it up, it’s been great hearing all this wonderful music again.
This is what I posted on "thank you rem.com"
ReplyDeleteWow, where to start? Listening to Murmur for the first time and wondering how it could sound strange and familiar and old and new all at the same time. Standing 10 feet away from Peter Buck while they blew everyone away at a small club. Great conversations with friends and family trying to figure out not only what the lyrics meant, but the lyrics themselves. Turning the car radio up really loud when they finally got some radio play. Road trips to the bigger venues where you always felt a sense of community among the fans. The feeling like it was Christmas Day each time a new album was released and picking it up the first day it came out at the music store. The kick I got having my kids - 2nd generation R.E.M. fans - with me in the crowd on the last tour. Thanks guys, for the amazing music... and also for the memories.