It was difficult to write about Around the Sun. First off, I had probably only listened to it only 4 or 5 times all the way through, so I had no background feeling about it. Secondly it does not seem to me to have any sort of unifying theme or point of view so it was difficult to pin down an opinion of it.
As I mentioned in one of my other posts I’d always felt up until halfway through Reveal that REM was trying to take their music in a new direction like Radiohead or Wilco ended up doing. For whatever reason that did not happen as Reveal descended into Beach Boys/lounge music for most of it’s second half. On ATS it seems as though the “new sound” was a mix of Automatic for the People and Up. There is a lot more acoustic guitar strumming without the signature Peter Buck sound, not sure if he was even playing on these songs. There was still some carryover of electronic and keyboard sounds, but where that sounded new and interesting on Up, it sounds stale and gimmicky on ATS. The end result is music that is not as good as that on either AFTP or Up. It is listless and uninspiring.
As far as I know the music usually came before the lyrics with REM so I’m going to give Stipe the benefit of the doubt to some extent and blame his weak lyrics on the uninspired music. After listening to ATS several more times recently I can pick out a few “advice” songs and maybe a couple “day in the life” songs but the characters are nowhere as interesting as in Up, or as mysterious as in earlier albums.
As far as favorite songs, while Leaving New York sounds a lot like classic REM I never really cared for it. I enjoyed Boy in the Well and found Ascent of Man alternately interesting and frustrating. Other than that the album seems mostly like background music.
One of the neat things about going through and re-listening to all the REM albums again is finding that some songs that you ignored or did not like on previous listens actually were good songs. I even gained a new appreciation for a couple on Reveal that I’d given up on in the past. On ATS although I’ve never heard any of these live, I doubt I would ever seek most of the songs out to listen to again. ATS is a non-memorable album that stands out only due to it’s weakness compared to the rest of REM’s work.
To me, Around the Sun is the prime example of why R.E.M. didn't make a "good" album after New Adventures. It's because they couldn't decide what they wanted to be. Did they want to be middle era R.E.M. as they were with the familiar guitar jangle in Leaving New York Never Easy, did they want to be the "new" R.E.M. as they were in the very UP/Reveal electronically inspired Electron Blue, or did they want to be the R.E.M. of days past as in Wanderlust. I can almost hear Micheal singing "...up the stairs and to the landing..." to the tune of Wanderlust with its simple rhythm.
Aside from Leaving New York and Electron Blue there are no real stand out songs on the Album. After those two songs the rest feel like they belong as the number 7 or 8 track on some other album meant to bridge from the beginning to the end. Unfortunately, as you'd expect, 10 #7 and 8 tracks don't fit too well on the same album.
As you hear the opening acoustic guitar chords play in Boy in The Well, you half expect to here Micheal sing, "Look up and what do you see? All of you and all of me..." Perhaps that says the most about this album, even while listening to it you long for the "old" days of R.E.M., the days when the all the songs on the album felt like they belonged in the same place. Maybe it even explains why the band was never as popular again as it was in the mid-90's because once you release 2 albums that popular in such a short amount of time, almost nothing you ever do can top it.
You've mentioned wanting to do better as a band after 2004's Around the Sun, which got some not-very-positive reviews. And rightly so. When we were making that record, we were thrilled. We had great songs. But it was one time we let outside forces turn us towards doing something we shouldn't have done — which is to do two songs for a greatest hits [In Time: The Best of R.E.M., 1988-2003], put out a greatest hits, tour on a greatest hits, and then go back and then try to finish the record. That was totally unfair to Around the Sun. Had we not done that, had we stuck with it, finished it as we should have, it would have been a really great record. Trouble was, by the time we got back to it, we weren't really sure what it was, we didn't know which way to go with it. We ended up pulling in different directions, there was no focus, there was no cohesion, and the record reflects it. If you listen to the live record from Dublin [2007's R.E.M. Live], that has a lot of those songs, I think they sound great.
It was difficult to write about Around the Sun. First off, I had probably only listened to it only 4 or 5 times all the way through, so I had no background feeling about it. Secondly it does not seem to me to have any sort of unifying theme or point of view so it was difficult to pin down an opinion of it.
ReplyDeleteAs I mentioned in one of my other posts I’d always felt up until halfway through Reveal that REM was trying to take their music in a new direction like Radiohead or Wilco ended up doing. For whatever reason that did not happen as Reveal descended into Beach Boys/lounge music for most of it’s second half. On ATS it seems as though the “new sound” was a mix of Automatic for the People and Up. There is a lot more acoustic guitar strumming without the signature Peter Buck sound, not sure if he was even playing on these songs. There was still some carryover of electronic and keyboard sounds, but where that sounded new and interesting on Up, it sounds stale and gimmicky on ATS. The end result is music that is not as good as that on either AFTP or Up. It is listless and uninspiring.
As far as I know the music usually came before the lyrics with REM so I’m going to give Stipe the benefit of the doubt to some extent and blame his weak lyrics on the uninspired music. After listening to ATS several more times recently I can pick out a few “advice” songs and maybe a couple “day in the life” songs but the characters are nowhere as interesting as in Up, or as mysterious as in earlier albums.
As far as favorite songs, while Leaving New York sounds a lot like classic REM I never really cared for it. I enjoyed Boy in the Well and found Ascent of Man alternately interesting and frustrating. Other than that the album seems mostly like background music.
One of the neat things about going through and re-listening to all the REM albums again is finding that some songs that you ignored or did not like on previous listens actually were good songs. I even gained a new appreciation for a couple on Reveal that I’d given up on in the past. On ATS although I’ve never heard any of these live, I doubt I would ever seek most of the songs out to listen to again. ATS is a non-memorable album that stands out only due to it’s weakness compared to the rest of REM’s work.
To me, Around the Sun is the prime example of why R.E.M. didn't make a "good" album after New Adventures. It's because they couldn't decide what they wanted to be. Did they want to be middle era R.E.M. as they were with the familiar guitar jangle in Leaving New York Never Easy, did they want to be the "new" R.E.M. as they were in the very UP/Reveal electronically inspired Electron Blue, or did they want to be the R.E.M. of days past as in Wanderlust. I can almost hear Micheal singing "...up the stairs and to the landing..." to the tune of Wanderlust with its simple rhythm.
ReplyDeleteAside from Leaving New York and Electron Blue there are no real stand out songs on the Album. After those two songs the rest feel like they belong as the number 7 or 8 track on some other album meant to bridge from the beginning to the end. Unfortunately, as you'd expect, 10 #7 and 8 tracks don't fit too well on the same album.
As you hear the opening acoustic guitar chords play in Boy in The Well, you half expect to here Micheal sing, "Look up and what do you see? All of you and all of me..." Perhaps that says the most about this album, even while listening to it you long for the "old" days of R.E.M., the days when the all the songs on the album felt like they belonged in the same place. Maybe it even explains why the band was never as popular again as it was in the mid-90's because once you release 2 albums that popular in such a short amount of time, almost nothing you ever do can top it.
You've mentioned wanting to do better as a band after 2004's Around the Sun, which got some not-very-positive reviews.
ReplyDeleteAnd rightly so. When we were making that record, we were thrilled. We had great songs. But it was one time we let outside forces turn us towards doing something we shouldn't have done — which is to do two songs for a greatest hits [In Time: The Best of R.E.M., 1988-2003], put out a greatest hits, tour on a greatest hits, and then go back and then try to finish the record. That was totally unfair to Around the Sun. Had we not done that, had we stuck with it, finished it as we should have, it would have been a really great record. Trouble was, by the time we got back to it, we weren't really sure what it was, we didn't know which way to go with it. We ended up pulling in different directions, there was no focus, there was no cohesion, and the record reflects it. If you listen to the live record from Dublin [2007's R.E.M. Live], that has a lot of those songs, I think they sound great.
I found that story you were telling me about how they started the album and then finished it
ReplyDelete