Life After R.E.M.: Discussion Thread

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Well, this is just delightful. I'm falling in love with them all over again.

These 1991-1992 clips are taking me back to peak obsession. I swear I had that hour-long Out of Time MTV special memorized.
 
So because I fucking love Country Feedback so much I thought I'd listen to Out of Time. Not too sure what to make of it. It's probably not the album that's going to make me into a super fan (I probably needed to see them live, maybe... that's what turned me on artists like The National and Arcade Fire). Maybe another one will? Anyway. It's all largely jangle pop, which surprised me a bit, I didn't have R.E.M. pegged as a band like that. I thought of The Go-Betweens a fair bit while listening to it. And the way Stipe sings lines like "people, people..." "love me, love me...", his downward tone, reminds me so fucking much of another song, maybe with "ohhh ohhh" added onto the end. But I can't think of what and it's really bugging me. No bad songs, but nothing that really stood out for me. Obviously I knew Losing My Religion, great song. Maybe Near Wild Heaven, Belong, Me in Honey. But yeah, Country Feedback is by far the best track. As the jangle pop kept rolling on I thought Country Feedback would sound like an anomaly, really out of place, but strangely I don't think it did. But fuck me, that's such a great song.
 
It's one of their weaker albums for me. Country Feedback is infinitely better live.
 
Have you listened to much other R.E.M.? I think Automatic is the album most similar in tone to Country Feedback - Drive is pretty much a dirge, and about half of that album is similarly emotionally heavy. (Country Feedback is a god damned masterpiece, though - the version on Road Movie even shows that that song can work in large arenas, which is surprising.)
 
I'd say it's my favourite R.E.M. song at this point. I just love how bleak it is, how desperate Stipe sounds and that guitar (that sounds like there's delay on it?? I've never been good with music specifics)
 
Have you listened to much other R.E.M.? I think Automatic is the album most similar in tone to Country Feedback - Drive is pretty much a dirge, and about half of that album is similarly emotionally heavy. (Country Feedback is a god damned masterpiece, though - the version on Road Movie even shows that that song can work in large arenas, which is surprising.)

The other albums I've heard are Automatic for the People and Accelerate. Automatic doesn't really do much for me at all, although it's really good towards the end. Find the River's quite nice, Nightswimming is beautiful and Man on the Moon's just a great rock/pop song. Accelerate's got a handful of pretty good songs but I haven't listened to it since it came out. I've also got the In Time bestof.

I also own (but have never played) Lifes Rich Pageant, might listen to that later in the week and report back.
 
According to a biography I have, apparently the band recorded the music in an afternoon, and then Stipe came in, and sung a single take over it, and it was done. It's incredible how he uses words in that song, in such a powerful way, knowing that it was one take, probably improvised.

For anyone who hasn't seen it, this is a pretty good (albeit old) blog about R.E.M. song meanings, that includes a neat little Q&A with Stipe. https://popsongs.wordpress.com/

The other albums I've heard are Automatic for the People and Accelerate. Automatic doesn't really do much for me at all, although it's really good towards the end. Find the River's quite nice, Nightswimming is beautiful and Man on the Moon's just a great rock/pop song. Accelerate's got a handful of pretty good songs but I haven't listened to it since it came out. I've also got the In Time bestof.

I also own (but have never played) Lifes Rich Pageant, might listen to that later in the week and report back.

Alright. I'm not really a post-Berry fan, and while I really like Automatic (and I agree that it has an amazing ending) it's an album that really grows, and leaves a poor first impression, I think.

Pageant is good! It's the album where Stipe stopped mumbling so much and actually began to sing, and the rest of the band began to rock, instead of jangle, but it's still got some weird stuff on there, so it's a good point to get into the band, I think.
 
I don't like Green or Out of Time that much. The songs just aren't there for me. Their transition to a major was a commercial success, but they didn't really regain their artistic bearings until Automatic.

Out of Time is certainly the superior album of the two. It's vibrant, fun and has a great deal of variety, but only about half of the songs are worthwhile. Losing My Religion, Near Wild Heaven, Texarkana, Country Feedback and Me In Honey would have made for a great EP. Throw in Pop Song '89, You Are the Everything, World Leader Pretend, Orange Crush and I Remember California and you've got a pretty solid album to kick off the 90s. Stand and Shiny Happy People can be standalone singles.
 
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According to a biography I have, apparently the band recorded the music in an afternoon, and then Stipe came in, and sung a single take over it, and it was done. It's incredible how he uses words in that song, in such a powerful way, knowing that it was one take, probably improvised.

For anyone who hasn't seen it, this is a pretty good (albeit old) blog about R.E.M. song meanings, that includes a neat little Q&A with Stipe. https://popsongs.wordpress.com/



Alright. I'm not really a post-Berry fan, and while I really like Automatic (and I agree that it has an amazing ending) it's an album that really grows, and leaves a poor first impression, I think.

Pageant is good! It's the album where Stipe stopped mumbling so much and actually began to sing, and the rest of the band began to rock, instead of jangle, but it's still got some weird stuff on there, so it's a good point to get into the band, I think.

Cool :up: thanks man. A few pages back I posted about hearing Country Feedback for the first time and you suggest I go chronologically. I'll check out Pageant first but then go back and hit up Murmur.
 
I'd listen to the first five albums chronologically. That's their best work and it's interesting to hear how the band had developed over those years.
 
If you just wanna get a taste of their best 80's material to start out, Eponymous is a great collection of songs from their early days. Gardening At Night, Radio Free Europe (original version), etc. are what really got me into REM. Then of course, if you like that you need to get into their first 5 albums, which are all great. Perfect Circle is their best song of all time (it's on Murmur) and there are some real great songs.
Now with the 90's stuff......
New Adventures in Hifi is their best 90's album. It's underrated and just a great album overall. With Departure, Leave and E-Bow the Letter being the standouts for me. I've always loved Out of Time even though it's not a huge experimental risk, I think it's a great album. Heck, Losing My Religion is probably my least favorite on the album. Country Feedback is my 2nd favorite REM song, it's just amazing. I've never been a huge fan of Automatic For The People, but Nightswimming is amazing.
Monster is really up and down, it has some great songs and some really terrible songs. King of Comedy is their worst song ever (it's as bad as SUC), but songs like Strange Currencies and Tongue are great. Up is just a nice, consistent album. Nothing really flashy, but a really good album overall.
Their 2000's material isn't very good. All The Way To Reno and Supernatural Superserious are their best 2000's songs and I'm not a big fan of much of the rest. But their last 2 albums were pretty decent.
Avoid 2000's material early on and go with 80's stuff. Lifes Rich Pageant is their best album. I know this was quite a long and pointless post, but I do love discussing my favorite band, REM. Could've been a lot longer, but I don't wanna clog up the thread.



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It's all largely jangle pop, which surprised me a bit, I didn't have R.E.M. pegged as a band like that.

What the fuck, Cobbler! REM are one of the seminal jangle pop bands. Their first three albums are all jangle pop classics and helped define the genre.
 
Seriously, just listen in order starting with the Chronic Town EP. You won't hit a less than very good album until Green. R.E.M.'s IRS years are legendary, listen to all of it.
 
And Green still rewards your patience with Orange Crush, so it's not all bad there either.
 
There are days when I think Fall On Me is their best song, and there are days when I think Country Feedback is their best song. And on other days I hold personal exorcisms to settle the matter.
 
And Green still rewards your patience with Orange Crush, so it's not all bad there either.

Green is far from all bad; I'm just not sure how serious they were about it all or what headspace they were in.

I mean you've got World Leader Pretend, Orange Crush, Turn You Inside Out, Hairshirt...

and then you've got Stand. And some other stuff.

I dunno, I have some fond feelings for the album despite its bubblegum thing.
 
What the fuck, Cobbler! REM are one of the seminal jangle pop bands. Their first three albums are all jangle pop classics and helped define the genre.

Mate I'm too busy arguing about Kanye on the internet to read up on jangle pop history. I'm just proud I know what it is.
 
There are days when I think Fall On Me is their best song, and there are days when I think Country Feedback is their best song. And on other days I hold personal exorcisms to settle the matter.

You have to be exorcised from Michael Stipe himself, since those two are his favourite R.E.M. tracks.
 
Green is far from all bad; I'm just not sure how serious they were about it all or what headspace they were in.



I mean you've got World Leader Pretend, Orange Crush, Turn You Inside Out, Hairshirt...



and then you've got Stand. And some other stuff.



I dunno, I have some fond feelings for the album despite its bubblegum thing.


World Leader Pretend, Pop Song 89 and Hairshirt are amongst the best REM songs ever. Green is a great album!


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Cobbler, you already own Lifes Rich Pageant (my personal favorite). Ignore all these people insisting you go chronologically and just dive in. It's a really fun album that also has a couple of their most beautiful tracks as well (Fall On Me, Flowers of Guatemala).

If you enjoy it, you can either go forward to Document or back to Murmur.
 
This thread bump caused me to take Murmur with me in the car today, and at one point a song started and I was like "Wait a second, Don't Go Back To Rockville isn't on this album!" only to realize it was Shaking Through.

Anyone else find these songs very similar? I think Shaking Through is superior, and since I'm already mixed on Reckoning (particularly Side Two), the redundancy is unfortunate.

Also, I'm not a fan of the verses on Pilgrimage (there could have been a stronger track 2), and not not a fan of 9-9 or West Of The Fields. It's what prevents this from being a truly great album for me, though what's left is fantastic and it's still one of the strongest debuts of the decade.
 
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