Life After R.E.M.: Discussion Thread

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I feel guilty for being unable to really get into R.E.M's first few albums. Especially Murmur, I've listened to it in full a number of times but regretfully can't remember anything from it.
 
Vlad n U2, I must confess I have listened to Murmur quite a few times without being able to remember a damn thing about it. Except maybe 'Perfect Circle'. I'm not saying it's no good, but... yeah, doesn't really register that much with me. I honestly don't know if I buy the 'longest, gentlest downhill slide in music history' narrative. That belongs more properly to Arcade Fire.
 
Nah, that downhill slide doesn't apply to R.E.M. at all. Murmur is one of my favourites, but Lifes Rich Pageant is their masterwork, and most bands can only dream at making their 10th record as good as New Adventures in Hi-Fi.
 
Definitely agreed on most of that. If only Bill Berry hadn't taken up punkin farming...

"Guys, I don't want to be the jerk who broke up REM. I want to be the jerk who saw them off on their way to another decade and a half of steadily diminishing creative returns while I reap a bumper harvest of punkins..."
 
I've never been able to get into New Adventures in Hi-Fi. I find the experience of it exhausting, though 7 or 8 tracks on it are legitimately great. There are way too many songs on it and the album grows increasingly scattershot after side 1 ends. If I had I vinyl copy, half the time I wouldn't bother flipping it over. It's a classic example of a 90s album suffering from the novelty of the CD format. "We have 80 minutes to work with now?? Fuck 10 songs, let's do 14!!"

It's great for a bunch of guys in their mid 40s though. Downright amazing, in fact, for a while.
 
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It's way, way, way too long. But it's got E-Bow the Letter and Electrolite and also they weren't in their mid 40s when it happened. Late thirties maybe.
 
The album ends on a fantastic note with the final three songs. If anything, it stumbles a bit in the middle. By far their best non-IRS effort.

As good as opportunity as any to say that I have always been thoroughly underwhelmed by the majority of Automatic for the People.
 
Oh yeah, mid 30s. It's 5 AM and I can't count.

Unpopular opinion: Electrolite is discount Nightswimming.
 
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I think the tempo is too fast. That's my problem with it. It's like they're playing a cheery single version of Nightswimming at 2x tempo and I can't savor it. Does that make sense? No? Oh well, I tried.

"20th century go to sleep" is an almost tattoo worthy lyric, if that's anything. I love that shit.
 
The album ends on a fantastic note with the final three songs. If anything, it stumbles a bit in the middle. By far their best non-IRS effort.

As good as opportunity as any to say that I have always been thoroughly underwhelmed by the majority of Automatic for the People.

I wouldn't say I'm underwhelmed by Automatic, but I will take Monster (for sentimental reasons) and New Adventures (for quality reasons) over it.
 
With regards to Monster, What's the Frequency Kenneth is a top five REM song for me but the rest of the album leaves almost no mark. I suppose You is good, but I can barely remember a note of anything else.

I feel guilty for being unable to really get into R.E.M's first few albums. Especially Murmur, I've listened to it in full a number of times but regretfully can't remember anything from it.

Once upon a time, when I was getting into REM and had a bunch of their eighties and early nineties albums (none of the recent shit), I rated Murmur as their worst album.

Few albums have ever been greater growers for me. Now I'd rank it second after Fables of the Reconstruction.
 
Monster is decent. Strange Currencies and Bang and Blame have always been my favorites off the album. Tongue is a weird little song, but I like it. King of Comedy is just horrible, though. Really kills the 1st half of the album for me.


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Once upon a time, when I was getting into REM and had a bunch of their eighties and early nineties albums (none of the recent shit), I rated Murmur as their worst album.

Few albums have ever been greater growers for me. Now I'd rank it second after Fables of the Reconstruction.

Reading this is pretty encouraging. In all honesty, as much as I admire R.E.M., there's so much of their work that I haven't fully absorbed yet.
 
And since hardly anyone has praised it yet, I will say that Automatic is a top 10 album for me, by any artist. Other than the Abbey Road medley, it has my favorite closing run of songs and even the throwaways have humor and character. It seems to be more of a general public favorite than a fan favorite, but that's OK with me. Very few albums stir me emotionally like that one does and that pathos counts for a lot.
 
Automatic's good, but Drive and Find the River are the only tracks I really love. I wouldn't mind if I never heard Everybody Hurts ever again. I can't believe how many people I've met who think REM are a lame old man band because they've only heard Everybody Hurts.
 
Try Not to Breathe, Drive and Find the River are the only tracks I truly love. Especially the first one is one of their most underrated ones.

The big singles are a cheesefest. Every single one of them. I was weary of R.E.M. because of that fact, all the way up to high school.
 
Monster is decent. Strange Currencies and Bang and Blame have always been my favorites off the album. Tongue is a weird little song, but I like it. King of Comedy is just horrible, though. Really kills the 1st half of the album for me.


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:up: Spinning it right now. :love:
 
Automatic's good, but Drive and Find the River are the only tracks I really love. I wouldn't mind if I never heard Everybody Hurts ever again. I can't believe how many people I've met who think REM are a lame old man band because they've only heard Everybody Hurts.

Unfortunately that can be the case. But who needs the heartless brutes to enjoy R.E.M. anyway?
 
I wouldn't say I'm underwhelmed by Automatic, but I will take Monster (for sentimental reasons) and New Adventures (for quality reasons) over it.

This. Though I enjoy Monster for having balls and crunch, not because it makes me nostalgic for anything in particular.

Monster is decent. Strange Currencies and Bang and Blame have always been my favorites off the album. Tongue is a weird little song, but I like it. King of Comedy is just horrible, though. Really kills the 1st half of the album for me.

I always felt Bang And Blame was one of the weakest singles they ever released pre-2000. So many better choices they could have made that would have helped the album.

And since hardly anyone has praised it yet, I will say that Automatic is a top 10 album for me, by any artist. Other than the Abbey Road medley, it has my favorite closing run of songs and even the throwaways have humor and character. It seems to be more of a general public favorite than a fan favorite, but that's OK with me. Very few albums stir me emotionally like that one does and that pathos counts for a lot.

Ignoreland has humor and character? It sticks out like a sore thumb, not just lyrically, but (more importantly) on a music level as well. Those awful keyboards make me wince.

I don't ever listen to Reveal or Around the Sun so can't really remember the weak spots on those, but Ignoreland is easily my worst R.E.M. song. And it really mars the album. Disfigures it. A head-slapping move of inserting what is now a dated political song into a funereal, moving album. At least the older political songs (Exhuming McCarthy, Welcome To The Occupation, Orange Crush) had more oblique, poetic lyrics and better melodies.
 
I agree insofar as the tempo being too fast, but I like electrolite. I've also really never gotten into Fables, and sad professor is one of my favorite rem songs (since i seem to be just expressing totally random opinions I've probably said several dozen pages back, or in the last thread, already).

I don't want to say automatic is overrated, I'm just really over it. There aren't any songs on it that I really ever need to hear again.
 
Electrolite has a completely different vibe to Nightswimming. One is corny and sentimental, the other is playful and satirical.
 
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