Life After R.E.M.: Discussion Thread

[corianderstem]

God, I love (almost all of) New Adventures.

Monster has not aged well for me at all. I think the strongest song on it is Let Me In.

Drive is amazing. THOSE STRINGS! Agreed with Axver on Everybody Hurts. Can't remember the last time I actually listened to that song.

Most of Document is great, but I can't stand Oddfellows or Lightnin' Hopkins. Fireplace is by no means great, but I'm such a sucker for songs in waltz time.

Turn You Inside Out off Green and Finest Worksong off Document are basically the same song, which always makes me laugh when I think about it. But both are great. I think Stipe even dances exactly the same way during both songs on Tourfilm. Which I should watch again, now that I mention it.

REM.

 

[No spoken words]

REM.

The end.

 

[corianderstem]

If I ever have to make another user name, it'll have to be RoseofHay.

 

[lazarus]

I was thinking ExhumingMcCrarky.

 

[corianderstem]

 

[LemonMelon]

Nightswimming is corny

Reported.

 

[bobsaget77]

I'm gonna hijack this thread by ranking my top 15 favorite REM songs.

1 Perfect Circle
2 Country Feedback
3 Talk About the Passion
4 Don't Go Back To Rockville
5 Driver 8
6 Life and How To Live It
7 World Leader Pretend
8 Flowers Of Guatemala
9 Can't Get There From Here
10 Cuyahoga
11 Endgame
12 Radio Song
13 Gardening At Night (Eponymous Version)
14 Radio Free Europe (Hib-Tone Version)
15 I Believe



Sent from my iPhone using U2 Interference

 

[Kieran McConville]

I just remembered that Cuyahoga is probably my real favourite REM song. Nearly. At the very least it is emblematic of the kind of music they were making at that point.

 

[liamcool]

I still think Kohoutek is really underrated.

I also think the dual lead vocal on Harborcoat is a thing of beauty.

 

[u2popmofo]

Since I don't like picking favorites, here are my top 10 most listened to REM songz on Last FM since signing up.

Fall On Me
Country Feedback
Laughing
Discoverer
Shaking Through
Radio Free Europe
Harborcoat
That Someone Is You
Find the River
Falls To Climb

 

[liamcool]

Here's my top 10 from Last.fm:

Kohoutek
Find The River
Harborcoat
World Leader Pretend
Perfect Circle
You Are The Everything
Laughing
Sitting Still
Life And How To Live It
Cant Get There From Here

 

[U2inUtah]

Until sometime after I joined here I had never heard Murmur, Reckoning, Fables or Pageant other than what was on Eponymous...even though I considered myself a pretty big R.E.M. fan. This was before Spotify or torrents and I figured Eponymous covered me for those first IRS albums.

I remember ranking the albums on here like ten years ago and putting Murmur, Reckoning and Fables near the bottom, just because I wasn't familiar with them...I remember it pissed off Laz that I ranked them so low. haha

Anyway, I finally came to my senses and bought those albums...discovering songs like Harborcoat, These Days, Begin The Begin, Pilgrimage, Feeling Gravity's Pull, Life and How To Live It, Cuyahoga, Perfect Circle etc. for the first time. I couldn't believe I'd been missing all of those great tracks for all those years.

It also really hit me how expansive R.E.M.s discography is and now I pretty much love everything from Chronic Town through Up.

 

[IWasBored]

i have no idea how to get last.fm to tell me my top 10 songs from any particular band. it wouldn't be very accurate anyway, almost nothing i listen to music on is hooked up to last.fm any more.

 

[u2popmofo]

Up.

Falls To Climb

 

[corianderstem]

A post-90s REM track I really love:

Imitation of Life

One of the few songs on Reveal that are worth listening to.

The Great Beyond is also .... well, great.

 

[Axver]

1. Feeling Gravity's Pull
2. Driver 8
3. What's the Frequency, Kenneth?
4. Orange Crush
5. So. Central Rain
6. Pretty Persuasion
7. Fall on Me
8. The One I Love
9. The Flowers of Guatemala
10. Drive
11. Radio Free Europe
12. Near Wild Heaven
13. Maps and Legends
14. Find the River
15. Auctioneer (Another Engine)

 

[Kieran McConville]

Lists...

1. Fall On Me
2. Cuyahoga
3. Country Feedback
4. Texarkana
5. Let Me In
6. Leave
7. E-bow The Letter
8. World Leader Pretend
9. Begin the Begin
10. So. Central Rain

 

[lazarus]

The Great Beyond is also .... well, great.

I've never understood the love for this song. It suffers from post-2000 Bono's habit of cramming too many syllables into the lines, as if it was written separate from the music.

I'm pushing an elephant up the stairs
I'm tossing up punch lines that were never there

The flow is terrible.

This is what happens when a poet like Stipe goes into a song with a specific subject/intent in mind, instead of letting it come naturally. Also the reference to Man On The Moon is a little on-the-nose.

 

[lazarus]

1. Harborcoat
2. Finest Worksong
3. Begin The Begin
4. Sitting Still
5. Find The River
6. I Believe
7. Be Mine
8. Country Feedback
9. Tongue
10. Sweetness Follows
11. Undertow
12. You Are The Everything
13. Disturbance At The Heron House
14. What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
15. Feeling Gravity's Pull

* I really love Up but there was just too much competition to include anything. And to a lesser extent same with Collapse Into Now. And I literally forgot about Accelerate until writing this note. Admire the resurgence of energy but nothing worthy of inclusion.

 

[IWasBored]

I could have sworn you didn't like be mine. I could have sworn I read a lengthy post you'd written about not liking it for some reasons I can't exactly recall, and I could have sworn I tried to argue its merits. I like that song a lot. Maybe I just agreed with you, and due to the rarity of us having similar opinions on things I probably just assumed otherwise.

 

[lazarus]

Nope, it's been one of my favs on that album from day 1, and I've always had to defend it against naysayers. The whole guitar part is celestial.

At least Thom Yorke agrees with us.

 

[LemonMelon]

It's Bittersweet Me that Laz has mentioned not liking. And I don't blame him, that song is a clusterfuck, but it has its moments.

 

[corianderstem]

Bittersweet Me is okay, but it's a little too "generic rock," like Bang and Blame.

Wake Up Bomb kicks ten kinds of ass.

 

[IWasBored]

Ok, I doubt I defended that one.

Celestial is a good description. One word that does it better than luxuriously simple, driving guitar part that if there was a guitar part I'd want to crawl inside of, curl up in, wrap up in like a blanket. Which is sort of a douchey description of anything. But it was what I was going to say. Nah, we'll just go with celestial.

 

[IWasBored]

Wake Up Bomb kicks ten kinds of ass.

It certainly does, although it follows how the west was won weirdly. The first three songs on that album kind of flow poorly, but new test leper is too good for me to care about its equally dramatic shift.

 

[lazarus]

It's Bittersweet Me that Laz has mentioned not liking. And I don't blame him, that song is a clusterfuck, but it has its moments.

Another poor choice for a single. Especially considering what else is on there.

Bittersweet Me is okay, but it's a little too "generic rock," like Bang and Blame.

Wake Up Bomb kicks ten kinds of ass.

B&B is the exact song I would classify it with. The chorus is fine (good guitar). I can't even remember the verses right now.

Also, cue El Mel anti-Wake Up Bomb post in 5...4...3...

Ok, I doubt I defended that one.

Celestial is a good description. One word that does it better than luxuriously simple, driving guitar part that if there was a guitar part I'd want to crawl inside of, curl up in, wrap up in like a blanket. Which is sort of a douchey description of anything. But it was what I was going to say. Nah, we'll just go with celestial.

Well said. It gives me all the feels, as the young'uns say.

 

[LemonMelon]

I fully expect that if I ever end up in the same space with Laz, he'll have Wake Up Bomb ready to go.

Replace me with ShuttlecockGirl and it would be a literal bomb.

 

[lazarus]

Decided to bring Green along in the car today. Is there anyone who actually likes The Wrong Child? Unmemorable melody, slightly annoying plink-plink mandolin or whatever the fuck that is, and than that "IT'S OOOKKKAYAAAYYYYEEEE!!!" from Stipe which might be the single most grating moment of his career. Yes, Cori, even more than "COO-WELLLL!!" from the live versions of ITEOTWAWKI (AIFF).

As much as I dislike Ignoreland, this is worse. My vote for worst pre-2000 track.

The rest of the album, ehh. Three truly great songs (You Are The Everything, World Leader Pretend, Orange Crush), a few disposably shallow bubblegum songs (Stand, Pop Song 89, Get Up), inferior remake of Finest Worksong (Turn You Inside Out), and then a few decent songs left over.

A major drop in quality from Document, and none of the fresh directions or creative arrangements of Out Of Time. Even if that one isn't consistent song-wise either.

 

[corianderstem]

I'm with you on The Wrong Child.

I like the pop songs, but realize they are extremely slight. And I looooove I Remember California. The untitled track at the end is lovely and charming.

I like Hairshirt as well - not that it's great by any stretch, but I love it as an intro into where they were going with their sound, what with all that mandolin and all.

 

[lazarus]

The mandolin is also in You Are The Everything, with much better results, and definitely points the way to Out Of Time/Automatic. They aren't that far apart musically and Hairshirt sounds like a primitive dry run.

Forgot about (Untitled), and that's definitely one of my favorites on there.