R.E.M. have broken up

[IWasBored]

there's something i want to like about "i'll take the rain," but if i try to listen to it, i cannot figure out what it is. i think it really just stems from it being the last track on the album, which in turn means that it equates to "good, the thing is actually over."

 

[intedomine]

I just don't understand how (or why) R.E.M managed to stretch the song to just under 6 minutes.

 

[Aygo]

Since I don't like the tracklist, running order or even many of the choices made for this latest compilation of the band, I made a new one myself...

ONE (lenght: 77'32)
01 Drive
02 Radio Song
03 Gardening At Night
04 Begin The Begin
05 The Great Beyond
06 Man On The Moon
07 Stand
08 Talk About The Passion
09 The One I Love
10 The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite
11 Electrolite
12 Drive 8
13 Bittersweet Me
14 Imitation Of Life
15 Überlin
16 Shinny Happy People
17 Fall On Me
18 Daysleeper
19 At My Most Beautiful
20 It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)

TWO (lenght: 76'10)
01 Radio Free Europe
02 What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
03 Supernatural Superserious
04 Finest Worksong
05 Losing My Religion
06 Oh My Heart
07 So. Central Rain (I'm Sorry)
08 (Don't Go Back To) Rockville
09 Everybody Hurts
10 Leaving New York
11 Bad Day
12 All The Way To Reno (You're Gonna Be A Star)
13 Lotus
14 Orange Crush
15 E-Bow The Letter
16 Bang And Blame
17 Perfect Circle
18 Nightswimming

Every album is represented and each era of the band is as well, proporcionally, in terms of years, albums and respective success.

 

[lazarus]

16 Shinny Happy People

06 Oh My Heart

 

[U2inUtah]

You can hear the new single for the Retrospective at Rolling Stone:

Exclusive Stream: R.E.M.'s Final Single, 'We All Go Back to Where We Belong' | Music News | Rolling Stone

Edit: Meh...sounds like a Reveal outtake.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

There's weight added to it because it's their last track ever, you know? I find myself enjoying my first listen.

I can taste the ocean on your skin.

 

[hikerdeb]

I'm listening to it in my headphones right now. The Rolling Stone reviewer is correct when he says the orchestration sounds like Burt Bacharach. Really cheesy.

And Stipe sounds tired and unenthusiastic, as if he can barely summon the effort to sing.

I wish they had gone out with a bang rather than a whimper.

And yet... there's something about this song that moves me. Sweet but sad.

 

[CrashedCarDriver]

The odd thing is Reveal had some good summertime tracks, but its not really an impacting/ relevant record

 

[CrashedCarDriver]

R.E.M - Suspicion - YouTube

^ Oh sigh!

 

[LemonMelon]

One of my REM favorites. The first half of Up is fucking awesome.

 

[CrashedCarDriver]

R.E.M. - I've Been High - YouTube

 

[FitzChivalry]

One of my REM favorites. The first half of Up is fucking awesome.

And the end: 'Falls To Climb' is one of my favorites by them.

 

[hikerdeb]

Just curious -- has Bono or any other member of U2 commented on R.E.M.'s breakup?

Since Stipe and Bono are good friends, I wonder if Stipe used Bono as a sounding board when he was trying to decide whether to disband or not. I imagine Bono's answer would have been something like, "Well, if it's not fun for you anymore and you feel you've gone as far as you can go creatively, there's really no point in staying together. Personally, I don't feel that way about my own band -- at least, not yet."

I also wonder when R.E.M. made the decision. When they recorded Collapse Into Now, did they already know it was going to be the final album?

 

[AndrewCowley]

And the end: 'Falls To Climb' is one of my favorites by them.

+1 to that.

 

[corianderstem]

I thought I read something one of the REM guys said about how they started talking about it while recording Collapse Into Now.

 

[FitzChivalry]

I thought I read something one of the REM guys said about how they started talking about it while recording Collapse Into Now.

Yes. It was discussed over a period of years. Mike Mills made it sound like it happened in stages. First, while touring "Around The Sun", just touching around the subject and joking about breaking up to gage the others' reactions, then slowly, over time, more and more seriously. But they didn't want to go out on, I guess what they eventually deemed a subpar album, "Around The Sun", so they waited until they had two more albums they could be proud of under their belt.

I think you and I read the same thing, Cori.

 

[CrashedCarDriver]

The latter part of R.E.M's tenure was an indication that there was a sense of it all "coming to an end" even though the band still had ideas and knew how to write a good catchy song, there were things that didnt necessarily click like how it did in the past

1. Not having a drummer 2. Stipe's voice sounding strained and tired due to age. You could hear on a song such as "I've Been High" he doesnt have that crisp resonance he did for Automatic For The People

 

[lazarus]

He sure as hell was singing with some power on the Accelerate tour.

He knocked Let Me In out of the fucking park.

 

[FitzChivalry]

He knocked Let Me In out of the fucking park.

Another fanfuckingtastic song! (And it was great both times I saw them live.)

 

[corianderstem]

Let Me In is amazing. The lyrics are stellar.

Am I remembering correctly that Mills' played (I'm sorry, I mean WAILED THE FUCK AWAY on) Cobain's guitar for that song?

 

[bono_212]

Just listened to an album for the first time since they broke up, Out of Time. I love this album. Can't decide what my favorite by them is still, but this is close. Low, Belong, Shiny Happy People, Losing My Religion, Near Wild Heaven, Me in Honey, Texarkana, Country Feedback, shit there's hardly anything on it I DON'T like, save Radio Song, which is only ruined by the shitty choice to have KRS One go UHN UHN over the whole thing.

 

[lazarus]

Shiny Happy People

 

[BVS]

The latter part of R.E.M's tenure was an indication that there was a sense of it all "coming to an end" even though the band still had ideas and knew how to write a good catchy song, there were things that didnt necessarily click like how it did in the past

1. Not having a drummer 2. Stipe's voice sounding strained and tired due to age. You could hear on a song such as "I've Been High" he doesnt have that crisp resonance he did for Automatic For The People

How does Stipe's voice change(which is normal due to age) have to do with an indication that they knew it was coming to the end?

 

[bono_212]

Stand is another favorite of mine, so there's that.

 

[lazarus]

 

[bono_212]

they've been loose like two times ever in their career, and I enjoy that.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

they've been loose like two times ever in their career

That's a joke, right? I really hope you don't actually think that.

 

[LemonMelon]

That's a joke, right? I really hope you don't actually think that.

I was going to say.

We Walk
Don't Go Back To Rockville
Superman
Exhuming McCarthy
Stand
Shiny Happy People
Sidewinder
Tongue
Lotus

I mean, that's just off the top of my head. There's plenty of other silly REM shit out there. Some of it is really great, some of it is mediocre.

 

[bono_212]

That's a joke, right? I really hope you don't actually think that.

I said "like". I'm exaggerating to "prove" a point. Them being goofy is NOT the norm.

And just ftr, I don't really feel like songs like sidewinder and rockville have that looseness to them at all. They're fun songs, but I wouldn't say they're goofy.

 

[corianderstem]

Underneath the Bunker FTW.

And if you mean "loose" as in "drunk off their ever-loving asses," there's always King of the Road off Dead Letter Office.

"Easy with the key! Eeeeeeaaaaaaasy with the key!"

Or the entire Hindu Love Gods record, for some Stipe-less drunkenness. Didn't they say they pretty much recorded that while drunk and then Warren Zevon's label decided to release it, to their horror?