R.E.M. have broken up

[lazarus]

"Ain't got no CEEEEEG-A-RETTES!"


Also, I don't know how one could say Sidewinder isn't loose; Stipe fucking laughs in the middle of it!

 

[iron yuppie]

"Here's a truck stop instead of St. Peters" is one of my favorite lines from Stipe, even though I cannot really explain why. "Ignoreland, yeah yeah yeah," not so much.

 

[iron yuppie]

Oh, and "Nightswimming" is still one of the most serenely beautiful things that I have ever heard.

 

[iron yuppie]

Oh hell, does Cori's name come from "Find the River"? Why did I not realize that earlier?

Spoiler

I'm listening to Automatic.

 

[lazarus]

 

[iron yuppie]

Hey, I thought that maybe she just really liked coriander. It's a versatile spice.

 

[lazarus]

If Cori was in the Spice Girls, that would be her name: Versatile Spice.

 

[bono_212]

"Ain't got no CEEEEEG-A-RETTES!"

Also, I don't know how one could say Sidewinder isn't loose; Stipe fucking laughs in the middle of it!

Ha, I never noticed that.

 

[LemonMelon]

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!"

Toys In The Attic from the same comp is also gloriously sloppy.

 

[lazarus]

Most of Dead Letter Office is fu/loose/sloppy.

 

[corianderstem]

Oh hell, does Cori's name come from "Find the River"? Why did I not realize that earlier?

Yes.

And I have no idea.

 

[The Panther]

"Leaving New York" came on my MP3 player yesterday. It's a great song melodically and harmonically, but I was struck by how bad Stipe's vocal on it is.

Certainly his voice lost something -- I can't figure out what it is -- around the late 90s or so. Listening back to obscure R.E.M. tracks from the early or mid-1980s, his voice really grabs you and is like a secret weapon, whereas in the 2000s it's more like the band's weak-point.

In particular, the "I told you I love you forever" lines in "Leaving New York" do not sound good or convincing (also, hard to imagine late 80s' R.E.M. writing such a conventional line).

Not meaning to diss Stipe, who's brilliant, but I think without his voice working they did not work (amongst other problems).

 

[lazarus]

That song was definitely not his proud.

 

[corianderstem]

Certainly his voice lost something -- I can't figure out what it is -- around the late 90s or so.

Heart.

 

[LemonMelon]

Bill Berry got custody of it when they split.

 

[Vlad n U 2]

Bill Berry got custody of it when they split.

His monobrow ate it.

 

[corianderstem]

I hear he added it to the compost pile on his farm. Made for some good mulch.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Oh, and "Nightswimming" is still one of the most serenely beautiful things that I have ever heard.

Fuck yeah, man.

What a gorgeous song.

 

[LemonMelon]

Listening to Nightswimming last night, I realized how much I'm going to miss these guys. There were tears. Even though I became a fan during the shittiest part of their career (2004-2005), their music was an integral part of my adolescence and I can totally picture myself waxing philosophical about Murmur and Automatic For The People when I'm 60. It's just a testament to how timeless their best work remains.

 

[lazarus]

 

[LemonMelon]

Not quite like that, more

 

[iron yuppie]

Having just listened to the albums from New Adventures through Reveal today, it seems to me as though the band just completely forgot how to edit themselves. Each of those albums has several excellent songs, but also is ten to fifteen minutes too long. Why songs like "Be Mine" and "I'll Take the Rain" need to linger for nearly six minutes is beyond me, but in general this stretch of albums is far stronger than I remember it being - especially Up.

 

[lazarus]

Shut up, Be Mine is transcendent. Is there something wrong with riding a wave of elation for longer than the pop song 4-minute standard?

You probably would have complained about the outro of Hey Jude back in 1968.

 

[The Panther]

Having just listened to the albums from New Adventures through Reveal today, it seems to me as though the band just completely forgot how to edit themselves. Each of those albums has several excellent songs, but also is ten to fifteen minutes too long. Why songs like "Be Mine" and "I'll Take the Rain" need to linger for nearly six minutes is beyond me, but in general this stretch of albums is far stronger than I remember it being - especially Up.

That's probably true to some extent, but for me the main problem (besides the decline in the quality of Stipe's timbre) is the over-production. It was probably fine to indulge in it once (with Up), but then they just kept wrapping all their songs in super-soft, endlessly layered, glossy production that robbed some good tunes of all vitality.

Of course, I think everything is over-produced. The kind of sound I like is lots of reverb from a hand-held $20 cassette recorder.

 

[lazarus]

That's true, but I don't think Accelerate is guilty of overproduction, nor is Collapse Into Now for the most part.

But Up-Reveal-Around the Sun all in a row was definitely overkill.

 

[LemonMelon]

Numbers can't be referring to New Adventures there. I mean, he could, but I would certainly hope not.

I don't think anyone would complain about the production on Reveal and Around The Sun if the songwriting was better. M83 isn't copping any shit for Hurry Up, We're Dreaming.

 

[The Panther]

Numbers can't be referring to New Adventures there. I mean, he could, but I would certainly hope not.

No, I'm not. I meant starting with Up in 1998 or 1999 or whenever.

New Adventures is produced by Scott Litt and is wonderfully (sometimes roughly) recorded.

NOTE: and please refer to me by my "real" name, The Panther.

 

[lazarus]

There's definitely a case for Scott Litt being almost as crucial to the band's success as Bill Berry.

While as you said, Up was good because the overproduction was new to them (and they were clearly trying to fill a void left by Berry), they went too far down the rabbit hole on the next two albums.

 

[bono_212]

NOTE: and please refer to me by my "real" name, The Panther.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JfjOmR_75uw&feature=youtube_gdata_player

 

[lazarus]

The best proof they had a sense of humor before AB.


How drunk must Hedge have been? Unreal.