R.E.M. Survivor - New Adventures In Hi-Fi - Round 1

[LemonMelon]

Last round, Let Me In was eliminated and What's The Frequency, Kenneth?, Crush With Eyeliner, and Strange Currencies were sent through to the final draw.

Votes:

Let Me In - 9
Strange Currencies - 7
Crush With Eyeliner - 4
What's The Frequency, Kenneth? - 1

Final Draw:

Gardening At Night
Radio Free Europe
Pilgrimage
Perfect Circle
Sitting Still
Harborcoat
So. Central Rain
Pretty Persuasion
Feeling Gravitys Pull
Driver 8
Life And How To Live It
Begin The Begin
These Days
Fall On Me
Cuyahoga
Finest Worksong
Welcome to the Occupation
It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)
The One I Love
You Are The Everything
World Leader Pretend
Orange Crush
Losing My Religion
Texarkana
Country Feedback
Try Not To Breathe
Man On The Moon
Nightswimming
Find The River
What's The Frequency, Kenneth?
Crush With Eyeliner
Strange Currencies

New Adventures In Hi-Fi placed third on the favorite R.E.M. albums poll, so four of its songs will proceed to the final draw.

 

[LemonMelon]

Top 4:

How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us
New Test Leper
Undertow
E-Bow The Letter

I don't really dislike the second half of this record, but there's just nothing in there I love. On the other hand, the first half has all the great moments, but also the motherfucking Wake Up Bomb, which I've always considered a piece of crap. I'm not going to waste my vote on it though, since I know it's not going anywhere.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

Well, this is gonna be hard. Just a wonderful collection of songs here.

Zither is a really nice little piece, but I'm voting for it here just because.

 

[lazarus]

Top 4:

How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us
New Test Leper
Undertow
E-Bow The Letter

Close, but I'd keep Be Mine over HTWWWAWIGU, which is probably my 5th fav anyway.

Nice list.

Also, I guess the Cori rule should be in effect here. Zither is a trifle.

 

[phanan]

How The West Was Won...
New Test Leper
Be Mine
E-Bow

would be my choices.

Zither here.

 

[corianderstem]

Ayup. I kind of like Zither, as far as instrumentals go, but it's an easy choice as the first one to get the boot.

I think my favorite 4 are:

The Wake-Up Bomb
Undertow
Leave
E-Bow the Letter

There's a lot more here that I really, really like, though. Very little that I actively dislike. Bittersweet Me will be getting my next vote. It's way too similar to Bang and Blame, which isn't all that exciting to begin with.

 

[LemonMelon]

Yeah, I'll go Zither too. I love a quick mercy rule.

 

[GirlsAloudFan]

I guess my four would be -

Electrolite
E-Bow
Be Mine
The Wake-Up Bomb

It's true, it's true, Electrolite is one of my all-time favorite songs and I don't care who knows it. 20th Century go to sleep.

I like pretty much everything here, though. New Test Leper, Leave, Bittersweet, So Fast So Numb could all be in that Top 4 possibly.

And the Shuttlecock song "Breathe" was better when it was originally an R.E.M. song called "Departure"

 

[LemonMelon]

And the Shuttlecock song "Breathe" was better when it was originally an R.E.M. song called "Departure"

Departure is a slightly less offensive Heart Of Rock N' Roll. Contrived "hey, look mom, I can rock too!" track created specifically for the purpose of namechecking whatever city they're playing in.

 

[corianderstem]

I definitely see the similarities between the two, but Breathe is loads better.

 

[lazarus]

Bittersweet Me will be getting my next vote. It's way too similar to Bang and Blame, which isn't all that exciting to begin with.

This. Though I do think it's better than Bang & Blame.

Departure is a slightly less offensive Heart Of Rock N' Roll. Contrived "hey, look mom, I can rock too!" track created specifically for the purpose of namechecking whatever city they're playing in.

And this.

 

[U2inUtah]

Zither.

and its Binky The Doormat

 

[LemonMelon]

and its Binky The Doormat

Yeah, I know it is. Typo. I was copy/pasting the titles from wikipedia, but then it started taking too long and I typed them out myself rather quickly. You can tell because I capitalize "the" and wikipedia does not.

 

[lazarus]

and its Binky The Doormat

It's also not one of the better songs on the album, so either it can hold the door open for itself when it leaves, or we can all step on it repeatedly. Same thing.

 

[Axver]

I can't believe Strange Currencies and Crush With Eyeliner made the finals while Drive did not. Drive!

 

[intedomine]

Oh, my gawd, I just realised it's BINKY, not BLINKY! Why did I always read it as Blinky?

Great album anyway, if perhaps a little too long.

Top 4:

E-Bow The Letter
Leave
Binky The Doormat
Deaprture/WakeUp Bomb/West/Electrolite/Bittersweet/Be Mine/Leper - all are awesome, can't decide.

Weak links are Low Desert (yuk) and Zither (as lovely as it is, it's a poor man's Endgame)

I'll go Low Desert, just cause it's so annoying.