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Post by American Idiot on Sept 21, 2011 14:03:27 GMT -5
I'm a bit sad over this as a very long time R.E.M. fan, but I saw it coming. Their last few albums have been sub-par compared to their excellence of the past. It was the right time to end it at a rather good note with looking back on making a large impact on rock fans of many ages over the past twenty five years.
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Deleted
Joined: January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Sept 21, 2011 14:24:55 GMT -5
I agree with American Idiot. Plus, 31 years is not a bad run at all for a band, most bands don't last ten years with their original line-up let alone 31.
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halo19
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Post by halo19 on Sept 21, 2011 17:38:12 GMT -5
*cough* Bill Berry *cough* (left the band after New Adventures). I'm not saddened, because that's a long time and the band was sort of past their prime by the point they folded.
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Post by singingsparrow on Sept 21, 2011 17:43:29 GMT -5
I'm generally not particularly sad about long-living bands calling it quits, but I admit I feel kind of sad about this one.
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Obviously, it was plain to see R.E.M. was never going to be the same without Bill Berry; departing after "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" rode off into the sunset. The video for "Electrolite", if anything, summed up the end of an era for R.E.M. You knew by the end of it that this intense saudade was in the air, and as you watched each of the band members in a black-and-white setting float off one by one by the video's poignant close ("I'm not scared, I'm outta here...).........R.E.M. itself was floating off in a new direction.
Still, despite releasing hit-and-miss material ever since. R.E.M. still regularly engaged my attention. "Up"..........wasn't a great album, but you have to hand it to them that it was an interesting album (it inspired Radiohead for crying out loud, so obviously they did something right.......as choppier as the album is). And "Reveal", despite some weaker songwriting, consists of some beautiful, lush production. There are tracks that for some odd reason have had remarkable staying power with me due to that, most notably "Chorus And The Ring" and "Beachball".
"Around The Sun" was their only blatant misstep, in my opinion. The production was just terribly lethargic. All in all, it didn't move me at all, or even make me feel anything. It was just second to dead air. But even there, I can see how some of the songs individually harbored great potential if they were to be re-arranged and produced. "Electron Blue" was actually intriguing. "Aftermath" was an exception to the rule in that it actually is emotionally moving in a way the rest of the album isn't. "Make It All Okay" had potential. Other than that, though...............it was a tragic misstep. What were they thinking with "The Outsiders"?
Then, of course, their final two albums sounded like mosaics of their previous thirty years together: the first, "Accelerate", sounding like a mish-mash of everything from their I.R.S. years in addition to "Monster" and "New Adventures In Hi-Fi"..............and the latter, "Collapse Into Now", sounding like a mish-mash of material erring most closely to their early Warner Brothers records, specifically "Out Of Time" ("It Happened Today", "Uberlin") and "Green" ("All The Best", "Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I").............with hints of "Monster" and "New Adventures of Hi-Fi" as well most notably. I enjoyed both albums very much, particularly "Accelerate"..........but I can understand why to some fans it just felt like they were regurgitating their musical identity much like some argue about U2 at the beginning of the 00's. But hey................as long as the songs hold up, then I'll be happy.
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I was hoping we'd at least get one post-Warner Brothers album out of them before their disbanding. I admit I was excited thinking "Hey, their time with Warner Brothers is up. Who knows which direction they may traverse in next? Maybe we'll hear more Americana influences from them? Some of their side project influences influenced in the mix (Peter Buck's come to mind in particular). It would have been interesting to see what a post-Warner Brothers R.E.M. record would sound like.
But................I understand where they're coming from when they decided that "Collapse Into Now" just sounds like a collage and, thus, an appropriate summation of R.E.M. in a nutshell and a proper way to bow out gracefully. So..............perhaps we all should have seen this coming.
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Anyway, R.E.M. were one of my primary musical influences and inspirations growing up, and I wish "All The Best" to them in wherever the three of them choose to fuse their passions next.
Namaste, lisping HIBISCUS
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shanas
Gold Member
Runnin' down a dream...
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Post by shanas on Sept 21, 2011 18:04:21 GMT -5
great summation Lisping...
I really liked the last 2 albums after being very much thinking they were shot before these two turned my opinion around
I certainly hope M Stipe's unique vocals are not gone forever and that new projects see the light of day as time goes by...
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Post by singingsparrow on Sept 21, 2011 18:08:43 GMT -5
*cough* Bill Berry *cough* (left the band after New Adventures). I'm not saddened, because that's a long time and the band was sort of past their prime by the point they folded. I surely agree they were past their commercial prime due to the drastically-changing radio and commercial climate that disfavored college rock and Alternative radio................but I have to contend with that point from an artistic perspective. I just feel it's easy to dismiss any band as becoming increasingly irrelevant just because a founding member bows out, but this constant echo of "Oh, R.E.M. didn't release anything good past "New Adventures In Hi-Fi"....." or "Oh, R.E.M. lost their way after Berry left.....", et cetera.............it just sounds not only tiring to me, but I wonder if many of those who argue that actually listened to their albums as a trio front to back before finalizing their opinions.............or if they merely say that just because Pitchfork Media and Slant Magazine said so (although to the former's credit, they offered moderately favorable reviews to their last two records). I understand how "Up", for instance, just sounds a little dicier compared to their albums as a quartet............but I can appreciate the experimentation that went into it. Some individual forays don't fare quite as well as others, but all in all it makes for an unpredictable listening experience in which you pick up on different aspects of its sound each subsequent time you hear it. Stipe's lyrics are also as oblique as ever, but even there you can tell how various events personally and profoundly influenced them, such as on "Why Not Smile" and "Falls To Climb". The point I'm making is that it's easy to dismiss any band's latter catalog just because the lineup isn't the same and its commercial stature declined. I'm not denying one second the fact that "Up" wasn't well-received commercially. But that said........... R.E.M. were ALREADY on a commercial decline beginning with "New Adventures In Hi-Fi", which was the last album Bill Berry contributed to.............and what's more............... it's regarded as one of R.E.M's best albums, as well as THE best among a significant number of fans.That proves that commercial stature and artistic quality just don't run parallel. R.E.M. began their commercial decline BEFORE Berry left.................and yet it is only AFTER Berry left that many tend to dismiss everything R.E.M. released post-Berry is somehow "irrelevant" or that they "lost their way". I don't buy into that. I'm by no stretch suggesting "Up" holds up to many of their earlier albums overall. It doesn't. It is STILL a worthwhile record and also one of their most experimental efforts. "Reveal" is as well. I concede their last two albums are probably going to be regarded as their two most representative post-Berry releases..........but that's only because they SOUND most reminiscent of R.E.M. as a quartet. I just feel there's a lot of conditioning in the way of assessing R.E.M's catalog at large. I'll be forthright in admitting I actually don't care for "Out Of Time" that much, and I personally prefer "Up" over that. Obviously "Out Of Time" consists of fabulous individual tracks like "Country Feedback", "Losing My Religion" and "Texarkana". But hearing as a whole rather the sum of its parts.............it just doesn't have the depth of their I.R.S. albums, nor the additional layers of its more ambitious follow-ups. And yet, it's often regarded as one of their best albums (Peter Buck considers it their best album).............largely because it was ALSO the most commercially successful album of their career and bolstered two of their biggest hits. Namaste, lisping HIBISCUS
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rockmaniac
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Post by rockmaniac on Sept 21, 2011 19:43:23 GMT -5
who's not a fan of this song?
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Post by American Idiot on Sept 21, 2011 19:56:54 GMT -5
who's not a fan of this song? Still, one of my all-time favorite songs. The main thing I think I love about R.E.M. is that my generation and my parents generation can both enjoy them since they had hits over both time periods. This is one of the only songs that I could imagine being in the car with my dad who's an avid classic rock listener and if this song came on, we would both say "This is such a great song." at the same time.
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halo19
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Post by halo19 on Sept 21, 2011 21:55:06 GMT -5
*cough* Bill Berry *cough* (left the band after New Adventures). I'm not saddened, because that's a long time and the band was sort of past their prime by the point they folded. I surely agree they were past their commercial prime due to the drastically-changing radio and commercial climate that disfavored college rock and Alternative radio................but I have to contend with that point from an artistic perspective. I just feel it's easy to dismiss any band as becoming increasingly irrelevant just because a founding member bows out, but this constant echo of "Oh, R.E.M. didn't release anything good past "New Adventures In Hi-Fi"....." or "Oh, R.E.M. lost their way after Berry left.....", et cetera.............it just sounds not only tiring to me, but I wonder if many of those who argue that actually listened to their albums as a trio front to back before finalizing their opinions.............or if they merely say that just because Pitchfork Media and Slant Magazine said so (although to the former's credit, they offered moderately favorable reviews to their last two records). I understand how "Up", for instance, just sounds a little dicier compared to their albums as a quartet............but I can appreciate the experimentation that went into it. Some individual forays don't fare quite as well as others, but all in all it makes for an unpredictable listening experience in which you pick up on different aspects of its sound each subsequent time you hear it. Stipe's lyrics are also as oblique as ever, but even there you can tell how various events personally and profoundly influenced them, such as on "Why Not Smile" and "Falls To Climb". The point I'm making is that it's easy to dismiss any band's latter catalog just because the lineup isn't the same and its commercial stature declined. I'm not denying one second the fact that "Up" wasn't well-received commercially. But that said........... R.E.M. were ALREADY on a commercial decline beginning with "New Adventures In Hi-Fi", which was the last album Bill Berry contributed to.............and what's more............... it's regarded as one of R.E.M's best albums, as well as THE best among a significant number of fans.That proves that commercial stature and artistic quality just don't run parallel. R.E.M. began their commercial decline BEFORE Berry left.................and yet it is only AFTER Berry left that many tend to dismiss everything R.E.M. released post-Berry is somehow "irrelevant" or that they "lost their way". I don't buy into that. I'm by no stretch suggesting "Up" holds up to many of their earlier albums overall. It doesn't. It is STILL a worthwhile record and also one of their most experimental efforts. "Reveal" is as well. I concede their last two albums are probably going to be regarded as their two most representative post-Berry releases..........but that's only because they SOUND most reminiscent of R.E.M. as a quartet. I just feel there's a lot of conditioning in the way of assessing R.E.M's catalog at large. I'll be forthright in admitting I actually don't care for "Out Of Time" that much, and I personally prefer "Up" over that. Obviously "Out Of Time" consists of fabulous individual tracks like "Country Feedback", "Losing My Religion" and "Texarkana". But hearing as a whole rather the sum of its parts.............it just doesn't have the depth of their I.R.S. albums, nor the additional layers of its more ambitious follow-ups. And yet, it's often regarded as one of their best albums (Peter Buck considers it their best album).............largely because it was ALSO the most commercially successful album of their career and bolstered two of their biggest hits. Namaste, lisping HIBISCUS The statement's getting a bit overanalyzed and overblown. I wasn't being overly critical, and merely pointed a fact with the Bill Berry thing. I sort of like Reveal and think Accelerate had its moments.
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Rumors
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Post by Rumors on Sept 22, 2011 18:44:16 GMT -5
The statements by the band members were really nice and you can tell they are ready to move onto another chapter in their lives. Good luck to all of them.
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Radical347
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Post by Radical347 on Sept 23, 2011 23:38:28 GMT -5
"Mine Smell Like Honey" is a good note? :X
I respect what REM once was...but I can't really wipe my eyes at a band that's spent the last two of their three decades rehashing the same songs over and over, becoming slightly more annoying and slightly more irrelevant each time, only breaking up now.
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Post by singingsparrow on Sept 24, 2011 17:59:20 GMT -5
"Mine Smell Like Honey" is a good note? :X I respect what REM once was...but I can't really wipe my eyes at a band that's spent the last two of their three decades rehashing the same songs over and over, becoming slightly more annoying and slightly more irrelevant each time, only breaking up now. "Mine Smell Like Honey" was undoubtedly the low point on "Collapse Into Now", in my opinion. But most the rest of the album was quite listenable and consistent. I know "consistent" doesn't always translate to "good" necessarily, but in this case I thought the variety of songs they provided made for a good effort. "Walk It Back" was an exceptional curve ball. "Oh My Heart" really stands out with the Euro-fusions and Stipe's vulnerable vocal. And as pointlessly silly as it is lyrically, "Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter" and "That Someone Is You" are both enjoyable escapist-feely rockers. And I can't even get my head around the "spent the last two of their three decades rehashing the same songs over and over, becoming slightly more annoying and slightly more irrelevant each time" claim, in all honesty. Saying they've rehashed the same songs is one opinion (which I also couldn't disagree with more)............but to go on and claim they got "slightly more irrelevant each time" since 1991 is simply erroneous. "Automatic For The People" is regarded not only as one of R.E.M's best albums among most reviewers, but also nearly equaled "Out Of Time" in terms of sales. So did "Monster", even though it's not regarded as highly critically. And "New Adventures In Hi-Fi" may have been a big disappointment commercially, but critically is far from irrelevant. After that, like I already alluded to, many tend to be outright dismissive of the band after Berry's departure, and even then I don't buy the irrelevancy argument. The musical and cultural tides shifted as "Monster" rode off into the sunset, and were not in R.E.M's favor............but on the other hand, they remained intensely popular across Western Europe all the way through the mid-part of the previous decade, and in the very few instances they DID tour stateside, they proved they still knew how to pack Madison Square Garden. I understand the "irrelevancy" argument is often used subjectively as it is, in what is "perceived" to be in the eye of the beholder a gradually declining quality in any form of art...........but I just had to contend with this argument as the way it was phrased almost sounded like you were implying they were officially regarded as "irrelevant" going all the way back to when "Out Of Time" was first released. Namaste, lisping HIBISCUS
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