Thread 126935852

Maybe they all went partially deaf or developed a lot of tinnitus for being in a band for more than a decade and not ending it before becoming washed up hacks, but the mixing in this album sounds like putrid garbage, literally unlistenable, sorry, I can't do it.

It was their attempt to go with the grunge flow of the time and also mix things up after Automatic, which is kind of weird in retrospect because Automatic itself was a bit of a mix up compared to where they'd been going before. New Adventures is a step back in their normal direction but then Berry had to leave the band after that and it fucked with their sound.

Monster [Warner Bros., 1994]
Sick of dummies claiming they can't rock, the old Zepheads deliver the first power-riff album of their highly lyrical career. Peter Buck's sonic palette is rainbow grunge--variegated dirt and distortion as casual rhetoric--and he's so cranked even the slow ones seem born to be loud. As for Mr. Stipe, he's in the band, where he belongs. Message: guitars. Which after years of politics and sensitivity is well-timed. A-

>>126935886
they should have stopped after the mediocrity show that was Out of Time to not rape the corpse of the band any further, they already had made a lot of money, but contracts I guess

>>126935925
Eh I think Automatic's one of the best things they did and like New Adventures a lot. They really should have just called it quits when Bill had to leave.

>>126935909
>east-coast fellatrix ChristGau give hisherthemtheir's opinion
whoa

>>126935909
What a hack

>>126935909
Of course this faggot gives their worst pre-Up album a fucking A lmao

Is it just me or is R.E.M. like 10% kino and 90% filler?

>>126940358
The only album of theirs that really feels like it has true filler songs to me is Fables, and even then there's just a few. I think they just have songs that don't click for a lot of people. Unless you're talking about the stuff they made after New Adventures in Hi Fi which I honestly just kind of forget about sometimes.

>>126935909
Isn’t this guy a literal cuck? Like his wife fucks other guys

>>126935925
The funny thing about REM is that no two fans can agree when exactly they lost the magic. I've heard cutoff arguments for just about every album in their discography. They stuck around a long time and changed a lot over the years but it was very gradual and mostly subtle, which makes it hard for people who want something to blame to find any one album or event to place it on.

>>126940749
Yeah, I'd say these are the ones I've typically seen over the years:

>Most common
They had ups and downs but fell off after Bill Berry left, so their last good album was New Adventures in Hi Fi
>Pretty common
Everything after Automatic was a step down
>Less common
Everything after Green was a step down
>Very uncommon
Everything after Document, Green was sellout album
>Purist
Document was a sellout album
>Ultra Purist
Fables was a step down and they never recovered

...and everything in-between, but those are the opinions I see the most often. I've almost NEVER seen a fan talk bad on their first two albums though.

>>126940358
It's not just you, they are not an album's band, their most consistent are Murmur and Green

>>126940790
>Fables was a step down and they never recovered
these r the dumbest as shit bc Fables is much more consistent than reckoning and has one of their best songs ever, I unironically think Lifes Rich Pagaent is the step down

>>126935886
It was a big deal for them to make a real rock record again because they wanted something new and electric that they could play on tour, something they hadn’t done in 5 years at that point. In the meantime they made Out of Time and Automatic, albums with lots of mandolins, harpsichord, pianos, strings, and assorted acoustic music. Bill in particular thought they had gotten rusty and wanted to be a live band again, which is what lead to them making a heavy album by their standards as much as the grunge scene around them. And I think he made the right call.

>>126940358
Yes. It's just you.

good album imo

>>126935925
filtered pleb. Out of Time was their most soulful album

>>126940358
their best album is unironically In Time: The Best of 1988-2003

>>126940790
>I've almost NEVER seen a fan talk bad on their first two albums though.
i think Reckoning is a serious step down from Murmur. i do enjoy a bunch of their other albums though

R.E.M. was my favourite band for years as a teen. in my 30's now and stopped listening to them but did a run of their discography recently

still enjoyed:
>Murmur
>Document
>Green
>Out of Time
>Automatic for the People

didn't mind:
>New Adventures in Hi-Fi
>Reveal

hated the rest basically

>>126941875
lmao

>>126941935
you were never a true fan for having such abysmal takes, it was your favorite sense in the same way imagine dragons is any npc favorite band

>>126942114
favorite band*

Harborcoat is by far their best song and perhaps the best song ever, that shit is immaculate

>>126935852 (OP)
I have seen multiple copies of this fucking album and the other rem album in every flea market or thrift store CD collection

>>126942114
>le hecking TRVE in 2025
go to bed unc

>>126935852 (OP)
>Starts playing stadiums
>Buys bigger amps and PAs
>Turns into stadium rock
a tale as old as time

>>126942114
oh yeah i bought everyone one of their CD's because i passively enjoyed them. also there's literally nothing wrong with my takes faggot. except for the fact i left out Reckoning and Life's Rich Pageant, it's pretty standard.

>>126940790
They were generally really good even when Bill left they did Up which is really interesting. Yeah its overload and a bit dull at times but still really ambitious dense interesting headphones music for them.

Reveal I think even had some reslly good catchy pop songs. In my opinion that was when they dropped off. It was like they forgot how to write anything decent after that. Can prob have a compilation of anything half decent after Reveal and that's about it.

>>126942863
Reckoning is better than half their albums. Life's rich pageant is overrated but there's still brilliant shit on it like "underneath the bunker" and the "flowers of guatemala" is one of the most beautiful songs they've ever done and no one mentions it

>>126941935
>favourite
Found the problem right there

Some very underrated REM songs

Saturn Return
Flowers if Guatemala
Harborcoat
Texarkana
You
Sweetness follows
Feeling gravitys pull

Michael also had a beautiful voice at times. Love this band fuck the haters

>>126943215
i think Driver 8 is one of their best songs

>>126943215
Out of Time has Texarkana and Country Feedback tho