R.E.M. (1981-1985)

Left-click [HERE] to download the R.E.M. (1981-1985) mix.

TRACKLIST >>>

01 radio free europe [hib-tone single]
02 pilgrimage
03 green grow the rushes
04 can’t get there from here
05 laughing
06 (don’t go back to) rockville
07 west of the fields
08 harborcoat
09 maps and legends
10 driver 8
11 southern central rain (i’m sorry)
12 pretty persuasion
13 sitting still
14 shaking through
15 wendell gee
16 white tornado
17 crazy
18 ages of you
19 femme fatale
20 wolves, lower
21 gardening at night
22 carnival of sorts (box cars)

R.E.M.

R.E.M. on WIKIPEDIA.

From the LP MURMUR, 1983 [2008 remaster] >>>
[MP3] "Radio Free Europe"
[MP3] "Shaking Through"
[MP3] "Sitting Still"
[MP3] "West of the Fields"

R.E.M. - PART 4

Looking back from here, I'm surprised to find that I'm feeling more affection for MONSTER than for NEW ADVENTURES IN HI-FI. The latter is the "deeper" disc, with a decidedly wider sonic range. But the former is, frankly, more fun.

N.A.I.H.-F. suffers from some clunky and/or generic rockers ("Undertow," "Binky the Doormat," "Low Desert"), a rather bland folk number ("New Test Leper"), and a highly unexceptional ballad ("Be Mine"). Granted, I'm hard-pressed to find anything positive to say about "King of Comedy"; "Strange Currencies" is essentially "Everybody Hurts, Part 2"; and "I Took Your Name" and "Crush With Eyeliner" sound rather lazily alike. But I'm willing to forgive MONSTER its trespasses. (Hell, I'm even quite fond of the orange packaging and the rather adorably dumb 'n' fuzzy bear-head cover. But that's just me....)

R.E.M. on WIKIPEDIA.

From the LP MONSTER, 1994 >>>
[MP3] [VID] "Star 69"
[MP3] "Let Me In"
[MP3] "I Took Your Name"

From the LP NEW ADVENTURES IN HI-FI, 1996 >>>
[MP3] [VID] "E-Bow the Letter" [w/PATTI SMITH]
[MP3] "Leave"
[MP3] [VID] "Electrolite"

R.E.M. - PART 3

I guess we'll go ahead and take this series up to BILL BERRY's departure. This, then, shall serve as the penultimate installment.

(FYI: Senor STIPE wrote the lyrics to "Me in Honey" as a male-centric response to NATALIE MERCHANT's "Eat for Two." He also joined Ms. Merchant on the bridge of "A Campfire Song." Why the latter was mixed/mastered at such a low volume has always puzzled/annoyed me.)

From the LP OUT OF TIME, 1991 >>>
[MP3] "Me in Honey" [w/KATE PIERSON]
[MP3] "Texarkana"
[MP3] "Belong"

From the LP AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE, 1992 >>>
[MP3] "Monty Got a Raw Deal"
[MP3] "Find the River"

BONUS TRACKS >>>

[MP3] 10,000 MANIACS/"Eat for Two" [1989]

[MP3] 10,000 MANIACS [w/MICHAEL STIPE]/"A Campfire Song" [1987]

R.E.M. - PART 2

R.E.M. on WIKIPEDIA.

From the LP LIFES RICH PAGEANT, 1986 >>>
[MP3] "Fall on Me"
[MP3] "Superman"
[MP3] "I Believe"

From the LP DOCUMENT, 1987 >>>
[MP3] "Welcome to the Occupation"
[MP3] "Strange"

From the LP GREEN, 1988 >>>
[MP3] "Orange Crush"
[MP3] "World Leader Pretend"

R.E.M. - PART 1

R.E.M.'s new LP, ACCELERATE, comes out this Tuesday in the U.S. I've already gone and expressed my sadness and disappointment [HERE]. It occurs to me now: The truly troubling thing is that the band made most, if not all, of the adjustments that I (and most fans and critics) thought they absolutely had to make in order to reinvigorate their sound, yet they still produced a largely lackluster and leaden effort. !Ay chihuahua!

(Of course, not all critics are finding it "lackluster" and/or "leaden," as I see that both Rolling Stone and Entertainment Weekly are raving. "Raving mad," methinks.)

Late Thursday night, I found myself compelled by coffee & crankiness to pop MURMUR into the player, strap on my trusty Grado 60s, and crank the volume to a level that's slowly-but-surely eroding my ability to hear high frequencies. Sure enough, the band's debut album still sounded fresh, vital, and new -- even 25 years after its release. And it's not as though I wanted the new disc to sound like MURMUR (or LIFES RICH PAGEANT or AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE, for that matter); I just wanted some semblance of the inspired communion of songwriting and performance that had elevated those records to classic status. Too much to ask for? Guess so.

(But enough with the bitching. Honestly, enough already.)

Now... you may need to crank the volume a bit on these early-career cuts, but methinks them well worth the effort....

From the Hib-Tone single, 1981 >>>
[MP3] "Radio Free Europe"

From the EP CHRONIC TOWN, 1982 >>>
[MP3] "Wolves, Lower"
[MP3] "Carnival of Sorts (Box Cars)"

From the LP MURMUR, 1983 >>>
[MP3] "Sitting Still"
[MP3] "Shaking Through"

From the LP RECKONING, 1984 >>>
[MP3] "So. Central Rain"
[MP3] "Pretty Persuasion"

From the LP FABLES OF THE RECONSTRUCTION, 1985 >>>
[MP3] "Green Grow the Rushes"
[MP3] "Wendell Gee"

R.E.M.

Not so much a leak as a dam-break on this one....

Unfortunately, it's "much ado...," as I had feared.

Okay, look. I'm not one of those hardcore, protectionist R.E.M.-bassadors who bought CHRONIC TOWN the day it came out and started shouting "sellouts!" circa LIFES RICH PAGEANT. Like a lot of people, I didn't truly "find" the band until the one-two punch of OUT OF TIME and AUTOMATIC FOR THE PEOPLE. "Losing My Religion" "Drive," and "Man on the Moon" were crucial marking posts, to be sure -- but, ultimately, no more so than "Belong," "Texarkana," "Monty Got a Raw Deal," or "Find the River."

It was during this time period that I "borrowed" a hated college roommate's copy of EPONYMOUS and -- armed with a cheap-but-sonically-pristine pair of headphones -- began to delve into the band's lauded back-catalogue. This was a revelatory listen. From the sheer kinetic energy of "Radio Free Europe" and "It's the End of the World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" to MIKE MILLS' indispensable counterpoint vocals on "The One I Love," "So. Central Rain" and "Fall on Me," I was transfixed in a way that I hadn't been since my 13-year-old ears first achieved aural orgasm with DEF LEPPARD's PYROMANIA (and wouldn't be again until my 27-year-old ears found deep-and-lasting love with OK COMPUTER).

So... MONSTER was the first R.EM. album I purchased on the day of its release, and I've managed to maintain the tradition ever since. But with increasing difficulty, post-BILL BERRY. 2004's AROUND THE SUN, in particular, plunged me into a deep, dark pit of despair. The songs were largely lifeless. Incessantly mid-tempo. Muzak too sluggish to accompany supermarket shopping. Muzak just sprightly enough to drive in-chair aerobics at the old folks' home. Mercy, mercy me.

It seemed quite clear that, if R.E.M. were ever going to mount anything even resembling a career-kickstarting comeback, certain changes would have to be made. For starters, producer Pat McCarthy would have to be jettisoned -- not for professional incompetence, but because Buck, Mills, and Stipe had become too comfortable with him (as they'd become too comfortable with Scott Litt before him). Next, they'd need to pick up the pace. On stage, they continued to prove themselves capable of kicking ass. In the studio, a sort of inescapable, blanket lethargy seemed to descend upon them. Perhaps a listen to "Gardening at Night," "Pretty Persuasion," "Can't Get There From Here," or even "Star 69" would serve as an instructive reminder that speed kills (and that, in rock 'n' roll, that's a good thing).

Last but not least, Mike Mills' musical role would have to be re-thought. For years, the man had been straying from his bass -- the instrument that had grounded the band from the get-go, freeing PETER BUCK to develop his unique, circular, no-solo guitar style. Too often of late, Mills seemed satisfied to sequester himself behind a piano (where his melodies tended to be generically pretty) or some vintage synthesizer that Buck had picked up on his restless-leg travels (the last three R.E.M. records are hopelessly clogged with energy-deadening keyboard fills & folderal). Finally, Stipe would have to take the muzzle off Mills and let the man sing a little. Mills' "sunny" tenor had always served as perfect foil for Stipe's sometimes-whiny/sometimes-gravelly baritone. Their vocal interplay -- as much as Buck's arpeggios and Mills' melodic basslines -- was a signature of early-to-mid-career R.E.M., and it was long-past-due that they rediscover it.

Which brings us, finally, to ACCELERATE -- the long-promised, would-be return-to-form. The context seemed promising. A new producer (Jacknife Lee) had been brought on board to keep the ship from slipping instinctively into safe harbors. The songs are faster (and shorter) -- many clocking in at under three minutes. Buck plays guitar! Mills plays bass! Stipe sings! And so does Mills! There's a rough-edged energy to the thing. It feels off-the-cuff; thrown-together -- not over-produced; over-arranged; over-thought; over before it even began. Yet: It falls flat. It still feels generic, somehow. There's heat but no light. In the end, in its own way, it's a collection of songs no more noteworthy or distinguished than AROUND THE SUN's. (And you have no idea how much it pains me to say that.)

Lead single "Supernatural Superserious" provides a pretty good case-in-point. It's a catchy little thing, and -- sure enough -- there's Mike Mills, on cue, singing high & striving on the chorus, just as in olden days. But that ends up being the problem. It's the dreaded Copy-of-a-Copy Syndrome. Diminishing returns -- despite all best efforts and intentions -- are inevitable. (See/hear "Leaving New York," "Imitation of Life," and "Daysleeper" for further proof/evidence of this decade-long trend.)

Elsewhere on the new record, opening one-two "Living Well is the Best Revenge" and "Man-Sized Wreath" have the feel of NEW ADVENTURES IN HI-FI rockers like "The Wake-Up Bomb" and "Departure." They're serviceable, sure -- but, ultimately, forgettable. Fact is, R.E.M. have never been particularly adept at the "gritty" thing. They'd do well to surrender that territory to PEARL JAM once and for all and just get on with it.

"Hollow Man" starts out as a bad ballad before loping into a bad GOO GOO DOLLS/COUNTING CROWS chorus. "Until the Day is Done" is musically by-the-numbers and lyrically on-the-nose. Funny how much more effective Stipe's political testaments were when presented as oblique allegory or inscrutable haiku ("Talk About the Passion," "Green Grow the Rushes," "Cuyahoga," "Disturbance at the Heron House"). "Mr. Richards" is a lazy guitar rewrite of UP's swirling electronic dervish "Hope." And closer "I'm Gonna DJ" should have remained a live-performance-only rave-up. Committed to disc, it sounds canned & mechanical (& absolutely no fun at all; "Superman," where are you?).

So that's that. As I've been writing this, I've found myself feeling more angry than sad -- though the sadness will come. Should I feel the need, I still have the sanctuary of that lauded R.E.M. back-catalogue to retreat to. And it's not as if ACCELERATE is the worst highly-anticipated album I've heard this year (not so long as BOB MOULD and THE BREEDERS are around). In the end, it's all about unreasonable expectations, I guess. The impossibility of being young again. Of turning back the clock, popping EPONYMOUS into the player, strapping on the cheap-but-sonically-pristine pair of headphones, and discovering something utterly new that delights and surprises at every tuck and turn. R.E.M.'s 14th album, ACCELERATE, alas, possesses no such transformative magic. Shame on me for wanting so desperately to believe that it might.

[MP3] "Horse to Water"

[MP3] "Sing for the Submarine"

R.E.M.

A six-pack of b-sides/rarities from R.E.M., whose new LP, ACCELERATE, will drop April 1. Let's hope the joke's not on us. They are, after all, loooooong overdue for a solid song-cycle....

[MP3] "Draggin' the Line" [TOMMY JAMES & THE SHONDELLS cover]

[MP3] "First We Take Manhattan" [LEONARD COHEN cover]

[MP3] "All the Right Friends"

[MP3] "Fretless"

[MP3] "Yellow River" [CHRISTIE cover]

[MP3] "Wall of Death" [RICHARD THOMPSON cover]

01.20.09

And R.E.M. thought we were "Bushwacked" back in '92.... If only they'd known....

[VID] GEORGE W./"It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)"

TONY BLAIR

Adios, Tony.

[MP3] CHUMBAWAMBA/"Tony Blair"

BONUS TRACKS >>>

[MP3] HEFNER/"The Day That Thatcher Dies"

[MP3] WHIRLWIND HEAT/"Reagan"

[MP3] JARVIS COCKER/"(Cunts Are Still) Running the World"

[MP3] R.E.M./"World Leader Pretend"