Turning away from the sweet pop of Out of Time, R.E.M. created a haunting, melancholy masterpiece with Automatic for the People. At its core, the album is a collection of folk songs about aging, death, and loss, but the music has a grand, epic sweep provided by layers of lush strings, interweaving acoustic instruments, and shimmering keyboards. ...
In contrast to the directness of Green and Document, this may seem like a return to the abstractness of the early years, but that isn't the case. Out of Time is among R.E.M.'s best work -- a mature, balanced, graceful collection of pop songs quite different from Murmur and Reckoning. Buck, Berry, and Mills switch instruments frequently, keeping ...
Recorded during and immediately following R.E.M.'s disaster-prone Monster tour, New Adventures in Hi-Fi feels like it was recorded on the road. Not only are all of Michael Stipe's lyrics on the album about moving or travel, the sound is ragged and varied, pieced together from tapes recorded at shows, soundtracks, and studios, giving it a loose, ...
Fables of the Reconstruction was intentionally murky, and Lifes Rich Pageant was constructed as its polar opposite. Teaming with producer Don Gehman, who previously worked with John Mellencamp, R.E.M. developed their most forceful record to date. Where previous records kept the rhythm section in the background, Pageant emphasizes the beat, and the ...
For their third album, R.E.M. made a conscious effort to break from the traditions Murmur and Reckoning established, electing to record in England with legendary folk-rock producer Joe Boyd. For a variety of reasons, the sessions were difficult, and that tension is apparent throughout Fables of the Reconstruction. A dark, moody rumination on ...
Jock Jams includes a full dozen of the best arena rock anthems of all time, including original versions of "Get Ready for This," "Whoomp! (There It Is)," "It Takes Two," "Gonna Make You Sweat," "Pump Up the Volume," "Y.M.C.A.," and "The Power." Unfortunately, the ultimate stadium exciter of all time -- "Jump" by the Movement -- is nowhere to be ...
Monster is indeed R.E.M.'s long-promised "rock" album; it just doesn't rock in the way one might expect. Instead of R.E.M.'s trademark anthemic bashers, Monster offers a set of murky sludge, powered by the heavily distorted and delayed guitar of Peter Buck. Michael Stipe's vocals have been pushed to the back of the mix, along with Bill Berry's ...
Totally Hits, Vol. 2 collects more chart-topping singles, including Santana's "Maria Maria," Whitney Houston's "My Love Is Your Love," TLC's "Unpretty," Sugar Ray's "Falls Apart," and Sarah McLachlan's "I Will Remember You." Songs from Missy Elliot, LFO, 'N Sync, Lou Bega, and Christina Aguilera complete this entertaining but somewhat scattered ...
Friends successfully targets the same demographic of the television show -- twentysomethings that have grown too old for the noise and clutter of college life, yet reluctant to give up the commraderie (and, indeed, friendship) that stress creates. So, it's a collection of '80s college rock favorites (R.E.M., Paul Westerberg), '80s college rock ...
Basically a singles collection from R.E.M.'s first five albums, Eponymous gives the listener a sense of the band's change from folk-rock to rock. The songs are intelligently selected, distilling most of the best moments from their first five albums for IRS. Included is the original single of "Radio Free Europe," and different mixes of "Gardening ...
The second LP of R.E.M. Mach II (post-Bill Berry) finds the 21-year vets exploring more of Up's sensual cosmos, only via their directly-melodic, early '90s writing. Like a warmer, more rainy version of their 1991 breakthrough smash LP Out of Time, the trio with hand-picked permanent guests seems totally inspired by the chamber-spiritual, ...
Leaving behind the garagey jangle pop of their first recordings, R.E.M. developed a strangely subdued variation of their trademark sound for their full-length debut album, Murmur. Heightening the enigmatic tendencies of Chronic Town by de-emphasizing the backbeat and accentuating the ambience of the ringing guitar, R.E.M. created a distinctive ...
David Letterman's The Late Show always had a long tradition of excellent musical performances -- indeed, it's one of the few places on American network television where live music thrives -- so the question that surrounds the 1997 release of Live on Letterman: Music from the Late Show isn't why, but why did it take so long? There have been enough ...
Arriving mere months before Document took the group into the Top Ten, the B-sides and rarities collection Dead Letter Office sums up all of the quirks and idiosyncrasies that made R.E.M. the leading underground guitar pop band of the '80s. While only a handful of songs on Dead Letter Office rank among the group's best, the record is extremely ...
R.E.M. abandoned the enigmatic post-punk experiments of Murmur for their second album, Reckoning, returning to their garage pop origins instead. Opening with the ringing "Harborcoat," Reckoning runs through a set of ten jangle pop songs that are different not only in sound but in style from the debut. Where Murmur was enigmatic in its sound, ...
A very pretty song about falling in love with more or less the wrong person, but making the best of it. Michael Stipe's vocals are more than usually impassioned for this one, and the music is lovely. Tossed in for good measure are three further tracks from the November 1992 performance for Greenpeace, this time featuring "Drive," a cover of Iggy ...
An incoherent tribute to Leonard Cohen, I'm Your Fan contains some fine versions of some of his best songs, but too often these renditions are half-hearted. Of particular interest are R.E.M.'s "First We'll Take Manhattan" and The Pixies' "I Can't Forget." ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
It's hardly as if R.E.M.'s glory days of the '80s haven't been compiled before -- just after they left I.R.S. for Warner, the Eponymous collection appeared in 1988, and over the years more collections have appeared in both domestic and foreign markets -- but 2006's And I Feel Fine...: The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 is the first collection ...
It's hardly as if R.E.M.'s glory days of the '80s haven't been compiled before -- just after they left I.R.S. for Warner, the Eponymous collection appeared in 1988, and over the years more collections have appeared in both domestic and foreign markets -- but 2006's And I Feel Fine...: The Best of the I.R.S. Years 1982-1987 is the first collection ...
R.E.M. abandoned the enigmatic post-punk experiments of Murmur for their second album, Reckoning, returning to their garage pop origins instead. Opening with the ringing "Harborcoat," Reckoning runs through a set of ten jangle pop songs that are different not only in sound but in style from the debut. Where Murmur was enigmatic in its sound, ...
Roky Erickson often seems to be better known in rock circles for his well publicized psychological maladies and his less-than-gentle treatment at the hands of Texas' judicial system than for his music -- and that's a shame. While Roky's habit of informing anyone who asks that he's a Martian or is in contact with Satan makes for good fanzine copy, ...
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Don't You Know Who I Think I Was?: The Best of the Replacements
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