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Post by Tea Rex on Mar 15, 2017 12:20:15 GMT -5
Nudeviking - WOOOO and thanks for playing along! And, also, thanks for introducing me to the Pianosaurus. That does look like the most awesome of all dinosaur intruments, though perhaps Tea Rex knows of others. *pop!* That is all. *pop!*
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Post by Meth Lab Shenanigans on Mar 15, 2017 14:25:12 GMT -5
Oddfellows is one of their all-time best closers, and Disturbance at the Heron House is one of their best deep cuts.
Green really perfected "pop REM." Stand, Get Up, Orange Crush, Turn You Inside Out - all fantastic.
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 15, 2017 16:33:26 GMT -5
Nudeviking - WOOOO and thanks for playing along! And, also, thanks for introducing me to the Pianosaurus. That does look like the most awesome of all dinosaur intruments, though perhaps Tea Rex knows of others. *pop!* That is all. *pop!* Well it's pretty hard not to say this wins...
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 18, 2017 10:43:51 GMT -5
Out Of Time (1991) The really big time! The album that took R.E.M. from being a hugely successful cult act to legitimate mainstream success. The album, essentially, that made them the band they’re remembered for being today. If I’m To Be A Camera: A vast, chunky, canary-yellow logo blots out almost the whole of the cover, imposed over a sick-looking, plastic-wrapped sea, suggesting the toxic apocalypse of “I Remember California” has come to pass. On the back cover there’s an apparently-hand-drawn line from a backgammon board, and two startling innovations. One is a photo of the band that doesn’t make them look insane (indeed if you were to choose one image that screams “early 90’s alternative rock” it might well be this one), and a track listing which is both accurate and complete. Astonishing. On the inside we have the most extensive list of participants on an album yet – by quite some distance – a few social relevancy cartoons, some vaguely environmental pictures, and a black-and-white version of the cover photo, but without the ugly logo. When You Tire Of One Side: Time and Memory, invoking the sense of loss the album is absolutely drenched in, as well as the album’s packaging. Pre-existing Prejudices: The album I got into R.E.M. through so, good or bad, it’s all Out Of Time’s fault. I’ve listened to this a bajillion times (and then some), and it used to be the album of choice at university for long, late-night drives round the south of England, going absolutely nowhere and talking complete pseudo-profound bullshit, as is the wont of all arts students. As with Green I can’t honestly remember the last time I sat and listened to it from beginning to end. Songs: “Radio Song” The apocalyptic feel of Green is immediately followed up by the opening (sung) line “the world is collapsing around our ears”. Terrific little Peter Buck guitar line. The lyric is reaching for something in the vein of Elvis Costello’s “Radio Radio”. It almost gets there, then can’t quite make it, so it’s obviously an anti-radio rant but it doesn’t quite stick the landing. Rent-a-rapper KRS-1 is all over this, to fairly limited effect, though having a rapper is certainly an R.E.M. first (his best moment is the “what are you saying / what are you playing” at the song’s end, though there’s not a lot of competition, and it’s achingly sincere). Every time we cut back to the opening guitar riff the song comes alive – every time Michael “raps” it doesn’t. Lush strings give a much richer feel and noticeably different tone to the last album. “Losing My Religion” Yeah, it’s that song. The absolute, quintessential R.E.M. song, and with good reason – for all that it’s been over-played and over-exposed, it’s still a song that can pack a punch. Sophisticated, balanced lyric balanced with a heartfelt Stipe performance, one of his finest. Though as ever with the big hits lets not under-estimate the rest of the band – Peter Buck’s essential mandolin line, Mike’s backing vocals on the chorus, Bill’s perfect percussion (even the hand-claps are perfect). It’s so obvious to praise “Losing My Religion” but it really deserves it. That instrumental break, with the cello underscore after the first “that was just a dream” is simply beautiful and very emotive, and the mandolin line at the end concludes everything in the best way possible. R.E.M.’s defining moment. “Low” Slow, dirge-like meditation, and very dark. Driven primarily by bass and organ. A masterpiece of production – all praise to Scott Litt, who’s the stand-out on this track. Michael’s vocal is incredibly restrained and fatigued – even when he sings “I’ve been so happy / happy” he sighs it out with the weight of the world on every breath. Bill’s on bongos, which ought to be terrible but isn’t. The burst of passion about two-thirds of the way through – “you and me / we know about time“ – works because everything else has been so restrained. In contrast to the maybe-more-expected ending on the uncertainty of a 7th chord, here the minor chords resolve on to an unexpected major and it’s like a little ray of sunshine. Really rather wonderful, and unjustly forgotten. “Near Wild Heaven” Mike gets a lead vocal! Much more traditionally-constructed R.E.M. song – standard Bill drums, standard-picked Peter guitar line – but with Mike doing the Michael bits and Michael doing the Mike bits. It’s a nice idea, and it’s great to hear Mike come to the front for once. The actual song is pretty by-the-numbers, but it’s got upbeat music with a pretty downbeat lyric – “not near enough” – a simple but remarkably successful conceit. “Endgame” Not-quite-an-instrumental track, with the musical three-quarters of the band putting together a rather subdued, rather melancholy track while Michael provides a melody over the top by just singing “ba-da-la-da-da-da” without any lyric. More praise for the production here. There’s never quite been an R.E.M. song like this before, and there wont be again, yet this is a surprisingly successful little experiment to close out the first side of the album. “Shiny Happy People” Fine, we had to get here eventually I suppose… But you know what, “Shiny Happy People” doesn’t entirely suck. I mean, for one there’s The B-52’s Kate Pierson on backing vocals and that cannot be anything other than fantastic. Yes, this is a less-good version of “Stand”, obviously, and yes it’s ridiculously over-sincere, but there’s at least a little more ambition to it – the “shiny happy people” three-part chorus with Mike, Michael and Kate is way more sophisticated than anything on “Stand”, as is the 3/4 time introduction and instrumental break. There’s some real joy during the final “shiny happy people holding…” as well, which helps, and significantly, it’s a song that works much, much better as an album track rather than as an inescapable single, stopping Out Of Time becoming too dark or self-indulgent. Kate singing “people! Happy people!” just before the fade out makes up for almost everything. “Belong” Largely spoken-work, faintly apocalyptic lyric from Michael also not like anything we’ve had on an R.E.M. song before, which is becoming a bit of a theme on Out Of Time. Peter and Mike’s song – Mike’s bass is of special note here, simple and sparse yet just what the song needs (needless to say, exceptional backing vocals as well), and Peter’s guitar line is the ideal accompaniment. Understated, but quietly successful. “Half A World Away” Mandolin, harpsichord (!) and organ work-out. Feels a little like a Green hold-over, at least in part because of the almost complete absence of percussion, and it’s produced noticeably less lushly than the rest of the album. Jaded, exhausted lyric and vocal is effective in evoking a mood, but it’s just a little over-done, more teenager-in-bedroom than grown-up-regret. “My hand’s tired / my heart aches” sounds more like someone who’s fed up with jerking off rather than someone suffering real heartbreak. Not bad, but needs more. “Texarkana” Mike’s second lead vocal of the album! Wooo! Go Mike! Faintly country feel, re-enforced with some slide guitar. Uses a similar “upbeat music / downbeat lyric” conceit that “Near Wild Heaven” did, and Michael’s returned to backing vocals duty – his stand-out is the “all alone / waiting to fall” over the instrumental break. Possibly a good indicator of why Mike Mills might be the best backing vocalist in rock music but isn’t natural front-man material. Good, not great, and a fairly standard album track, when all is said and done. “Country Feedback” Slow, drawled count-in. Embraces the full potential of the dirge. Astoundingly good lyric from Michael, incredibly evocative, and his most emotional and powerful vocal on the album. Peter’s rarely done better on guitar, with the song based round a simple circular guitar riff, but layered with feedback guitars, slide guitars, lead guitars… amazing. Bill’s marking time just where he should be, and Mike’s bass simple and just what the song needs. Michael’s agonized “crazy what you could have had” shrieking towards the end is a career highlight. Beyond brilliant. “Me In Honey” Kate’s back on vocals, and what a joy they are to hear. Simple, dropped-D guitar line on the verse gives Michael and Kate a chance to stretch their pipes one after the other, until they come together on the chorus – “left me to love”. Rather charming in places “say you’re sweet for me” and a refreshing change from the more emotionally-heavyweight last few songs, even though this lyric – a father wanting to know his role in the life of his baby – still has emotional resonance. This song belongs to Michael and Kate, and her closing, spiralling vocal ends the song, and the album, wonderfully. In Conclusion: Perhaps it’s a bit unfair to say that Out Of Time is “ Green done right”, but that’s also essentially what it is. Gone is the uncertainty of direction that made Green feel just a little bit like parts left over from the previous two or three albums, and instead Out Of Time strikes out firmly along its own path. It’s a more meditative, inward path, and Out Of Time is obviously lacking the political, social and environmental concerns of the previous three albums, instead going for something much more personal. That’s not to say that everything from the past has been left behind, far from it – the initial mandolin workouts from Green have been substantially expanded here to include a variety of instruments unusual in a mainstream rock album, including harpsichord and organ, building on what's been tried before but not beholden to it. But here they’re welded to more traditional song structures, and the results are something pretty special. Of course, the defining song in this discussion is “Losing My Religion”, a traditional R.E.M. song infused with the lessons learned from the last album, so the lead melody line is on the mandolin rather than guitar which makes it just that little bit different, the lyric is intimate rather than social or political, and the passions are inward-looking. Given the titanic success of the song it’s hard to claim this as anything other than a complete vindication of this approach, but it’s not the only song to benefit from taking unusual approaches. “Low”, for example, expands on Green’s tendency towards different song structures to terrific effect, as does “Country Feedback”, and as noted in the individual track reviews, there’s quite a few “well they’ve never tried that before” moments on this album that really show the band pushing themselves in interesting new creative directions. The other area Out Of Time deserves real credit for is in its production, which provides a unity of sound across the album without everything just ending up sounding the same. Again lessons have been learned from Green, so though there was some attempts on that album to try and vary the sound, the results tended to be either this-or-that – slow, largely acoustic work-throughs or sonic assaults, but with nothing really in-between, so the album was left feeling a bit schizophrenic. Here the production works much closer with the material – yes, the strings are noticeably more lush and expressive, but they work to support the material better and they’re only deployed where there’re needed, so Scott Litt deserves real praise for what he achieves. Sometimes it’s big moments, like the sweeping strings of “Texarkana”, sometimes it’s a tiny moment like the cello underscore on “Losing My Religion”, and sometimes it’s knowing not to add anything at all (“Country Feedback”). But even when an individual song isn’t perfect (“Radio Song”, “Texarkana” again), the production is never less than stellar. The sequencing, too, seems to have been given more thought, so tracks really flow from one to another to provide a whole that’s greater than the sum of its parts – as distinct from Green again, though both Lifes Rich Pageant and Document do this extremely well – so where Green struggled to end on an upbeat note with “Untitled”, Out Of Time’s better thought-through sequencing allows “Me In Honey” to end the album on that somewhat more positive note, because it doesn’t have five sonically identical songs preceding it to try and overcome (of course you could argue that “Me In Honey” is a better song than “Untitled” as well, and you would be correct). Not every one of the experiments tried on Out Of Time is a straight-up success though. “Radio Song”’s failings are pretty straightforward and easy to explain – the verses need a proper melody, the lyric needs a polish – yet tying a fairly standard R.E.M. song to something like a guest vocalist at least demonstrates some ambition, even if it’s not quite the triumph it could have been. Similarly the one area where Out Of Time is obviously weaker than Green is in the “Stand” / “Shiny Happy People” comparison, because there’s no question that “Shiny Happy People” is an attempt to out-“Stand” “Stand” and it doesn’t work. It’s not nearly as wretched as its reputation, and bringing in another guest vocalist in the shape of Kate Pierson does go some way to redeeming it, but where “Stand” was fresh-faced and genuine in it’s exhortations to understand the world around you, “Shiny Happy People” feels a bit… forced. It’s just trying too hard, and as such doesn’t come across as genuine. Yet despite these (far from fatal) missteps, Out Of Time deserves a strong, robust reputation. Better than the album that precedes it (by some distance, in fact), and a good indicator of what’s to follow, it’s an album that shows a band still questing out new directions and approaches to their music and refusing to rest on their laurels or fall back on what’s worked before, even as the big time beckons. Nice name, too. Best Song: I’m supposed to say “Losing My Religion”, right? But it’s not, it’s “Country Feedback” Worst Song: Oh, go on then. “Shiny Happy People”.
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Post by Deleted on Mar 18, 2017 11:36:18 GMT -5
I will never not laugh that one of the working titles of this album was Cat Butt. Almost as great: Alone In My Urine for what became Up.
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Dellarigg
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Post by Dellarigg on Mar 18, 2017 12:03:04 GMT -5
I never really minded Shiny Happy People. Every time it comes on I think, maybe now I'll be sick of it and feel the way everybody else seems to, but no - the backing vocal is obviously great, and the guitar part is also really catchy. The melody of the verses is really good. In fact, I think it can only be the words 'shiny happy people' that people object to. Overall, this feels slightly overshadowed by what's coming next, but it's still a great, great album. I'm going for Texarkana and Me In Honey as the best tracks.
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Invisible Goat
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Post by Invisible Goat on Mar 18, 2017 12:32:47 GMT -5
As I said earlier in this thread this album and AFTP were basically my introduction to music so it is hard to overstate how important it is to me. Even back then I preferred the latter to this one but it's still so so good.
It's easy to forget how stunning of a song "Losing My Religion" is because it was and is so ubiquitous. I said after the Document review that I had heard "The One I Love" enough to last two lifetimes, but I've heard "Religion" probably even more and even now if I catch it over a grocery store PA or something I will try to block out the background din to focus on it, it's just so good.
"Belong" is a really underrated track for me, thought not surprising since it's so weird. That bassline is fucking sick. And I love the vaguely creepy but so evocative lyrics. "Those creatures jumped the barricades and headed for the sea" is given no elaboration at all but damn if that image doesn't stick with you.
What a 1-2 punch to end it too. I don't even know what to say about those last 2 songs they're so good.
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 18, 2017 12:47:48 GMT -5
I never really minded Shiny Happy People. Every time it comes on I think, maybe now I'll be sick of it and feel the way everybody else seems to, but no - the backing vocal is obviously great, and the guitar part is also really catchy. The melody of the verses is really good. In fact, I think it can only be the words 'shiny happy people' that people object to. Overall, this feels slightly overshadowed by what's coming next, but it's still a great, great album. I'm going for Texarkana and Me In Honey as the best tracks. You're not wrong about this being overshadowed by what comes next. It's a point I'll make next time out, but in a way it's a bit of a shame that Out Of Time is followed by Automatic, because it means Out Of Time gets a bit forgotten, which it really doesn't deserve to be. It's not that Automatic isn't a titanic achievement - I think it's a better album than OK Computer, which is saying something - but I'd really forgotten just how good Out Of Time is. If I'm telling the truth, I was slightly expecting to praise Green and be critical of Out Of Time and I've come out the other way round. That's... I dunno. Pleasing.
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 18, 2017 13:06:51 GMT -5
As I said earlier in this thread this album and AFTP were basically my introduction to music so it is hard to overstate how important it is to me. Even back then I preferred the latter to this one but it's still so so good. It's easy to forget how stunning of a song "Losing My Religion" is because it was and is so ubiquitous. I said after the Document review that I had heard "The One I Love" enough to last two lifetimes, but I've heard "Religion" probably even more and even now if I catch it over a grocery store PA or something I will try to block out the background din to focus on it, it's just so good. "Belong" is a really underrated track for me, thought not surprising since it's so weird. That bassline is fucking sick. And I love the vaguely creepy but so evocative lyrics. "Those creatures jumped the barricades and headed for the sea" is given no elaboration at all but damn if that image doesn't stick with you. What a 1-2 punch to end it too. I don't even know what to say about those last 2 songs they're so good. Cannot agree with you enough about "Belong", I'm listening to it again right now as I type this. "These barricades can only hold for so long," is such an amazing lyric, yet almost childishly simple. It's the fact there's no elaboration on it that really makes it work - it's almost impressionistic. And Mikey on backing vocals! Definitely under-rated. It's so difficult to write about "Country Feedback" because I'll ll just descend into an endless stream of hyperbole and praise. When I conclude this project in addition to album rankings I'm going to do a Top Twenty individual tracks, and its not much of a spoiler to say that "Country Feedback" will be in there. Yet I'm gonna have to find something to say about it when it turns up live...
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Post by ganews on Mar 18, 2017 15:31:32 GMT -5
Out of Time was one of my very earliest cassette purchases, or at least one of the first cassettes I owned. And yet it is easily my least-favorite R.E.M. album covered so far, certainly the one I am least likely to listen to. Part of that will be due to "Radio Song" which I have always hated. (When I saw KRS-1 on some VH1 commentary show a decade later, I thought "Oh that guy.") But I still like "Shiny Happy People" fine. I wouldn't have been listening to contemporary radio for at least another year or two when it came out.
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 18, 2017 15:35:49 GMT -5
I am genuinely amazed not to have been attacked for semi-defending "Shiny Happy People". What is wrong with you people?
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Invisible Goat
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Post by Invisible Goat on Mar 18, 2017 15:58:50 GMT -5
I am genuinely amazed not to have been attacked for semi-defending "Shiny Happy People". What is wrong with you people? I think both that and "Radio Song" have redeeming qualities. They're still in the bottom tier of R.E.M. songs and keep it from being one of my top albums by them, but not as bad as they're made out to be.
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Post by Meth Lab Shenanigans on Mar 18, 2017 19:55:39 GMT -5
Me in Honey is one of the greatest songs ever written
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 19, 2017 7:39:15 GMT -5
Me in Honey is one of the greatest songs ever written Feel free to expand on that statement...
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Post by Nudeviking on Mar 19, 2017 20:07:37 GMT -5
Out of Time was a staple of my middle school tape deck back in the early 90s, so I'm familiar with all the songs on this album, but in the years since has kind of fallen by the wayside. Songs will still show up on shuffle from time to time, but I probably have not listened to this album in its entirety in nearly two decades. Today we're going to rectify that.
Pre-Existing Prejudices Going in I can tell you I hate "Shiny Happy People," with the intensity of a thousand suns. I know of no worse R.E.M. song.
Songs "Radio Song" Rapper KRS-One shows up on this. Why did every college radio station band in the early 90s have a famous rap dude doing guest vocals song? There was this and umm..."Kool Thing," and the Judgement Night Soundtrack. Whatever. I probably bought this album because of this song. It's more or less a decent early 90s alternarock jam with a kick ass rock organ and well deployed rock n' roll saxophones. The rapping is lame as fuck and dated sounding now, but I kind of understand why R.E.M. would want to have a rapper on a song about how terrible late 80s/early 90s radio was.
"Losing my Religion" I really disliked this song as a surly teenage jerkass due to a perceived lack of rocking. I was incorrect. This is not a mellow song at all. A metal band could easily do a straightforward cover of this with guitars and distortion instead of a mandolin and it would feel like a metal song. Maybe I just thought it was overplayed.
"Low" Congas and rock organ riffs. I kind of want to get an organ and play organ in a band. There's some strings here but they don't cause me to want to buy a viola. I mostly like this song but feel like if it could have been a minute shorter it would have been a better song.
"Near Wild Heaven" Jangle pop. Great backing vocals here including some Beach Boys style "Ooh weeee wooos," and "ba ba bah ba bas." Nothing breaking new musical ground here but it's a really solid guitar pop song.
"Endgame" This feels half finished. Like they had one good acoustic guitar melody and wanted to use it but couldn't come up with anything so they just tossed some sax and trumpets on it and placeholder "bah ba ba ba" vocals and called it a day.
"Shiny Happy People" Ug. I still really dislike this song. As a youth The B-52s were my favorite band. I'd still probably put them in my top 10 bands of all times and definitely in a top 15. Not even the Kate Pierson guest spot on this trash heap can save this. If I were to say something nice about this I guess it would be that Mike Mills and Kate Pierson work together well on vocals during the chorus.
"Belong" Weird spoken word stuff about creatures jumping a barricade to go to the sea and "Wooooah! Woah! Woah!" choruses. The instrumental stuff going on is solid, but these lyrics are kind of rubbish. Nice bass work by Mike Mills.
"Half a World Away" Is that a harpsichord? Wow, it is. I really don't remember this song at all but it's pretty good. The lyrics are a little high school girl's Myspace page circa 2005 but it's still a pretty decent harpsichord/organ/mandolin rock jam.
"Texarkana" Mike Mills is on lead here. He's a serviceable lead vocalist but a way better backing vocalist. Musically there's nothing really special going on here. There's some string section and some slide guitar but otherwise it's a basic jangly R.E.M. song.
"Country Feedback" Holy fuck is this great. This is another one that was probably lost on me in my youth when I wanted everything to be loud and fast which is a shame because this is fantastic. The vocals are outstanding on this, particularly the ending where Michael Stipe is bellowing "Crazy what you could have had."
"Me In Honey" The other Kate Pierson song. This is miles better than "Shiny Happy People," but far less memorable than that song. For as shitty as "Shiny Happy People" is there's no denying that it has a monster hook and a killer guitar lick. "Shiny Happy People," also makes better use of Kate Pierson as a guest vocalist (though both pale in comparison to her work on Iggy Pop's "Candy"). "Me In Honey," isn't bad, but it just kind of exists. As an album closer I think it's pretty mediocre. "Country Feedback," seems to me to be a far more natural choice and yet here's "Me In Honey."
Final Thoughts What a fine album. I think this album presented a more cohesive version of the sound they were going for with Green. All the disparate sounds that they were using on Green are back this time around but smoother and better implemented. For instance instead of a trio of "Hey guys I just got this mandolin. We should totally use this on the album!" song sketches we get "Losing My Religion."
It's not to say that this album is perfect. There are some duds: "Endgame" feels like a demo, "Belong" is b-side material at best, and then there's "Shiny Happy People." There's no way that any album containing such a song as that could be considered perfect, right? To be honest, I don't know anymore.
Maybe it's not you, "Shiny Happy People," but me. "Shiny Happy People," was after all one of R.E.M.'s biggest hits, being one of only four R.E.M. songs to crack the Billboard Top 10 and no one can honestly deny how much of an earworm it is. Mike Mills' backing vocals are pretty tight on it...
God what am I doing?! Let's rap this up before I decide that "Shiny Happy People," is somehow the best song ever.
Best Song: "Country Feedback" Worst Song: "Endgame"
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 20, 2017 3:28:18 GMT -5
It pleases me no end to read this. "Candy" is such a fantastic song, and indeed Brick By Brick is a pretty fine album (though I can't imagine this being a popular view). Pierson's work on that song is just out of this world, and I can't recommend it highly enough.
I like the idea that there's a lame rapper on "Radio Song" because that's what happened on crap radio songs in the early 90's and that's what the song is critiquing. I don't think it's true, but it's a lovely idea which I will be forthwith stealing.
Don't worry, Reveal will be along to show you what a really bad R.E.M. song sounds like before too long!
So say we all.
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Post by Nudeviking on Mar 20, 2017 19:11:34 GMT -5
It pleases me no end to read this. "Candy" is such a fantastic song, and indeed Brick By Brick is a pretty fine album (though I can't imagine this being a popular view). Pierson's work on that song is just out of this world, and I can't recommend it highly enough. I like the idea that there's a lame rapper on "Radio Song" because that's what happened on crap radio songs in the early 90's and that's what the song is critiquing. I don't think it's true, but it's a lovely idea which I will be forthwith stealing. Don't worry, Reveal will be along to show you what a really bad R.E.M. song sounds like before too long! So say we all. Thread hijack to talk about Iggy Pop: Brick by Brick is probably not a great album (it's been awhile since I listened to it) but because of Kate Pierson being on it it became the first Iggy Pop album I purchased and thus caused me to discover Iggy Pop and the Stooges earlier than I probably would have otherwise so I will always look fondly upon it. I do have to question my mother's parenting skills though for letting me purchase a cassette with songs titled "Butt Town" and "Pussy Power" at age 11 though.
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Post by [Citrus] on Mar 20, 2017 22:18:41 GMT -5
I was really into Out of Time and the game Carmageddon at the same time and will thus always associate it with driving over people and those people exploding into fountains of blood.
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Post by Prole Hole on Mar 21, 2017 2:02:15 GMT -5
Yea it's definitely not top tier Iggy, but after a fairly long, dry spell of nothing particularly impressive in the 80's (oh the 80's, how you destroyed so many talented musicians' abilities to write anything good) it was good to hear Iggy be fairly unrestrained. And there's a few moments which are really great. "Home" is loud rock fun, "Main Street Eyes" is thoughtful and well constructed, "Candy" is simply brilliant. And though it has a stupid name, "Butt Town" works well musically. It all falls apart a bit on the back half - "Neon Forest" isn't great, the most interesting thing about "Pussy Power" is it's name, and "LIvin' On The Edge Of The NIght" sounds like warmed-over Guns'n'Roses. But even there, the title track is pretty damned great, and "Starry Night" is really rather charming (which isn't often a word you associate with Pop). But, like you, Brick By Brick was an early gateway to Pop for me (a little older than 11 though, sadly) and so I'll always have a soft spot for it.
And it has fucking "Candy" on it! "Candy"! I can't let you go!
EDIT: I should have mentioned "I Won't Crap Out", which is a great song too. Really furious sounding Iggy.
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Post by Meth Lab Shenanigans on Mar 22, 2017 16:23:50 GMT -5
Me in Honey is one of the greatest songs ever written Feel free to expand on that statement... Apologies for taking so long: Part of what I love about REM is how they imbue midtempo pop songs recorded on fairly traditional rock instruments with an insane energy that hits me right in the gut in a way that (if I'm being honest) many cooler bands of the era don't. "Me in Honey" is REM at their most ecstatic. It occupies the same tier as "Supernatural Superserious," "Shaking Through," "Radio Free Europe," "What's the Frequency Kenneth," "I Believe," etc - songs that never fail to make me giddy when I listen to them just from the sheer energy and joy of the performance. And it's perfectly composed - the decision to add that CHKKA-CHKK CHKK percussion at the beginning of the chorus practically makes the song, and the repetition of two chords during the verse makes the gorgeous change for the "left me to love..." bit all the more powerful. It's a simple song that ends up summarizing everything that makes REM great. (I'm aware a few of the songs I listed, like Kenneth, have fairly dark lyrics, but the joy of performing the music is clear and infectious.)
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Post by Prole Hole on Apr 6, 2017 5:43:40 GMT -5
Automatic For The People (1992) This really is the one – the point where R.E.M.’s artistic progress and their critical acclaim intersect. It’s their OK Computer, their Pet Sounds, their Exile On Main Street…. the point at which everything they’ve been building towards comes together on one record. But can any album hold the weight of those expectations? And does it stand up after a quarter of a century of critical plaudits and praise? If I’m To Be A Camera: A pointy star-shaped thing, photographed in slate-grey, funereal hues, overlaid on an equally grey background. What is the pointy thing? Where is it pointing to? And at what? No answers are obvious from the cover. On the back, we have a tracklisting slanting away from the listener on top of a yellow-hued, sickly looking building. Inside we have more detailed production and appearance notes, as per Out Of Time, and more band photos than we’re used to getting as well. So, This Album In Band Photos: Mike Is Controlling Your Mind, Peter is distant, Bill embodies denim, and Michael has become a friar. When You Tire Of One Side: Drive and Ride. The active and the passive. Pre-existing Prejudices: I doubt there’s an album in existence I have listened to more than Automatic For The People (maybe Sgt. Pepper or Abbey Road). So it’s not going to be easy to write about these songs while trying to separate them from the fact that the album is practically written into my DNA at this point. Oh, and “Drive” is my favorite song. Ever. Anywhere. By anyone. Songs: “Drive” (one two three four) – Peter’s best picking bar none, Mike’s underpinning bass on the opening phrases is heavenly. Bill’s not filling in every beat, in a simple but effective move. Michael’s restrained. Hints of politics (“bush-whacked” has a clear double meaning) and the song is allegedly about support for the Motor Voter initiative, though good luck working that out from the lyric. Oh, those strings. The guitars crashing in during the middle section, fuck me that’s good. Coming out of the middle, the strings cutting back to just peter’s Picking is genius. Never has orchestration be so perfect on an R.E.M. song. Understated, overdriven guitars pushed far back in the mix really add texture… and then it all ends on the picking, squeeze box, and final notes. Yea, “Drive” is perfect. “Try Not To Breathe” Some strong character work from Michael (“these eyes are the eyes of the old”). Arguably the darkest lyric Michael has written to date, it’s very obviously about death in a way that even other contenders haven’t managed (“I shudder to breathe”). Yet the darkness isn’t self indulgent – there’s a frankness to it that really works and stops it becoming maudlin. Percussion not just drums, a nice touch that adds some texture. More understated, controlled feedback, a nice link back to “Drive”. “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite” Something of a contrast. The hints of “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” feel kind of unnecessary though. Bright, though ever so slightly forced, but that forced edge gives a slight desperation that resonates with the rest of the album more than the attempts to be cheerful or upbeat. Slightly flippant lyric. Nice to hear Michael actually crack a smile (following “or a reading from Doctor Seuss“). Structure is just a little straightforward – verse/chorus/verse and little more. A step down from the two opening numbers, and oh look it finishes on a 7th. “Everybody Hurts” Yea, the Big One from this album. But, you know, fuck the haters. This works, and it works really well. The simple, Casio percussion is something new to R.E.M. at this stage and it’s straightforward but perfectly uncluttered. Michael’s very sincere, yes, but, well he is sincere, and he sings it openly and without fear, and that stops it becoming cloying. Peter’s simple guitar picking is just as uncluttered as the percussion but that’s as it should be. Unusually Michael’s on both lead and backing vocals, there’s no Mike at all, which also makes the song feel just a little different. More powered but quiet guitars, quite the theme for the album. It’s not the most affecting song on this album (there’s some competition there), but there’s a warmth here that overcomes the obviousness of the sentiments being expressed. And that final “…soooooometimes” before the big coda with just Michael’s voice and the Casio is properly moving. Hold on, indeed. “New Orleans Instrumental No 1” A musical ellipse, of the same kind we had on Murmur and Reckoning, just a bit longer. An effective buffer between the heart-on-the-sleeve “Everybody Hurts” and the rawness of “Sweetness Follows”. Functional but effective. “Sweetness Follows” Lots of low bass strings with Peter’s acoustic over the top, a sharp contrast to the comparatively luxuriant production so far. Grinding, grating song in the same vein as “Country Feedback”. An almost optical-illusion lyric, which can be bleak or redemptive depending on what mood you’re in when you listen to it (“It’s these little things they can drag you under / live your life filled with joy and wonder”). No percussion at all. Again, no Mike on backing vocals, and the song spirals to a close in a wave of acoustic guitar and feedback. Brutal, but no less effective for it. “Monty Got A Raw Deal” How wonderful Peter’s mastery of the right hand is. Slightly traditional R.E.M. song feel to it. Expansive lyric allows multiple interpretations that go way beyond Montgomery Clift. Bill’s back! The building drums before the verses kick off is terrific work from him. Oh and Mike’s back too, moaning away in the background like a demented banshee. But this is Peter’s song through and through, and he completely owns it. A few resonant phrases (“Virtue isn’t everything” and “mischief threw a rotten deal”). Weirdly affecting. “Ignoreland” The electric guitars are back front and centre. There’s a slight sense here of “we’ve neglected politics for the last album and the first half of this one, so here it is”. It’s not pulling any punches lyrically (“bastards stole the power from / the victims of the Us v Them years / wrecking all things virtuous and true”). Bill’s song really, despite Peter’s guitars being bang in the middle of everything. The garbled vocal prior to the “IG NORELAND!!” declaration feels very Green, lacking only a bullhorn. The rightly celebrated “I know that this is vitriol / no solution, spleen-venting / but I feel better having screamed / don’t you” lyric is great, but it also slightly self-demonstrates why this isn’t the most effective political song of REM’s career, thought Michael’s on great voice. Perhaps just a little too straightforward. “Star Me Kitten” Seriously peculiar by R.E.M. standards. Mike’s sampled, played vocal recalls both The Beach Boys and “I’m Not In Love”, but sounds properly creepy, really emphasized by Michael’s come-hither vocal delivery. Bill’s just cymbals in a huge echo chamber, Peter’s just following the lead vocal on guitar. Michael’s extremely clearly delivered “fuck me kitten” makes the actual title of the track very obvious. Great, but strange. “Man On The Moon” I don’t want to comment on songs with just “well, it’s “Man On The Moon”, isn’t it?” but, well. It is. Michael’s Andy Kaufman-worshipping lyric, Peter’s lovely slide guitar, Bill’s typically understated tom work, Mike’s soaring backing vocals. And yet, for all that this is so well known, and such an R.E.M. standard there really is a reason for it – Michael’s hilarious (yet great) Elvis impression after the “…goofing on Elvis” line and his exaggerated Southern drawl on “St Peeeeters”. Mike’s parallel vocals on “Andy did you hear about this one…” are (once more with feeling) beyond brilliant. There may not be a better produced song in the whole of REM’s back catalogue, even given my bias towards “Drive”. Mike’s “and nothing….” following “nothing is cool” almost makes the song. The rare example of an R.E.M. song that earns its 7th ending. “Nightswimming” Oh dear. That’s me in tears. One of only two songs that I cry at Every. Single. Time. I. Hear. It.(this kind of means I can’t really listen to this song in public any more). Mike’s circular piano is just beautiful. “Every streetlight reveals a picture in reverse” is practically poetry, and this is an easy contender for Michael’s best work. The cello underscores before the second verse are a work of production and orchestration brilliance. “I’m not sure all these people understand” gives everything an incredibly intimate feel. So very autumnal in a way almost no song captures. No Bill or Peter, but this song is perfect anyway. That final instrumental coda after “the photograph reflects every streetlight a reminder...” might just possibly be one of the most beautifully perfect piece of music I’ve ever heard. “Find The River” The best album close in R.E.M.’s back catalogue. All the water imagery that’s laced their career poured into just one immaculate song. Mike’s never been better on backing vocals underscoring the chorus, and that’s really saying something at this point. Simple riff on the accordion is explicit yet appropriate. As with much of the album there’s a bone-deep melancholy here but its never self-indulgent (“close now but light years to go”). “Rivers to the ocean flow / a fortune for the undertow” is one of the most Michael-y lyrics Michael’s written. Mike’s piano is amazing, back in the mix but adding so, so much. Final piano coda is exactly how this album, this beautiful album, should end. “All of this is coming your way”. In Conclusion: It’s not going to take a genius to figure out at this stage that Automatic For The People is going to get praised here, but the extent to which this album stands up really is quite something. If Out Of Time was Green done right, then Automatic For The People continues the same upwards trajectory, but about a thousand times further. Out Of Time is a strong album, and as I mentioned last time out, noticeably better than I was expecting it to be, but Automatic For The People is simply in a different league from either of those two albums. It has more depth and expression than Out Of Time. It has more focus and effort than Green. The influences and experiences of both those albums can be felt here – “Sweetness Follows” being cut from the same cloth as “Country Feedback”, “Ignoreland” following up on the anger of “Turn You Inside Out” – but everything here simply better. Scott Litt’s production from Document forward has always been a perfect fit for R.E.M., of that there can be no doubt, but Led Zeppelin’s John Paul Jones doing the orchestration adds a whole new level of depth that really helps to bring out the emotional complexity of the material. And it’s that emotional complexity which really gets at the core of what makes Automatic For The People such a successful album. It’s not like previous R.E.M. albums have been sparse on the emotional front, they absolutely have not been, but there’s a sophistication to Michael’s lyrics and delivery here which hasn’t been matched before. The almost stream-of-consciousness lyric to “Nightswimming” sounds simple but it belies just how much skill there is in picking exactly the right expression, exactly the right phrasing to really bring across the feelings of the protagonist, and this isn’t a song which simply pedals convenient nostalgia. There’s a longing here, and an understanding that what is there will soon be lost, and complex, intertwining and conflicting emotions mark out a lyric as good as anything Michael’s ever written (you could also argue “or will ever write”, because this really is a career-best). And yes, the album is drenched in loss, death and time – all of which are picking up and running with themes from the previous albums as well – but it’s the intelligence of how these subjects are approached that lends Automatic its sophistication and its ability to deal with such weighty subjects without sounding self-indulgent or like a petulantly self-engrossed teenager. Is “Everybody Hurts” straightforward? Well yes, of course it is, but in among the dense thickets of emotion that cover the rest of the album, it’s refreshing to have something as simply heartfelt as “Everybody Hurts” (and the extent to which it works better as an album track rather than as a ubiquitous single cannot be overstated). The more straightforward material here (“The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite”, “Ignoreland”) is able to work because they’re cast alongside much more unusual, unconventional songs (even “Drive” feels new, and it was the lead single off the album), so they become part of a spectrum rather than standing out on their own. Because one of the odd things about Automatic is that it’s actually a fairly peculiar album to have hit it quite so big in 1992. This is the same year as Dangerous brought Michael Jackson back to the top of the charts, Whitney Houston’s insanely high-selling soundtrack to The Bodyguard owned the end of the year, and Nevermind brought the world of grunge to about a billion or so college students. This was grunge’s big moment in the spotlight, in fact, so a lushly-orchestrated album full of unusual instruments and string sections was not an obvious contender for success in the face of screaming guitars and wailing angst. Yet the fact that Automatic For The People was able to succeed in such a landscape (and it pains me, readers, to inform you this is also the year Billy Ray Cyrus scored a number one album for seventeen weeks) really is a testament to how well-crafted everything is here. And “well-crafted” is exactly what Automatic is – there’s a genuine sense of craftsmanship here, that the people involved both in the band and behind the scenes are doing absolutely everything to craft something to the absolute very best of their ability. In the end, however obvious a conclusion it might be to reach, the truth is that Automatic For The People is an absolutely titanic achievement. It completely, unquestionably deserves its reputation. Best Song: “Drive”. It’s always been “Drive”. It will always be “Drive”. But also it’s “Nightswimming” Worst Song: It seems unfair to list “New Orleans Instrumental No 1” here, since it really is just an extended musical ellipse. So “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite” The other song I always cry at, because it's the death of a dream. Specifically, my dream. Billy Bragg's The Space Race Is Over
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Dellarigg
AV Clubber
This is a public service announcement - with guitars
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Post by Dellarigg on Apr 6, 2017 6:42:01 GMT -5
Fun facts you already know:
John Paul Jones from Led Zeppelin does the orchestral arrangements on Drive, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite, Everybody Hurts and Nightswimming. Whatever he was paid, he earned it. Their version of The Lion Sleeps Tonight is really good. Star Me Kitten is so-called because they couldn't put Fuck Me Kitten on the sleeve, or didn't think they could. The Rolling Stones hit a similar snag with Starfucker, which they renamed Star Star. I read that Peter Buck spent a fortnight in bed after work on this was over, just as Johnny Marr spent three weeks sitting in a chair once The Smiths had finished The Queen Is Dead. It's maybe something to do with them getting through the Herculean effort of producing what they know is going to be their last best work. Some good stuff followed for both of them, obviously, but they hit their high water mark with these albums, and they probably felt it.
Anyway, yeah. Not much to add, except to say the closing three songs is as good a closing three songs as any artist has ever put together. Find The River is my favourite on the album, and a strong contender for favourite REM song altogether - one of those absolutely unimprovable songs that only the best artists come up with.
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Post by Nudeviking on Apr 6, 2017 7:41:23 GMT -5
I have no data to confirm or refute this next statement and can't be assed to fact check it, but whatever, we live in a post-fact world. Automatic for the People was R.E.M. best selling album ever selling 48 grajillion copies. Every household had a copy of this album. Every song on it was released as a radio single and they played videos from it on MTV every hour on the hour from 1992 to 1994. This album was huge when I was in middle school and yet I don't think I ever listened to it straight through. Time to rectify that situation.
Pre-Existing Prejudices I recognize four of these song titles right off the bat ("Drive," "Everybody Hurts," "Nightswimming," and "Man on the Moon"). Of those four "Drive," and "Man on the Moon," are kind of okay I guess. "Everybody Hurts," and "Nightswimming," are awful. Due to the ubiquitous nature of this album, I'm certain I've probably heard at least one or two more of these tracks, but just don't know their names.
Songs "Drive" Smack. Crack. Shack-a-lack. Baybay! This is a weird song, especially as an album opener. I mean I like it well enough but it doesn't really do it for me as a first track. It's kind of weird that this was a single, or at least a song that got played on the alterna-rock radio station I listened to in middle school.
"Try Not To Breathe" Early 90s jangle guitar pop. It reminds me of the incidental music that used to play in episodes of The Adventures of Pete & Pete. Some solid Mike Mills backing vocals, but R.E.M. has a half dozen better versions of this same sort of song.
"The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight" ROCK ORGAN! AW YE YE! Now we're talkin'! Oh wait, I know this song. This got played on the radio a lot circa 1992. How many singles did this album have? This song is pretty decent and Michael Stipe nearly losing it and corpsing after singing about Dr. Seuss is great.
"Everybody Hurts" I hated this song so much. It's a lousy borecore "don't do suicide" song with a lame video about a traffic jam that was on MTV all the time. If I was depressed this song would not make me feel any better about myself. I would probably be more likely to jump off a high thing or eat a handful of pills if this sadsack bullshit came on the radio. That being said, how fucked up is it that they used to play this to slow dance to at school dances when I was in junior high school? This and "Tears In Heaven." I wonder how many people in my generation touched their first ass to Michael Stipe singing about depression or Eric Clapton singing about being a bad parent who let his kid fall out a window. I still don't like this song.
"New Orleans Instrumental No. 1" An instrumental. I cannot be certain what it has to do with New Orleans or answer any questions as to the whereabouts of "New Orleans Instrumental No. 2." It's an okay song chunk that doesn't really go anywhere, but it's short and inoffensive.
"Sweetness Follows" Drone! I don't know about this song. It's kind of boring but not really terrible. Seems like a less awesome version of "Country Feedback."
"Monty Got a Raw Deal" Oh it's another mandolin, acoustic guitar slow jam thing...PSYCHE! HAVE SOME FEEDBACK! This is a decent enough song, but I do think the mandolin thing's getting a little played out.
"Ignoreland" This was all over the radio in my youth too. This is probably the most rocking song on this album. It's a pretty alright jam about how shit late 80s / early 90s American politics was. I'd say it's kind of dated but what's old is new again and all that.
"Star Me Kitten" Is the title a sex thing? It seems like a sex thing. This seems like a sex song. Not a Cinemax, wailing sexophone fuck riff sex song, but the sort of song you'd put on your hi-fi in anticipation of some classy sexual intercourse.
"Man on the Moon" Andy Kaufman was not particularly funny. In fact, he seemed like a mega douchelord. Nothing Andy Kaufman ever did caused me to laugh. Michael Stipe singing about Andy Kaufman doing pro-wrestling is kind of funny to me, though. Also funny? Michael Stipe doing a horrible Elvis impression. Conclusion Michael Stipe is funnier than Andy Kaufman. As for this song, it's alright I guess. It's a song I've heard 9,000,203 times in my life, so I'm kind of bored with it other than that it's an alright song. Good Mike Mills vocals and a solid slide guitar part.
"Nightswimming" Yawn. This is not what night swimming sounds like. Night swimming does not deserve a quiet night Michael Stipe. All the other people you are singing about have it right. Night swimming is time for a goddamn rock anthem, not a mellow piano ballad. Night swimming is booze and nudity and bellowing "Oh shit it's the cops!" and boomboxes and awesomeness. This song is fine for post-night swimming, drunk/high conversation about life, but night swimming deserves something better than "Nightswimming." Something like "Night Swimming" by Tacocat, the best palindrome based lady punk band of the 2000s.
"Find the River" Some kind of fluteophone. I don't know. It's slow and boring like some manner of John Denver bullshit. I don't care for this and want it to be over.
Final Thoughts I feel like this album probably pissed off Bill Berry. It was almost all slow jams and ballads and mandolins and shit and there wasn't really any drumming to really speak of in any of the songs. Like what was he doing half the time? Twiddling his thumbs? Playing some kind of fluteophone? I don't know!
Even if it didn't piss off Bill Berry, it did piss me off, but that's more my shit than anything that the album did. I have an incredibly low ballad tolerance and this album was replete with them, so there was very little for me to enjoy here. That being said, if you're into ballads this album's got 'em in spades and they're generally some real top shelf stuff.
This is one of those albums where I can appreciate the songcraft or the lyricism and stuff at a technical level but it otherwise doesn't do it for me. There was a reason that this was the sole R.E.M. studio album I did not own from Murmur to Monster and even now with a more refined musical palette than I had in my youth, it's still a hard sell, but it gets better...MONSTER IS NEXT. AW YE YE!
Best Song: "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight" Worst Song: "Everybody Hurts" (my first ass caress occurred to "Tears In Heaven" so this doesn't even get those bonus points)
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Post by Prole Hole on Apr 6, 2017 7:53:00 GMT -5
This is a sentiment I can get behind!
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Invisible Goat
Shoutbox Elitist
Grab your mother's keys, we're leaving
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Post by Invisible Goat on Apr 6, 2017 8:01:33 GMT -5
I wrote a song-by-song thing for this one since it's my favorite album but it's on my computer at home. It says a lot of the same things you already did Prole Hole, and not nearly as well, but I'll still post it later because it's still my favorite album.
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Post by Prole Hole on Apr 6, 2017 8:14:43 GMT -5
I wrote a song-by-song thing for this one since it's my favorite album but it's on my computer at home. It says a lot of the same things you already did Prole Hole , and not nearly as well, but I'll still post it later because it's still my favorite album. Please do Goaty, post away when you get the chance!
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Post by ganews on Apr 6, 2017 8:41:32 GMT -5
I love "Nightswimming", and "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight", and "Everybody Hurts". Other too, just that those have been unfairly maligned lately. I mean, we all know 9/11 was bad, but I think we can agree that the worst part was people trying to rope "Everybody Hurts" into it. Side note: I was able to visit Weaver D's, the Athens soul food joint whose slogan "automatic for the people" provided the album name, many times. Yes, the owner Dexter Weaver had a huge album poster. I don't think I've been there for about six years. I heard a while back that they were closing up, but it looks from the website that they are still going strong. It's not in the main downtown but off the back side on Oconee at the edge of what used to be the slum where my parents lived when they were in college. (They must be one of the very few establishments still operating in the same location continuously for that long, seeing as the Georgia Theatre shut down for a few years after the fire and the 40 Watt moved down the street in the 90s.) The best thing was the annual Taste of Athens festival in February at the Classic Center where a $50 flat ticket would let you sample unlimited mini-plates from every restaurant with a table set up in the ballroom; Weaver D's line for fried chicken was so long but so worth it.
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Post by Prole Hole on Apr 6, 2017 9:50:58 GMT -5
So far ganews wins the best REM-adjacent story of the TIF!
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Post by ganews on Apr 6, 2017 10:05:49 GMT -5
So far ganews wins the best REM-adjacent story of the TIF! Athens is naturally infused with such stories, like the people who went to the original-location incarnation of the 40 Watt Club when it was literally lit by an overhead 40 W bulb and Michael Stipe worked the door. Unfortunately I was never one of the lucky people to be in the audience for some local band's show when someone from R.E.M. or B52s would make a surprise appearance on stage. I remember when Warren Zevon died, my roommate and I went to the tribute concert at the pre-fire Georgia Theater just positive that someone from R.E.M. would hop on stage to commemorate Hindu Love Gods. The whole audience was probably thinking the same thing; it didn't happen, but it was a great show anyway. Also, you should totally review Hindu Love Gods.
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Invisible Goat
Shoutbox Elitist
Grab your mother's keys, we're leaving
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Post by Invisible Goat on Apr 6, 2017 18:30:58 GMT -5
As promised
This is my favorite R.E.M. album and probably one of my top 10 all time, and as I said before, one of the two albums that introduced me to music, so I’m gonna do it song by song. Bear with me because I know nothing about music and can’t talk about it intelligently.
Drive – What a perfect way to open this dark, haunting album. The moment where the electric guitar and string section comes in is so thrilling. Strings were used effectively on Out of Time but here they take this song to an entirely different level.
Try Not to Breathe – Nothing much to say about this one, just a flawless pop/rock song which means it doesn’t stand out so much. Love the harmonies on the chorus. Favorite part has to be the feedback towards the end of the bridge leading into the last verse.
The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite – I love this goofy song so much. The lyrics are much more direct than the first 2 songs and filled with memorable phrases – “like a heartbeat, baby, trying to wake up,” “Some Nescafe and ice,” and of course “a reading from Dr. Seuss.” I love how on this album full of mostly downbeat depressing songs Stipe full on breaks after delivering that last line and going into the chorus and they just left it in. One of those little touches that just makes the song. Again with the string section, entering on the first chorus, then progressing to that cascading swirling thing after the second chorus, and finally carrying the song to the finish line. Oh and after the chorus has consisted of just one lyric the entire song he throws in “I can always sleep standing up” towards the end, I love that too for some reason.
Everybody Hurts – Even if this hadn’t been overplayed to death it would still probably be my least favorite on the album. It’s good and all just a little too long. I was going to say it doesn’t really end up going anywhere either but it actually does build up pretty well, again with the help of the strings.
New Orleans Instrumental No. 1 – I remember laying in my bed listening to this and realizing for the first time that music could be interesting without vocals/lyrics. Sounds stupid but remember I was like 9 or 10. Electric piano on back to back songs has to set some sort of record. Just a cool interesting chill song
Sweetness Follows – If it wasn’t so gut-wrenchingly sad and indescribably beautiful I would almost laugh at the opening line “Readying to bury your father and your mother” for how over-the-top depressing it is. Love everything about this, the cello, the organ, and especially the squalls of feedback making another appearance.
Monty Got A Raw Deal – Kind of a weird one with nothing hugely memorable about it and still effortlessly fantastic. I do love the grand entrance the drums make after a couple of stanzas.
Ignoreland – Probably the weakest song on the album and doesn’t fit in sonically at all, but I have a lot of residual affectation for it from being young and loving how it rocked so much harder than the rest of the album. I remember my dad asking me “Do you even know what this song is about?” and I was like “Uh yeah it’s about how Reagan, Bush, and all Republicans are disgraces to America.” Paraphrased but yeah, I had pieced it together and was proud of myself. “I feel better having screamed, don’t you?” Hell yeah I do.
Star Me Kitten – Now in contrast to the previous this was my least favorite as a kid because it doesn’t have much in the way of a hook or melody and the lyrics were completely unintelligible to me. I would have liked it a lot better if I knew it meant “Fuck Me Kitten.” Good song.
Man on the Moon – Not sure what to say about this masterpiece. As a kid I didn’t get any of the lyrical references at all – Mott the Hoople, Fred Blassie, Andy Kaufmann? Sure, I guess. But I loved it anyway. The guitar “solo” thing that is so good he does it twice is probably the highlight. I remember watching the video and Stipe is walking down the highway in a cowboy hat and as the chorus kicks in he jumps on a truck and I thought it was probably the coolest thing in the world.
Nightswimming – My favorite R.E.M. song and one of my favorites of all time. Just indescribably beautiful from the first strains of that violin that is warming up or whatever. Lyrics are clear and literal but still a little impressionistic with just indelible images strung together. Photographs on dashboards, shirts on the water’s edge, etc. Every time I listen to this song I am sad when that melodica (?) comes in because it means it’s almost over.
Find the River – The last of this astounding triptych that closes the album. “Only just light years to go” is an amazing turn of the phrase. I’m out of superlatives at this point.
So if I were doing a hypothetical thing where I did my top 100 songs of all time, there would be 5 immediate contenders – “Drive,” “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite,” and then the last 3 songs. “Sweetness Follows” wouldn’t be far behind that group either. Still kind of floored by this album to this day.
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