How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us: An REM Thread

[stip]

Accelerate: no band has a right to make a record this good this late in their career. It's a masterpiece, the only post hi-if album that hangs with their very best work. Think Reckoning's music with monster's fuzz and pagents attitude. The record is bursting with a snarling, hissing, spitting energy that should have come from people 25 years younger. The songs are quick and hard hitting and full of anger and joy at being able to express it. The front half is better than the back half but it's all good. Living well is the best revenge is probably my favorite song of the last decade

Highlights: living well is the best revenge, man sized wreath, Houston, until the day is done


Collapse into now: with hindsight this telegraphs their end and is the right record to go out on. It plays like a greatest hits of their style and song writing, and for the first time songs start to feel overly familiar - like you can find the exact song it is recalling. It is the sound of a band that, for the first time, may be out of new ideas. But it's okay since the execution of the old is generally flawless. After a weak pair of opening tracks and 1-2 low points scattered throughout the songs are generally very strong. And It Happened Today is one of their very best songs ever, and the perfect song for celebrating their legacy - basically two minutes of wordless harmonies between Michael and mike (and Eddie vender too, but you have to be listening to him). Lots of good stuff on this record, but it is uneven, and I see why it's the last.

Highlights: it happened today, uberlin, oh my heart (a sequel to Houston that actually works)' blue, alligator aviator antimatter autopilot, mine smell like honey


As an aside the guy who produced their last two records did an absurdly good job.

[stip]

Daniel bryamn summed up collapse quite nicely

[stip]

Accelerate is in my top 5 REM albums. It might be top 3, actually

[Daniel Bryan]

Accelerate is in my top 5 REM albums. It might be top 3, actually

See, I do enjoy Accelerate for the most part but nothing really jumps out at me. Like you said, for any band to be making a record like this after 25 years is astounding. Critics love to use the phrase, "return to form", but after the weak Around The Sun this legitimately was a return to form.

I also agree with you about It Happened Today. Absolute masterpiece of a song. One of those that I love even more every time I hear it.

[stip]

In general a greatest hits of the post bill berry records can stand alongside the highlights of any era. The albums just don't have the impossible depth and consistency of the first 10 albums

[Daniel Bryan]

In general a greatest hits of the post bill berry records can stand alongside the highlights of any era. The albums just don't have the impossible depth and consistency of the first 10 albums

I'm not the biggest fan of the early era stuff. I don't really enjoy Murmur & Reckoning all that much. Fables gets better, and I enjoy Life's Rich Pageant/Document.

[tragabigzanda]

[matt reeder]

In general a greatest hits of the post bill berry records can stand alongside the highlights of any era. The albums just don't have the impossible depth and consistency of the first 10 albums

I'm not the biggest fan of the early era stuff. I don't really enjoy Murmur & Reckoning all that much. Fables gets better, and I enjoy Life's Rich Pageant/Document.

Murmur is my favorite R.E.M. album.

[tragabigzanda]

[chewm]

Reckoning is way better than Murmur. It might actually be their best.

Reveal is my favorite post Up album. But I disagree that its the one that benefits the most from a start to finish listen. It's very inconsistent, but the good songs are amazing.

[chewm]

In general a greatest hits of the post bill berry records can stand alongside the highlights of any era. The albums just don't have the impossible depth and consistency of the first 10 albums

*11, Up is amazing.
Actually Document is really inconsistent, scratch that one

[Norah]

chud, have you really started to unpack the post up albums yet?

I've heard them all but rarely revisit anything post Up.

[Norah]

Up hangs with their best work, stip.

[AndySlash]

And It Happened Today is one of their very best songs ever, and the perfect song for celebrating their legacy

yes. that song gives me the goosebumps pretty much every time i listen to it, a sense of bittersweet joy that makes you want to dance and cry at the same time. it's unfortunate that the only live version we're ever likely to hear is pearl jam's. i'm glad they did it, but i want to hear r.e.m. do it.

you and d-bry's summation of collapse is spot on.

[stip]

Up hangs with their best work, stip.

Up is a stunningly inconsistent album that lingers too long

[stip]

Some great stuff on it, though

[epilogue]

Up hangs with their best work, stip.

Up is a stunningly inconsistent album that lingers too long

[AndySlash]

Up hangs with their best work, stip.

Up is a stunningly inconsistent album that lingers too long

your summation of up is decidedly off the mark, though.

[Kevin Davis]

I have to get in my semi-annual plug for "Around the Sun," an album which it seems no one likes but me. I think the first 2/3 of that album is top-shelf REM -- the criticism of the clinical production isn't unjustified, but songwriting-wise there is very little in my mind to justify its reputation as an "off" album -- the writing feels very locked-in and engaged to me (as Stip says, it wears its moment in time on its sleeve, but I don't know that that lessens the depth of its craft). I remember Peter Buck complaining once that the album took forever to make, and I suppose I can see that -- it feels overworked in places. But in that overwork I also detect a sense of focus not necessarily readily apparent on their other records. I dunno -- it's one of the good ones to me.

[chewm]

Aftermath, The Ascent of Man & The Outsiders are great songs.