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Post by bowiglou on Jan 27, 2006 18:04:22 GMT -5
Ken, I do like most of REM's works, though the lastest CD is the first REM that I don't have in my collection..and though I know many favor Automatic for the People, I tend to gravitate towards the Chronic Town/Murmur/Reckoning/Lifes Rich Paegent/document/Fables 80s era!!!!..what was wierd Ken was seeing them in a small sweaty club then just a couple of years later seeing them at a sold-out ampitheatre!!.......(saw them once with Squeeze and once with 10,000 Maniacs)...................and once saw Peter Buck play back-up guitar with Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians......now that was also a very cool show!!!
So, my REM friends...should I be a completist and get the latest offering by REM or is it worth bypassing?
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JACkory
Struggling Artist
Posts: 167
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Post by JACkory on Jan 27, 2006 18:45:53 GMT -5
Reckoning has always been my favorite...I had the good fortune to see REM in a small West LA club circa 1983 right around when Radio Free Europe was getting some airplay...other acts on the bill (that I had no idea who they were!) were Fleshtones and Let's Active...it was must an amazing show..REM were almost kinda punky...but I tell ya, if any of you know/knew who Fleshtones were/are, what a killer live band!!...but Reckoning has always had a soft spot for me what with So Central Rain, Don't go Back to Rockville, etc..... [glow=green,2,300]Wow...I'm green with envy![/glow] Seriously, dude...Let's Active and REM together in '83...WOW. I would have sold my car to see that! And Ken took the words right out of my mouth, re: the Fleshtones. They ROCKED! Indeed they did! And that was back when Sara Romweber was drumming with Let's Active, right? Oh, I would have been swooning! Can I have your autograph?  |
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Post by Galactus on Jan 27, 2006 18:46:01 GMT -5
Around The Sun is easily their wosrt...not bad, but really boring.
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JACkory
Struggling Artist
Posts: 167
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Post by JACkory on Jan 27, 2006 18:52:14 GMT -5
Ken, I do like most of REM's works, though the lastest CD is the first REM that I don't have in my collection..and though I know many favor Automatic for the People, I tend to gravitate towards the Chronic Town/Murmur/Reckoning/Lifes Rich Paegent/document/Fables 80s era!!!!..what was wierd Ken was seeing them in a small sweaty club then just a couple of years later seeing them at a sold-out ampitheatre!!.......(saw them once with Squeeze and once with 10,000 Maniacs)...................and once saw Peter Buck play back-up guitar with Robyn Hitchcock and the Egyptians......now that was also a very cool show!!! So, my REM friends...should I be a completist and get the latest offering by REM or is it worth bypassing? I, too, have everything by REM except Around the Sun. For what it's worth, I am usually a completist but I have no plans to buy Around the Sun. I listened to a lot of it at a Borders when it first came out and I absolutely hated it (even more than I thought I hated Reveal, though that one did eventually break through, I somehow doubt ATS will). And also for what it's worth, I saw REM in 1986 during the Lifes Rich Pageant tour, sort of midway between the "sweaty club" days and the sold-out amphitheatres. They were at the Civic Center Music Hall in OKC, a very schnazzy joint usually reserved for symphony concerts. The acoustics were excellent. Support act was Fetchin' Bones...do you remember them? As great as it was (my second favorite live show of all time, just behind Sigur Ros), I'd trade my REM experience for your '83 show without thinking twice. |
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Post by kool on Jan 27, 2006 19:01:16 GMT -5
Around The Sun is definitely worth bypassing...
I too have most of their albums, but for some reason, I had a feeling their latest would suck so I had a friend of mine who bought it burn me a copy first. It stinks. The songs are boring and there isn't a single melody that works. If I had one word to describe it, it would be 'bland'.
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Post by kool on Jan 27, 2006 19:03:35 GMT -5
Oh, favourite REM albums...
5. Lifes Rich Pageant
4. Document
3. Green
2. New Adventures In HIFI
1. Automatic
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Post by Kensterberg on Jan 27, 2006 19:05:23 GMT -5
Around the Sun is, quite frankly, dull. It's the first R.E.M. release ever that simply doesn't compel me to listen to it. Even when Fables came out and I wasn't wild about it, I played the damn thing repeatedly. And though it took me ages to come around to Hi-Fi, a couple of the tracks grabbed me immediately (esp. Electrolite and New Test Leper), and kept me sporadically pulling the cd off the shelf.
AtS just sort of sits there ... I was listening to a bunch of R.E.M. on shuffle the other day (in iTunes while working) and the tracks from AtS sounded more like a band trying to sound like R.E.M. than they really sounded like the band themselves. I love Reveal (a great album twenty years into a band's career is still a rare thing, and IMO Reveal pulls it off), but this one sounds tired and used up. Easily the worst R.E.M. album.
All that said, I'm gonna keep my copy, just for completist purposes if nothing else. But I can't advise anyone not obsessed with the band to buy the damn thing.
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Post by Kensterberg on Jan 27, 2006 19:11:28 GMT -5
Kool -- Sounds like your experience with Around the Sun was pretty much the same as mine. There's just nothing good about this record that I've found to date. Worst of all, it isn't even an interesting kind of "bad" record, where you can hear things that might have worked 'if only ...'
My "favorite" R.E.M. albums ...
1. Reckoning
2. Murmer
3. Automatic for the People
4. Document
5. Lifes Rich Pageant
6. Green (I listened to this for the first time in years a couple months back, and remembered why I'd played it so much when it came out)
7. Fables
8. Out of Time
9. New Adventures in Hi-Fi
10. Monster
11. Up (I run hot and cold on this album, and right now it sounds distant and aloof to me: it's still a really good album, but I have almost no desire to listen to it in its entirety)
12. Around the Sun
If you count the Dead Letter Office/Chronic Town cd, then it would probably slot in around number five or six. I love that record, and Chronic Town is probably my favorite EP/short album, ever.
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Post by kool on Jan 27, 2006 19:24:17 GMT -5
I liked Reveal too. It was a better version of Up IMO. ATS is just... blah... I'll be honest here, I'd rather listen to Britney Spears Greatest Hits. And I don't even like the little tramp, but truth be told, "Toxic" is better than anything on Around The Sun.  |
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Post by frag on Jan 28, 2006 14:06:38 GMT -5
I've only heard the single off of the new one.
Glad to know I'm not the only one who likes Reveal. That one was a decent surprise.
Caught 'em a few years ago when they were touring the Best Of with the two new tracks (which were weak throw-backs, if nothing else.) Good show, nonetheless...
Top Five:
Life's Rich Pageant
Murmur
Reckoning
Fables of the Reconstruction
Chronic Town (I think it counts)
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Post by bowiglou on Jan 28, 2006 16:37:41 GMT -5
hi one and all...Ok you've convinced me, I think I'll pass on REM's latest......
JAC, the REM show was great!......I only knew Radio Free Europe which was getting some radio airplay on KROQ, a local new-wavish/punkish LA station.....so a friend suggested them, so what the heck..drove up to the Music Machine on Pico and Bundy in West LA and the opening group, The Fleshtones were just absolutely galvanizing...and yes JAC, Sara was with Let's Active (I also saw them again about a year later or so with the dB's..another wonderful group)...so JAC, REM were kinda rough around the edges..I think they even use to cover a Sex Pistols song back then..and this woman who sat at our table was my first encounter with a nose piercing.......it had DK (for Dead Kennedys) as the insignia on her left nostril!!
JAC, I also saw the Lifes Rich Pagaent (and Document) show, and they were also great.....but I tell ya JAC, there is nothing like seeing some fledgling group, in the incipient stages, in a sweaty somewhat ramshackle club!!
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Post by maarts on Jan 28, 2006 17:00:56 GMT -5
I know Scottsy was fond of the latest REM, though not at first- it took a while for him to let the album sink in. I guess a lot of people were put off to even listen to the album because stright from the word go Around The Sun got lambasted. I know Scottsy to be a real discerning listener and REM-fan so since he hasn't responded yet, I'll stick his two cents in here. Dude really has got good taste you know (check out his website for his favourite Top Ten if you don't believe me!)
I remember seeing REM for the first time at Rock Werchter in 1985 but not being massively impressed at all....jangly pop in the warm afternoon- but that's probably also because I was blown away by U2, Lloyd Cole, Depeche Mode and The Ramones that day....
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Post by kool on Jan 28, 2006 17:59:38 GMT -5
I'd like to hear Scottsy's opinion on Around The Sun now that the dust has settled. I think he was talking as an enthused REM fan back then who just refused to accept the fact that they had released a stinker. No real shame in it, all great artists/bands have at least one album that totally blows. This one was REM's.
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Post by kool on Jan 28, 2006 18:05:08 GMT -5
Speaking of REM, I listened to 'Lifes Rich Pageant' yesterday. It was the first REM I had listened to in over a year [that's what Around the Sun will do to ya]. I have to say, I was blown away once again. Not a single dud on the entire album. Although I still find the [intentionally] messed-up tracklist annoying, which is why I usually play it in shuffle mode. |
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Post by Paul on Jan 30, 2006 10:15:53 GMT -5
What's the general consensus on Monster? I'm not much of an REM guy, I like a lot of their songs, but have never really embraced them.
They were fantastic at the Vote For Change finale in Washington DC, 2004; I even enjoyed their set more than Pearl Jam's...
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