REM took quite a long run-up before they achieved widespread success. Not sure what you'd count as breakthrough album. Document was their fifth and includes 'The One I Love', so I've decided that's as good a marker as any. I am expecting the opening few albums to be difficult and challenging. This is American alt-rock after all. Pretty disappointing then to find that Murmur is tuneful and accessible. Melodies are quite heavily led by Mike Mills bass guitar, 'Laughing' being a case in point. It also has a nice little mandolin-guitar riff that is one of the REM trademarks. The lyrics can be pretty dense (not in a pejorative sense you understand). More like Michael Stipe's stream of consciousness than having any deep meaning. Here's an example from 'Moral Kiosk': "Scratch the scandals in the twilight; She was laughing like a Horae; Put that knee into our landslide; Take the steps to dash a roving eye". See? He's not being what you might call, 'lucid'. My conclusion is that Stipe's vocal needs to be viewed as another musical instrument in the composition, what he sings is not important, it's more about the mood he creates. Part of the reason for their commercial success later in the decade was probably that the songs had a clearer meaning and the fall off that followed with albums like 'New Adventures in Hi-Fi' could have been because of the return to the more difficult lyrical style. But what do I know? This certainly sounds like REM and it's a good debut album by any standard. I'd be lying if I said anything really stood out, but the opening 'Radio Free Europe' was a single and is the best known song.
Nope. Still rather pleasant to listen to. There's overlaid half-harmonies on the opening 'Harborcoat' and Stipe indulges his passion for spelling things out with "R.E.A.C.T". 'So. Central Rain' almost has a coherent lyrical narrative. Loss and regret (Stipe singing "I'm sorry" over and over again is a big enough clue even for me). It'd be churlish to start pointing out clear REM identifiers at this stage, all bands have a sound, that's why people keep going back to them, but the light chiming guitar is a particular favourite of theirs. You can also hear a bit of punk/new wave heritage in 'Pretty Persuasion'. The message is clear in 'Second Guessing' too. Michael doesn't like being second guessed. About what we are not told, just don't do it.'Letter Never Sent' has a touch of 'Near Wild Heaven' from Out Of Time about it. 'Camera' is a bit of a dirge but has this weird coda of a kind of afro-funk which breaks down into some random comments..."You got it!" utters Stipe. Odd. Luckily it's followed by '(Don't Go Back To) Rockville' which is a much more fun country-style piece. Well, I say 'fun', obviously it's a bit bleak really. It finishes with the somewhat repetitive 'Little America'. Apparently by now they had built their rep on US college radio and this was a somewhat highly anticipated second album. It's OK, and I reckon that my modern ear is not giving it the credit it deserves, but I wouldn't call it outstanding.
Those of you looking for evidence to support Nirvana's claim that REM were an influence, need go no further than the opening track of this album - 'Feeling Gravitys Pull'. The lack of an apostrophe appears to be deliberate, indicating that there are several Gravitys exerting an influence. It has the echoey plucked guitar and understated moany vocal that characterizes some of Cobain and co's work. However that riff also has a distinct resemblance to Metallica ('Enter Sandman' I think). This is actually a gem of an album, showing all of REM's repertoire of styles in the first few tracks, overlaid vocals on 'Maps and Legends', twangy menacing bass on 'Driver 8' and even a messy misfire on 'Life And How To Live It'. They even indulge in some jagged pop with 'Can't Get There From Here'. At least it would be pop if it wasn't for Stipe's voice, which is remarkable for it's quality. I would say that most rock vocalists go for a tenor style (if any) i.e. moderately screechy and at the high end of the register. Stipe is a genuine baritone with a good degree of control. When he does go higher pitched the natural Southern drawl starts to come out more. I think it's probably an overlooked aspect of REM's work that he is such a great, characterful singer. Not the hoped-for Rabbie Burns cover on 'Green Grow The Rushes' but a reflection on the daily grind (I think). Having been complimentary about his singing, I find it way, way, way back in the mix on 'Kohoutek'. That was a comet wasn't it? Turned up in the mid seventies. "Michael built a bridge, Michael tore it down" he sings, so this one is at least partly about himself. The last track is the sorry tale of 'Wendell Gee', who dies while trying to save the tree in his backyard with chicken wire. I'm guessing there's a theme around this album, indicated in the first place by the title. There seems to be a lot about starting over, leaving the past behind etc etc. It certainly seems to be transitional and in general shows growing confidence from the band in what they are all about. They still seem more interested in the songs as a whole, rather than as a vehicle for lyrical ideas.
I guess that by now REM are just about making an impression in the UK. I first became aware of Stipe for his vocal on 10,000 Maniacs 'A Campfire Song' and as previously noted I was impressed by the richness of his voice. Not what I'd expected. This starts quite up-tempo. 'Begin the Begin' and 'These Days' both plough forward with a good deal of conviction. In fact the latter is quite bang-crashy. This is pretty much a blueprint for the mega-selling albums to come, which suggests that they may have become a bit formulaic in their middle period. More menacing, looping guitar a la Nirvana on 'Cuyahoga'. The go a bit mariachi on 'Underneath The Bunker' and Stipe's vocal is echoey and way back in the mix, but it's rather good all the same. Bluegrass twanging on 'I Believe' gives way to a more conventional rock song, which has a tinge of 'It's The End Of The World....' to it with it's headlong style. 'Just A Touch' has a classic punk riff. 'I think 'Swan Swan H' is my favourite track on this. The country-style guitar is nice surprise and suits the vocal well. The final 'Superman' is a bit They Might Be Giants-y. I will be expecting more of the same on Dead Letter Office.
Ha! I should have read up on this before my final comments in the previous post. This comes across as REM: The Bootleg Tapes, and indeed that's pretty much what it is. Rarities and B-Sides says Wiki-told-you-so and therefore nothing like either Life's Rich Pageant nor Document. Some of the production is a bit tinny and it all sounds a bit rough and ready, which isn't a disadvantage as it has a charm of its own. Stipe allows his Georgia accent free reign on 'Voice Of Harold' and regular readers will know how satisfied I was with a bit of whistling at the end. However 'Burning Hell' is distinctly odd. It's effectively an Alice Cooper song stylistically, vocally and probably thematically too. Then we get something rather like the Shadows on speed with 'White Tornado'. 'Toys In the Attic' is maybe a bit Pixie-ish (Black Francis and co, not Miss Lott), pretty full on and punky. My cousin Luci, who saw them in their early days tells me that their live act was very different from the recorded releases. If so I would guess that this material gives a better impression of what they were like in concert in the early eighties. 'Pale Blue Eyes' is a rather sad, contemplative country song. Some light jazz-rock follows with 'Rotary Ten'. The final cover of 'King Of The Road' is a bit disappointing really. All the studio shenanigans and false starts is just annoying. This is worth a listen though, it shows a diversity of style that doesn't come through on the other studio albums so far. Later editions had even more stuff from an EP called 'Chronic Town' included too.
At last, some things I recognize. Very much a continuation of the style of Life's Rich Pageant. 'Finest Worksong' has a good hook, with the trademark overlaid vocals in the chorus.I get the impression that Welcome To The Occupation is about the plight of the working man but as ever, the lyrics only amount to an impressionist depiction if that is the theme. In fact the whole thing seems to be much more political than what has come before. But then you're hardly going to congratulate me on that insight when track three is called 'Exhuming McCarthy'. Bit of a giveaway. Some of it is a bit bland, I didn't think 'Disturbance At The Heron House' was anything special, At time of writing we've all got Bowie on the brain, but the riff and general feel of 'Strange' reminds me of the Dame. Fuzzy, glammish rock and roll. Before I listened to it, I had it in mind that 'Its The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)' fell into a subgenre of 'list songs' where the lyric is simply a kind of chanted roll call of related items. I was therefore going to propose that it belongs with 'We Didn't Start The Fire' by BJ, 'Hello' by the Beloved (namechecking Vince Hilaire no less) and 'John Kettley Is A Weatherman' by Sunderland heroes A Tribe Of Toffs. It IS kind of like that but it is also a bit more complex. It's easy to overlook Stipe's vocal alacrity on it. 'The One I Love' is probably taken as a straightforward love song but there is something darker going on. "A simple prop to occupy my time"? Hmm. My son P is doing music GSCE and his party trick at the moment is telling me the time signature on songs. I'll have to set him 'Fireplace' as a challenge (it sounds complicated to me, mind you, whatever he said, I'd have to accept it). I haven't got much time for the freeform jazz ending though. A bit of hippy dippy down-the-ashram stuff on 'King Of Birds' The closing 'Oddfellows Local 151 is a moderately downbeat way to finish. I haven't said anything about cover art for REM and that's because it's all a bit dull really. This is REM No. 5. cos it's their 5th proper album, which is helpful for me at least.
While Document is where I'm placing the breakthrough marker, this is where REM go truly global. I starts with a nice surprise, 'Pop Song 89' which I'd sort of forgotten existed but which is a great, well, pop song. Stipe's lyrics still make little sense, but there's a more natural flow to them. There's something rounded and satisfying about "I think I thought you were someone else". There's a funny little music box section in 'Get Up' and the style of 'You Are The Everything' prefigures better known songs like 'Nightswimming' or 'Everybody Hurts' with Stipe's yearning vocal. More smash hit action with 'Stand' too. I don't think there is much to understand about it, just enjoy the relentless catchiness. 'World Leader Pretend' clearly does have a message, probably about whether we are masters of our fate through the constructs both real and artificial that we assemble around ourselves. Perhaps. 'The Wrong Child' is touchingly sad, childhood loneliness and, if I'm permitted to add a personal interpretation, the inner monologue of an autistic or disabled child. Again, perhaps. The closing 'Okay' has an edge of desperation to it. With the recent death of Bowie, that 'arm-drape' Top Of The Pops clip of Starman with Mick Ronson has been mentioned several times. I'm not so sure it had the impact then that is attributed to it now (look at the picture of Pele and Bobby Moore swapping shirts in 1970 if you want a contemporaneous image loaded with potential homoeroticism; and interracial to boot),
however it's a famous clip, no doubt, and it should be joined in the annals of TOTP history by REM doing 'Orange Crush'. Stipe capered about having forgotten to wear a shirt with his suit and delivering the song through a megaphone. It generally had the British public of 1988 scratching their heads about what was going on and was a water-cooler moment before we had water-cooler moments. Student housemate Roy 'The Boy' was several paces ahead of the curve when it came to REM and he told me it's all about Vietnam and Agent Orange. "We are agents of the free", "Got my orange crush". Do you see? 'Hairshirt' has gentle strummed mandolin and is poignant and touching. In fact the closing few tracks lower the pace significantly. This is a terrific piece of work, exciting, tender, engaging and weird in equal measure and marks the start of a run of three albums in which they came close to being the Biggest Band On The Planet.
"Hey. Can't find nuttin' on the radio". Thus begins what I am guessing is their most commercially successful album. I checked it and Automatic For The People on Wikipedia and both entries claimed that the album in question had sold over 18 million copies, which seems a little oddly symmetrical. Surely people don't just make this stuff up? Writing this has taken me a while and I've listened to the album a lot. That was no hardship. 'Radio Song' features pauses and a rather freeform rap near the end. Stipe's delivery is quite laid back really. We all know 'Losing My Religion' and I guess we all think we understand what it means, someone is driving the storyteller crazy. It has a funny structure really, no chorus as such, just verses piling in one after the other. There's the odd plucked bridge over the "that was just a dream line" as the song takes a little pause, but then the band pick it up again for the second half before closing it out with a kind of winding down clockwork ending. Genius. For all the mainstream success of this album, some of it is quite off the beaten track. Take 'Low' and the two semi-instrumentals, 'Endgame' and 'Belong'. 'Low' is pretty much just Stipe and a muted bass. 'Endgame' has a hint of Genesis about it with a nice elaborate guitar line accompanied by a flute and some pizzicato violin. The vocal is restricted to Stipe going la-di-da, but it's all rather wonderful. 'Belong' is actually quite lyrically rich comes across almost like a beat poem with Stipe speaking the words over the tune. All three are compelling in different ways. Of the rest, there are the hits 'Real Wild Heaven' and 'Shiny Happy People'. I daresay the latter is ironic and is actually about hating relentlessly upbeat folks, but it is so well done you might as well take it at face value. The B52's Kate Pierson belts out her bit with gusto. The last 4 tracks are probably less well known. 'Half A World Away' has a sad tone and my literal mind has decided it's about being separated from a loved one. I didn't care for 'Texarkana' which strays dangerously into U2 pomp-rock territory. The little bass guitar breaks are just about OK. 'Country Feedback' has echoes of the earlier 'Low' and could even be a reprise. And finally, 'Me In Honey' where Kate is back, warbling in the background. Otherwise it's a bit boring, rather like the artwork. Come on chaps, up your packaging game..
As I write I am in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave, so there is an extra frisson to listening to one of the great American rock bands. However the feeling isn't as intense as if I were in Athens, GA, since I'm in a hotel room in Philadelphia, but I'm a sucker for a romantic notion. This album has some huge hits on it, including 'Everybody Hurts', with which I confess to having some problems. It's been seized upon as an anthem of hope and yet I'm not so sure, in the same way that I'm not so sure that SHP has such a jolly intent as it seems. Also, I ALWAYS get bored before the end, and I don't know why. I guess that it doesn't really offer any answers, "take comfort from your friends"? Well sure, but I don't feel uplifted by the final note. Also there's the very ambiguous video of folks caught in a jam with subtitled inner monologues eventually just getting out of their cars - again, it's not the salve for the savage breast that you might be hoping for. Anyway, I've jumped ahead. 'Drive' seems to be ploughing the same furrow as 'Low' and 'Country Feedback'. I've never considered the lyrics to 'Try Not To Breathe' before but it is unusually clear for a Stipe lyric, the thoughts of a person on their deathbed and not wanting the on-looking loved ones from suffering seeing them going through a lingering departure. Then we get mega-smash 'The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight', which the band use to exercise their magpie tendencies, by nicking from the old Wimoweh song, referencing Dr Seuss (along with almost loss of control by Stipe) and referencing Nescafe (which invests it with an exotic quality that would not be recognized in the UK, where it is a by-word for bog-standard instant coffee). For all the big hits there is still a fair amount of oddities here, not least the weirdly beautiful 'New Orleans Instrumental #1', but also some stuff that might be described as 'filler'. 'Sweetness Follows' didn't really do it for me, but 'Monty Got A Raw Deal' has moments that grab you. I've always liked the shambolic nature of 'Ignoreland' and Stipe returns to full make-it-up-as-I-go-along lyrics. More meditational mantra-stylee for 'Star Me Kitten', in which the 'Star' is of the expletive-deleted variety. I put it down as another interesting oddity, along the lines of the entire New Adventures In Hi Fi album. Next we get probably the best two tracks on the album, 'Man On The Moon' and 'Nightswimming'. The former references Andy Kaufman, whom I only know about from playing Latka Gravas on Taxi. The song always appealed to me because it mentioned 'Andy', which is a rarer rock song name than you might think (or maybe not). 'I love the piano-accompanied 'Nightswimming'. It has a kind of unspecified longing for freedom about it and the clarinet that comes in near the end is particularly lovely. The final 'Find The River' is well within their usual remit, but I take issue with Stipe's pronunciation of "speedmeter" as "speedmetter". Americans don't say that do they? Another rotten piece of artwork.
For goodness' sake, sack the marketing and design department. It's not even in focus! I was ready to say that I was lukewarm towards this. I have it and have listened to it a lot, but felt that I had never really got into it beyond 'What's The Frequency Kenneth?'. Well, on listening again, I realize that I actually know it really well and it's a pretty good album. Fuzzy guitars are to the fore and the opening 'Frequency..?' really crashes along with a purpose. 'Crush With Eyeliner' has a kind of Velvet Underground sound to it (I guess. I'm not a fan). Stipe adopts a rather scary throaty delivery on 'King Of Comedy'. A packet of Strepsils required after that one. Love the falsetto chorus on 'I Don't Sleep, I Dream' with it's mushy guitar and stabbing keyboard. It stops very abruptly. There's a chaotic crossfire of vocals and guitar on 'Star 69' and another guillotined ending. There's a nice mix of piano, Hammond organ and alto-Stipe on 'Tongue'. The arrangement on 'Bang And Blame' is sparse, amounting pretty much to just guitar chords and drums. It also has a weird little coda which seems to be completely unrelated to the rest of the song. After a while the album does get a bit samey, grungy guitar and off-the-wall vocal styles can only hold the attention for a limited time. Heaven knows what they did to the amp they used for 'Circus Envy'. Knackered doesn't even come close. The final 'You' has a Spaghetti Western feel about it. It's alright but it's a bit much after everything else. Things get even more challenging from here....
I have this one too and I am convinced that I am not mistaken in thinking that I've had trouble breaking into it. Having said that, I adore 'E-Bow The Letter'. The opening 'How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us' is a mixed bag. The verses with their jabbing piano and Stipe's disinterested vocals are great, but they embrace a jazz ethic on some of the instrumental bridges, and not good jazz either. There's a nice clean blues break too however, and what is now becoming a bit of a trademark, the sharp cut-off at the end. A good bit of contained rockin' out on 'Wake-Up Bomb', although I think Michael is giving us too much information about his guilty pleasures with "Get drunk and sing along to Queen, Practice my T-Rex moves and make the scene'. 'New Test Leper' revisits themes that have become more prominent in the last few albums, coping with celebrity and the expectations of people around you that come with it, and the little rolling buildup to each line of the chorus is magical. And another killer line as well: "The talk show host was index-carded, organized and blank; The other guests were scared and hardened, What a sad parade". 'Undertow' returns to the fuzzy guitar soundwall of Monster and a pretty much spoken lyric, although there is real desperation in the 'I'm drowning' refrain. 'E-Bow The Letter' was the first single I think, and no-one is going to argue that it's an obvious bid for a high chart placing. Patti Smith sounds like she might well 'take you over', but I wouldn't expect a good experience. Stipe's phrasing seems to be all over the place but it just pulls you right in. This may be their most interesting song (ever), and it has some pretty stiff competition. 'Leave' has a muted introduction, almost an overture, before a siren like backdrop to a lyric about, I'd say, depression. On 'Departure' there a little too much effort to find rhymes for "glider", meaning that economics journalist William Greider gets a name check. When 'Bittersweet Me' started I thought, "This sounds like another song" and then I realized it sounds like 'Bittersweet Me'. Funny that. The scuzzy riff on the chorus is glorious. You'd think there'd be screeds of material on t'internet for a song called 'Binky The Doormat', but I have to tell you, you'd be surprised. If I wanted other bloggers' opinions I guess I could have looked them up, but I'm going with it being a tribute to a doormat. Called Binky. Not an affectionate one though. The little interlude 'Zither' (probably not played on a zither) is followed by a couple more songs in the fuzzy mould, 'So Fast, So Numb' and 'Low Desert'. And finally a quite long album (65 mins) is finished by 'Electrolite' which is more in the Green and Out Of Time pattern. Again, I obviously haven't paid enough attention to this and it's better and more accessible than I remember. As for the artwork. I give up. Just do what you want. You're clearly going to anyway.
Now beyond where my interest was sufficient to prompt me to obtain the album in physical form, which is a shame because this consists of what I would term 'a lot of good stuff'. It's quite a bit more reliant on keyboards, often muted and in the 'ambient' ('Airportman', 'Suspicion') category, for instrumentation. Lyrics are gradually returning to the impenetrable end of the spectrum. Stipe goes Dalek on the very catchy 'Lotus' and 'Hope' sent me mildly frantic trying to remember what it sounds like. No doubt on that count for 'At My Most Beautiful'. Who will I be accusing of ripping off an REM melody? Step forward Mr. B. Springsteen of Asbury Park, New Jersey, you truly are 'Your Own Worst Enemy'. OK, it's probably no more than a hint, but the dates give the decision squarely to REM and the piano progression is suspiciously similar. Now, the Apologist' sounds a bit like The Hollies 'Bus Stop', which incidentally was written by Graham Gouldman, latterly of 10CC, at an improbably early age. I'm getting off the point aren't I? I'm sorry. I didn't care much for 'Sad Professor' (self loathing) and Stipe get's a bit whiny on 'You're In The Air', although the plucked refrain is irresistible. Things tend to get darker as the album progresses. 'Walk Unafraid' is brilliant with it's sparse arrangement, off-the-wall sounds and defiant chorus. 'Daysleeper' is the natural sibling of 'Nightswimming' and has a funny little flute ending. This is a lengthy album and most of the tracks exceed four minutes. In fact the last three weigh in at over 15 minutes in total. However, you can't accuse REM of not providing VFM, I'd be hard pressed to identify a bad song, in fact the whole thing is something of a triumph. The cover design on the other hand....
This is one of those albums that I ended up listening to quite a lot. It's funny with REM's later output that they still got a reasonable amount of airplay for their singles and so 'All The Way To Reno - You're Gonna Be A Star' and 'Imitation Of Life' come as pleasant surprises as songs that you know and like but had forgotten existed. However it's probably fair to say that by now REM had ascended to the upper echelons of the rock aristocracy and were viewed as slightly less interesting as a result. Bill Berry left before 'Up' and the frequency of releases had let up considerably. That's a shame because this album still shows flashes of the quality and interest of what went before. 'All The Way To Reno' has a languid, glassy guitar line and some lovely little quirky snatches of sound.In fact the whole thing is pretty diverse, even within some of the songs, 'She Just Wants To Be' starts off like a folk ballad but has a much heftier chorus. Of course that's not always a good thing, 'Saturn Return' is pretty tedious and pushes Stipe's aging vocal range in places and the next song 'Beat A Drum' ain't much better. Fortunately it picks up again with the terrific 'Imitation Of Life'. REM at their best. Mind you, the verbal mangling and half rhymes involved in the lines "You want the greatest thing; The greatest thing since bread came sliced; You've got it all, you've got it sized" feels slightly forced. However it is something of a rose in a clump of fairly thorny songs, 'Summer Turns to High', 'Chorus And the Ring' nor 'I'll Take The Rain' are very inspiring. It finishes with 'Beachball' which comes on as a piece of cheesy lounge jazz, but still fails to excite.
It's revealing (nothing on here is done by accident, at least that's what I tell myself) that the artwork is not discussed in the Wikipedia entry, which may be because it is SO BLOODY DULL. Yet again!
Stipe achieves moments of almost lyrical clarity on Around The Sun, which is no good at all, it's not what he was employed for. The single 'Leaving New York' is fairly straightforward as an example. Sadness and regret at leaving a person and place. It is a beautiful song, and it retains its REM-ness as well. The layered vocals that they have used so often in the past are very effective here.'Electron Blue' is a deceptively simple even-paced song, which according to Wiki-fill-in-the-gaps is about 'an electric hallucinogenic drug made of light' that Stipe dreamt about. Well I suppose it's better than being chased by clowns while not wearing any pants. REM also go the way of many established stars by drafting in rapper Q-Tip for The Outsiders. Even Bruce has tried this trick and to be honest the effect is remarkably similar to that on 'Rocky Ground' from Wrecking Ball. That is to say that I think it works well. There's a real emotional bitterness behind the breakup described in 'Make It All OK' and Stipe ups the ante in 'Final Straw'. In fact the lyrical clarity I mentioned appears to be driven by a need to lay his cards on the table (to continue the gambling analogy whilst excusing a couple of unforgivable cliches). You could describe the album as one-paced, there are few, what you might call, 'up-tempo' numbers, 'Wanderlust' comes close, but has a hint of a theatrical musical song about it, and the themes don't deviate from the downbeat. The mood continues through 'The Boy In The Well'. 'Aftermath' (a single), 'High Speed Train' and 'The Worst Joke Ever'. 'The Ascent Of Man' is quite engaging with it's "Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah" refrain. It finishes with the title track, which is kinda hopeful, since the message seems to be that it's worth sticking with the world for one more year. I've moaned constantly about the artwork as I've gone along. Wikipedia credits Stipe with responsibility for packaging for this one, and to be honest it's one of their better covers. The out of focus picture gives the figures a pinheaded look.
It bursts in with lots of fuzzy, buzzy guitars on 'Living Well Is The Best Revenge'. And if your initial impression is that this is a lot like Monster then I'm not going to argue with you. Unfortunately REM are beginning to show some signs of wear and tear in the creativity department. There really isn't anything very original here, although the closing 'I'm Gonna DJ' is a bit different. Maybe the album title gives some clues to the thought process; let's abandon taking too much care and bash out something more pacey and rough and ready. Stipe sounds somewhat miffed and the pace is several times faster than Around The Sun. The second track, 'Man-Sized Wreath' has a kind of playful quality (despite the title). I thought 'Supernatural Superstitious' might be a descendant of the kinds of songs the Byrds used to do. There is no let up in the crashing and bashing until 'Hollow Man' but even then it's just a brief respite. Overall the songs have the virtue of a simpler structure and I will admit that on second listening I enjoyed it a lot more as musical wallpaper than on the first, more attentive, listen I gave it. In fact after the first listen I was prepared to give it a reasonable slagging off, but it is a grower. It's a tribute to the general direness of the artwork in the REM canon that this one would only rate as 'boring' on Andy's Patented Sleevometer (calibrated on Yes).
And so we come to the end of REM's long and winding road. This has a lot more immediacy than Accelerate and the second track, 'All The Best', despite being rather noisy and frantic sounds much more like they're 'feeling it'. UBerlin (reaching for the character map for the umlauted U is a step too far for me) harks back to their heyday of Green and Out Of Time with it's tuneful plucked guitar and Stipe's throbbing vocal delivery. For a second you think they've employed a colliery brass band at the start of 'Oh My Heart', but its dropped immediately for a gentle folky, almost singalong song. Really very touching. "Mother and father;I stand beside you; The good of this world; Might help see me through; This place needs me here to start; This place is the beat of my heart". This is supposedly REMs swansong, and you can feel in the tone that they seem to be pouring themselves into it body and soul, especially Stipe. That's coupled with a greater sense of control. 'Mine Smell Like Honey' - a title that makes the mind not so much boggle as fall into willful ignorance - is a case in point, it's knitted together so tightly. Loved 'Walk It Back' and 'Alligator_Aviator_Autopilot_Antimatter' is stupidly enjoyable and they draft in someone called 'Peaches' for the vocal. Never heard of her (Canadian performance artists are not my strong suit) but she adds something.Not sure about 'Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I'. It's fine, but the title is a lot to live up to. And finally 'Blue' in which Patti Smith makes her return (and it could be a companion piece to 'E-Bow the Letter'). Stipe recites the lyrics while she creates atmosphere in the background. It does unexpectedly reprise the opening track 'Discoverer' for no apparent reason though. It's a fitting end to it all, brilliant and odd. So in an industry in which returns to form are more common than establishing form, this truly does represent a r.t.f. Possibly their best. A shame it's allegedly their last, but REM are a band of sufficient gravitas that they are sure to reform for Gary Barlow's posthumous tribute concert.
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