REM's last five albums - c or d?

Besides which, I could leave 'em after "Automatic For The People."

'Monster' is a lot of fun. I quite like 'Up', but haven't heard it as much. I like the fact that a band like REM are still making relatively "difficult" records.

Monster
New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Up
Reveal

Hi Fi is great because it's sort of like REM making an imaginary greatest hits album of songs that they hadn't written yet. It works best when you think of it as a mix tape, too. The songwriting is pretty solid, if you forgive the pointless instrumental and a couple lesser tunes like "New Test Leper" and "Low Desert."

Up is kinda shaky - if edited down to 9 or 10 songs, it would be a lot better than the 15 song bloated mess that it is. There's nothing awful on it, but songs like "You're In The Air" and "Diminished" are very subpar for songwriters of their caliber. Up is a worthwhile record for its high points - "Sad Professor," "Suspicion," "Daysleeper," and "Parakeet" are all great songs. The album isn't aging too well, though.

Reveal is a very boring record - I like it okay, and it doesn't exactly offend me, but the band is so clearly just going through the motions and getting a little too close to Adult Contemporary on a few of the songs. Download "Reno," "The Lifting," "Imitation of Life," and "I've Been High" and you'll be fine as far as this album goes. It is easily the least essential of all of REM's proper LPs.

It seems like there have been a lot of R.E.M. threads lately. Weird.

Up is probably my favourite of the recent ones - I find REM are at their best nowadays when they're trying to do 'weird' - and I'm still a little surprised they managed to pull off all the electronic stuff in the way they did. Less so on Reveal, which suffers badly from duff production (except on The Lifting and Saturn's Return, which are among my favourite examples of trad-rock bands using electronics), not to mention some wank lyrics. Also, Stipey appears to have lost the knack of fitting words to a tune - a lot of the time Reveal sounds really forced.

I agree about Stipe's lyrics on Reveal - I think his lyrics are consistently good throughout his career up til Reveal, where he seems to throw away a lot of the best things about his writing style in favor of writing which at best bland and straightfoward, and at worst overly cloying and precious.

I would like to think that REM are now in a very awkward period that may last another album or two, but they will eventually come back and do something interesting before they eventually retire. I think that maybe they are in their Wire-in-the-late-80s phase.

I'm always fascinated by the folks who like to make grand pronouncements like "every REM album after (random IRS album from the 80s) is crap." You guys are just so fucking cool. I'm in awe of you, really, I am.

Aw shucks. That's the nicest thing anyone's said about me all week!

I'm flattered. Really. But it doesn't change my opinion of REM's work post-1986 or so.

It's like "Drive" - eight or so years of forgettable background static - "Great Beyond" (which I thought was OK)

The best two R.E.M. albums of all time were released in the 00s ("Reveal") and 90s ("Automatic For The People")

OTM. I was having this conversation with two 24 year olds just the other day. They like the newer stuff better. I am flabbergasted. But then again, listening to something in those formative teenage years forms an eternal bond.

But thay ARE such crap

Dude! "Underneath the Bunker."

Underneath the FUCKING Bunker!

I'm 23, and I'm pretty divided on what era of REM I prefer - it greatly depends on my mood, I guess. Lately, I tend to prefer early IRS REM when I want to hear REM, which isn't very often at all. I understand why people feel the way they do about REM - it does seem like they become a different band circa Green. But I don't think that's a bad thing, I like both of those bands. I think it is great that they didn't resign themselves to making Reckoning ten times over. They took chances, they alienated people, and I really do think that they do what they want. I think they've aged a lot more gracefully than almost every other band that's been around for over two decades.

As for this:

if they had any integrity left they would broke up when Bill Berry quit .They only proclaimed in a million interviews that if one member left they would break up. (Then again they also proclaimed they'd never play arenas or lip synch in videos..& this wasnt real early on either..about 1987)

C'mon, would you like to be a little more childish and unforgiving? People change their fucking minds all the time. I'm sure you've broken some promises in your life, and I'm sure you'll feel very differently about things in your life right now than you will ten years from today. Luckily for you, no one's going to drag out some stupid interview that you gave and hold it over your head when you make a major life decision.

If you disagree with me, you're "so fucking cool, childish and unforgiving."

I Love Music.

"C'mon, would you like to be a little more childish and unforgiving? People change their fucking minds all the time"

i think the people might be miffed that this particular change of mind just so happened to co-incide with someone actually leaving the band for the first time. ftr, i don't give a shit that they continued, but there's no denying that they went back on their word. i'm glad that they stuck around to give us "up", but after "reveal" i think that (creatively speaking) their time may be up.

>>>>>>If anyone thinks post IRS is better than previous I've got one thing to say..."Radio Song"

Dude! "Underneath the Bunker."

Underneath the FUCKING Bunker! <<<<<<<<

DUDE ?? "Underneath" the Bunker was a tossed out fun little
2 minute side ender...not the lead track on one of their most succesful albums... "whatta you sayin' Whatta you playin " !!
jeez when I heard that I couldn't find a rock big enough to crawl under. I pick on REM for saying one thing and doing another because they were so admanant about these things..making these big proclamations and such. That thing about not playing arenas or Lip Synching came right out of the damn Document video press kit interview (I was quite a collector then) as far as Bill Berry leaving ..well I guess he saw the writing on the wall while the others refused to look in that direction. I dont mind change ..like I said I love Reckoning & I love Automatic & those records are 10 years and millions of dollars apart.
Why is it the only place I hear newer REM songs these days is in supermarkets or department stores ?
and when Mike Mills slipped into that nudie suit..well c'mon..people..almost as bad as Green era Stipe in a pony tail & bike shorts (OK even he admitted fault in that)
The best thing I can say about UP is that it's trying to sound like
Yo La Tengo meets Radiohead but weak versions of both.

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=geir+%22everybody+hurts%22+hongro&hl=no&lr=&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&selm=5s07it%24p29%245%40o.online.no&rnum=2