Does anyone else feel 'bad' for R.E.M.?

Anyway, if so, that may explain the CNN blurb. I saw a similar one last night featuring the wretched Barenaked Ladies. I could believe how much time was being devoted to such a worthless piece of garbage (like 5 minutes!!), especially on Headline News where they will devote like 30 seconds to a piece of really important, world-historical news. I checked AMG and sure enough, Barenaked Ladies record for Reprise or something.

And, going back to the '90s, New Adventures in Hi-Fi is one of the most underrated rock full lengths ever.

Not only that, but (damning with faint praise, perhaps), I'd still prefer to listen to Up or Reveal than All That You Can't Leave Behind.

But that's just me.

Anyone else prepared to defend them?

As for "Bad Day" - it's a very good song, but it's such an REM throwback (to "Its the end of..." mainly) that it does provoke an "Oh come on, work a bit harder!" when i hear it. Think of it as a good Idlewild track, I suppose - heavily heavily derivative of old school REM, but keeping enough of what's great about them to make it worthwhile.

There's no excuse for All The Way To Reno, mind.

I wish I only had a part time job where I could do everything my way. Feel sorry for them? huh-uh.

Their new song "Animal" is definitely my favorite new R.E.M. song since 1996, so I think they may be on to something right now.

As for this:

when metallica headlined at reading this year they kicked off with five early numbers then did "st anger" then one from the black album and continued with old favourites for the next hour and a half with only one more track off of the new album being played out. Now isn't that admitting that their new album was worthless?

Please be practical and understand the situation. When you're in a band that has a large discography, it's sort of unfair to go onstage and neglect the old songs and only play things that people are less familiar with. If they went out and ONLY played new songs, that would alienate the audience, and for good reason. R.E.M. in particular have 12 albums worth of songs, and arguably one of the finest songbooks of any band of their generation. Why is bad for them to play songs from their catalogue and represent their impressive body of work? It's good for them, it's good for their fans. This whole attitude of "don't play the old hits" is so fucking indie and short-sighted.

It always seems like people have these kneejerk, totally unfair reasons for putting R.E.M. down. They are pop songwriters, and always were. Why is that so hard to understand? They were 'indie' and 'arena rock' more or less by accident.

Yeah, "Bad Day" is a rewrite of "PSA" which demoed for Life's Rich Pageant and was an early version "It's The End Of The World..." It's a pretty good song on its own, and I think they just wanted an easy hit to push the hits record. Like I said, "Animal" is where it's at.

U2, on their last tour, played an average of six songs from All That You Can't Leave Behind per night, out of sets which average 22 songs.

Heh, well that would explain it all right! It does suggest that REM are aiming more for cosy nostalgia these days though, so their insistence that they are making their best stuff may be a little misplaced. Mind you, "Bad Day" hints that they could be quite GOOD at doing cosy nostalgia.

They once tooled with the idea of breaking up at a show on Dec 31, 1999.

They also stated that if one of them left the band, it would no longer be "REM."

The fuckers lost all integrity by not doing either or both of these statements.

Therefore, the Pagan God of musical sucking has blessed them with an endless well of shitty, shitty music.

God bless.

The fuckers lost all integrity by not doing either or both of these statements.

This is such bullshit. So they should abandon their life's work and a longstanding and fruitful creative partnership because of some stupid thing they said when they were in their 20s?

I'd love to see you held to every stupid promise you ever made, buddy.

(that's a good thing)

That's a promise I'll keep.

smooches.

It'll be very funny/vindicating when the backlash to the R.E.M. backlash kicks in full gear. It will happen.

"It'll be very funny/vindicating when the backlash to the R.E.M. backlash kicks in full gear. It will happen."

I always thought "Reveal" was popularly felt to be their 'return to form' album?

How many major pop stars aren't vain, by the way?

as for reveal, based on the reviews i read at the time (mostly British press), it seemed to be getting a slightly more consistent thumbs-up than the mixed reaction any of their other post-Automatic albums got. Also, geir hongro reckons it's their BEST record. :-)

That seems a bit revisionist. Putting opinions about their current work aside, I still think it would be stretching to say that the R.E.M. of 1980 is the same in some ways as the R.E.M. of now. I don't see the 1980 model being able (for better or worse) to pull off what they're doing now. (And was I.R.S. much of an "indie" anyway?)

The way I figure it, they've been about five different bands:

band #1: pre-Chronic Town - Fables (original REM)

band #2: Lifes Rich Pageant - Green (the political arena rock band)

band #3: Out Of Time - Automatic For The People (ballad-heavy 'chamber'-y studio band)

band #4: Monster - New Adventures In Hi-Fi (fuzzed-out post-Nirvana arena alt-rock band)

band #5: Up - Reveal (texture-obsessed studio trio)

So yeah, it does make sense to love one period and hate others, because they have changed considerably over time.

Wow. You must be talking about "At My Most Beautiful," which could be my favorite REM song. Maybe.

But then I'm amongst the (no longer silent) minority that find New Adventures a great listen.

Got the new hits CD, surprised that The Final Straw (new anti-war song) is not on it. The bonus disc is very hit-or-miss. Some excellent out-of-time era b-sides, a few yawn-inducing live tracks and alternate versions, and a laugh-out-loud version of Star Me Kitten with William S. Burroughs on lead vocals.

I should probably just dig out the tape of these I once had.

The bonus disc for the best-of isn't much. "It's A Free World Baby" and "Fretless" are good, but they've been around for ages. "Chance" is okay. The acoustic version of "Pop Song" and the live version of "Turn You Inside-Out" are nice, but inessential. The new arrangement version of "The One I Love" and the live version of "Country Feedback" are worthwhile though, as is the rock version of "Drive."