Your Eyes Are Burning POLLs Through Me: REM's "New Adventures In Hi-Fi"

Still a week-ish remaining on this one: Dreams, they comPOLLcate my life: REM's "Green"

And as for NAIHF, I'm going to have to listen to it again, a few times, to even begin to make my shortlist - this is a really consistently solid record. I do think I can go ahead and reject "Zither," though, and probably "So Fast, So Numb."

It's good to excellent through "Be Mine," after which quality control dips considerably until "Electrolite" comes as sweet sigh. I chose "Bittersweet Me" -- when I think of Monster, THIS is what I imagine it sounds like.

"New Test Leper" is an easy one for me--long been one of my very favorite R.E.M. songs. I really like that whining siren looping throughout "Leave," too, and "Be Mine" and "Electrolite" are gorgeous too. If they'd ended here it would have been a good mark to finish with.

emo memory: my first kiss was to "Leave"

hahaha that sounds kind of intense!

Good tactic, actually! Lure 'em in with the slow, emo intro then switch on the rave lights and start making out when the sirens start blaring.

"Leave" for sure, like REM produced by the Bomb Squad or something. Next, "Binky" and then shrug. I still don't get this one.

So Fast So Numb

"Leave," which is totally amazing.

If I had to pick one of the 5 or 6 soundalike songs, it would be "Binky"--the Mike Mills b-vox push another R.E.M. song over the top.

And if I saw the whole album on a jukebox, I'd play "Eletrolite."

Up there with Murmur and Reckoning for me. "Leave" was always a favourite, but damn it seems odd not to go for "E-Bow the Letter", especially because I remember the WTFness of the video premiere (MTV devoted a night to the build up, with a concert and a smattering of their videos).

Great record. "Leave," "Be Mine," "So Fast, So Numb," "Low Desert," love them all. "The Wake-Up Bomb" succeeds at what Monster tried and failed to do.

"Leave" is great, but I too will always love "New Test Leper" more than any other track from this record.

"Electrolite". But I don't like this album much. IMO their second worst album, just better than "Monster".

I don't know any REM albums! How about that?

Maybe their best album, certainly of the Warner Brothers years. (Geir, are you honestly saying HI-Fi is worse than Up, Reveal or Around The Sun?)

As the Doctor said, difficult to make a shortlist let alone a final choice, but in the end it had to be Leave.

The main guitar line running through E-Bow The Letter still gets me every time - it's one of my favourite songs of theirs. Also it features Stipe playing with momentum in his vocals for pretty much the last time - it's really unlike pretty much everything else they released.

I love this R.E.M. revival here on ILM. voted for "Low Desert"

Also it features Stipe playing with momentum in his vocals for pretty much the last time

Ok, this is really helpful for understanding what might be lovable about this song. Stipe's vocal drives me crazy, the way he barks out the lines, but I can see that what drives me crazy might be totally endearing to other ears.

Yeah, it connects well to something like "Country Feedback" in that sense - the whole "self-help! psychics!" section, really a string of interjections.

"Leave" for sure, like REM produced by the Bomb Squad or something.

Love this description, it's spot on.

Voted "Leave" easily, one of my favorite REM tracks and a long time favorite.

E-Bow The Letter, for ^ those reasons xp

"E-Bow" is horrible. May be the worst R.E.M. single ever (although the nagging and repetitive "It's The End Of The World As We Know It" comes close)

"E-Bow" is not just an underrated R.E.M. single, it's an underrated song in general. It's gorgeously oddball. I also love "Leave" but it seems to have enough support here, so I'll give the former my backing. Underrated, overrated or whatever the critical consensus is right now, I've consistently described this as the most affecting and beautiful R.E.M. album. I also agree it does sag a little toward the end, a slight flaw more than made up for by the tender "Electrolite".

I never appreciated So Fast So Numb until I saw it live.

also lol geir not liking music.

I chose "Bittersweet Me" -- when I think of Monster, THIS is what I imagine it sounds like.

This gets at something nice about this album, it kind of feels like them having FINALLY mastered the heavier "rock" sound that had been bouncing around since Document, explored in a very "studio" way on Monster, and here sounding confident and controlled, used very consciously in service of the songs but not at all clinical. "Bittersweet Me," "Leave," "Departure" - just a great sound on this album, Mills wailing away, Pete Buck tossing out some great riffs, it all really works.

never heard this album (so won't be voting)...but I cant overstate how much I <3 "E-Bow the Letter". One of my favourite songs of the 90s prhaps...

Some good stuff in this thread: New Adventures in Hi Fi?

I cant overstate how much I <3 "E-Bow the Letter"

It just came on iTunes shuffle out of 20,000+ songs. Go figure. Great fucking song, though.

I once had the idea that I wanted "Leave" played at my funeral.

it's been pointed out before but, if REM had broken up after this one (as many thought they should), the final lyric of their recorded career would have been "i'm outta here."

Yeah, I've always gone back and forth on that - a little too perfect of a "final song." Needs "Your Majesty's a pretty nice girl..." coming in on the back of it.

Always thought it was a shame "Electrolite" was a single, just because it sort of spoiled the discovery of that perfect ending moment.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

Damn, this means I need to finally find a copy of Around the Sun

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Wow - kind of didn't expect that, but I think it deserves it. Now I can't remember if I ever ended up voting. Great album in any case, thanks for playing!

Nice to see that the bottom 2 happen to be the first 2 I would drop from the album.

of all their records, i think it's ridiculous that this is one where 2 singles would top the poll...especially since neither of them is the best single from the album.

"How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us" – 4:31 3

for the lols? no one explained this and I'd like to hear a sensible case if one can be made for this song.

I like it - best song on the album, no, but it's a nice, spare, easy arrangement, comes together well for the chorus. The "aahhhhhh" is a little weak tho. I like Perpetua's take that it's a song about the tedium of having to endlessly re-tell all the recent events of one's life.

This album actually has a lot more rock-star-confessional material than I think of it having...I mean, "New Test Leper"!

yeah not my favorite by any means but "How the West" is pretty good...I remember some early review snorting about the album opening with a 'hip hop beat' but it really is just a nice and only slightly left field percussion-heavy arrangement, strong tune.

This album actually has a lot more rock-star-confessional material than I think of it having...I mean, "New Test Leper"!

I always liked the tune but was put off by the self-righteousness, but according to Stipe it was written after watching a transsexual's appearance on a talk show.

yeah, the arrangement on "How The West..." is ok; it's another song on the album where Stipe's vocal kills it for me, that barky thing, whereas when he wails like on "Leave" or "Undertow" I get it.

Just pulled this out for the first time in a while. Really damn fine record. Pulls off having a pretty consistent overall sound and feel (I love the crunchiness of the whole thing, it doesn't swing for "RAW ROCK SOUND!" the way Accelerate does but it feels very raw and very textured) - - - without being particularly samey - songwriting is strong throughout and there's a genuine variety of arrangements, tempos, moods. I might be moving back into that weird camp of people that insist this is their best record. But it doesn't really make sense to compare it to their early 80s highs, or even to Automatic.

Amazing how much Buck and Berry bring to something like "Be Mine" which is just great on record, slowly gaining steam in a way that I just can't imagine in the post-Berry era - this could have turned so syrupy and corny so fast, but the rawky grittiness really rubs up well against Stipe's frankly twee poetry, reminds you that this is not a teenager writing love poems but a grownup who has been through a lot of other shit and yet can muster these kinds of feelings. It's nice.

haha, i was just about to make an emo comment about my first kiss being to "leave" and realized i mentioned it 3 years ago. whooooops

but i'll always regard this one highly. i guess "how the west was won" isn't a critical fav, but to me it sounds like nothing else in their catalog, a natural progression from automatic-era pastoral arrangements but something entirely different. same with e-bow, another oft-hated song. maybe i'm too lenient on this album because it's so visceral for me. whenever i hear a song from it i immediately think of a certain room, my friend's basement, i'm a teenager, my friend chuck is trying to figure out linux in the corner, i'm wasted on terrible wine that i don't know is terrible and trying to not look like i don't know what i'm doing while smoking newports and pretending they're not harsh, the cat keeps clawing at the door, i'm about to kiss someone for the firs time, tv's showing nirvana videos on mute, laundry machine's going loud. it's all too much, and so tightly wound with the songs on this album, i'll carry it with me to my graaaaaaaave

awowoooooooooooo!!

*fullmoon.jpg*

I keep coming back to this one. 'So Fast, So Numb' is really kicking my arse downtown right now, as it were!

yeah that one is great. feels like one of the few times they did a sleek 90s 'modern rock' song well (as opposed to a lot of other uptempo stuff from that era that was kind of a glam rock throwback or a boilerplate-R.E.M.-song-but-louder thing).

Bittersweet Me is one of their best songs of the 90s IMO

Obviously unlikely coming off Monster tour and impeding Berry departure but really wish I could have seen a NAIHF tour

yeah totally. did any New Adventures songs get much play in post-BB tours?

It makes we wonder - with the comments upthread of REM 'mastering' the 90s 'rock' sound hinted at before - what could have happened had BB stayed on

I could take quite a number of variations of this album into the 00s

So Fast So Numb I think was a fixture - they oddly IMO prioritized Electrolite into a lot of the setlists though

Wake Up Bomb too IIRC. Never Bittersweet Me though.

I definitely remember them playing 'So Fast, So Numb' and 'Electrolite' when I saw them live ten years ago... weirdly, 'Undertow' was one of the New Adventures In Hi-Fi songs they played regularly throughout the Monster tour, but I don't think they touched it again afterwards.

Bittersweet Me is one of their best songs of the 90s IMO

― Master of Treacle, Sunday, August 11, 2013 5:24 PM (

Binky the Doormat was another 1995 staple with Undertow but yeah don't think they ever played them again

I dunno, but I'm thinking if they were honing this material on the road and during soundchecks etc. they may have felt like they'd played some of this material "live" enough already, even if only a small handful were actually played in front of an audience as part of the gig "proper". I was just thinking about this today, but there must be quite a fair amount of takes of these songs in the archives somewhere from which they cherry-picked the best performances for inclusion on the album. One of the many reasons I'd love to see a real in-depth book about the songwriting and recording side of this band... not just who wrote what and who played what on which songs (this album and Out Of Time have detailed credits regarding the instrument swapping, but these are the only two that do), but the evolution of the songs too. I'd personally love to hear how something like 'E-Bow The Letter' came about, for example. It'd be great if Scott Litt would share more insight of his time from working with the band too.

Okay, so this is their best album.

agreed

yeah totally. did any New Adventures songs get much play in post-BB tours?

iirc they played "so fast so numb" and "low desert" a lot during their tour for in time

or maybe i just saw a video of them playing "low desert" once on that tour and stipe calling it his favorite song

I move across
innocence lost

all static and desire

'Low Desert' got shafted a bit in this poll, I think. Wonderful track.

i just can't get into this album, never could. I don't know why, it seems like it should be good when I listen to it.

Think I'll be breaking this out tomorrow, thanks y'all. In my head "How The West Was Won" overlaps a lot with Doom II music but that's a few years off. Something real weird and spare, the piano riff to this, and not a way they really use keyboards in the rest of their catalog. There's this real almost chamber music feel to some of the arrangements on this album, when they're not outright rocking they sound almost like a brush-kit coffee shop quartet or something. There's aspects of that to Automatic, especially "Sweetness Follows" but there's a willingness to leave empty space here that really changes the sound of the band for me.

I am here to report back that this record rules, and the answer is "Be Mine."

There's a chord in that song that's so beautiful. It reminds me of the Verlaines. Right at the end of that repeating progression - when it goes from F# minor to the parallel major. And then the two added sixth chords that wrap it back around to the beginning.

That is exactly it. When that came around and I just found myself rocking along, pummeling an imaginary guitar and letting my heart dip a little into my stomach - oh, yeah.

In my darkest hour as an REM fan, when all my beliefs seemed to be put under test, this was the one WB era album I could never deny.

This could be a sort of anti-New Jersey album, a follow up to a huge but not that beloved album (not to me, I really like all REM albums up to this one, Monster included) which surpasses its predecessor in every way but falls very short commercially. Maybe it was the lack of a clear lead single, maybe there was REM exhaustion to some degree, but there are a lot of standout tracks in here and though I suppose So fast So numb would be my choice, any of the other songs could be a pick depending on the mood.

Back then I was really into William Messner Loebs' Wonder Woman and Mark Waid's Flash, and I can't listen to this album without recalling the image of WW selling burgers.

sales slid after 'monster' scared the people who started listening because of 'out of time' and 'automatic'? their loss. who else makes a record that rules this much ten albums into it? "so fast so numb" and "leave" are so good. "bittersweet me" might be michael's best set of lyrics, and that's really saying something. "oh my peer, your veneer, is wearing thin and cracking -- the surface informs the underneath: the underneath is lacking." fuck

poor show for Be Mine.

I'm really surprised too. Interesting that Yorke seems to be a huge fan of that song as well.

at the Tibetian Freedom Concert Yorke sang the Patti Smith part in "E-Bow..."

Just a wee bit long and dips a little in the middle, but this is a very very good album. All REM albums make me think of travelling. This one especially so.

It's no exaggeration to say that this is one of a handful of albums that saved my life/sanity.

at the Tibetian Freedom Concert Yorke sang the Patti Smith part in "E-Bow..."

― guess that bundt gettin eaten (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, October 16, 2014 9:07 AM (1 hour ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i was there! Stipe also sang with Radiohead for "Lucky"

So was I. Will never forget the sonic boom that was God hurtling a thunderbolt as punishment for the Herbie Hancock-Dave Matthews Band jam.

Kudos to R.E.M. for playing "Airportman" and a bunch of other new and obscure songs while Stipe shimmied in a sarong.

god smote them later

http://img2-2.timeinc.net/ew/dynamic/imgs/070309/michaelstipe/skirt_l.jpg

Yeah, 'Be Mine' has always been a favourite... great set of chords in the chorus! Mike Mills was responsible for writing the music for that one (hence why he's playing guitar on it). Really though, I don't know what I would have voted for in this poll. My favourite on this album changes all the time, there's not one track on the album I dislike, and it's one of the few albums of this length that I can listen from start to finish and it doesn't seem to drag for me. I have no problem with a lot of what R.E.M. did afterwards, but if they'd broken up after this record they certainly would have ended on a high.

I've enjoyed the talk on this and the previous albums. I'd like to see a threadpoll for Up but I'm scared to make an album poll in case I screw up the track list. It's my favourite Rem album. I've been thinking about "Suspicion" recently and it's one of the best things they ever did.

I Ate The POLLtus: REM's "Up"

(I did 'em all, back in the day, as the runup to a tragically fumbled ballot poll.)

Cool, I'll probably be on that thread in a couple of hours.

What was fumbled about it?

For some reason, I thought it would be cool to use the radio button poll results to generate the nomination list, which at the time seemed like a fun new way to use radio button polls. And there hadn't been as many artist-specific ballot polls so there wasn't really a standard in place. In hindsight the flaws in this approach are really obvious and basically it made for kind of crazy results although they were certainly interesting.

\///\/// It's the ongoing R.E.M. SUPER SUMMER POLL of POLLS \///\///

god Buck's guitar tone on this album is so crucial. such a long distance from any of their previous iconic sounds and yet really great for this material, for Stipe's voice and themes. "Be Mine" is such a towering, pummeling thing but also so raw and crunchy and approachable.

Berry killing it too, obv

it is a bit too long, but then i dont know exactly what i'd leave off. Probably the ones at the bottom of this poll I guess

like say the lonesome crowded west, i think the sprawl is a feature. perfect driving record

otm

also skimming back a bit, i think i must post about "Be Mine" every other time i listen to this album.

"Be Mine" is R.E.M. thinking, "Those dudes in Collective Soul made a lot of money with a power ballad..."

“Be Mine” maybe 1 of 5 songs I have memorized on guitar.

I never thought of this as funny
It speaks another world to me
I wanna be your Easter bunny
I wanna be your Christmas tree

Probably some of the most genuine, heartfelt lyrics Stipe penned.

alfred, that is COLD. collective soul (who probably really got going saying "those dudes in R.E.M. made a lot of money with "Losing My Religion") wish they could manage something as good as "Be Mine."

I like "Shine" (Dolly Parton's cover) and love "Be Mine."

have we ever polled Collective Soul's singles? i admit i like a few enough to keep 'em in my 90s alt-rock radio playlist.

I seem to recall reading Stipe somewhere saying that the character singing Be Mine is actually a bad, manipulative, controlling etc.

Some genius made a playlist of all their Xmas fan club singles. I really must go through this.

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmTbXnVonpqc3EzXCcnfLZM9N4tw_KsXv

Thom Yorke shows up 30 minutes into this to sing Be Mine, and Mills says "That was his choice.. an interesting choice, i like that song a lot it's kinda one of mine.."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BT1wdva2jbU

xp missing my fav, their goof on "Silver Bells"

when I saw R.E.M. at the Tibetan Freedom Concert, Yorke sang the "you 'n' me" bits.

what was THAT like.. seemed like such a weird gig from the random bits of footage i've seen.

crazy set..

https://www.setlist.fm/setlist/rem/1998/robert-f-kennedy-memorial-stadium-washington-dc-5bd697f4.html

Stipe shimmying to "Airportman" in a sarong!