RIP REM......

[User482]

It may seem to be a strange attitude, but if everyone likes something, that's an indication to me that all the edges which may have made some people love them and other people hate them have been smoothed off. Leading to something which is basically pretty bland and "safe" and radio friendly and ... MOR. Speaking as a musician, I always struggled to find something - anything - clever or innovative in their songs, the only redeeming feature of which was Stipe's voice ...




... notwithstanding this point, which is absolutely spot on. About the best that can be said of Stipe is "well, at least he's not Bono. Or Sting."

Correlation is not causation!

The subject matter of Losing My Religion, and the use of a mandolin are not indicative of a band concerned with mass popularity, yet that was one of their biggest hits. You also seem to forget that they spent many years on the college rock circuit before anyone had heard of them.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Correlation is not causation!

The subject matter of Losing My Religion, and the use of a mandolin are not indicative of a band concerned with mass popularity, yet that was one of their biggest hits. You also seem to forget that they spent many years on the college rock circuit before anyone had heard of them.

Very possibly you're right. My "interest" in REM's early career is somewhere down below "none at all", after all. "Losing my Religion" is no more than a tedious self indulgent piece of navel gazing on the part of Stipe, backed up by some utterly bog standard AOR chord progressions and a 4/4 beat. Their use of a mandolin in it is really neither here nor there; I use a mandolin on stage and no one (least of all me) thinks it suddenly makes me into some kind of Marc Ribot figure.
However, I suspect we're just going to have to agree to differ on this one. You enjoy REM's output, I find it akin to wading through porridge in ill-fitting wellies, and neither position is right or wrong!

 

[User482]

As I said, I can understand that they're not to your taste, but I find your reasoning bizarre.

 

[slowmotion]

Or Sting.

His lectures are the very worst....

 

[Rhythm Thief]

As I said, I can understand that they're not to your taste, but I find your reasoning bizarre.

Fair enough, but it makes perfect sense to me. I just don't find there to be any attitude or balls or ... anything ... in their music. No matter how profound the lyrics may be, their music is something you might hear playing in the lifts at your local shopping centre. And that's really not what rocknroll should be about, and it's what makes tham MOR.

 

[slowmotion]

There was something uniquely joyless about REM. Even "Shiny Happy People" couldn't be lifted to cheerful by a wonderful imported singer. They were really horrible. I ain't missing you...

 

[User482]

Fair enough, but it makes perfect sense to me. I just don't find there to be any attitude or balls or ... anything ... in their music. No matter how profound the lyrics may be, their music is something you might hear playing in the lifts at your local shopping centre. And that's really not what rocknroll should be about, and it's what makes tham MOR.

If they were MOR, they wouldn't have spent so many years on the college rock circuit. The fact that they achieved great popularity in the middle of their career doesn't mean it was something they actively sought. All it comes down to is that their music does nothing for you.

 

[Dan B]

I think someone's already mentioned the Police!

Woop woop

(It's the sound of da police)

 

[DiddlyDodds]

Never liked em , so will not miss em ,,,anyway they will re-form in 10 years just like the rest

 

[Flying_Monkey]

I'm going to have to disagree with Rhythm Thief here. If you are going to base a judgment of REM's worth on 'Orange Crush' and because of that, call them MOR, you are being really unfair. The albums Green and Out of Time were perhaps their most purely populist for sure. Fans of the band at the time were muttering things like 'sell out'. These voices were generally quieter by the time of Automatic for the People. But thing is that their best work was before this anyway. You listen to the frantic, clever early albums, changing as Stipe learned to sing on the job, and you get a real sense of a band with a peculiar energy all of their own, that added something distinctive to the landscape of popular music.

And, sorry Slowmotion, but they were not like U2 back then. And Stipe was and is not Bono. His lyrics were not preachy, but often layered, subtle and even obscure, much like the way in which he remained ambiguous in public discussion of his sexuality. Listen to Life's Rich Pageant and Fables of the Reconstruction...

Anyway, it's no surprise they are calling it a day now. They stopped being the REM I knew and loved a long time ago, and they've really had little to say for a long time now. But you know, once, they were really something.

 

[Rapples]

But you know, once, they were really something.

Put me out of my misery FM, what film is that from, or am I mistaken

 

[brockers]

Of course, I only liked them before they became famous.

 

[jonny jeez]

....who have packed it in. To be fair, the last ten or fifteen years have been relatively quiet, and I doubt they'll be missed in any immediate sense. Today sees the end of what was, once upon a time, the 'best band in the world', the band that lit up the late eighties and early nineties with a combination of a snappy beat and slightly agonised, not to say heartlifting lyrics that (clever, this) made their fans feel warmly about themselves. The B-52s with added significance.


Love him or loath him, Stipe was a heck of a singer. Self-regarding and self-critical, he got up sufficient people's noses to be popular with a whole lot more. Whether Thom Yorke intentionally trod in his footsteps I've no idea, but it's a near perfect formula for success, not least with students who go on to be big buyers of music. He conveyed a kind of dreamy but adult romanticism that hinted at the art of grown-up conversation - although when he emerged from behind the microphone he didn't usually have a lot to say.

Anyroadup - here they are.
View: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ToVIlrfpBAA&feature=related

What, REM were still together? I thought they split up years ago.

Were they that original?... didnt talking heads invent a similar sound about 10 years before them.

 

[Zoiders]

What, REM were still together? I thought they split up years ago.

Were they that original?... didnt talking heads invent a similar sound about 10 years before them.

Talking heads?

Similar?

Bloody miles apart man!

 

[just jim]

I was very into them once. I bought "Reckoning" on the strength of the twisty painted river on the album cover. Vinyl huh?
"Camera" and "Rockville" are good, and I could understand the lyrics...