R.E.M. Albums (15)
'iTunes Live: From London'
Release Date 6/24/2008
Tracks 9
Label Warner
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
For years, R.E.M. promised that their next album would be a rocker, an oath to fans that perhaps made sense during the early '90s, when they were exploring the pastoral fields of Out of Time and the gloomy folk of Automatic for the People, but in the years after Bill Berry's 1997 departure, the desire of longtime fans for the group to rock again was merely a code word for the wish that R.E.M. would sound like a band again. Apart from a few fleeting moments -- "The Great Beyond," their "Man in the Moon" re-write for the 1999 Andy Kaufman biopic, Man in the Moon; "Bad Day," a mid-'80s outtake revived for a greatest-hits album -- R.E.M. not only didn't sound like a band, but they seemed at odds with themselves and their very strengths, culminating in the amorphous, mummified Around the Sun, a record so polished and overworked it didn't sound a bit like R.E.M., not even like the art-pop outfit the band turned into after Berry's retirement. It was a situation so dire that the band recognized the need for corrective steering, so they stripped themselves down to bare-bones for 2008's Accelerate. In every way Accelerate is the opposite of Around the Sun: at 36 minutes, it's defiantly lean, it's heavy on Peter Buck's guitars and Mike Mills backing vocals, its songs don't drift, they attack. Even the songs constructed on acoustics feel like they're rockers, maybe because they hearken back to the eerie, ramshackle grace of "Swan Swan H" whose riff echoes through both "Houston" and "Until the Day Is Done." This is not the only time that R.E.M. deliberately refers to the past on Accelerate, but reverential self-reference is the whole idea of this project: they're embracing their past, building upon the legacy and the very sound of such underground rock landmarks as Lifes Rich Pageant and Document. Not that this album could be mistaken for an exhumed classic from the '80s: Michael Stipe's lyrics are forthright and never elliptical, and the same could be said about the music, as it's sonically streamlined and precise, hallmarks of a veteran band. One of the benefits of being veterans is knowing how to create a record this focused, and Accelerate benefits greatly from its concentrated blast of guitars, as the brevity of the album makes R.E.M. seem vital even as they're dredging up the past. By no longer denying the jangle and pop that provided a foundation for the group's success, they sound like a band again. Such praise dangerously threatens to oversell Accelerate, however, suggesting that the album has either the unearthly mystique of Murmur or the ragged enthusiasm of Reckoning when it has neither. This is a careful, studied album from a band that knew they were on the brink of losing their audience and, worse, their identity. Accelerate finds R.E.M. attempting to reconnect with their music, with what made them play rock & roll in the first place, instead of methodically resurrecting a faded myth. They reconnect handsomely, creating an album the can stand next to work from their peers, like Dinosaur Jr.'s exceptional comeback Beyond and Sonic Youth's casually vital Rather Ripped (whose "Incinerate" reverberates in the dissonant open-ended "Accelerate"). As comebacks go, that's relatively modest, but the very modesty of Accelerate is what makes it such a successful rebirth as R.E.M. no longer denies what they were or what they are, and, in doing so, they offer a glimpse of what they could be once again. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
The second LP of R.E.M. Mach II (post-Bill Berry) finds the 21-year vets exploring more of Up's sensual cosmos, only via their directly-melodic, early '90s writing. Like a warmer, more rainy version of their 1991 breakthrough smash LP Out of Time, the trio with hand-picked permanent guests seems totally inspired by the chamber-spiritual, subconscious elements they now favor. The opening "The Lifting" is a perfect example. Michael Stipe's epicurean, beguiling vocal comes out of swatches of looping, icy keyboards and strident, chiming pianos, encircling you like little planets revolving around your head, as feedbacky background touches bubble and burst like rocket flares to a delicious two/three-and beat. It's like some magic world beyond our grasp, one he's finally found the door to-totally irresistible. It's also the best pop single the band's given us since "The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight," and further evidence of their ceaseless vitality. As Stipe trills, "If you hear these voices calling you," he seems to be foreshadowing an LP where one nearly is guided by them, via creative overdub-layering that would make one of R.E.M.'s recent mentors, the 1966-'67 Brian Wilson, smile. (See the sweet, scrumptious, Pet Sounds-ish "Summer Turns to High" and "Beachball.") Beautifully and luxuriously recorded by the returning Pat McCarthy, the lush organs, pianos, strings, flitting guitar, and lavish beds of bass and drums quietly glitter in the gloaming. It comes in different flavors, too: Western movie rustic-tones pervade "All the Way to Reno (You're Gonna Be A Star)," complete with tasteful xylophone, while the strings wash over "She Just Wants to Be." The waltz-time "Disappear" feels like an Automatic For the People track reflected through a funhouse mirror room of the spinning guitars. And the "Electrolite"/"Find the River" entry, "I'll Take the Rain," is unspeakably rainforest-lush and beautiful, a must. Peter Buck and Mike Mills have rarely been more creative, unobtrusively creating successive inventive parts that jump out over successive listens. And Stipe, whether rising with magnificent resignation from the subliminal piano weave (nearly Chills-like!) of the sparse "Saturn Return" or seducing so thoroughly on "The Lifting," has rarely seemed more softly stirring, the twilight of the music reflected perfectly in his restrained singing. Rock stars can mature, and make fine music for decades. R.E.M.'s luscious pop is a rare exception to the usual sickly pattern, the down-the-drain of predictable mediocrity to feeble efforts. It's a long way from "Carnival of Sorts" to "Imitation of Life," but today's R.E.M. is not only a fair inheritor of its own long and fine legacy; they're doing some of their best work in the here and now. Reveal is a small revelation, a delightful but ever-challenging headphones record to revel in. ~ Jack Rabid, The Big Takeover, All Music Guide
'New Adventures in Hi-Fi'
Release Date 9/10/1996
Tracks 14
Label Warner Bros.
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Recorded during and immediately following R.E.M.'s disaster-prone Monster tour, New Adventures in Hi-Fi feels like it was recorded on the road. Not only are all of Michael Stipe's lyrics on the album about moving or travel, the sound is ragged and varied, pieced together from tapes recorded at shows, soundtracks, and studios, giving it a loose, careening charm. New Adventures has the same spirit of much of R.E.M.'s IRS records, but don't take the title of New Adventures in Hi-Fi lightly -- R.E.M. tries different textures and new studio tricks. "How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us" opens the album with a rolling, vaguely hip-hop drum beat and slowly adds on jazzily dissonant piano. "E-Bow the Letter" starts out as an updated version of "Country Feedback," then it turns in on itself with layers of moaning guitar effects and Patti Smith's haunting backing vocals. Clocking in at seven minutes, "Leave" is the longest track R.E.M. has yet recorded and it's one of their strangest and best -- an affecting minor-key dirge with a howling, siren-like feedback loop that runs throughout the entire song. Elsewhere, R.E.M. tread standard territory: "Electrolite" is a lovely piano-based ballad, "Departure" rocks like a Document outtake, the chiming opening riff of "Bittersweet Me" sounds like it was written in 1985, "New Test Leper" is gently winding folk-rock, and "The Wake-Up Bomb" and "Undertow" rock like the Monster outtakes they are. New Adventures in Hi-Fi may run a little too long -- it clocks in at 62 minutes, by far the longest album R.E.M. has ever released -- yet in its multifaceted sprawl, they wound up with one of their best records of the '90s. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Monster is indeed R.E.M.'s long-promised "rock" album; it just doesn't rock in the way one might expect. Instead of R.E.M.'s trademark anthemic bashers, Monster offers a set of murky sludge, powered by the heavily distorted and delayed guitar of Peter Buck. Michael Stipe's vocals have been pushed to the back of the mix, along with Bill Berry's drums, which accentuates the muscular pulse of Buck's chords. From the androgynous sleaze of "Crush With Eyeliner" to the subtle, Eastern-tinged menace of "You," most of the album sounds dense, dirty, and grimy, which makes the punchy guitars of "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" and the warped soul of "Tongue" all the more distinctive. Monster doesn't have the conceptual unity or consistently brilliant songwriting of Automatic for the People, but it does offer a wide range of sonic textures that have never been heard on an R.E.M. album before. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
'Automatic for the People'
Release Date 1/1/1992
Tracks 12
Label Warner Bros.
See Album Tracklist and Review
What The Critics Say
Turning away from the sweet pop of Out of Time, R.E.M. created a haunting, melancholy masterpiece with Automatic for the People. At its core, the album is a collection of folk songs about aging, death, and loss, but the music has a grand, epic sweep provided by layers of lush strings, interweaving acoustic instruments, and shimmering keyboards. Automatic for the People captures the group at a crossroads, as they moved from cult heroes to elder statesmen, and the album is a graceful transition into their new status. It is a reflective album, with frank discussions on mortality, but it is not a despairing record -- "Nightswimming," "Everybody Hurts," and "Sweetness Follows" have a comforting melancholy, while "Find the River" provides a positive sense of closure. R.E.M. have never been as emotionally direct as they are on Automatic for the People, nor have they ever created music quite as rich and timeless, and while the record is not an easy listen, it is the most rewarding record in their oeuvre. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
R.E.M. began to move toward mainstream record production on Lifes Rich Pageant, but they didn't have a commercial breakthrough until the following year's Document. Ironically, Document is a stranger, more varied album than its predecessor, but co-producer Scott Litt -- who would go on to produce every R.E.M. album in the following decade -- is a better conduit for the band than Don Gehman, giving the group a clean sound without sacrificing their enigmatic tendencies. "Finest Worksong," the stream-of-conscious rant "It's the End of the World as We Know It (And I Feel Fine)," and the surprise Top Ten single "The One I Love" all crackle with muscular rhythms and guitar riffs, but the real surprise is how political the mid-tempo jangle pop of "Welcome to the Occupation," "Disturbance at the Heron House," and "King of Birds" is. Where Lifes Rich Pageant sounded a bit like a party record, Document is a fiery statement, and its memorable melodies and riffs are made all the more indelible by its righteous anger. In other words, it's not only a commercial breakthrough, but a creative breakthrough as well, offering evidence of R.E.M.'s growing depth and maturity, and helping usher in the P.C. era in the process. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
What The Critics Say
Fables of the Reconstruction was intentionally murky, and Lifes Rich Pageant was constructed as its polar opposite. Teaming with producer Don Gehman, who previously worked with John Mellencamp, R.E.M. developed their most forceful record to date. Where previous records kept the rhythm section in the background, Pageant emphasizes the beat, and the band turns in its hardest rockers to date, including the anthemic "Begin the Begin" and the punky "Just a Touch." But the cleaner production also benefits the ballads and the mid-tempo janglers, particularly since it helps reveal Michael Stipe's growing political obsessions, especially on the environmental anthems "Fall on Me" and "Cuyahoga." The group hasn't entirely left myths behind -- witness the Civil War ballad "Swan Swan H" -- but the band sound more contemporary both musically and lyrically than they did on either Fables or Murmur, which helps give the record an extra kick. And even with excellent songs like "I Believe," "Flowers of Guatemala," "These Days," and "What if We Give It Away," it's ironic that the most memorable moment comes from the garage rock obscurity "Superman," which is sung with glee by Mike Mills. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Music Guide
