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Post by ukswings on Mar 9, 2011 1:26:45 GMT 1
Well, another year, another R.E.M. album.
Ho hum.
As usual, the record was preceded by a fair amount of hype. "The best album they've done since 'Out Of Time'!" some said. "R.E.M. returns to form!"
Well, not exactly. The group has slowly slid into irrelevancy during the 2000s, and there's not much here to arrest that descent.
Look at the band's history : bursting out of Athens. Georgia in the early 1980s, R.E.M. sounded like they were from some alternate universe. The music they did was brilliant, and had very little in common with anything that was being done during that time. They released four brilliant albums ("Murmur", "Reckoning", "Fables of the Reconstruction", and "Life's Rich Pageant"), and then managed to achieve mainstream success by hardening their sound with "Document". They had a huge hit in "Losing My Religion" - again sounding like nothing else prevalent during that time. They peaked in the 1990s with "Out of Time" and "Automatic For the People".
In the last ten years or so, though, they've released sporadic records that tarnish their legacy. The best of these is the 2001 album "Reveal", which at least maintained some integrity and cleverness. As for "Around the Sun" and "Accelerate", well . . . not so much.
Now comes the nicely titled "Collapse Into Now", which is in some respects better than the two previous albums, but still not quite there.
There's a diversity of sound that the group has returned to, and that's a good thing. We've got some crunchy rock numbers here ("Discoverer", "Mine Smell Like Honey") counterbalanced with some acoustic-based, mandolin-y tunes ("Uberlin", "Walk It Back"). We've got a bonafide Michael Stipe verbal-diarrhea freakout, with Patti Smith on vocals, no less ("Blue").
But Stipe's lyrics are at best mildly interesting, and at worst mundane. The amazing wordplay that was a landmark of R.E.M. seems sadly gone for the most part. Not only that, but Stipe's voice has roughened a bit over the years, and whereas before he sounded unique and deep, now he occasionally just sounds whiny.
Some of the tracks are worth a listen, though :
"Me, Marlon Brando, Marlon Brando and I" has a nice harmonic sound, with double-tracked vocals and silvery acoustic guitars. "Walk It Back" is blowsy and bluesy. "All the Best" is a straightforward rock blast, with Stipe pushing his voice up an octave in the vocal so that he sounds surprised he's singing the song. "Alligator Aviator Autopilot Antimatter" is aggressive, and brings Stipe back to those alphabetical lists he's always seemed to love.
There are lots of missteps, too, such as the folky "Oh My Heart". Here we have yet another paean to New Orleans after the storm : dude, that was six years ago. Get over it. This song adds nothing to the vast library of songs, poems, books, television shows, and movies that document that time. Also, "Every Day Is Yours To Win", with it's vaguely echoed vocal and mundanity of the words ("I cannot tell a lie/It's not all cherry pie"), is like a parody of the band in its glory days.
As much as I've always loved and respected this band, I'm thinking it's about time to write them off. I've always had high expectations of R.E.M., and in recent years they've managed to not come anywhere near reaching them. I'll have to see what the B-52s do to satisfy my Athens jones.
I can't say that it's all bad, but I can't say that it's very good, either. I give "Collapse Into Now" a 5 on the England Swings scale of 1-10.
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Post by raliverpool on Mar 9, 2011 20:52:31 GMT 1
As a big fan of the band whom has all their studio albums I agree entirely with the sentiments of this review. Reveal was their last near great album.
Personally, I think the album starts off great, but quickly loses steam bar the odd exception.
Sadly I think this is their second worst album to date ahead of just Around The Sun.
Maybe it's time for them to call it a day; or settle on being the Americana jukebox version of The Rolling Stones.
My REM album discography rating would be:
1983 Murmur 9 1984 Reckoning 8 1985 Fables of the Reconstruction 7 1986 Lifes Rich Pageant 8 1987 Document 9 1988 Green 9 1991 Out Of Time 9 1992 Automatic for the People 10 1994 Monster 7 1996 New Adventures in Hi-Fi 8 1998 Up 6 2001 Reveal 8 2004 Around the Sun 3 2008 Accelerate 5 2011 Collapse into Now 4
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borneoman
Member
love is tough, when enough is not enough
Posts: 34,344
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Post by borneoman on Mar 10, 2011 10:43:41 GMT 1
their last 5 albums have been meh... ok maybe Reveal was good but not great... but the last 3 albums have been very very very disappointing, where has all the inspiration gone???
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Post by -Big Dan- on Mar 10, 2011 12:17:49 GMT 1
'New Adventures In Hi-Fi' was their last great album for me. It happens to be one of my all-time favourites. 'Up' was a grower, but I haven't really cared for anything they've released since then.
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Post by wonderwall on Mar 10, 2011 16:36:51 GMT 1
might check this out my fav album by them is automtic they will never better that then monster
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Post by Razzle Dazzle on Mar 10, 2011 17:05:25 GMT 1
its a shame because i really liked their none album tracks they released as singles "the great beyond" 99? and bad day in 2003, yet their album output over that time is very average, yes reveal had one or 2 good songs on it but most of it was fairly poor and around the sun and accelerate were pretty poor for their standards, although some decent stuff on their it just wasnt great. i have every album from murmur until reveal. massive fan, first album i ever bought was out of time. their last 3 i haven't bothered with, says it all really
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TheThorne
Member
*Hillside, slip and slide, feel the pain, it's no surprise!*
Posts: 27,530
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Post by TheThorne on Mar 11, 2011 10:55:26 GMT 1
Well Ill be a bit more positive, I have played thid album 4 times already and thats more than I have ever listened to 'Around The Sun' or 'Accelerate' in their whole lifespans, I think its as good as 'Up' anyway but REM will never match their 86-94 era again but they are almost unique now, we only have them ,Depeche Mode and U2 as survivors from that era
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Post by Chris on Mar 11, 2011 20:24:02 GMT 1
Have only bought 2 REM studio albums, Out Of time and Automatic For The People. Heard all their others but not liked them enough to buy them. Have the In Time..GH compilation too though.
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Post by mosquito on Mar 12, 2011 12:48:51 GMT 1
This is a great,great album. A classic.
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Post by Razzle Dazzle on Mar 12, 2011 15:07:34 GMT 1
thie thing that annoys me is every album gets hyped up as the best since automatic for the people and i just avoid like the plague after being burned to many times, every time they say that they quite possibly keep getting worse, not sure an album can be called a classic when its only been out 5 days, on the other hand it cant be any worse than the last 3, which would make it their best album in well over a decade, i will have to give it a listen first.
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space
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Posts: 3,739
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Post by space on Mar 17, 2011 18:34:15 GMT 1
i really like it and enjoy it a lot.a very good collection of tracks. uberlin is a classsic REM track.
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Post by ukswings on Mar 18, 2011 0:02:36 GMT 1
Based on the responses to this review, I'd say that a lot of us hold a place in our hearts for R.E.M. Whether we consider the new album as good, bad, or somewhere in between, I think we can agree that we have high expectations of the band, and are disappointed when those expectations are not fulfilled.
We're talking about one of the most important bands of the 20th century here. After listening through the new album several times, I went back and listened to Murmur and Reckoning for the first time in a while, and that reminded me of just how good they were.
Thanks to everyone who responded. I've always hoped that reviews here would spark discussion, and I'm glad to see this one has done just that!
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