I'm the exact same way. Everything pre-Document........I like those albums, but I didn't grow up with them and I just don't listen to them as much. And yes I know this is a minority take
I became a fan during the Up era (and saw them live for the first time then) so I have a soft spot for it. I never connected with the other post-Bill albums as much, though I also love Accelerate. New Adventures is tied with Automatic for favorite!
Update - they didnt tour together, but at Mansfield, the day before REMs shows, 10,000 maniacs performed, so it was only proper for them to mix and mingle.
Like, I still really dig those early albums, especially Reckoning and Pageant. But especially lately, I've really been going for the post-Berry records. Just such an undervalued period of the band's career.
God, Electrolite is such a beautiful fuckin’ song. I can’t believe there was a point that I didn’t really like it
Agreed. I think Accelerate is a top-tier album and "Supernatural Superserious" should have been a huge hit. I don't think they have ever played with more vigor and vitality than they did on Accelerate, you can just feel it throughout the album.
Yeah Supernatural Superserious is such a great song. There was always something a bit poignant to that song for me. I blasted it a lot around the time I graduated high school. I remember watching the premiere of the music video on VH1. I don’t remember them playing it that much afterwards, but yeah it def deserves to be a bigger single
Yeah, Accelerate rules. I know people rag on Around the Sun, but I love those records as a pair. This really serene mood piece and then this rip-roaring rock album.
Accelerate was so fun live too. I'm so glad I got to see them tour that album, especially since it ended up being the last tour. Was fun to see Michael Shannon singing "Radio Free Europe" on Seth Meyers earlier this week. Apparently he's doing a tour performing Murmur!
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/03/...e_code=1.F00.5h8R.QlqvjMnUcFJ5&smid=url-share This article is about Stipe's upcoming solo album but it has these great moments outlining conversations he has with Antonoff, Healy, Swift, Bridgers, etc. and Stipe's reactions are low key hilarious (If link is paywalled lmk but it should work) Edit - realize it was posted already lol
the more time passes the more their whole discog just reveals itself as consistently incredible to me. the fact that one of their comparatively weaker albums has songs as perfect as Imitation of Life or I'll Take the Rain, it's just wild. most bands could never
I have to give it another listen but if I have to go with my gut, for when it came out, and what turned me into a fan. 40 years ago? 1984? Jesus! I was a freshman in high school, just starting to listen to college rock/alternative. Rockville So. Central Rain Pretty Persuasion Harborcoat Seven Chinese Brothers
videos already gone but this happened (and with Bill on drums apparently!!), very clearly a one-off though. do not get your hopes up at all, I am begging you, they were clear in an interview yesterday they're not getting back together R.E.M. reunites for the first time in 15 years, performs 'Losing My Religion' probably wouldn't make my top 10-20 R.E.M. songs, even adjusting for the "overplayed" factor. deep catalog!
I was looking at lists of their albums ranked and that one was always mid- to lower-tier. Just kind of blew my mind. So, being admittedly not the biggest REM fan, I didn’t know if that one is considered a classic or not by the fans.
It’s not that it’s a bad album by any means. It’s mostly the fact that it was a polarizing album that was so different from the rest of their discography at the time. They dropped the softer Out Of Time and Automatic and then dropped this hard rocker of an album. It was confusing even though that was the point of their career where they were arguably the biggest alt rock band in the world. Kenneth and Bang And Blame were still pretty big hits tho (or I might be totally off. I wasn’t even born when this happened lol)