REM done

[fishjim]

This is why I love Shiny Happy People.

That nails it, clare. Monsters and a banjo! Love it.

[narlus]

Just seen the poll - Stand is a great track! People don't like Stand????

it reminds me of Chris Elliot.

[Andrew_TSKS]

.
and i guess one could count _Decade_ as half a greatest hits comp, giving him 2.5

I was thinking of Decade and Greatest Hits. And speaking of track selection, two thirds of the latter overlaps with the former and it's missing Cortez the Killer, but it's still a great selection. But then given that it's 1969-92 minus the Geffen period, it would have been hard to fuck up. There's also Lucky Thirteen, which seems to be some sort of Least Great Hits collection drawing exclusively from the legendarily bad Geffen albums such as Trans.

Actually, at least half of Lucky Thirteen is alternate versions of songs from those albums, either taken from different recording sessions or live recordings. Based on the alternate versions he used, I'd be willing to bet that it's better than any of those individual Geffen albums.

[JamesSchneider]

I've been consoling myself with the music of those who could not have possibly existed without the first few REM records. Today it's The Long Winters.

[davy]

Aw, I really like them. "Cinnamon" is one of my all-time favorite songs.

[JamesSchneider]

Aw, I really like them. "Cinnamon" is one of my all-time favorite songs.

Was listening to that one in bed this morning trying to get up!

[RoyBiggins]

I've been listening to that album all week without seeing this thread!  Great minds.  I also got "Putting hte Days to Bed" 'cause I never did before, despite how much I liked their first two.

[davy]

Hey wait, I think I only have two. I thought there were only two! I guess I'm missing the first one?

[JamesSchneider]

2002 - The Worst You Can Do Is Harm


2003 - When I Pretend To Fall


2006 - Putting The Days To Bed

John Roderick also has a nice turn on "Nemeses" from Jonathan Coulton's recent John Flansburgh produced Artificial Heart, and his weekly podcast with Merlin Mann, Roderick on the Line, is just delightful. In a recent episode he discusses Travis Morrison and his "collection of aspergers indie-rock dingbats" trying and failing to eat his chili, only to "do an end run" on his pasta. How don't you want that to be a part of your life.

[davy]

Yeah, now I remember reading about The Worst You Can Do Is Harm. Haven't actually heard it, though. How's it stack up?

[JamesSchneider]

Consensus is that it's comparitively weak, but I think that's horseshit. Carparts and Unsalted Butter in particular are pretty much all time LW classics if you ask me. The whole thing really holds together.

[Nick Ink]

Consensus is that it's comparitively weak, but I think that's horseshit. Carparts and Unsalted Butter in particular are pretty much all time LW classics if you ask me. The whole thing really holds together.

I like it too, but I must say that second album has always seemed like the best Long Winters album to me.

[RoyBiggins]

You are both correct

[sashwap]

r.e.m.'s final single comes out tomorrow.

[edison]

I am kicking myself for even caring, but I hope it's not (too) terrible.

[auto-da-fey]

I keep my "current albums I'm listening to/want to listen to" in a big pile on my table until they qualify as "listened to," and in an effort to get Collapse Into Now filed away with the other REM albums on a proper shelf, I played it three or four times in the past couple days. I liked it more than I had yet, which is to say if I were a music critic needing a letter grade I'd probably slap a B- on it with a sigh. At least now I have that sense of closure that comes with feeling you've substantively absorbed an album.

Had no idea about the new single, but I will approach it in the spirit of edison . . .

[Andrew_TSKS]

I would give it a solid B. It hasn't grabbed me the way Accelerate did, but it's a solid album that I enjoy every time I play it.

[sashwap]

collapse into now is pretty good. it'd rate it in the B- range as well. it doesn't touch any of their first ten, but at least it doesn't cap off their career on an embarrassing note, like around the sun would have.

when it first came out it sounded to me like they finally worked out all the kinks of being a three piece (and they've been without bill berry for as long as he was in the band!). in that sense, it seemed like a transitional album heralding further strong work. now, with the benefit of hindsight knowing it's their last album, it seems more like a final rallying of r.e.m.-ness.

[JamesSchneider]

100% co-sign sashwap's post.

[edison]

So, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf5oJnFCaKM

Ignore the awful lyrics and you've got a perfectly good...hmm...Beachball...b-side?

[sashwap]

So, here it is: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kf5oJnFCaKM

Ignore the awful lyrics and you've got a perfectly good...hmm...Beachball...b-side?

nice melody, stipe is actually singing... yeah, it does sound like what they were going for with reveal, but the production is a bit better. i'll take it.

[auto-da-fey]

hmm...Beachball...b-side?

haha, that nailed it. I liked it more than expected, but there's no doubt it takes on added heft by virtue of its stand-alone finality. as an album track, I suspect it would blend into the undifferentiated dull pleasantness that was the steady album-filler-track backdrop of last-decade REM.

[edison]

Asked about his favorite R.E.M. song, Michael Stipe's reply:

“Supernatural Superserious.” I took my abilities as a fiction writer and pushed them as far as I could with that song and I’m really proud of it. It does that beautiful thing at the end where the vocals go faster and the drums come in and accentuate that.

And now excuse me while I shake my head in disbelief for three hours.