REM Draft Discussion Thread

[johnnya24]

The biggest one for me is The Great Beyond, when I created my REM playlist in Spotify, I completely forgot about that one. What a great track.

It was also one of their very best live songs in the late period.

I still hold out hope that we may not have seen the last of REM. I think they felt they were still producing good work, but just weren't being appreciated by critics and the media. None of the band have ever seemed that interested in doing solo work, and Michael Stipe will never lose the ability to write good songs ... even though he is seriously dabbling in visual art these days.

... an extended hiatus would make the critics appreciate them again (worked for The Pixies, Blur and The Stone Roses). These days, bands seem to come back much bigger than when they originally quit. That is something that has changed a lot with the Internet.

[Lucky]

The 1998 Bridge School produced some great performances. Here's "Country Feedback" with Neil playing acoustic lead. Very strong version, IMO.

[Long John]

Did you just bite your thumb at me sir?

I do bite my thumb, sir.

[Long John]

I'm looking at you "Zooropa!"

I think someone wants to do a U2 song draft when this is done.

[Erik]

And more.

Holy crap, The Great Beyond is really effing good. And I'd never heard it before this draft. This sort of thing is why I do drafts of artists that I'm not entirely familiar with. They were so underappreciated in their later years.

Feeling Gravity's Pull doesn't really do anything for me.

I always preferred live versions of Finest Worksong to the studio version. Probably because I don't think it's one of Stipe's better vocals (which matters less in concert), and because the intensity is upped.

The lyrics of Exhuming McCarthy have always struck me as too cutesy, but the bass line is undeniable.

Even though Mike Mills sings lead, Near Wild Heaven may be the most REM-ish song on OOT, an album where they went out of their way to be un-REM-ish. The jangle is there in force.

New Test Leper is a pleasant song elevated to something more by the bass.

Bad Day is another I'd never heard before this draft. It reminds me a lot of It's The End of the World...

Catapult is a nice little ditty.

Pop Song 89 was one of three songs that got a lot of radio play when Green came out, but I had almost forgotten about it, unlike with Stand and Orange Crush. Which is dumb because that guitar riff is quite memorable, as is the bass part in the bridge. I think I did remember them, and just forgot the name of the song.

[Stephen]

I think someone wants to do a U2 song draft when this is done.

I'd be up for that for sure. If R.E.M. is my favorite band, U2 is 1A.

[Erik]

I would totally do a U2 draft also.

[senorsheep]

As I've said, I pretty much fell off the wagon after the disappointing Monster and an underwhelming first listen to New Adventures In Hi-Fi. I've always meant to go back and give all the post-Monster REM records a fresh listen, but have never gotten around to it. If not now, then when, right?

So, I listened to New Adventures In Hi-Fi Friday, and again today. My impressions (unpicked song titles whited out):

01) How The West Was Won And Where It Got Us - A likeable, atmospheric oddball track that screams “This record isn’t Monster!”

02) The Wake-Up Bomb – An enjoyable little throwaway rocker. A Monster outtake that’s better than at least half of that record – a poor man’s Crush With Eyeliner.

03) New Test Leper – A very good song, but like most rock songs about God/ Jesus/ Christianity, it ultimately sags under the weight of its subject matter, IMO. It makes me long for the days when Stipe’s songwriting was more opaque – that approach probably would have worked better for me on this one.

04) Undertow – Another Monster outtake that sounds like my least favorite songs on that record – murky and forgettable.

05) E-Bow The Letter – I like this one *much* better now than on previous listens. Great song – I’m not sure how I missed the boat the first time around.

06) Leave – Wow, I like this one a lot! Easily my favorite track on the record so far.

07) Departure – I like this one, too. Not exactly the sound I was expecting, given the collaborators, but it works for me.

08) Bittersweet Me – Old REM meets new REM. Meh. It doesn’t grab me – at the two-and-a-half-minute mark, I was looking at the track time to see how much longer it had to go.

09) Be Mine – Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz. After a four-minute snooze-fest, the song finally hits a little groove towards the end, but by then, it’s too late – they should have saved that outro for something more worthy.

10) Binky The Doormat – More rewarmed Monster. Bleah. There’s a theme developing here: five-minute songs that aren’t terrible, but wear out their welcome after about two and a half minutes.

11) Zither – I enjoy REM’s quirky instrumental interludes, and I welcomed something to break up the string of clunkers. Actually, "clunkers" is more deroguatory than I'm aiming for - these songs aren't bad enough to be written off as clunkers. I need a word for "professionally crafted and executed songs that I find less inspired and inspiring than their best work"...

12) So Fast, So Numb – OK, this is better. I like the punchy organ and piano playing. Definitely a step up from the last three tracks preceeding Track 11, but probably not a song I’ll remember tomorrow.

13) Low Desert – Another mid-tempo number that has a little more bite to it than others on the record, and wins because it is not overlong.

14) Electrolite – Not a bad closer, but I can’t get past the fact that it sounds way too much like Nightswimming with a beat.

Summary: Is it bad to say that this album strikes me as REM's Rattle And Hum? I don't mean that in a pejorative way - I actually really like most of Rattle And Hum. The similarities are remarkable to me. Two bands looking for a new musical direction, and struggling to figure out where exactly to go. Two bands conflicted between looking backward and looking forward. Two "kitchen sink" albums built off of live tracks, outtakes, curious collaborations, and new material that they aren't certain about. Two albums that could have been improved considerably by leaving off the weakest material. I think both bands ultimately got the same result - an eclectic mix of great, good, and well-crafted-but-forgettable songs.

Verdict: I'll probably pick up this CD next time I'm in the used music store. All in all, it's a worthwhile album - I give it three and a half stars. [/Rolling Stone music critic parlance].

Next up: Errrr... Up!

[johnnya24]

New Adventures was actually quite a spontaneous record. It was mostly wrote and rehearsed on the road. They apparently used the sound checks at gigs on the Monster Tour to trial and flesh out songs. I remember reading that several of the tracks are actually recorded straight from the sound checks ... could be wrong there.

Sounds like you gave the record 1 listen ... it's not an immediate record, so I don't think it will be able to gives over it's true value with only a couple of listens. A bit like Monster, it's one of the records that gets better the more you listen.

Up will be a shock to the system

[Erik]

FFS, Wolves, Lower was my next pick!

It's a fascinating oddity. To my ears, it sounds like "Paint It Black" filtered through early U2-style productions and Stipe-y vocals and lyrics. (Suspicion yourself?)

Back in high school, some of my buddies had a band that mostly played REM, Smiths, Joy Division, and Cure covers. They often opened their sets with this. So I kinda remember it fondly because of that, too.

[johnnya24]

FFS, Wolves, Lower was my next pick!

Was on my wish list, but I didn't seriously expect to get it.

[bryanbutler]

FFS, Wolves, Lower was my next pick!

It's a fascinating oddity. To my ears, it sounds like "Paint It Black" filtered through early U2-style productions and Stipe-y vocals and lyrics. (Suspicion yourself?)

Back in high school, some of my buddies had a band that mostly played REM, Smiths, Joy Division, and Cure covers. They often opened their sets with this. So I kinda remember it fondly because of that, too.

serves you right for dissing some of my picks ...

after DMT snaked me on gardening, i had to have this one from chronic town.

[johnnya24]

The 1998 Bridge School produced some great performances. Here's "Country Feedback" with Neil playing acoustic lead. Very strong version, IMO.

REM are arguably the greatest band of all time, and Country Feedback is the greatest song by the greatest band, this is the greatest version of the greatest song by the greatest band of all time, how the F does it only have 122K hits ... must have been 9 misclicks also.

Otherworldly. I could happily just turn off the lights, lie back and wallow in this version of Country Feedback all day long.

[johnnya24]

SHIT

Screw you Butler ... Let Me In was my next pick.

FCUK







... great pick

[Long John]

FFS, Wolves, Lower was my next pick!

Insert foul-mouthed language here.

The ONLY reason I didn't take it at 6.06a was that I needed something for my set that wasn't pre-1986.

It doesn't help that some nutjob posted the 6-part article where the guy RAVES about it.

Jesus Christ! Is it my turn yet?!