REM "New Adventures in Hi-Fi"

Thanks for sharing.

In related news also a propos of nothing in particular: I like blue.

Electrolite

OP Since you posted E Bow the Letter video: No doubt about it. That Michael Stipe was head over heels for River Phoenix. His letter turned into a song, but never knew Stipe was into feet.

I love that record but the sound of 1996 was "Wannabe" by the Spice Girls or "No Diggity" or "California Love." REM always stood apart.

My favorite R.E.M. album.

It’s also my favorite REM album, and, unfortunately, their last great record.

It’s the one where Michael Stipe discovers his swagger, of sorts, and Peter Buck’s churning guitars deliver a wave of energy from beginning to end.

It’s an album that brings me back to a specific time and place so acutely that it almost hurts to be so close yet so far away.

It’s also the last album with Bill Berry. The band was never the same without him, using session drummers.

Be Mine

I like the album and I adore REM but it's funny to me that anyone would describe "New Adventures" as a "cohesive" album since to me, it sounds as scattered and random as "Out of Time." It makes sense since both records were cobbled together out of left-over ideas and jam sessions.

It's cool to hate their rave-y, rock-y songs but I like this one:

Bittersweet Me

^ I always wondered what happened to the Actress from Hot Shots!

I read somewhere that the line: " I can't look it in the eyes seconal, Spanish fly, absinthe, kerosene, cherry-flavored neck and collar, I can smell the sorrow..." Line was a reference to River Phoenix being drugged and raped at a Hollywood party by Merv Griffith. I don't know how true though.

R6 "Leave" Is just such a fucking phenomenal rock song. It should've been a single.

Michael Stipe's first solo single "Your Capricious Soul" seven years after the end of REM

[quote] a reference to River Phoenix being drugged and raped at a Hollywood party by Merv Griffith

Wasn't that just a Darwin Porter story (in other words, glorified fan fiction)?

I love the cover Radiohead did of "Be Mine".

R14 I hope so because the alternative is too sad to think about.

R13 I.... don't hate it. The lyrics are interesting. But he's going to eternally suffer from comparison to his work with REM.

I loved Out of Time and Automatic for the People, and most of the albums that preceded Out of Time, but for some reason, my reaction to the reviews of Monster was to not buy it. And I had kind of forgotten about R.E.M. by 1996. I'll give a listen. Thanks.

Radiohead and REM "Be Mine"

An interesting fact or two about New Test Leper. One of the best songs from NAIHF. I didn't know it was written for Vic bit it makes sense that it was.

I’m kind of looking forward to the new mix of Monster

Here's a remix of Let Me In where you can actually hear the vocals.

"Strange Currencies" from Monster sounds like it could have been on New Adventures

25th Anniversary of Monster

Why did REM fade from the public's consciousness?

Did all the gay boys and indie guys die of opioids? Did Stipe's weirdness get too weird for their aging audience? Did he lose his looks due to an.....illness?

In 1996 the music industry changed. New Adventures, the best album of their career, didn't sell. What did sell was The Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys and a new generation of manufactured pop. A rock album never sold like Automatic For The People or Nevermind again.

R25 He never had HIV. It was a rumour. He's always been weird. He had encephalitis as a kid and is slightly brain damaged. I don't think he got weirder.