Oh my peer,Your veneer is wearing thin and cracking
The surface informs that underneath,
Underneath is lacking
There are a few filler tracks near the album’s end (“Zither,” “Binky the Doormat”) but there are several songs that should not be missed. “So Fast So Young” is one of REM’s more underrated songs, a strong, pulsing guitar-song driven home by a crisp, intense Stipe on vocals and a whimsical barroom piano.
“Low Desert” keeps up the bar band spirit with a country-inflected rocker, but it is “Electrolite,” New Adventure in Hi-Fi’s final song, that really puts a wonderful spin on the entire vibe of the album. A gentle, yearning number, world weary yet strangely sunny, it puts a smile at the journey’s end.
If you ever want to flyMulholland Drive
Up in the sky
Stand on a cliff and look down there
Don't be scared, you are alive
You are alive
And maybe LA’s famous, rambling Mulholland Drive is a perfect place to end, in the West, at the ocean, with no more land to escape across.
The add-on features of the DVD-A are nice but not essential. If you have Surround Sound and dig REM, it’s worth looking into as the overall sound is enhanced several notches throughout. And, in the case of “New Test Leper,” it makes a significant difference. The documentary is short and sweet, the most illuminating moment being Michael Stipe’s assertion that New Adventures sounds kind of like early Mott the Hoople.
Other REM reissue reviews:
* Automatic for the People
* Up
* In Time: The Best of R.E.M. 1988-2003
For more on this and every other topic under the sun, check out:
Dumpster Bust: Manufacturing Miracles from Mind Trash, Since 2003
Article comments
1 - Tim Jarrett
Nice. This has always been one of my favorites of the Warner Bros. era R.E.M. albums.
2 - Eric Berlin
Thanks Tim. Just last night, as I was finishing off this piece, I realized that New Adventures is my favorite late-era or Warner-ear R.E.M. album. The early favorite is much harder, but probably between Murmur and Life's Rich Pageant.