Times could not have been better for their I.R.S. contract to run out. After landing at the top without compromising their still decidely non-commercial vision, they were the subjects of a bidding war. Warner Brothers landed them for a substantial sum, closing out their indie era and making them the greatest indie success story until Nirvana hit.
Green, from 1988, was their first Warners release. It also represents a crossroads for the band. While they remain true to their roots, and true to their idiosyncratic sound and experimentation, they also suffered what might be considered their first dose of overexposure; some of the longer term fans began to bail here, just as brand new fans clamored aboard. The album itself is strangely schizophrenic. The first side runs a gamut of moods, from the tuneful "Pop Song 89" to the wistful and romantic "You Are The Everything", to the elegant piano-based "World Leader Pretend". Buck's dabbling in mandolin makes its first big impressions on this album, particularly on the bizarrely touching "The Wrong Child". Side two begins with a slice of quasi-art-pop "Orange Crush" before descending into a series of murky hard rock tunes. "Stand" was the album's big hit, peaking at #6, "Orange Crush" was a #1 radio hit. "Stand" was controversial; a pop-rocker built on elementary chords, with a lyric like a children's rhyme, it seemed silly for those who took the band's earlier, darker obsessions seriously. However, it is certainly a catchy piece of ear candy, a born radio hit, and Green, while uneven and at times dull, stands as a pretty good transitional effort.
Now headliners, the band began playing stadiums in America, and spent most of 1988 on the road; 1989 was the first year since the band was formed that saw no new product released. The tour left the band exhausted, and they took most of 1989 off; working on a variety of side projects. They didn't begin recording again until 1990, when work commenced on Out Of Time.
Out Of Time, released 1991, was a long-anticipated release, after the nearly 3-year haitus, and it entered the charts at #1. As most of their previous albums had been recorded between tours, they all generally boasted a spare sound, relying on standard instruments, easily replicable live. Much care went into Out Of Time's production, with overdubs and lush production, with french horns, strings, and mandolins, and careful detail to the mixing. The album received generally good notice, and their fanbase continued to grow, but once again, older fans saw the album as something of a disappointment. The songwriting remains uneven; there are moments of grandeur, and moments of lightweight sillyness. Singled out for attack by many long-time fans was "Shiny Happy People", a shiny happy pop tune featuring Kate Pierson of the B-52's. The song is in a similar vein to "Stand", catchy and tuneful, but ultimately meaningless. Elsewhere, "Losing My Religion" has been called both a masterpiece and an embarrassment; it all depends on how you approach the music. Out Of Time, in reality, is yet another transitional album; now able to use state of the art expensive production techniques, the band's songs seem tentative and unfinished. One of the best moments, "Endgame" consists of Stipe humming over a lush strings-and-french horn backing. In retrospect, despite the care that went into it, Out Of Time remains one of the band's lesser efforts. The album was their biggest seller ever, however, selling 4 million copies.
Automatic For The People came out in 1992, and it is a return to form, their most accomplished album of the 1990's and a real progression for the band, one that succeeds on all fronts. The band sounds as though it had been doing a lot of reflecting, not just on music, but on life, aging, and death. "Man On The Moon", a tribute to prankster comedian Andy Kaufman, is one of their sweetest, most elegiac, and lyrically poignant songs ever; Mills' backing vocals and bassline are classic. "Star Me Kitten" is a strange throwback to the early 60's, with a ghostly wall-of-sound production built upon sustained backing vocals; Stipe lends it his most tender and romantic vocal. "Everybody Hurts" is plaintive and raw, "Nightswimming" is melancholic, "Find The River" borders on the spiritual. The album itself, like Fables of the Reconstruction, is greater than the sum of its parts, conveying an epic quality. Strings (arranged by John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin), keyboards, and overdubs are integrated into the band's sound better than on previous efforts, keeping the entire package sounding organic and authentic. Even the hard-to-please oldtimers generally liked it. A #2 album on the charts, it also sold about 4 million copies.
The band's next release was Monster, in 1994. It is here that things began going seriously wrong for the band. Monster was a long-promised hard rock album from the band; it was to feature guitar driven rock with a minimum of overdubs. On paper, it looked like a good idea; as old fans of Television and Patti Smith, surely the biggest post-punk band of them all could deliver on the promise. The very first chords of "What's The Frequency Kenneth?" seemed to confirm this; an uncompromising hard rocker, with phase shifted and backwards guitars, it had an appealing psychedelic propulsion to it, a great harmonic chorus, and a lyric and overall sound that was still distinctly R.E.M. Unfortunately, the album hits the dirt after that; while the songs do rock hard, and Buck's guitar is the star of the show, the songs themselves are murky, forgettable, and weird in an unappealing way. "Crush With Eyeliner" is the key track; a bizarre gender-bending glam rock number it points to the other songs' odd fixations and fetishes. On tour, the band glammed it up onstage, dressing like rock stars, while failing to convey the visual impact such music demanded. The album hit #1 on sheer momentum, but displayed somewhat less staying power than previous releases.
The supporting tour, in 1995, was the band's first since Green, and it was star-crossed from the beginning. Bill Berry suffered a brain aneurism two months in; he recovered after surgery, and the tour resumed. Mills suffered an intestinal tumor that had to be surgically removed. Stipe suffered a hernia. The tour was completed, and was a financial success, but it had long-lasting effects on the band members.
Article comments
1 - Rob
Great overview. The Reconstruction album is still my personal favourite, with Murmer and Reckoning close behind. I did lose interest after Monster and haven't really followed them much since. They are still one of my bigger influences and have turned me on to other great bands (Indigo Girls, 10,000 Maniacs to name a few).
2 - Aaman
Humongous work - my vote for pick-of-the-week.
Why do you say that lyrically, the myths are gone?
3 - radio gnome
great write up, and nice pick for the concert poster with the Dream Syndicate. The second REM gig I attended had the Dream Syndicate opening, and I got to interview the Syndicate after the gig for my college radio station.
Those two bands appearing together were great. Fun times.
cheers.gnome
http://www.radiohidebound.com
if you liked listening to college radio in the 80's, you might just like radio hidebound
4 - Eric Berlin
Wow -- epic tour through the history of one of my favorite bands. It's a great piece, though I disagree in parts. For instance, I recently placed Life's Rich Pageant as my #3 album of my Top 100 (1985-2005). I also place New Adventures in my Top 25. Both albums just do it for me, I suppose -- brilliant and moving records.
5 - Tan The Man
A lot of people didn't like the Up! album, but I thought it was really good.
6 - Triniman
Excellent piece. I had the pleasure of seeing them in my city last year, for their first-ever performance here, in a 2300-seat theatre that sold out in a few minutes.
Will they ever recapture the glory of their landmark albums or will they become a nostalgia act? All I can say is that most bands are at heir creative peak for usually ten years or less, so maybe their best material is past them. I'll still be at the store on the first day, whenever their new releases arrive.
7 - Mark Saleski
nice writeup.
i was lucky enough to see REM on the Murmur tour. this was at the gym at the university of maine. Stipe was so introverted that he barely looked at the audience.
they were great though...
8 - uao
Thanks for reading;
Some thoughts and replies:
Aaman: The "myth" comment meant that the Southern Gothic reconstructed fables of the 80's seem to have largely been displaced by vaguer, more domestic concerns on the last few albums. Not entirely; I probably need to re-phrase that. But for the most part.
radio gnome: Glad the poster had meaning for you. It was a random choice; I wanted an early block-letters type poster, and Dream Syndicate was my favorite supporting act of the several I found; wish I had seen that gig.
Eric: Honestly, I was kinda bummed when Life's Rich Pageant came out, but it has grown on me over the years. I was totally enraptured by Fables, so anything would've been a comedown. Pageant is a likable album (as are all of their discs, although I never could get past the second song on Monster) R.E.M. albums really do mean different things to different people, and everyone really does have different favorites.
Tan: Up! does have its fans, I know. Another good album that for me was simply overshadowed by their greater ones.
I first heard of R.E.M. when the Village Voice reviewed it in '83, and I snapped it and Chronic Town both up on the same day unheard; the write-up had convinced me it would be what I had dreamed of hearing. They turned out to surpass my dreams.
A favorite early appearance they did was the Letterman Show in 1984, between Murmer and Reckoning. They did "Radio free Europe" and then Letterman asked them what the next song was called. Stipe didn't do any talking that night; Mills told him "It's too new, it doesn't have a name" before launching into an early "So. Central Rain"
There are precious few albums I listened to in the 80's more often than R.E.M.'s EP and first three albums, especially Fables.
I know this was a long post; thank you for sticking it out and leaving your thoughts. I was getting kind of nostaligic when I wrote it.
9 - uao
Dang! Forgot to close my italics tag again! I'll be more careful.
10 - Eric Berlin
There's a live acoustic version of So. Central Rain that I own, and I'm not sure where it's from. Possibly an MTV Unplugged album? In any event, it's one of the best things I've ever heard -- and I actually like it a lot more than the original version.
11 - uao
It's hard to guess, but the live "So. Central Rain" could be from the Canadian 2-track CD single "Animal" + "So. Central Rain [live]", released in 2003.
There are probably other live versions circulating too.
12 - Phillip Winn
Fantastic article. I thought I knew a bit about REM, but it turns out I knew very lttle indeed.
Thanks.
13 - stephen j
I stumbled onto this review after daydreaming about the trips over to Athens in the Fall of 1987-1989 to visit friends who went to UGA. That was when the members of REM still lived in Athens. Every night you would see them hanging out at a local bar or club, and you could talk to them without feeling threatend or intimidated. They were all nice guys.
I fall into the fan base that gave up on them after Green. I bought the next two albums after Green, in hopes that they would go back to the "pre-Document" sound, but it never happened. My favorites were Murmur through Document. I also saw them at the Fox theater in Atlanta, GA during the Lifes Rich Pagent tour. Incredible! I heard that Michael Stipe colored his hair with mustard when performing during that phase?
They seemed to loose it a little when the "southern" dissapeared from their lyrics and "style."
They are still one of my favorite bands of all time for sure. If you want to see a very good show, get the DVD that shows footage of the Green tour. They took versions of songs performed on the final three dates here in Atlanta and Macon, Georgia. Great Stuff! Also, keep your eye out for any REM bootlegs that have a version of "Bad Day." It was an out-take of one of their earlier albums, and it blows the recent version away!
Anyway, I felt compelled to write.
Awesome piece here!
sj
14 - uao
Thank you steven j. (and a late thanks to Phillip.)
stephen, you add a lot of intersting anecdotes in your comments to the post; I appreciate it.
I didn't seetheir 1989 tour, but I've heard many recordings from it; it was a good one (I kind of like their '87 tour better, but both are good).