Tuesday, October 19, 2004
October 5: REM - Around the Sun
Snuck over to Best Buy first thing this morning to get the new REM disc; it's sort of a ritual with me to get it on opening day, ever since Automatic for the People. I spent about five minutes dithering over whether or not to buy the special edition, which has 14 fold-out posters with cool art prints on one side and the song lyrics on the other. But it was $30, so I just went with the regular version.
First impression: not so good, because when I unwrapped the plastic, a poster FELL OUT of the digipak. Instead of liner notes, they have a poster, which isn't fastened to the CD case at all. It's just loose. So I figure mine will be lost here in a week or so.
How's the album? A little disappointing. Michael Stipe told the British press about six months ago that it was going to be "howling and raw," or something like that. Instead, it's soft, slow, polished, and precise, just like UP and Reveal were. And there's still not much in the way of percussion going on, even though the new drummer is Bill Rieflin, who used to be in Ministry. Ministry! Electro-industrial thrash-metal! Now that's got some good drums on it! Use 'em!
Apparently this is the pattern for the new, three-piece REM: soft, slow, adult-alternative album. Then, in-between albums, give 'em some rock, like with "Great Beyond" and "Bad Day." Then again, "Great Beyond" was a re-write of "Man on the Moon" and "Bad Day" was a re-write of "it's the end of the world as we know it," complete with the same chords. So maybe they're out of rock ideas.
There are some good tunes on here. "Aftermath" is supposed to be the second single, and hopefully it'll be a hit, and I also like "the ascent of man," "Wanderlust," and "Electron Blue." Then there's songs that are just clunkers, like "High Speed Train," "Make it All Okay," and "Final Straw." The thing is 13 tracks, which is a little longer than your average REM album, and some of these could have been left off.
One review I read said the whole thing sounds like a Michael Stipe solo album, and in some ways, that's true. You can't hear a lot of classic Pete Buck guitar, and Mike Mills' background vocals are mostly absent again, just like the last couple of albums.
Sadly, this album sounds exactly like what you would expect an album to sound like that was made in the Bahamas by three dudes with an $80 million record contract. There's no urgency whatsoever. REM are still my favorite band, but like the late, great producer Bruce Dickinson, I gotta have more cowbell.
Or something like that.
First impression: not so good, because when I unwrapped the plastic, a poster FELL OUT of the digipak. Instead of liner notes, they have a poster, which isn't fastened to the CD case at all. It's just loose. So I figure mine will be lost here in a week or so.
How's the album? A little disappointing. Michael Stipe told the British press about six months ago that it was going to be "howling and raw," or something like that. Instead, it's soft, slow, polished, and precise, just like UP and Reveal were. And there's still not much in the way of percussion going on, even though the new drummer is Bill Rieflin, who used to be in Ministry. Ministry! Electro-industrial thrash-metal! Now that's got some good drums on it! Use 'em!
Apparently this is the pattern for the new, three-piece REM: soft, slow, adult-alternative album. Then, in-between albums, give 'em some rock, like with "Great Beyond" and "Bad Day." Then again, "Great Beyond" was a re-write of "Man on the Moon" and "Bad Day" was a re-write of "it's the end of the world as we know it," complete with the same chords. So maybe they're out of rock ideas.
There are some good tunes on here. "Aftermath" is supposed to be the second single, and hopefully it'll be a hit, and I also like "the ascent of man," "Wanderlust," and "Electron Blue." Then there's songs that are just clunkers, like "High Speed Train," "Make it All Okay," and "Final Straw." The thing is 13 tracks, which is a little longer than your average REM album, and some of these could have been left off.
One review I read said the whole thing sounds like a Michael Stipe solo album, and in some ways, that's true. You can't hear a lot of classic Pete Buck guitar, and Mike Mills' background vocals are mostly absent again, just like the last couple of albums.
Sadly, this album sounds exactly like what you would expect an album to sound like that was made in the Bahamas by three dudes with an $80 million record contract. There's no urgency whatsoever. REM are still my favorite band, but like the late, great producer Bruce Dickinson, I gotta have more cowbell.
Or something like that.
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