REM #10: New Adventures in Hi-Fi

Release Date: September 9, 1996

Members: Michael Stipe (vocals); Peter Buck (guitars); Michael Mills (bass, keyboards); Bill Berry (percussion)

Produced by Scott Litt & REM

Side One: How the West Was Won and Where it Got Us; The Wake-Up Bomb; New Test Leper; Undertow; E-Bow the Letter; Leave

Side Two: Departure; Bittersweet Me; Be Mine; Binky the Doormat; Zither; So Fast, So Numb; Low Desert; Electrolite

Recorded over the course of their 1995 tour in support of Monster during soundchecks for their shows, New Adventures in Hi-Fi finds REM at the peak of their powers. The sound is REM at their most bold and melodic. A panorama of styles are on display: power pop, punk, New Wave, and jangle rock.

"How the West Was Won and Where it Got Us" opens the record on a reflective note, MIke Mills contributes a hypnotic piano that centers the song along with Stipe's cryptic vocals, "The story is a sad one told many times/The story of my life in trying times." End of century themes are a recurring thread on the record - and the opening track hits an ominous tone at the height of Pax Americana '90s.

"The Wake-Up Bomb" is punk-rock-pop track driven by Buck's guitar, Stipe channeling a manic character, perhaps an extreme version of himself, who wants to accomplish everything fast:

My head's on fire and high esteem

Get drunk and sing along to Queen

Practice my T-Rex moves and make the scene

Carry my dead, bored, been there, done that, anything

"New Test Leper" opens with "I can't say that I love Jesus/That would be a hollow claim" and satirizes hollow evangelists dominating the airwaves demanding money and offering deranged hope. "Undertow" features blistering guitars, the narrator confronts his mortality without looking for solace from religion, a defiant secularism. 

Patti Smith, a major influence on REM, joined Stipe on backup vocals on "E-Bow the Letter."  At seven minutes, "Leave" closes side one, with more pulsating guitars and driving synth, the lyrics tell of an intense journey of self-knowledge and a drive to escape the past.

"Departure" pays homage to Cheap Trick, with Stipe channeling mid-70s Todd Rundgren in his vocal. "Bittersweet Me" is another rocker, REM at their best with introspective lyrics that builds. "Be Mine" is more stripped down and builds into a romantic ballad. "Binky the Doormat" borders on Dadaist imagery , "Zither" a subdued instrumental. "So Fast, So Numb" is a surreal pop song directed at someone involved in drugs and leading a chaotic life. "Low Desert" channels the early REM sound, a travelogue of being on the road.

The record closes with one REM's greatest songs, "Electrolite." Stipe spoke of wanting to write a farewell to the 20th Century and a tribute to Los Angeles, inspired by driving along Mulholland Drive. The lyrics namecheck icons of American cinema James Dean. Martin Sheen, and Steve McQueen. Mills contributed the sublime piano track, melancholy and triumphant. The song's closing verse:

Twentieth Century, go to sleep

Really Deep

We Won't Blink

Your eyes are burning holes through me

I'm not scared

I'm outta here

I'm not scared

I'm outta here

REM allowed themselves go epic on New Adventures in Hi-Fi, but the exuberance running through it was tempered by a sense of finality. In some ways, it's the Abbey Road of their catalog, a record showcasing the best aspects of the band coming together, channeling both the past and future. Rumors were swirling the band was about to break up, and it would be the final REM record with the original lineup. Bill Berry announced his departure the following year. REM continued as a trio until they officially disbanded in 2011. 

The Albums of 1973: Stevie Wonder: Innervisions

Release Date: August 3, 1973

Produced by Stevie Wonder

Side One: Too High; Visions; Living for the City; Golden Lady

Side Two: Higher Ground; Jesus Children of America; All in Love is Fair; Don't You Worry 'Bout a Thing; He's Misstra Know-It-All

During the 1970s, Stevie Wonder released one incredible album after another, playing most of the instruments and seamlessly shifting between soul, rock, funk, and jazz. Innervisions belongs on everyone's record shelf.

"Too High" opens the album, a mellow funk song with hints of psychedelia, the story of drug addict in love with an ingenue who's also an addict. "Visions" is even more mellow, imagining a utopia, "where hate's a dream and love forever stands." Understated in its power with its subtle hypnotic melody evoking the moment between wakefulness and sleep. "Living for the City" won two Grammy's, tells a tragic story of a young Black man making his way to New York City as part of the Great Migration only encounter the harsh reality of a racist justice system. "Golden Lady" is a jazzy love song, with Moog and synth, ending side one. 

"Higher Ground" opened side two, another classic that hit #1 on the R&B charts, is a spiritual journey sung with angst and resignation. "Jesus Children of America" is a meditative prayer on the state of 1970s America. "All in Love is Fair" is a more of a pop standard, it became a hit for Barbara Streisand the following year. "Don't You Worry "Bout a Thing" is effortlessly catchy, recovering from the slightly annoying intro (a man tries to impress a woman with worldliness). "He's Misstra Know It All" describes a con-artist, possibly a corrupt politician. The track build gradually from one of foreboding, then gradually bringing the figure down to one of inconsequence. 

Musically, Innervisions is close to perfection, it holds up through an infinite number of listens.. 

The Albums of 1973: Steely Dan: Countdown to Ecstasy

 

Release Date: July 1973

Members: Denny Dias (guitar); Jeff "Skunk" Baxter (guitar, pedal steel guitar); Walter Becker (bass, harmonica, vocals); Jim Hodder (percussion); Donald Fagan (piano, vocals)

Produced by Gary Katz

Side One: Bodhisattva; Razor Boy; The Boston Rag; Your Gold Teeth

Side Two: Show Biz Kids; My Old School; Pearl of the Quarter; King of the World

Steely Dan's impressive second album Countdown to Ecstasy features their trademark of pristine arrangements and superior musicianship. Lyrically, there's a cinematic flourish with all the tracks spanning many genres from film noir, Sci-Fi, satire, and regionalism. 

"Bodhisattva" has the hallmarks of 50's jukebox rock record by way of a John Coltrane record. The song satirizes trendy 1970s Eastern spirituality on the West Coast. The metaphorical, xylophone punctuated "Razor Boy" creates a mood of dread and exhaustion. Heavy, infectious riffs on "The Boston Rag" describe a figure who may be a petulant child or part of an underworld. "Gold Teeth" is more of a jam track, the electric organs and frantic guitars conjure a heady atmosphere.

"Show Biz Kids" stomps along with a hypnotic chorus and describes surreal scenes in Las Vegas. "My Old School" goes for more of a straightforward narrative, describing a 1969 drug bust at Bard College when Donald Fagan was arrested, Watergate conspirator and Nixon associate G. Gordon Liddy made the arrests. But the girl who turned them in is the central figure of the song, a track could easily be mistaken for a pleasant nostalgia trip. "Pearl of the Quarter" describes a New Orleans scene, more sentimental than the rest. "King of the World" describes a post-Nuclear War world, musically like a '70s Dystopian film soundtrack. 

Musically and thematically adventurous, Countdown to Ecstasy can be read in a few ways, a snide response to prog rock, a proto hipster record, or a series of private jokes. 

REM #9: Monster

Release Date: September 27, 1994

Members: Michael Stipe (vocals); Peter Buck (guitars); Michael Mills (bass, keyboards); Bill Berry (percussion)

Produced by Scott Litt & REM

Side One: What's the Frequency Kenneth; Crush With Eyeliner; King of Comedy; I Don't Sleep, I Dream; Star 69; Strange Currencies

Side Two: Tongue; Bang and Blame; I Took Your Name; Le Me In; Circus Envy; You

Monster marked a shift in tone and sound for REM. Released in 1994 and recorded over the course of several months while touring, the album takes a sardonic look as pop culture amid mid-90's euphoria, but with dark forebodings ahead. America is presented as a grotesque carnival of parasites and obsessives.

"What's the Frequency, Kenneth?" opens the distorted guitars that appear throughout the record. Inspired by a "post-modern" incident in 1986 when CBS news anchor Dan Rather was accosted in Manhattan by two men who claimed to be time travelers, repeating over and over "Kenneth, what is the frequency?" One of the men was convicted of shooting and killing a stagehand for the Today Show, under the delusion the media was controlled by evil forces. REM used the incident to satirize cultural critics/academics trying to understand the younger generation. Cryptic lyrics like, "withdrawal in disgust is not the same as apathy" and Stipe's staccato delivery result in a hybrid of New Wave and Sci-Fi. 

On "Crush With Eyeliner" Stipe takes on the persona of a stalker infatuated with a model, uncertain if he's in love with her beauty or fame. Performed in a 70's glam rock song in the style of T-Rex and David Bowie, Stipe menacing on the refrain, "I'm the real thing." "King of Comedy" follows up in a similar vein, commenting on the exploitive nature of show business and the perpetual greed. "I Don't Sleep, I Dream" is both conniving with a nefarious narrator. "Star 69" sounds more like '80s REM, referring to a parasitic relationship, an essential part of any tabloid narrative. "Strange Currencies" could be a sequel to "Everybody Hurts", but more hopeful and cathartic. 

On "Tongue" Stipe sings in a falsetto accompanied by piano, soulful in its own unique way. "Bang and Blame" sounds like REM doing their own rendition of a Nirvana song, Stipe and Cobain were friends and were considering making a record together. "I Took Your Name" muses on the fragility of identity in a hypermedia plane, a song suited for the social media age, Peter Buck's riffs ripple like a ZZ Top tune. "Let Me Down" is both stripped down, slightly derivative. "Circus Envy" continues in a punkish style with swampy guitars. "You" ends the record on a properly discordant note, brimming with ambivalence. 

REM rose to fame by ignoring the trends and embracing their insularity (up to a point). Monster revealed them being influenced by the music going on around them, spurring some of their most iconic songs. Every band that hit mega stardom will inevitably make a record about the surreal nature of fame - and Monster is that record for REM. 

The Albums of 1973: Paul Simon: There Goes Rhymin' Simon

Release Date: May 5, 1973

Side One: Kodachrome; Tenderness; Take Me to the Mardi Gras; Something So Right; One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor

Side Two: American Tune; Was a Sunny Day; Learn How to Fall; St. Judy's Comet; Loves Me Like a Rock

Paul Simon's third solo album is a collection of catchy tunes, both observational and introspective. "Kodachrome" falls into that category, a standard of FM soft rock. "Tenderness" is a sleepy but direct plea for mutual understanding in a relationship. "Take Me to the Mardi Gras" is wonderfully arranged, blending Dixieland with pop. "Something So Right" is poetical expression of self-realization. "One Man's Ceiling is Another Man's Floor" sounds inspired by Randy Newman with its opaque, whimsical narrative. It's impossible not to hear "American Tune" as a follow up to Simon & Garfunkel's "America", a mostly apolitical approaching middle age moment of reckoning (yet poignant). "Was a Sunny Day" borders on parodical folk, "How to Fall" spins childish fable, while "St. Judy's Comet" is a slightly neurotic lullaby, and the popular "Loves Me Like a Rock" ends the record on a jaunty note. There Goes Rhymin' Simon is impeccably eclectic record that goes down easy.

REM #8: Automatic For The People

Release Date: October 5, 1992

Members: Michael Stipe (vocals); Peter Buck (guitars); Michael Mills (bass, keyboards); Bill Berry (percussion)

Produced by Scott Litt & REM

Side One: Drive; Try Not To Breathe; The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight; Everybody Hurts; New Orleans Instrumental No. 1; Sweetness Follows

Side Two: Monty Got a Raw Deal; Ignoreland; Star Me Kitten; Man on the Moon; Nightswimming; Find the River

Automatic For The People is considered by many REM's best album. Released a month before the 1992 Presidential election that would elect Bill Clinton, the record is both looking back and exploring how to move forward. With the band entering their 30s and the musical landscape in flux, they made an impassioned effort to push their sound to its limits.  A philosophical album as well, many songs deal with mortality, memory, but also living.

"Drive", like the opening track Murmur "Radio Free Europe." is a clarion call, a displaced anthem with references to the past and present aimed at young people, performed in Stipe's opaque style with a big production with a string section. On "Try Not To Breathe" Stipe takes on persona of a dying woman imploring her family not to worry, a heavy track full of drone and poignancy.  

"The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight" has Stipe inhabiting another character, a recluse (possibly a fading rock star) enjoying solitude and the mundane. References to consumer brands like Nescafe and Dr. Seuss create a blissful setting, the production adds an epic quality (also dated now with the recurring image of the pay phone). 

"Everybody Hurts" is perhaps the most straight forward ballad REM had recorded up to that point. With an iconic video and powerful lyrics with the majestic production, the song transcended the band. The swampy "New Orleans Instrumental No. 1" serves as a welcoming coda to "Everybody Hurts." The sublime "Sweetness Follows" is another meditation on mortality, ending the first side on a dirge. 

"Monty Got a Raw Deal" is (probably) about the life of actor Montgomery Clift (1920-1966), or in a larger sense the fate of celebrity (works as a companion to the Clash song "The Right Profile"). "Ignoreland" condemns the course of America under the Reagan-Bush regime, the non-confrontational stance of the media, and mentality of the "Super US Citizen." The issues mentioned in the song have not gone way, but more amplified. "Star Me Kitten" is a complex love song, full of drone and droll humor.

Written as a tribute to the late comedian Andy Kaufman (1949-1984), "Man in the Moon" paints a phantasmagoric portrait of the recent past. Major historical figures are referenced alongside cult heroes like Kaufman and the wrestler Fred Blassie, and of course Elvis, who Stipe playfully mimics. The iconoclastic nature of Kaufman, finding humor by exploring the edges, takes on a prophetic meaning.

"Nightswimming" is another ode to solitude, with a simpler arrangement of piano and strings. "Find the River" ends the album on a note of continuity with its metaphorical river journey, encapsulating many of the ideas on the record.

Automatic for the People solidified REM as a musical force for the 1990s, an album of great depth, of its time, but also one of universal themes that seamlessly project into the 21st Century. 

A 40-minute interview with Michael Stipe and Mike Mills on the making of the record:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnGwA5gK29g

REM #7: Out of Time

Release Date: March 12, 1991

Members: Michael Stipe (vocals); Peter Buck (guitars); Michael Mills (bass, keyboards); Bill Berry (percussion)

Produced by Scott Litt & REM

Side One: Radio Song; Losing My Religion; Low; Near Wild Heaven; Endgame

Side Two: Shiny Happy People; Belong; Half a World Away; Texarkana; Country Feedback; Me in Honey

After an exhaustive tour in 1989 in support of Green, REM kept a low profile for a few years but returned with another massively successful album in 1991, Out of Time. Eclectic and more introspective than Green, the record solidified REM as a musical force for the '90s.

"Radio Song" opens the album with melodic hooks and mass media commentary, with hip hop artist KRS-One providing backup vocals. "Losing My Religion" became REM's biggest hit to date, with an iconic video that got constant airplay on MTV. The title was according to Michael Stipe a Southern expression for a heart breaking, the soul-searching lyrics made it perfect anthem about angst and young adulthood. "Low" is more of a hypnotic pop song, the barebones arrangement amplifies the talents of the entire band: Berry's moody percussion, Mills playing a haunting organ, Buck with a catchy riff, and Stipe's distinct vocal performance. "Near Wild Heaven" was written and sung by Mills is more of an upbeat love song with echoes of '60s pop. "Endgame" is an elegant instrumental, a dreamy psychedelia piece.

Another hit single, "Shiny Happy People" featured Kate Pierson from the B-52's on vocals, was on the surface readily made for Sesame Street (according to Stipe the lyrics were inspired Chinese State propaganda after the Tiananmen Square protests). A controversial song in the REM canon, but it shouldn't be. On "Belong" Stipe sings in spoken word lyrics, returning to familiar themes of family bonds and freedom. "Half A World Away" blends classical with pop, thematically similar to the previous track. "Texarkana" is a Gen-X Americana, while "Country Feedback" continues in sojourn mode. "Me in Honey" manages to evolve into an uplifting rocker to end the album.

Out of Time is a confident, and at times, great record. The band was meeting and experimenting with the challenge of achieving (and being) a mainstream success. With a mass audience ready to embrace them, REM was starting to transcend their college rock sound and becoming a cultural force through their own music and personas.