Category: R.E.M.

I’ve listened to Around the Sun at least a couple of times a day since the week before it came out, thanks to an online preview stream provided by REMhq.com. It’s lucky for you that I had that much lead time, or else you’d be reading one cranky review right now. This is a slow and subtle album, perhaps too much so for its own good, and there are a few songs that remain outright disappointments. But those repeated listenings have shown me that many of these songs are quite powerful in their simplicity and that Around the Sun is a worthwhile, although flawed, album.

The opening track and first single, “Leaving New York,” is a midtempo track that blends Mike Mills’ piano and Peter Buck’s acoustic guitar to create what at first listen sounds like a straightforward, almost bland melody. But starting with the second verse, Michael Stipe’s vocals begin to layer and overlap, with each layer following a slightly different melody. The result pulls your attention in a number of directions at once, adding emotional urgency and creating the kind of disorientation that appears to be at the heart of the song. It’s a rather impressive accomplishment.

Unfortunately the album goes off the rails with the next song, “Electron Blue,” a repetitive electronics-tinged song that just doesn’t feel like it goes anywhere. “The Outsiders” features a rap by Q-tip as its third verse and is more effective at establishing a mood, but still doesn’t stand out. “Make It All Okay” is another piano-heavy ballad that has some potential, but for the first time I can remember, Stipe’s lyrics just aren’t up to snuff. It sometimes feels like he’s struggling just to fill out the melody with a lot of repeated words and pauses, such as the frequently used “It’s a long . . . long, long road . . . and I don’t know . . . which way . . . to go.” Stipe is usually able to use his melody and inflection to create a feeling such that the words don’t matter as much, but his performance on this track and in a couple of other places on the album just drew my attention to lyrics that seemed banal to me. It’s really a shame because this album does feature very effective use of Mills’ background vocals to create some effective moods.

That said, there are many places where he’s up to his usual standard. “Final Straw” is where the album begins to reassert itself. Written and initially released on REMhq.com in March 2003 as the invasion of Iraq began, this song combines direct lyrics and a calm, determined performance by Stipe with acoustic guitar and very well done synth/electronic elements to powerful, even haunting effect. I originally preferred the rough studio mix from 2003, but I’ve come to appreciate the album version. Towards the end there’s a high keyboard note in the background that gives the whole thing an almost choral feel; that note has a greater emphasis on the album track and I think that works.

The political tone carries through to the next song, “I Wanted to Be Wrong,” where Stipe says “I wanted to be wrong, but everyone was humming a song I don’t understand,” and “we can’t approach the Allies ’cause they seem a little peeved.” Outside of that last line, the political undercurrent that carries through the album is one you almost have to know to be looking for, because many of these songs could just as easily be about breakdowns in relationships or a more general feeling of social alienation. When you know the subtext, I do think it adds more power to the songs – but then I tend to agree with R.E.M.’s political stances more often than not, and your mileage may vary. Nowhere is this truer than the album’s final track, “Around the Sun” – the first R.E.M. song to be a title track. The song is used over the closing credits of Going Upriver, a movie about John Kerry’s experiences in Vietnam and as a protestor afterward. I don’t know whether or not the song was written about Kerry, but it’s hard for me not to think of him when I hear lines like “give me a voice so strong I can question what I have seen” and “hold on world ’cause you don’t know what’s coming, hold on world ’cause I’m not jumping off.”

Thematically speaking, the album is very consistent, almost too much so. In addition to the tracks I’ve mentioned, “Boy in the Well” and “High Speed Train” are particularly subdued and contemplative tracks. It’s only on the jaunty “Wanderlust” and the uptempo acoustic number Aftermath that the album brightens up at all, and even these aren’t much of a change of pace. In its melancholy approach, Around the Sun has drawn a number of comparisons to Fables of the Reconstruction and Automatic for the People. But there’s nothing here like the loud, goofy fun of Fables’ “Cant Get There from Here” or Automatic‘s Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite to act as an escape valve. R.E.M. spent a long time recording this album, starting in early 2003, then taking a break for the tour anticipating their best-of album In View, and then returning to the studio this year to finish. In the process, they held off on some of the rockier songs they had been working on because they didn’t fit the feel of the album. I can’t help but wonder if they’d have been better served to just assemble the best collection of songs they could.

Around the Sun is not an album that immediately grabs you, but there’s a lot of very good work here. Like a lot of fans, I’m waiting for R.E.M. to break out of the slower mood they’ve explored in their three post-Bill Berry albums. But that doesn’t mean I’m going to ignore the good work that’s right in front of me. Truth be told, there’s a good chance this album might improve with age; my initial reaction to 1998’s Up was rather subdued, but it’s now one of my favorite albums. It wouldn’t surprise me if songs like “Final Straw” and “I Wanted to Be Wrong” earn Around the Sun a similar status in the future.

1. Leaving New York (4:49)
2. Electron Blue (4:12)
3. The Outsiders (4:14)
4. Make It All Okay (3:44)
5. Final Straw (4:07)
6. I Wanted to Be Wrong (4:35)
7. Wanderlust (3:03)
8. Boy in the Well (5:22)
9. Aftermath (3:53)
10. High Speed Train (5:03)
11. The Worst Joke Ever (3:38)
12. The Ascent of Man (4:07)
13. Around the Sun (4:28)

Released by: Warner Bros.
Release date: 2004
Total running time: 55:21

Having reached a somewhat surprising level of critical acclaim with their first album, R.E.M. knew it had to thread the needle for their follow-up, living up the expectations without turning out a rehash of their full-length debut. They chose to take a simpler approach, recording the album quickly and putting a slightly greater emphasis on a guitar-rock sound. Armed with such soon to be classics as “So. Central Rain” and “(Don’t Go Back to) Rockville,” Reckoning avoided any hint of a sophomore jinx and served to further build R.E.M.’s reputation.

The rockers like “Harborcoat,” “Pretty Persuasion,” and “Rockville” are my favorites from the album. The latter, a country-tinged plea to a departing girl written by Mike Mills, has a nice veneer of “I don’t care that much” covering its “Oh yeah I really do care” core, and Michael Stipe does a fine job bringing both elements forth. The other two – well, I’m not sure what they’re about, per se, because this is Stipe at his least decipherable. But they’re fun songs, and the energy of Peter Buck’s guitars and Bill Berry’s drums shines through. Mills’ layered background vocals on “Harborcoat” really help carry that song along as well.

The slower songs are no slouches, either. I admit I can’t really listen to “Seven Chinese Brothers” without hearing “Voice of Harold” instead, but it’s still a fine song. (The two songs share the same backing track, but the latter has somewhat more unorthodox lyrics.) “Time After Time (Annelise)” is a rather somber song that demonstrates Buck’s chiming guitars at their most melancholy. Stipe shows off his voice’s emotional range in “So. Central Rain,” aiming for an air of detachment on the verses before delivering an almost pleading repeated “I’m sorry” for the chorus. First performed without a title on David Letterman’s show, “So. Central Rain” quickly became one of the band’s standout songs. In fact, it was the only track from Reckoning to receive its own video, in which Stipe sang the lyrics rather than lip sync. (The band also put together Left of Reckoning, a short film that used the LP’s first side as its soundtrack.)

Reckoning is not an album I pull out of my CD collection for a full listen very often, but several of its tracks are standbys of my MP3 playlists. It’s a strong effort and a worthwhile milestone in R.E.M.’s development.

After R.E.M. achieved international success with Warner Bros., IRS Records re-released the band’s early catalogue overseas with additional tracks, mostly live performances and remixes along with the occasional b-side. These additional tracks remain unavailable on U.S. versions of the album.

1. Harborcoat (3:51)
2. Seven Chinese Brothers (4:15)
3. So. Central Rain (3:11)
4. Pretty Persuasion (3:53)
5. Time After Time (Annelise) (3:59)
6. Second Guessing (2:50)
7. Letter Never Sent (2:57)
8. Camera (5:21)
9. (Don’t Go Back to) Rockville (4:34)
10. Little America (2:56)

(Track listing reflects original U.S. release; foreign re-releases contain additional tracks)

Released by: IRS Records/A&M
Release date: 1984
Total running time: 38:11

R.E.M. ventured into uncertain territory for its third studio album; having done all its previous releases with producer Mitch Easter relatively close to the band’s Athens home base, this time around the band flew to England to work with Joe Boyd. While producer and band had a decent working relationship and a healthy respect for each other, the four members were clearly out of their comfort zone, in a country where their indie-rock reputation had not yet spread, suffering through a cold and dreary winter quite unlike their usual climate, and unsure of where to take the next record musically. The result is Fables of the Reconstruction (or possibly Reconstruction of the Fables, since the phrase ‘of the’ appears twice on the album’s cover art), a murky, often melancholy album that’s probably the least accessible of their early work. Years later, drummer Bill Berry would tell Rolling Stone that “Fables sucked,” but behind the murk is a rewarding depth and songs that have become essential parts of the R.E.M. canon.

Peter Buck’s familiar chiming guitars pervade the album, but are often sent to the background as a foreboding atmospheric element. He provides plenty of more assertive lead guitar lines throughout, and Mike Mills steps up on bass to drive many of the songs like Kohoutek and Old Man Kensey (the latter song sharing a writing credit with J. Ayers). Buck, Mills and Berry mesh exceptionally well on “Life and How to Live It,” one of the rare up-tempo tracks on the album. Another, “Cant Get There from Here,” actually boasts a horn section at the end, one which screams “four white guys bringing on a tiny amount of the funk” in a lightly self-deprecating way – it’s a fun song, and one of the bright moments of the album.

More typical is “Driver 8,” the album’s best-known song and one which really represents the essence of R.E.M. at the time. The album maintains a consistent mood thanks to the relatively slow pace of the songs and Michael Stipe’s delivery of lyrics that are still often highly allegorical or close to incomprehensible, although he starts making forays into social commentary with “Green Grow the Rushes.” The band’s isolation and homesickness comes through strongly in his singing and in the stories often drawn from the more eccentric side of the South. While not necessarily telling complete narratives, Stipe takes on more of the role of the storyteller here – stories that I feel more than I comprehend. If you’re willing to give Fables time to wash over you, you might feel them too.

After R.E.M. achieved international success with Warner Bros., IRS Records re-released the band’s early catalogue overseas with additional tracks, mostly live performances and remixes along with the occasional b-side. These additional tracks remain unavailable on U.S. versions of the album.

1. Feeling Gravitys Pull (4:48)
2. Maps and Legends (3:01)
3. Driver 8 (3:18)
4. Life and How to Live It (4:20)
5. Old Man Kensey (4:10)
6. Cant Get There from Here (4:10)
7. Green Grow the Rushes (3:42)
8. Kohoutek (3:10)
9. Auctioneer (Another Engine) (2:41)
10. Good Advices (3:30)
11. Wendell Gee (2:56)

(Track listing reflects original U.S. release; foreign re-releases contain additional tracks)

Released by: IRS Records/Capitol
Release date: 1985
Total running time: 39:43

R.E.M. changed producers again for their fourth studio album, having been frustrated by the gloominess that pervaded the recording and songs of Fables of the Reconstruction. They turned to Don Gehman, who had recently had significant chart success with John Mellencamp, and brought a group of faster, more energetic songs to the studio. The band may not have really been ready to record again; they were so short of material that they had to dig into their archives, the outtake reel, and their repertoire of covers to amass 12 tracks that don’t even break the 40 minute barrier. The songs they did have were so strong, however, and Gehman’s fresh approach so helpful, that Lifes Rich Pageant ranks as my favorite album from the group’s IRS years.

The opening track, the appropriately named “Begin the Begin,” clearly sets forth the album’s agenda with louder electric guitars from Peter Buck, enthusiastic drums from Bill Berry and clearer, more distinct vocals from Michael Stipe. (Clearer in the sense that you can figure out what words he’s singing. What those words might mean, on the other hand . . . not necessarily.) “These Days” has a very similar feel to it, while “I Believe” adds a banjo intro and Hyena has some nice piano work in the background to play off the guitars. “Just a Touch,” one of the band’s earliest songs, doesn’t sound out of place here; comparing the album version with a performance I’ve heard on a bootleg recording from the early 80s helps show Gehman’s influence as well as the growth in the group’s proficiency. All of these songs have a ‘can-do’ energy and confidence about them that’s reflected in the music and the lyrics, from “I Believe”‘s title to “These Days'” “We are hope despite the times” and “Begin the Begin”‘s “I looked for it and I found it, Miles Standish proud.”

It’s not all up-tempo all the time. “Fall on Me,” a song that started off as being a warning against acid rain and turned into a general plea against overwhelming pressure, and “Cuyahoga,” about the famed polluted river in Ohio, play up Mike Mills’ bass with a more somber pace. Both songs reflect the somewhat oblique political tone of Stipe’s work on this album, as does the beautifully sad “The Flowers of Guatemala.” Whatever Stipe is trying to get across with “Swan Swan H,” I never quite get it – but I get and enjoy its brooding atmosphere just fine.

The album closes out with “Superman,” a cover of an obscure 60s song by the Clique that features lead vocals by Mills. The cover’s actually gained a fair amount of notoriety over the years, and it’s a fun way to end the album. Both “Superman” and “Underneath the Bunker,” the brief outtake that closes the album’s first side, were added to the album so late that they were not listed on the album cover – which also does not list the other 10 tracks in the order they appear.

Lifes Rich Pageant boasts a lot of strong material. The songs do have a lot of similarities to each other; the band seems to be focusing on variations on themes here, rather than explore a lot of different directions on one album. For me, the approach works – the songs flow together very well and make listening to the full album a very enjoyable experience. The short running time probably works in its favor here; 60 minutes of such variations might get tiresome, but 40 feel just right.

After R.E.M. achieved international success with Warner Bros., IRS Records re-released the band’s early catalogue overseas with additional tracks, mostly live performances and remixes along with the occasional b-side. These additional tracks remain unavailable on U.S. versions of the album.

1. Begin the Begin (3:28)
2. These Days (3:24)
3. Fall on Me (2:50)
4. Cuyahoga (4:21)
5. Hyena (2:51)
6. Underneath the Bunker (1:27)
7. The Flowers of Guatemala (3:56)
8. I Believe (3:50)
9. What If We Give It Away? (3:34)
10. Just a Touch (3:00)
11. Swan Swan H (2:50)
12. Superman (2:52)

(Track listing reflects original U.S. release; foreign re-releases contain additional tracks)

Released by: IRS Records/Capitol
Release date: 1986
Total running time: 38:29

When Lifes Rich Pageant producer Don Gehman was unavailable to work with R.E.M. on a song they were contributing to a film soundtrack, he suggested they contact Scott Litt. Things went so well with that single that the band invited Litt to work with them on their fifth full studio album. The rest is, as they say, history, as Document marked R.E.M.’s first substantial entry into the mainstream.

The song that broke into the Top 40 was “The One I Love;” it is now a rite of passage for R.E.M. fans to closely consider the lyric “A simple prop to occupy my time” and exclaim “It’s not a love song!” (Bonus points for making this remark upon seeing couples acting romantically to each other while watching the song in concert.) Making less of an impact at the time was “Its the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine),” a song whose rapid-fire stream of pop culture and other random references still inspires me to yell “Leonard Bernstein!” at the appropriate moment and has itself become ingrained in popular consciousness. (The song title is also the point at which the band’s practice of eschewing apostrophes most grates on my grammar-snob nerves, but I’ve almost gotten over it.)

Document is a much deeper album than its two best-known tracks, however. Many of its songs, like “Exhuming McCarthy” and “Welcome to the Occupation,” reflect the social activism that began to come to the fore in Lifes Rich Pageant. The former may be my favorite track from the album; it opens with the sound of Michael Stipe’s manual typewriter and slides from a jaunty march-like cadence to a mellower tone for Mike Mills’ declaration that “It’s a sign of the times” and back again. Bill Berry’s drums and Peter Buck’s electric guitar are prominent throughout the album, not quite at the built-for-the-arenas level of Green, but definitely going for a stronger rock feel than a lot of the band’s previous work. A good example of that approach is in the band’s cover of the Wire song “Strange,” which blends into the rest of the album rather well.

Document tends to get moodier as it progresses; the shift can felt in the transition from “End of the World” to “One I Love,” and progresses from there to the horn-heavy “Fireplace.” The drum riff behind the wordless “ohhhhhh” chorus of “Lightnin’ Hopkins” sounds like a somewhat ominous call to action. Things slow down for “King of Birds,” which is a bit too lively to really be called a dirge, but which has a similar air of melancholy hanging over it. I think that song would have been a more effective closer than “Oddfellows Local 151,” which I think tends to meander a little too long.

After R.E.M. achieved international success with Warner Bros., IRS Records re-released the band’s early catalogue overseas with additional tracks, mostly live performances and remixes along with the occasional b-side. These additional tracks remain unavailable on U.S. versions of the album.

1. Finest Worksong (3:48)
2. Welcome to the Occupation (2:48)
3. Exhuming McCarthy (3:19)
4. Disturbance at the Heron House (3:33)
5. Strange (2:32)
6. Its the End of the World As We Know It (and I Feel Fine) (4:07)
7. The One I Love (3:17)
8. Fireplace (3:24)
9. Lightnin’ Hopkins (3:18)
10. King of Birds (4:07)
11. Oddfellows Local 151 (5:21)

(Track listing reflects original U.S. release; foreign re-releases contain additional tracks)

Released by: IRS Records/Capitol
Release date: 1987
Total running time: 39:49

When R.E.M. set out to record Green, they knew it would be their first album for their new label, Warner Bros. They also knew that it would be the foundation of a worldwide arena tour designed to boost their global profile. It’s not surprising, then, that they produced a number of songs that refined the political rock songs of Document into an even more radio- and arena-friendly form. But if for no other reason than to keep themselves interested, they began experimenting with switching instruments and acoustic arrangements. The mix of silly pop songs and political introspection makes Green sometimes seem out of sorts, but it’s also not hard to see how the album helped take the band to a new level of popularity.

The first two songs, “Pop Song 89” and “Get Up,” definitely seem made for an arena rock show, more power pop than jangle pop. The songs feature strong melodies with simple, repetitive choruses and the occasional instrumental quirk, such as the dozen music boxes chiming in the middle of “Get Up.” The band uses the formula to perfection on the fourth track, “Stand,” whose goofy lyrics, guitar solo, video and associated dance made for a memorable presence on Top 40 radio at the time. (In fact, I can still remember where I was the first time I heard “Stand” on the radio – also the first time I had ever heard of R.E.M.)

Tracks 3, 5 and 6 show that Green is not all about fun and games. “You Are the Everything” features Bill Berry on bass, Mike Mills on accordion, and one of Peter Buck’s first experiments with mandolin. It’s a very spare, quiet song, one that literally opens with the sound of crickets chirping. It’s one of the things I like most about the song; it feels like you’re hearing each note and lyric on its own, as Stipe’s protagonist unburdens himself of his fears and imaginings. “World Leader Pretend,” meanwhile, is more complex in its arrangements, but features the same kind of introspection and mustering of resolve. There’s no mumbling from Stipe here; in fact, he felt so strongly about the lyrics to this song that they were printed on the liner notes, the only time that would happen until Up. “The Wrong Child” has a similar simplicity to “You Are the Everything,” but whereas the latter evokes the quiet beauty of nature, the former is a little more grating and discordant, befitting its lyrics; the song’s protagonist is a child with some kind of illness or physical problem that cuts him off from other children. Once upon a time, it was my least favorite song on the album, but it’s really grown on me over the years.

The album heads back into rock territory with “Orange Crush,” but there’s far more edge and intensity to this song than the shinier pop songs that opened the album. The band’s rhythm section does a nice job of giving this song, whose lyrics evoke the specter of Agent Orange and the psychological and environmental legacies of war, a sense of marching forward into whatever the fates have in store. Even fifteen years later, this song packs a heck of a punch in the band’s live show. The album slows down again for the final three listed tracks, although only “Hairshirt” has the same kind of acoustic sensibility as “You Are the Everything” and “The Wrong Child.”

There is also an eleventh untitled track, which features Buck on drums – Berry claimed the drum part Buck had written was so full of mistakes that he’d be unable to perfectly replicate them for an entire song. It’s a great closing track, and Berry’s fears notwithstanding, I even think the drum part’s kinda nifty.

1. Pop Song 89 (3:03)
2. Pop Song 89 (3:03)
3. Get Up (2:35)
4. You Are the Everything (3:45)
5. Stand (3:10)
6. World Leader Pretend (4:15)
7. The Wrong Child (3:35)
8. Orange Crush (3:50)
9. Turn You Inside-Out (4:15)
10. Hairshirt (3:55)
11. I Remember California (5:05)
12. Untitled (3:15)

Released by: Warner Bros.
Release date: 1988
Total running time: 41:00

I first heard “Losing My Religion” on a Top 40 radio station shortly after its release. I thought it was an OK song, but nothing special. I was clearly in the minority in that view, as the single and video became hugely popular. Eventually I borrowed a copy of Out of Time from a friend, and I’ve been an R.E.M. fan ever since. The album, the band’s best-selling in the United States, is full of beautiful songs that highlight R.E.M.’s eagerness to challenge conventions and shake up its own status quo.

After turning out pretty much an album a year throughout the 80s, Bill Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe slowed down for the writing of Out of Time. They often switched instruments; Berry, for example, wrote most of the bass lines while Mills worked heavily with pianos and keyboards. They brought in unusual instrumentation, like the harpsichord on “Half a World Away,” and guest vocalists like the B-52s’ Kate Pearson (on “Shiny Happy People” and “Me In Honey”) and KRS-One (on “Radio Song”). Mike Mills sang lead vocals on not one but two songs, “Near Wild Heaven” and “Texarkana.” (I love Mills’ work, but I think he’s better suited for support and backup vocals. He does do a nice job on “Texarkana,” whose lyrics he wrote when Stipe found himself unable to come up with anything for the song.) Stipe decided to personalize his lyrics; he described Out of Time as an album full of love songs, after having heavily mined political territory on the band’s previous three albums. The ornate arrangements work very well; Buck described the band as “rock and roll band that plays sitting down” in this time period, and it’s a very apt description.

While “Losing My Religion” has certainly grown on me over the years, it’s still not my favorite song on the album. I prefer “Radio Song,” “Me in Honey,” and “Half a World Away.” In none of those songs am I very confident about what Stipe is trying to say, although I think the emotion of his vocal performance more than makes up for the ambiguity of his lyrics. Musically, the first two are among the faster-paced, clearly-rock songs on the album, while the latter’s harpsichord makes it the most frequently cited example of the album’s “baroque” influence. Slower songs like “Low” and “Endgame” have to strike me in the right frame of mind; they have the potential to simply come off as depressing, but in the right context they’re both meditative and cathartic. The mournful “Country Feedback” has become quite popular amongst the band’s fan base; in fact, it was the most requested song of the band’s 2003 tour.

1. Radio Song (4:12)
2. Losing My Relgion (4:26)
3. Low (4:55)
4. Near Wild Heaven (3:17)
5. Endgame (3:48)
6. Shiny Happy People (3:44)
7. Belong (4:03)
8. Half a World Away (3:26)
9. Texarkana (3:36)
10. Country Feedback (4:07)
11. Me In Honey (4:06)

Released by: Warner Bros.
Release date: 1991
Total running time: 44:10

Many critics and fans consider Automatic for the People to be R.E.M.’s finest hour. They’ll get no argument from me. Transformed into superstars by Out of Time, with millions waiting to see what they’d do for a follow-up, the band produced a complex, contemplative, and absolutely beautiful album.

Lyrically, the most frequent theme is death and loss. “Try Not to Breathe”‘s protagonist is an elderly woman contemplating her full life and how she wants to be remembered; “Sweetness Follows” is about the coming together of a family at a funeral. In “Monty Got a Raw Deal” and “Man on the Moon,” Michael Stipe considers long gone cultural figures such as Montgomery Clift and Andy Kaufman. Amid all this melancholy is a core of hope, optimism, and belief in the human spirit. There’s the urge to “hold on” in “Everybody Hurts,” one of the most direct songs Stipe has ever written, and another entreaty in “Sweetness Follows” to “live your life filled with joy and thunder.” There’s also the goofiness of “The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite,” which includes Stipe’s laughter over his mispronunciation of Dr. Seuss. The lyrics themselves are good, but what makes the songs great is Stipe’s emotional range, the way he can make a particular feeling almost tangible without having to overpower the music or the listener. I don’t think he’s ever been better as a performer than he is on this album.

It helps that he has such strong musical backing. While Bill Berry, Peter Buck and Mike Mills went into the studio expecting to do a harder rock record, they instead found themselves drawn to slower, more complex, often heavily acoustic arrangements. John Paul Jones added orchestral arrangements to four songs, including “Nightswimming,” which may well be my favorite song in the universe. The orchestral elements support Mike Mills’ beautiful piano melody, which perfectly fits Stipe’s reflections on the carefree spirit of youth. Mills also wrote the album closer, “Find the River,” which is quite possibly the best final track I know of. This time Mills’ keyboards balance with Peter Buck’s acoustic guitar and Stipe’s vocal to create a palpable sense of finality, a moment of looking back that’s calm yet intense because it sums up what’s gone before.

Buck and Bill Berry also contribute standout tracks to the album; “Everybody Hurts,” for example, was penned by Berry, while Buck contributed “Drive” and “Try Not to Breathe.” Buck’s songs in particular seem to hold a little more edge, a tinge of dark and ominous things on the horizon, but they’re still wonderfully constructed pieces of music. Outside of the peppy “Sidewinder” and the electric-guitar-driven “Ignoreland” (and maybe the choruses to “Man on the Moon”) this is generally a slow album, and while some have criticized those two songs for throwing off the album’s unified feel, I think both work well as interludes that try and cover similar themes from different vantage point, giving the album a little bit of variety to help individual tracks stand out.

Automatic was recently released in DVD-Audio format, featuring new mixes for both stereo and 5.1 channel surround sound. These mixes certainly allow the listener to hear more detail; there are certain instrumental flourishes as well as a line or two of vocals that I had not been aware of before the DVD. Some may find the tweaks a bit distracting, especially in the surround sound mix. It’s also a neat listening experience that gives some sense of the role mixing and production play on an album. The DVD-A also comes with images of Stipe’s handwritten and hand-typed lyric sheets, a short electronic press kit documentary on the making of the album and the restaurant that inspired its title, a photo gallery, and an extended set of liner notes. Since DVD-A players are not that common, I’d only recommend this version for the really hardcore fan.

This album is an outstanding piece of work, and the only reason I’m rating it a 4 is that Earl’s rating system won’t let me give it a 5.

1. Drive (4:31)
2. Try Not to Breathe (3:50)
3. The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite (4:09)
4. Everybody Hurts (5:20)
5. New Orleans Instrumental No. 1 (2:15)
6. Sweetness Follows (4:21)
7. Monty Got a Raw Deal (3:17)
8. Ignoreland (4:27)
9. Star Me Kitten (3:16)
10. Man on the Moon (5:14)
11. Nightswimming (4:18)
12. Find the River (3:49)

Released by: Warner Bros.
Release date: 1992
Total running time: 48:52

It was clear during the recording of New Adventures in Hi-Fi that an era of R.E.M. history was coming to a close. The band’s tenth studio album was their fifth and final record of their initial contract with Warner Bros.; their relationship with longtime manager Jefferson Holt was deteriorating; and perhaps most importantly (at the time), longtime collaborator Scott Litt had announced that this would be his last time in the producer’s chair. The biggest milestone, however, was only clear in retrospect. A year after the album’s release, drummer Bill Berry retired, making New Adventures the last album written and performed by the original lineup of Berry, Peter Buck, Mike Mills and Michael Stipe. Fortunately, they turned out one of their finest efforts, a stirring album that serves to highlight the band’s diversity.

While not exactly a “road record,” a sense of travel and searching does fill the album. Several of the songs were written and recorded during soundchecks and performances on the 1995 Monster tour and have its hard guitar/feedback-heavy sound. “Binky the Doormat,” “Departure,” “Undertow,” and “The Wake-Up Bomb” had in fact all worked their way into the setlist by the end of the tour, and the album versions do a good job of capturing the energy of the live performances. My favorite song, “Leave,” was recorded during a soundcheck in Atlanta. The seven-minute track opens with an acoustic guitar intro by Berry, then kicks into gear with a siren-like feedback trail produced by backup musician Scott McCaughey holding a single key on an old Arp Odyssey keyboard and moving the octave switch back and forth – a wrist-numbing effort that meant the band could only rehearse the song on alternating days. The effort certainly paid off – the keyboard wail pushes the song along without overwhelming the other keyboards and guitar work. There’s a sense of overwhelming pressure, and Stipe’s vocals play off the music to convey the desperate desire to escape that weight. (Stipe himself said he wasn’t pleased with his performance on this song, and later re-recorded it for a much shorter and far less intense version. So go figure.)

After the tour, the band reworked some of the live tracks in the studio, bringing some of the complexity and production techniques that marked the band’s two biggest albums to the more energetic rock songs. Bittersweet Me, for example, benefits from additional keyboards from Mills supporting some fine Buck guitar work. The song mines some of the same thematic territory as “Leave” – I can feel the longing in the bridge thanks to Stipe and Mills’ vocals – but the brisker tempo also cuts the edge a little bit and makes the song almost wistful. “Be Mine,” an almost-but-not-quite power ballad, was originally demoed on a tour bus but was re-recorded in the studio, keeping only a bit of driver chatter as an intro. The almost-but-not-quite was a deliberate choice by the band, and I think it works well. At first listen, it sounds like a surprisingly sweet love song from Stipe – but as he’s pointed out in interviews, the lyrics are totally centered on the narrator’s desires, bringing an undercurrent of selfishness to the mix.

Several new songs were also added during the studio process. One of them, “E-Bow the Letter,” features guest vocals by Patti Smith, a shared musical idol of Buck and Stipe. The band insisted on making this “folk rock dirge” the album’s lead single – which was such a disastrous choice that the band started leaving such decisions up to the record label. It’s far from my favorite song on the album, and even in the grunge/alternative days of 1996, it wasn’t hugely radio-friendly. In the context of the album, though, it works. More successful is “New Test Leper,” one of a handful of songs that hearken to the more acoustic sound of Out of Time and Automatic for the People. The combination of Mills on organ and Buck on acoustic guitar makes the song almost float as Stipe plays the part of a tabloid talk show guest irked at audience, host, and fellow guests alike.

A brief instrumental, “Zither,” was recorded in the bathroom of the arena in Philadelphia, whose acoustics the band found particularly attractive. Berry stepped out from behind the drums on this one as well, playing bass. It makes for a nice interlude between “Binky” and “So Fast, So Numb,” a similarly energetic electric-guitar track. The album’s final song, “Electrolite,” brings in violin and banjo with Mills’ piano to create a fairly cheerful end to things, as Stipe sings, “I’m not scared, I’m outta here.”

Fitting words, indeed.

1. How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us (4:31)
2. The Wake-Up Bomb (5:08)
3. New Test Leper (5:26)
4. Undertow (5:09)
5. E-Bow the Letter (5:24)
6. Leave (7:17)
7. Departure (3:29)
8. Bittersweet Me (4:05)
9. Be Mine (5:33)
10. Binky the Doormat (5:01)
11. Zither (2:34)
12. So Fast, So Numb (4:12)
13. Low Desert (3:31)
14. Electrolite (4:05)

Released by: Warner Bros.
Release date: 1996
Total running time: 65:31