Review of CD - "Reveal" - R.E.M. - May 23, 2001, by Thomas D. Havard
Earlier today I got an email from CD asking if anybody had the new R.E.M. yet. At the time I didn't have it, but expected it in the mail at anytime. I got home from work and there it was, packaged together with Steve Earle's "I feel alright," an album I'd been meaning to purchase for a long time. But new R.E.M. takes priority, as it always has, so I took it and my diskman with me to do some laundry. After dumping my clothes into the washing machines, I went out to my truck, popped open a can of bud left over from the preakness (canned beer only at that event - you can't go too wrong with bud in cans) and put the disk into the player unit.
I normally despise doing laundry, but there are few events in life I look forward to with more anticipation than a first sitting with an R.E.M. album. Not being a fan of their last album, "Up," I hit the play button for "Reveal" with some suspicion.
On the surface, this album might seem a lot like "Up." There's a synthesized technology in the production, and the opening song, "The Lifting," which I'd previously heard on the radio, is not a strong song. Skip this song if you have to, just like you might skip "Radio Song" on the "Out of Time" album. The good stuff is on tracks 2 through 12 (the album has 12 tracks). This time the band uses the technology to their advantage. There's some apparent Peter Buck guitar throughout, like the 12 string (?) electric on "All the way to Reno (you're gonna be a star)" the acoustic strumming on the beautiful, "I'll Take the Rain," and classic-rock soloing on "She just Wants to Be," but many of the sounds come from strings and other identifiable and unidentifiable sources, many of which are probably guitars. Mike Mills isn't singing at all here as far as I can tell, but is surely keeping busy doing who knows what. Best of all, Michael Stipe's melodies are challenging to the listener and himself, his lyrics are random and poetic, and his voice, though never reaching a rock and roll frenzy, is full of emotion and sounds great.
As the album moves along, a summer theme becomes apparent in the lyrics and the arrangements. It sounds like there is a beach boys influence again, employed successfully this time and becoming most obvious on "Summer Turns to High." My favorite tracks are "I'll take the Rain," "Chorus and the Ring," "I've been high," "She just Wants to Be," "Imitation of Life," and "Saturn Return," although favorites can change, and a valid case could be made for any of the songs except the opening error, "The Lifting." This is an excellent summer album, and a very welcome R.E.M. album.
Review of live perfomance
- R.E.M. with Wilco at the Walnut Creek Amphitheater in Raleigh, NC. - August
27, 1999 - by Christoper J. Dott I am quite familiar with Wilco's first record "A.M." and although I do own "Being There" I have yet to really listen to it. I was really psyched to see them, though, expecting a fairly folky, somewhat mellow set. Instead they came on and blew everyone away. It seems that most people down here haven't even heard of Wilco and there were a lot of disinterested citizens at first. By the time they were done with their 45-minute set they had won the crowd over. The only tune that I knew which was off of A.M. was "I Must Be High". All others were new to me but still were most excellent.
The only one that seemed out of place was this long, drawn out slow song slightly reminiscent of some of the crap that The Doors used to spew out. All in all, though, they put on a great, cranking show, were a lot more animated than I expected and were as tight as a banshee.
In this reporter's humble opinion, REM is hands down the greatest band since The Beatles. This show strengthened that feeling. The three remaining members were joined by three other units, a keyboardist, a drummer and a utilitarian who played whatever. The drummer was left-handed which I usually find distracting and a bit disturbing. He was decent, though, a bit more active than Bill Berry and he added some excitement to the tunes. The other two did their jobs well also as well they should.
Peter Buck was his usual quiet, solid self and Mike Mills switched back and forth a lot between the bass and keyboards. Michael Stipe was a lot more vocal and animated since the last time I saw them a few years back. He has really become an excellent front man who really connects with the audience.
They started with Lotus, Wake Up Bomb and Fall On Me. Other especially cool tunes of note were Electrolyte, Find a River, What's the Frequency Kenneth, At My Most Beautiful and Man on the Moon. They closed with End of the World which was cranking. It must be a next to impossible task to make up a set list when you have so many great songs to choose from. They did a bunch off the new record "Up", an album that I at first didn't really like but has since grown on me, but also pulled out a few not so obvious older tunes.
The stage was kept roomy with minimal clutter, but they had these lights above the band which were friggin wild. They were all different colors and forms (e.g. turkey, banana, random words and shapes, torpedoes, you name it), blinking on and off thoughout the show. A bit distracting but not too bad. Check out the picture above to see what I'm talking about. The sound was okay, loud but lacking bass. Sound at Walnut Creek is usually pretty poor since it's an outdoor venue. They played for a couple of hours including the five-song encore.
The highlight of the show for me was when Michael Stipe was saying how last night he and Peter and a couple of friends were in Chapel Hill having dinner and beverages. They looked across the street and see this place called The Station which was the first place outside of the Athens/Atlanta area that they had played back in 1980. He said they began to reminisce and get nostalgic which led to the suggestion of doing the next tune which they relearned that day. He took out some lyrics that he had found on the internet that morning and they launched into an amazing version of Camera. It was a bit sloppy since they hadn't played it in over fifteen years but it was just huge.
All in all I came away from this concert feeling totally psyched that a band that I thought was slowly starting to fade away was actually better than ever. The crowd never sat down, which I usually don't like but didn't mind at all this time. It was reassuring to see so many people digging good music by a great band instead of staying home and watching the MTV Rappin' Beach Party Dating Game. Go out and see REM first chance that you get. You will not regret it.
unit14 note - I also got to see R.E.M. at the Merriweather Pavilion in Maryland on September 10, 1999, and agree that the band is in top form!
Review of CD - "Up" - R.E.M.
- by Thomas D. Havard I was recently requested by Peter Gernert-Dott to review the "Up" CD by R.E.M. Pete wrote,
"heard you hate the new rem cd. i think it blows the last two away (especially monster) but would love to hear your (incorrect) assessment of it in the review section. sad professor is one of their best ever."
I don't hate it. R.E.M. is my favorite band of all time, and I think that this album is easily their worst. That doesn't mean it is bad. But it isn't good. If a new band recorded this album I would make a mental note not to buy any more of their music unless I heard something that absolutely blew me away.
My general feelings about "Up" are that it is boring. Maybe I am missing the point. The band is obviously going for an unusual, spacey, electronic musical texture for most of the album. It is unique and actually sounds kind of neat, but it isn't enough. I miss guitars that sound like guitars, I miss Mike Mills' and Bill Berry's voices, and I miss Bill Berry's drums. Those are some of the important elements that drew me to the band in the first place, and now they are missing. Much of the percussion and "drums" on this album are electronic, but even the real drums seem to be lacking in character and energy. Maybe Bill Berry was more valuable to R.E.M. than we ever thought. He did write "Perfect Circle," and that is debatably the most beautiful R.E.M. song ever.
To make up for what is missing, we the listener need something to complement the ethereal techno-groove. What we need are great songs, and there are only two or three very good ones on "Up." Michael Stipe's voice still resonates beautifully, but the lyrics here, and especially the tunes, don't give me that melancholy, cozy feeling that used to make me want to cry and laugh at the same time. Many of the lyrics are caught up in "I, me, my, mine" introspective uselessness. There is very little poetry. The character singing most of these songs is caught up in some personal affair that just doesn't matter to me. And the tunes being sung are mostly Michael Stipe cliches. The listener can usually guess the next note since he/she has heard most of these melodies before. It didn't used to be this way. Maybe I am being harsh, but I'm talking about the best band in the world here. They set their own standards by being so good.
I just listened to the album for the first time in awhile, pretending it was my first time ever. I'll go through the songs and briefly comment on them, if that's not too boring. I will also rate them, 1 being unlistenable, and 10 being a classic. The Beatles' "I'm looking through you" is a good reference for the 10 classic rating.
airportman - 6 - cool opener. very strange, and makes me want to hear more. the dreamy keyboard line is sort of hypnotic. lotus - 6 - fine. rocks in sort of a controlled way. would fit seamlessly onto monster. no surprises here. sounds like stipe recorded his vocal 89 times and they used every take. i don't think mills recorded any vocal tracks. suspicion - 3 - a little bit pretty, but pathetic lyrics ruin that. soon becomes very boring. "imagination, come alive, suspicion, tonight, i'll dream tonite" is actually a lyric here. "these are my harbor days, can't go outside without it" is not a lyric here. not sure if that's a lyric anywhere, but it still grabs me. listen to reckoning. hope - 8 - my favorite song on the album. even though it's very electronic, the music and tune is haunting and the lyrics are random and interesting. could be about a lot of things - aids, bill clinton, the preakness? it doesn't matter, because it works for me. great keyboard lines all over the place, and an elton john-like piano comes in toward the end to put it over the top. the tune was written by, and the whole song insprired by the late leonard cohen, so he gets partial songwriting credit. at my most beautiful - 2 - this really rots. "i've found a way to make you smile" is actually part of the chorus. tune is lifted from a great song, "you are the everything" from green. go back and listen to that song to realize that this one isn't worthy. i heard this is supposed to be inspired by the beach boys pet sounds. pet sounds has good songs on it, though. the apologist - 3 - this rots too, i'm starting to get worried. recalls another "i'm sorry" song which is great and makes this sound even worse. sad professor - 8 - real good song, but i can't agree with best ever. vocal syncopation on verses is cool, and when that electric guitar comes in on the chorus you have to like it. it seems to me some inventive sort of bridge or different middle part would make this more of a complete song. go listen to "begin the begin" and tell me this should even be considered for best ever. you're in the air - 3 - what? i thought old man kensey was filler, but this makes that one sound like a single. walk unafraid - 7 - very catchy chorus and transition to chorus. lyrics don't do it for me. I don't know what kind of instruments are making most of the sounds here, but it works. why not smile - 4 - here we go with the smile bit again. the instruments toward the end counteract in a very cool way with the grandfather clock-like beat. otherwise this would be a 3. daysleeper - 6 - not much to say here. diminished - 5 - speaking of old man kensey, isn't this the same verse? verse is very boring, but the chorus is sort of pretty-sounding if you can ignore the lyrics. the bridge here is very pretty, complete with peddle steel or something. almost some real warmth. the line "baby i loved you" is repeated three times in a row. i'm not over you - 5 - potential here. refreshing to hear sort of a raw acoustic guitar sound, although it is almost buried under stipe's voice. too short to be taken seriously. parakeet and falls to climb - 4 - i grouped these songs together because they remind me of each other. nothing memorable in either. and that's it for "up." average rating: 4.93. pretty weak.
My conclusion is that Buck, Mills, and Stipe should go find Berry and go on a camping trip for a week or so. I think Stipe especially needs to get outside more.