R.E.M. disbands...
 

..."To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and co-conspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band. We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening."

http://remhq.com/news_story.php?id=1446

not a huge fan of theirs, but I reckon we are to get used to such news. feels very weird.

if only we had a thread about this.

I think it's probably about time. They've become the epitome of MOR. Coldplay's last record was more interesting than anything REM's released in a decade and a half.

That's pretty sad.

FIFTEEN YEARS TOO LATE. Well, the good news is Pete Buck will now be able to devote as much time as he wants to Robyn Hitchcock & The Venus 3. That and the fact that there's not gonna be more horseshit R.E.M. records, of course.

Not a huge fan of the later stuff. I still really enjoy Murmur and Reckoning, both are excellent records.

LOL!

personally, i think they disbanded after Murmur. after that, they ceased to exist

For those who didn't know..appearantly they splitted up because of Mike had posted naked pictures of himself on the internet.

Anyway, a swedish humour/news-program made fun of this today. They make new t-shirts everyday and today they had one of his nudepics on a shirt with the text "L.E.M." under, the word Lem is an alternative word for dick here. :)
Thought it was funny.

Though, R.I.P. They made some good songs..

25 years too late (or so), but THANKS!

For me, REM is just Murmer, parts of Life's Rich Pageant and Green, Monster, and New Adventures in HiFi, which is an incredible album.

Half of their music bores me and occasionally even embarrasses me, sometimes resulting in bursts of laughter.

When it comes to semi-ridiculous pre-alternative pop bands that defined the '80s, The Cure has REM over a barrel.

no


no.

their last 15 records were great

And prime-era R.E.M. had nowhere near the following of REO fuckin' Speedwagon. So what!

What other US group has was as good for as long?!?! WTF? They were so inconsistent!! I mean, obviously Murmer was great, but I don't think they ever released two better-than-average records in a row.

Even their '80s shit gets on my nerves after a while. All that goddamn chanting- where did they get off chanting so much?! How can any band sound so samey for so long and still be considered dynamic or inventive?

Automatic for the People- I know it's a favorite, but that album is awful. I couldn't listen to it from beginning to end if I was being paid.

Monster was refreshing, and actually showed the band doing something different... but it was a bomb, and people consider it their worst. Baffling.

Then New Adventures comes out and it's fucking incredible for some reason, somehow. I don't know why. Even "Electrolite" with its "nightswimming"-esque sound is incredible. Totally out of nowhere home-run.

So then they were good, right? Yeah, they were good for the literal timespan of NAIHF. Then comes Up, and I'm like "... ... really???

Their last few records aren't even worth mentioning. Two great albums, a few ok-to-good ones, and a buttload of shit ones. That's REM.

you are a very primitive person or ?

Let's settle this. Rate each album (comps, live, and eps don't count) on a scale of one to ten:

Murmur
Reckoning
Life's Rich Pagant
Fables of the Reconstruction
Document
Green
Out of Time
Automatic for the People
Monster
New Adventures in Hi-Fi
Up
Reveal
Around the Sun
Acclerate
Collapse into Now


What do you come up with? 150? Then they are the best band ever. 75? Then they are inconsistent. 25? Then they aren't very good.

Not that consistancy is the only issue when judging a band. Murmur is so gaddamn good, they could've released utter shit for the next twenty years and so what? They would've still justified their existence.

ok so i will rate it with stars baby :-)
6 stars legendary 1 star complete garbage

so here is my voting :
Green 5/6
( could also be a 6 haven´t heard for a year )

Out of Time 5/6
Automatic for the People 5/6
Monster 5/6
New Adventures in Hi-Fi 6/6
Up 6/6
Reveal 5/6
Around the Sun 5/6
(i have to be in the right mood to like it )
Acclerate 5/6
Collapse into Now 5.5 of 6

its stupid somehow to give a point critic to music.
youst wanna say i don´t see the point when people say all the records they did suck or the new one suck. i think they are all pretty excellent. they didn´t became more commerical or something.i bin the are one of the best bands ever. point.

and they never repeat theirselve.
listen to accelerate and then to up
then to new adventures in high fi and then to murmur
then to arround the sun and out of time

really.

Right off the bat I have to break one of your rules, because Chronic Town cannot be left out. It cannot! Plus, it's the only real EP they ever did; the other two are total bullshit.

Chronic Town - 10
Murmur - 10
Reckoning - 10
Fables Of The Reconstruction - 10
Lifes Rich Pageant - 8
Document - 9
Green - 6
Out Of Time - 7
Automatic For The People - 9
Monster - 4
New Adventures In Hi-Fi - 7
Up - 3
Reveal - 2
Around The Sun - 1
Accelerate - 1
Collapse Into Now - 1

Chronic Town ep 9
Murmur 8
Reckoning 9
Fables of the Reconstruction 9
Lifes Rich Pageant 10
Dead Letter Office (including this one) 7
Document 8
Green 8
Out of Time 6
Automatic for the People 8
Monster 6
New Adventures in Hi-Fi 6
Up 6
Reveal 5
Around the Sun 5
Accelerate 5
Collapse into Now 5

O.k. (rearranged for correct order and inserting 1st ep and b-side collection)

Chronic Town - 10
Murmur - 10
Reckoning - 9
Fables of the Reconstruction - 6
Life's Rich Pageant - 2
Document - 6 (In principle I am against the band in this direction, but there are a couple hits that are pretty good candy pop on here).
Dead Letter Office - 8
Green - 2
Out of Time - 2
Automatic for the People - 2
Monster - 2
New Adventures in Hi-Fi - 2
Up - 2
Reveal - 2
Around the Sun - 2
Acclerate - 2
Collapse into Now - 2

Total = 71. Walked out of them in 1995 out of boredom after watching SY open for them.

Murmur -10
Reckoning -2
Fables of the Reconstruction- 2
Lifes Rich Pageant- 7
Dead Letter Office (including this one)- 3
Document- 3
Green- 3
Out of Time-3
Automatic for the People- 1
Monster -8
New Adventures in Hi-Fi- 10
Up- 0
Reveal- 0
Around the Sun- 0
Accelerate-0
Collapse into Now- 0


Mean- 3.05
Bleh.

I actually quite liked Reveal, but then i dont really like REM

Murmur
Reckoning
Life's Rich Pagant
Fables of the Reconstruction
Document
Green


these are all sweet and delicious and fantastic and rule.

everything after was either adult contempo or just plain sux.
they should have quit when Bill Berry could not drum no more.

I like "What's the Frequency Kenneth"... it's utter nonsense, but a good tune. Lots of good tunes on Monster. One of my first alt rock albums.