Mid-Eighties REM, in the times before they turned into the music world’s equivalent of an overweight snake tiredly swallowing its own engorged tail, were something interesting. This record was another of their attempts to forget the fact that their first record Murmur was going to be the best they were ever likely to make and it is more or less successful in places at doing this. There is a step away from their then accepted College Rock guitar jangle into a bigger sound and less emphasis is placed on Michael Stipe’s soaring solo vocal although for the most part both of these ingredients are still applied liberally. When I listen to it now I can hear the kind of band they might have become if Warner Brothers hadn’t pulled out their fat cheque book. A funny, intimate, poetic band whose records might have sounded like the Genuine Article instead of the Shiny, Happy Corporate Coffee Table Pap that they do nowadays. So this record is the sonic equivalent of Adam before Eve came along with that lovely looking Granny Smith and ruined everything.
Possibly.
Rating: 2 out of 5 (Silver)
Reviewed by Gordon Peppard
Mid-Eighties REM, in the times before they turned into the music world’s equivalent of an overweight snake tiredly swallowing its own engorged tail, were something interesting. This record was another of their attempts to forget the fact that their first record Murmur was going to be the best they were ever likely to make and it is more or less successful in places at doing this. There is a step away from their then accepted College Rock guitar jangle into a bigger sound and less emphasis is placed on Michael Stipe’s soaring solo vocal although for the most part both of these ingredients are still applied liberally. When I listen to it now I can hear the kind of band they might have become if Warner Brothers hadn’t pulled out their fat cheque book. A funny, intimate, poetic band whose records might have sounded like the Genuine Article instead of the Shiny, Happy Corporate Coffee Table Pap that they do nowadays. So this record is the sonic equivalent of Adam before Eve came along with that lovely looking Granny Smith and ruined everything.
Possibly.