Recorded during and immediately following R.E.M.'s disaster-prone Monster tour, New Adventures in Hi-Fi feels like it was recorded on the road. Not only are all of Michael Stipe's lyrics on the album about moving or travel, the sound is ragged and varied, pieced together from tapes recorded at shows, soundtracks, and studios, giving it a loose, careening charm. New Adventures has the same spirit of much of R.E.M.'s IRS records, but don't take the title of New Adventures in Hi-Fi lightly – R.E.M. tries different textures and new studio tricks. "How the West Was Won and Where It Got Us" opens the album with a rolling, vaguely hip-hop drum beat and slowly adds on jazzily dissonant piano. "E-Bow the Letter" starts out as an updated version of "Country Feedback," then it turns in on itself with layers of moaning guitar effects and Patti Smith's haunting backing vocals. Clocking in at seven minutes, "Leave" is the longest track R.E.M. has yet recorded and it's one of their strangest and best – an affecting minor-key dirge with a howling, siren-like feedback loop that runs throughout the entire song.
R.E.M.‘s 1996 album New Adventures In Hi-Fi will be reissued for its 25th anniversary in October across three physical formats. This was the band’s final album with drummer Bill Berry and was mostly written and recorded on the road, during their 1995 Monster tour. Bassist Mike Mills recalls: “We wanted to make a record about being on the road without singing about being on the road. The idea was that the feeling of being on the road would come through in the sound and feel of the record itself.”
R.E.M. abandoned the enigmatic post-punk experiments of Murmur for their second album, Reckoning, returning to their garage pop origins instead. Opening with the ringing "Harborcoat," Reckoning runs through a set of ten jangle pop songs that are different not only in sound but in style from the debut. Where Murmur was enigmatic in its sound, Reckoning is clear, which doesn't necessarily mean that the songs themselves are straightforward. Michael Stipe continues to sing powerful melodies without enunciating, but the band has a propulsive kick that makes the music vital and alive. And, if anything, the songwriting is more direct and memorable than before – the interweaving melodies of "Pretty Persuasion" and the country rocker "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" are as affecting as the melancholic dirges of "Camera" and "Time After Time," while the ringing minor-key arpeggios of "So. Central Rain," the pulsating riffs of "7 Chinese Bros.," and the hard-rocking rhythms of "Little America" make the songs into classics. On the surface, Reckoning may not be as distinctive as Murmur, but the record's influence on underground American rock in the '80s was just as strong.
R.E.M. abandoned the enigmatic post-punk experiments of Murmur for their second album, Reckoning, returning to their garage pop origins instead. Opening with the ringing "Harborcoat," Reckoning runs through a set of ten jangle pop songs that are different not only in sound but in style from the debut. Where Murmur was enigmatic in its sound, Reckoning is clear, which doesn't necessarily mean that the songs themselves are straightforward. Michael Stipe continues to sing powerful melodies without enunciating, but the band has a propulsive kick that makes the music vital and alive. And, if anything, the songwriting is more direct and memorable than before - the interweaving melodies of "Pretty Persuasion" and the country rocker "(Don't Go Back To) Rockville" are as affecting as the melancholic dirges of "Camera" and "Time After Time"…
Celebrating the 25th anniversary of R.E.M.'s tenth studio album. This Deluxe 2-CD/1-Blu-ray offers a trove of content, including the remastered album, B-sides and rarities, a previously unreleased outdoor projection film, and EPK…
From their earliest days as a band, the members of R.E.M. always had a Keen sense of how they wanted to be perceived visually, even when it sometimes seemed as if they didn’t want to be seen at all…
From the start of their recording career, Athens, Georgia's finest have been a fertile source of cover tunes, non-album B-sides and alternate versions. This limited-edition collection compiles a baker's dozen of rarities and oddities, including the band's readings of Pylon's "Crazy," Aerosmith's "Toys in the Attic," the Floyd Cramer instrumental "Last Date," and the gospel number "Tired of Singing Trouble," plus a variety of alternate mixes and live versions. Rounding out the set are a pair of ramshackle acoustic numbers from the soundtrack of the documentary Athens GA, Inside Out, "Swan Swan H" and the Everly Brothers' "All I Have to Do Is Dream." Although a couple of tracks overlap the band's 1987 rarities package Dead Letter Office, In the Attic is a handy adjunct to R.E.M.'s album catalog.