This is my first album of 1001. I've listened to R.E.M. before, but I've never sat down with this LP. MY familiarity was limited to Chronic Town & Murmur, plus 'Losing My Religion', all of which I enjoyed to some degree. Even at it's best, I think my enjoyment of most R.E.M.'s material is an indifference towards Michael Stipe, and generally finding the group's style a bit uninteresting. I suppose the benefit of R.E.M.'s earliest moments was that you could credit them with some serious forward thinking - there's something of the air of 90s alternative that they'd captured far in advance. So, on first listen I can't say I care too much for this record. I mean, this is 1992 we're talking, and the world of rock music had changed drastically in the decade since R.E.M.'s prescient debut. At its worst, you've got songs like 'Star Me Kitten' which sounds like the band trying to pull some c. 1977 Genesis shtick, and 'Everybody Hurts' which is about as corny a quasi-adult contempory alt. ballad you can get. 'Drive' is a pretty solid song, as is 'Sidewinder...' (Thanks to John Paul Jones? I'm not sure), but even a song like 'Man on the Moon' which seems to capture the attention of many a fan doesn't really do a whole lot for me. I'm not sure what to say about it. I think what's happened here is a combination of things: I liked early R.E.M., but I wasn't particularly enthused about them or attached to that sound. Given some time, they'd matured, but the basic building blocks of what they were remain the same. That's something to rejoice in if you're a fan of the band, no doubt, but as I said before, Stipe doesn't really do much for me (and this record seems to place him front and centre even more than before), and I'm left without much to enjoy here. I'm open to the idea of some of these songs growing on me (this is a competent and talented band, no doubt, and Stipe isn't a poor songwriter) but, if I'm honest, this feels a bit too overproduced for it to be my moment of revelation with R.E.M. The next time I come back to them, I think I'll make it one of their first five LPs.
2
Albums Rated
3
Average Rating
0%
Complete