I guess I'm an unusual REM fan because I liked them the first time I heard them and I like what they were doing when they called it quits.
I guess I'm even more unusual in that I own maybe one of their albums. I never felt the need to own their records because any time I wanted to hear an REM song all I had to do was turn on my radio and wait ten minutes.
But every time that radio plays Shiny Happy People I get a big grin on my face. Thanks, guys.
Some really good things should come to an end. REM was a fantastic band, but clearly the muse had departed. Thank you, REM, for all the great songs and all the great memories, but thank you above all for calling it quits.
Now, if the Rolling Stones could only get the message....
Location: i believe, i believe, it's silly, but I believe Gender:
Posted:
Sep 22, 2011 - 6:24am
saw them in 1985 at a free concert at Rutgers U..... Michael had hair back then, and a black trench coat that blew behind him. In HS kids made fun of me for listening to them. About 15 years later, one of them apologized.
Me too, all of the other albums they released in the 80s are outstanding as well in particular Fables of the Reconstruction, Reckoning and my personal favorite Lifes Rich Pageant.
yes. agreed. i hate to say it, but for me, after that, i really stopped listening. didn't care for the whole shiny happy people, stand, orange crush, everybody hurts stuff. but the albums you mention, i did like, too. murmur being my fav.
murmur was always my fav of theirs. after that...they were ok, but, to me, nothing like when i first heard murmur. it was special. saw them live at a place called the syria mosque in pittsburgh way back then. gosh, i was young.
Me too, all of the other albums they released in the 80s are outstanding as well in particular Fables of the Reconstruction, Reckoning and my personal favorite Lifes Rich Pageant.
Anyone who's surprised (talking to you, NBC news: "Shocking news"? No.) hasn't been paying attention. In a CBS Sunday Morning piece that came out when they released Accelerate, they talked about going out with a bang. Their last studio LP had fizzled and they didn't want to be remembered for that... that was the reason they gave for going back into the studio. I'm not sure how Accelerate did, sales-wise, but I thought it was well-received. Then before Collapse Into Now, I heard them saying similar stuff, that they were really putting everything they could into it because they didn't want their last album to be a dog. I think it's fine, by the way.
I've never been a huge REM fan, only saw them in concert once (saw Michael Stipe jump onstage with Hüsker Dü to sing Eight Miles High, though!) so I say this as a sort of cynic: REM headed downhill as soon as Stipe's lyrics began to get a little comprehensible.
They've been Animatronics for years...
It's all good.
