Archie
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Post by Archie on Jun 28, 2018 12:15:24 GMT
Thoughts?
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 28, 2018 12:34:31 GMT
Well, I have a lot of thoughts on them - tremendously important American band - and at the very start a very great one. As they went on they became less a great one to the point where artistically at least 2 far less successful bands, overtook them in the 80s (The Replacements and Husker Du) as they got richer and bigger.
By the end of their run they were not only a bad band but became sort of like their generations version of Rod Stewart in that you couldn't remember why they were cool in the first place. Not only were they a bore post '89, they championed their own boring work (they think Automatic For The People is their best - wtf), their sense of humor and spontaneity was long gone.
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Post by Joaquim on Jun 28, 2018 13:29:36 GMT
They have like 1 good song.
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Archie
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Post by Archie on Jun 28, 2018 14:13:59 GMT
Well, I have a lot of thoughts on them - tremendously important American band - and at the very start a very great one. As they went on they became less a great one to the point where artistically at least 2 far less successful bands, overtook them in the 80s (The Replacements and Husker Du) as they got richer and bigger. By the end of their run they were not only a bad band but became sort of like their generations version of Rod Stewart in that you couldn't remember why they were cool in the first place. Not only were they a bore post '89, they championed their own boring work (they think Automatic For The People is their best - wtf), their sense of humor and spontaneity was long gone. I've only listened to Murmur and Reckoning so far but I really like both, really interesting textural sounds combined with great melodies. Is Automatic For The People really that bad? My friends tell me it's their best album. |
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Post by pacinoyes on Jun 28, 2018 14:24:32 GMT
Murmur and Reckoning are great albums (especially Murmur) as is Chronic Town which is the short EP that preceded Murmur along with those 2 albums is what I consider their peak work (those 3 are connected).
AFTP is widely considered their best by a lot of people but to me it's more like one of the most overrated records ever made - it always ranks high in those greatest albums of all time polls but I consider it a completely dour, depressing, self serious record. That of course is what people like about it, that it's serious and "beautiful" - when people start calling a Rock band "beautiful" it's never good to me.
That record showed to me just how calculating they had become, the record before was their "pop" record, AFTP was their "artistic" record, the next one was their "Rock" record, that's what I meant about the spontaneity being long gone. I hate them all through that period until the end and I could predict exactly what the next record would sound like based on what the last record sounded like.
But like I said, I chose to remember them early on and I still play that early work.
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Post by countjohn on Jun 28, 2018 21:16:21 GMT
Very good in the 80's, although I don't like them as much as some people. Solid during their major label period in the 90's, although I like Monster a lot, it was sort of their response to grunge and the noisier 90's alt rock.
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clunkybob2
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Post by clunkybob2 on Jun 30, 2018 12:48:28 GMT
I like them. Not fervently or totally, but enough.
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Post by Deleted on Jun 30, 2018 17:11:13 GMT
They've made a handful of songs I like (The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonite, Laughing, Nightswimming, probably 1-2 more I'm forgetting).
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Post by Johnny_Hellzapoppin on Jul 1, 2018 16:38:41 GMT
I like them on a greatest hits level I guess.
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Post by countjohn on Jul 2, 2018 2:29:29 GMT
I like them on a greatest hits level I guess. That's a good way to describe bands where you like a number of songs but haven't gotten into the albums. Stealing that for future reference. |
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Post by pacinoyes on Jul 8, 2022 22:34:47 GMT
I thought we had a "Best EP's" thread? But I can't find it ........ so I'm sticking this here - one of the great and crucial EPs ever made - along with Signals Calls and Marches (Mission of Burma), Spiral Scratch (Buzzcocks), The Nerves - and very few others in the Pre-Internet era. Finally gets a normal stand alone release - although some people have it as an import boxset of their first 3 (Godlike) releases each on individual discs....or on Dead Letter Office........a piece of Rock history tbh...... 40 years since the release on August 24, 1982:
Celebrating its 40th anniversary this year, R.E.M.'s debut EP CHRONIC TOWN will be released for the first time ever as a standalone CD with extensive liner notes by the original producer Mitch Easter (Let's Active). It will be released in three different formats: CD, Picture Disc, and Cassette on August 19, 2022
www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/rem-celebrates-the-40th-anniversary-of-chronic-town-301576408.html |
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Post by pacinoyes on Dec 4, 2023 12:31:29 GMT
I think that seeing this, on Valentine's Day 2024 would be simultaneously romantic, fun and weird .......and dammit I wanna go and report back that Shannon / Narducy were arguably better than the record......... just to be a total contrarian I mean   |
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Nikan
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Post by Nikan on Dec 4, 2023 13:48:23 GMT
Murmer is a top 10 Pacinoyes album, but man... "Shaking Through" was the only track I'd call great.
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Archie
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Post by Archie on Dec 4, 2023 14:05:08 GMT
Murmer is a top 10 Pacinoyes album, but man... "Shaking Through" was the only track I'd call great. that's the weakest song on the album  |
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Post by pacinoyes on Dec 4, 2023 16:21:10 GMT
Murmer is a top 10 Pacinoyes album, but man... "Shaking Through" was the only track I'd call great. * Interesting side note - if I picked a weakest track on Murmur that would be We Walk but I wouldn't do that because it's in my top 10 albums of all-time  I can tell you the weakest track on Pet Sounds though - made myself laugh Pet Sounds nerds!! .........it's amazing to me that we don't have a Smiths (your fave of course Nik the Knife) / REM thread (do we?).........I know people don't "link" them but they are distinctly linked or were. More so than bands they are often linked with imo .......... * First albums less than a year apart...........slowly consolidated an eventual huge commercial audience that no one "really" knew existed prior to them - especially in their homeland(s), the best music that followed in each "scene" couldn't have existed without either of them............. sexually ambiguous, mysterious, poetic lead singer, ringing guitar sound borrowed from the Byrds, one distinctly British, the other could not have been more American. Both wrote about their country's histories and placed themselves into its mythology - Morrissey with Oscar Wilde, Stipe with Myles Standish ........and much more........ for both........ * Their drummers - often forgotten -were their secret weapons - FIGHT me! * The Smiths are a much bigger deal in the US now - as the world has rewritten their history (in that way, they're the Mats actually) - and let's be honest - the world has gotten much gayer (not that there's anything wrong with that!) The Smiths are much bigger now than they were back then - never had a top 10 US critically acclaimed album - not just no US hits, but not as much with critics either.......No Smiths album in their day in the US was a top 10 critics consensus for its year (not even Queen is Dead, check the Village Voice year end national poll - it's 30th for 1986 - wtf 1980s asshats!) - REM never didn't have one for the first 5 albums ......(all top 10 US.........never lower than 8th)....... It's nice we can enjoy both   |
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Post by countjohn on Dec 4, 2023 21:10:51 GMT
Smiths vs REM is an interesting one. Feels like it kind of has to be REM since they have a vastly larger amount of quality material due to the brevity of The Smiths career. But peak Smiths is better, REM doesn't have a better album than Queen is Dead or a better single than How Soon is Now.
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Post by pacinoyes on Dec 4, 2023 21:47:11 GMT
Hmmmmmmmm ......I'm not sure peak-Smiths is better for me.....I guess another way to look at it is REM made 5 albums (their first 5) and an EP I still own ..........and The Smiths made only 2 (Queen is Dead and Singles) Side note: Both bands are weird to me in that my favorite songs are unreleased - REM the Chronic Town version of Ages of You - and The Smiths a B-side - Half A Person.......I'm a bit weird .......I would list others as each band's best as opposed to my favorite though ......Panic for the Brits and maybe...I dunno....Perfect Circle for the Yanks......maybe...that's tough for me Murmur is in my all-time top 10 and Queen Is Dead is ........I dunno but not quite that high.......now all we have is this:  |
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Post by pacinoyes on Feb 10, 2024 0:06:07 GMT
R.E.M.
9 hours agoLast night’s Murmur tribute show at the 40 Watt was one of those nights when we’re all blessed to call Athens home. Michael Shannon, Jason Narducy and friends sounded great playing Murmur from start to finish along with all of Chronic Town and select tracks from Reckoning, Fables, Lifes Rich Pageant, Out of Time, and Dead Letter Office. At various points throughout the night, Bill, Peter, and Mike came on stage and joined in on the fun (highlights were Perfect Circle, Pretty Persuasion, Rockville and Letter Never Sent) and Michael came up at the end of the show to say how thrilled he, Bill, Peter, and Mike were to be there. It was a truly great evening spent seeing old friends and listening to a top notch band pay homage to some of the defining music in the band’s early catalog. |
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I can tell you the weakest track on Pet Sounds though - made myself laugh Pet Sounds nerds!! .........it's amazing to me that we don't have a Smiths (your fave of course Nik the Knife) / REM thread (do we?).........I know people don't "link" them but they are distinctly linked or were. More so than bands they are often linked with imo ..........